Sustainable Marketing: A Case Study of Fremantle Ports

This report discusses the concept of sustainable marketing and its application in the case of Fremantle Ports. It highlights the principles of sustainable marketing and how Kerry Sanderson handled the dilemmas faced by the company with sustainable marketing strategies. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of sustainable marketing in promoting sustainable development.

Running Head: A BUSINESS CASE STUDY
A Business Case Study
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1A BUSINESS CASE STUDY
Executive Summary
The aim of the report is to prepare an assessment of what is sustainable marketing. The report
also draws attention towards how sustainable marketing is related with sustainable development.
The case of Fremantle Ports, a famous government owned trading enterprise, it problems and the
management of those problems are highlighted in the course of the report. The principles of
sustainable marketing, their application in a company like Apple has also been elaborated for
better understanding its adaptation by renowned organizations. The report concludes by giving
an outline of the entire paper reverberating the importance and necessity of sustainable
marketing to save the world from future risks.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
What is sustainable marketing.................................................................................................4
An elaborated view of the concept of sustainable marketing..................................................4
The main principles of sustainable marketing and its application...........................................5
The case of Fremantle Ports (what dilemmas she faces while dealing with the matter).........6
How Kerry Sanderson handled the matter with sustainable marketing...................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Reference.........................................................................................................................................9

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Case: Kerry Sanderson, AO: Marketing a lifetime of service to business and government
Introduction
The sustainable marketing is a part of the much broader field called the sustainable
community development. It is a kind of development where the present requirements are fulfilled
without affecting the capability of the next generations to fulfill their needs. In simple words,
sustainable development is the process of managing the productivity by not wasting the social,
political, ecological and environmental resources, rather it works by replacing it with greater
resource value (Mckenzie‐Mohr,2000). Hence, from this point of view, sustainable marketing is
a subsection of sustainable development at the social and economic levels. This report deals with
the case of Kerry Sanderson, AO, famous for her marketing a lifetime service to business and
government. The report further highlights how Kerry dealt with the dilemmas in the due course
of her marketing in Fremantle Port.
Discussion
Kerry Sanderson, AO, is one of the most successful marketers or the public sector career
professionals in Western Australia. She has served the private sectors as well as the public
sectors of Australia for long 40 years and had been confirmed as the 32nd Governor of Western
Australia in the year 2014 (Cew.org, 2018). She has stayed at the Treasury department for long
17 years and 21 years at the Transport department. In the late 1991, Kerry became the CEO of
Fremantle Ports which was a truly high profile for her. She is the sustainable marketer who

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believed in solving the present problems by not affecting the availability of natural resources in
future years (Cew.org, 2018). She was the one who believed in uprooting the problems by her
own unique sustainable marketing strategies.
What is sustainable marketing
Sustainable marketing is a huge subject having three basic principles: These are – Waste
reduction and social engagement, bartering versus purchasing and longevity. The type of
business or enterprise that is being marketed decides in what form the waste will come. The
elimination of the waste materials such as wrappers, packages can be taken as examples of waste
reduction (Mitchell, Wooliscroft & Higham, 2016). Using biodegradable wrappers and website
linkage optimization is a way to social engagement by involving into some eco-friendly
operations. The bartering versus purchasing principle is applied when social networking is
utilized for partnering and cross promotion by finding similar minded people across the globe.
The long term marketing efforts save the organization from long term instabilities or fluxes.
Long term marketing plan brings in longer social engagements and long term returns (Mitchell,
Wooliscroft & Higham, 2016). The concept of sustainable marketing tends to build better and
stronger relationships with the customers via better pricing services of goods and superior
efficiency with which the wastes are reduced. Strong social relationships, cooperative
partnership and other business lending reliability and correct pricing reflect the long term
orientation, enhancement and protection (Mitchell, Wooliscroft & Higham, 2016).
An elaborated view of the concept of sustainable marketing
In the growing development of technology and international business, different marketing
strategies are developed by the companies to find new ways of marketing their product. All of
this is done mainly to give tough competition to the competitors and gain a competitive

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advantage. In the race of gaining profit and reach the top position, firms usually forget about the
social and environmental responsibilities (Kotler,2016). It is quite obvious that they only focus
on the product sells and marketing in order to advance the company performance. However,
there are still few companies which advocate and implement social sensitivity in their business
behavior. They understand the need for sustainable marketing. In order to live in a better and
enriched future, the companies should plan for a sustainable future by analyzing the impact of
society and environment on the marketing strategies. The impact of suppliers, customers and
stakeholders should also be re- evaluated to understand their impact on the marketing strategies.
In political respect, there are many countries which need special push from the back to
promote green labeling schemes and recycling of products for a ‘green’ tomorrow (Peattie &
Crane,2005). However, few companies from few progressive countries show sensitivity towards
recycling their products. For instance, electronic companies like Philips are introducing eco-
friendly factors into their products (philips.com, 2018). Agencies like ISO14062 has clearly
highlighted the introduction and application of environmental factors into product
manufacture(philips.com, 2018). The adaptation of the concept of sustainable marketing brings
in basic changes in the company behaviors and operations, promotes responsible reactions from
the government, stakeholders and customers of the organization. The organization concentrates
more on the innovation, upsurge of production and consumption, but puts less focus on
diminishing natural resources.
The main principles of sustainable marketing and its application
There are five basic principles of sustainable marketing. These are consumer oriented
marketing, customer value marketing, innovative marketing, mission marketing and societal
marketing. The tech giant Apple never stays back from engaging in sustainable marketing. The

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company has decided to protect 320,000 acres of forests to counterbalance its packaging
footprint (apple.com ,2018). The amount of working forest that the company responsibly saves,
double compensates the loss of trees wasted in the packaging process of Apple. The forestry
strategy introduced by Apple can be considered to be one innovative step from the part of the
company towards sustainable marketing promoting sustainable development(apple.com ,2018).
This is a kind of circular economy which gives value to the natural resources and will take the
world towards a better tomorrow.
The case of Fremantle Ports (what dilemmas she faces while dealing with the matter)
In the case of Kerry Sanderson, it can be seen that she is a well reputed marketer who has
worked in many public and private sectors earning high values and variety of experiences. The
experiences have made her more apt at handling the subsequent problems within the
organizations (Cew.org, 2018). It is apparent that after being appointed as the CEO of Fremantle
Ports, she heard many business and government executives suggesting that she has taken up a
poisoned challis because at that time Fremantle Ports was suffering from a financial loss of AU$
70 million in the previous year (Fremantleports.com, 2018). The company faces a really hard
time because the staff morale was low and the container ability was also equally low. However,
Kerry Sanderson handled the long-standing problems with a cooperative approach. The problem
with Fremantle Ports as pointed out by Kerry herself was that, the company although had a truly
dedicated workforce, it was mostly frustrated(Fremantleports.com, 2018). There were structural
process reasons which she was to fix. She knew that her financial and workforce organization
experience that she has been collecting through the past years in different companies would be
useful in handling the case of Fremantle but she was a little bewildered about the teamwork and
staff commitment. In order to receive long term commitment from the staffs, she was also

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supposed to engage in a long term commitment. Transforming the thought process of the mass,
change in processes and modification in team approach were not enough in this case. She was
also thinking of using a total quality framework or the Australian Business Excellence
Framework to mend the gaps of inefficiency and introduce new processes in the plan (Gordon,
Carrigan & Hastings,2013).
How Kerry Sanderson handled the matter with sustainable marketing
What she did that worked as a masterstroke for the Fremantle Ports company is really
surprising. The company has two spatially separated container terminals which were internally
inefficient and hindered the operations of the firm. The terminals were strategically consolidated
into one single berth line and the shape and size of the terminals were increased
(Fremantleports.com, 2018). She brought about drastic change in the efficiency of the terminals
by making these little changes. A remarkable change was also made in the waterfront reform
which also contributed to the efficiency enhancement of the terminals and containers. previously,
the containers could handle only 12 % but after the changes were made, they started handling
20% at a stretch (Fremantleports.com, 2018). After some times the company handled bulk
business in the outer harbor from BHP. According to her own words the company never looked
back. In fact, it received Gold award in the year 2007 for excellent Business framework in
Australia (Fremantleports.com, 2018). The company today has reached up to a world standard
capacity in terms of crane rates and the scale of operations.
Hence, it can be seen from the case of Fremantle Ports, how with the unique strategy of
Kerry Sanderson, the problems of the government owned trading enterprise were handled
without letting the environment, the amenity and the prosperity suffer. Such kind of smooth
management is only possible if a proper plan is there. Australia ‘s most inefficient port was

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turned into the fastest port of the region. It was an innovative e step to promote sustainable
development of the organization and the country as well.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that sustainable marketing is
important in the highly developing and profit oriented world of business. Organizations in their
race of gaining competitive advantage over their competitors, forget about the environmental and
social value they have been trampling on their way. However, there are marketers like Kerry
Sanderson who displays special sensitivity towards environment and society and applies
sustainable marketing strategies to solve organizational problems.

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Reference
apple.com. (2018). Apple (Australia). Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/au/
Cew.org. (2018). Kerry Sanderson AO | Chief Executive Women. Retrieved from
https://cew.org.au/members/kerry-sanderson/
Fremantleports.com. (2018). Fremantle Ports Home - Welcome Page. Retrieved from
http://www.fremantleports.com.au/
Gordon, R., Carrigan, M., & Hastings, G. (2013). A framework for sustainable
marketing. Marketing theory, 11(2), 143-163.
Kotler, P. (2016). Reinventing marketing to manage the environmental imperative. Journal of
Marketing, 75(4), 132-135.
Mckenzie‐Mohr, D. (2013). New ways to promote proenvironmental behavior: Promoting
sustainable behavior: An introduction to community‐based social marketing. Journal of
social issues, 56(3), 543-554.
Mitchell, R. W., Wooliscroft, B., & Higham, J. (2016). Sustainable market orientation: A new
approach to managing marketing strategy. Journal of Macromarketing, 30(2), 160-170.
Peattie, K., & Crane, A. (2015). Green marketing: legend, myth, farce or prophesy?. Qualitative
market research: an international journal, 8(4), 357-370.
philips.com. (2018). Philips - Australia. Retrieved from https://www.philips.com.au/