Background: The phenomenon of greenwashing has created a mistrust among consumers, which has come to negatively impact the consumption of environmentally friendly products. While there is increased pressure on companies to act responsibly and sustainably, the risk of being accused of using misleading communication or making unsubstantiated claims about the company's sustainability efforts is looming. The need to find a balance between acting sustainably and communicating this in a legitimate way has created a complex situation for companies to use sustainable marketing. In addition to this issue, there is no clear definition of the terms greenwashing, sustainability, or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which further increases the complexity.
Aim: The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of how sustainable marketing can be used as a strategic tool for Swedish-founded outdoor companies, and to investigate how they value and implement sustainable marketing in their operations.
Method: The study is based on a qualitative research method with an abductive approach. The study was conducted through semi-structured interviews with three Swedish-founded outdoor companies, as well as the use of secondary data.
Theoretical perspective: The study is based on a theoretical framework that includes previous research on marketing strategies and competitive advantages, which together create the discipline of sustainable marketing. The framework also includes research on CSR, legitimacy, green skepticism, greenwashing, and influencing factors for the latter two phenomena.
Empirical: The empirical material consists of three semi-structured interviews and collected secondary data from a fourth company. All companies were Swedish-founded outdoor companies, operating in both the Swedish and international markets.
Conclusion: The outdoor companies that participated in the study report, in line with previous research, that there are challenges for companies in communicating sustainability and implementing sustainability efforts in marketing strategies. This is due to a fear of being falsely accused of greenwashing. The study finds that a major reason for this issue is that the concept of sustainability is multifaceted and difficult to define, which in turn creates room for different interpretations of what sustainability actually means.