Icebreaker Case Study: Sustainable Marketing Management and Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Icebreaker's sustainable marketing strategies. It begins with a background of the company, highlighting its commitment to using natural fibers and its sustainable philosophy. The report then identifies and discusses the key principles of sustainable marketing followed by Icebreaker, including environmental, consumer, and innovative principles. It examines Icebreaker's product, promotion, distribution, and pricing strategies, evaluating their alignment with sustainable marketing interests. Furthermore, the report assesses the success of these strategies and suggests potential improvements by incorporating additional sustainable principles like sense of mission and societal sustainability. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to a marketing positioning analysis, comparing Icebreaker against its competitors, Smartwool and The North Face, focusing on product attributes, pricing, and quality. The conclusion summarizes the effectiveness of Icebreaker's sustainable marketing efforts and offers recommendations for future strategies, such as expanding product affordability and promoting broader sustainable initiatives to enhance market penetration and brand image.

Running Head: MARKETING 0
ICEBREAKER: SUSTAINABLE MARKETING MANAGEMENT

MARKETING 2
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
About Icebreaker.............................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................8

MARKETING 3
Introduction
Sustainability means using resources judiciously at present to be able to use it in future.
The reasons companies go for sustainable management is pleasing their stakeholders and to
secure a good image in the market place (Muñoz‐Torres, M. Á., M., & Escrig‐Olmedo, 2019).
Sustainability practices practiced by company without appropriate marketing are a hollow
concept. Sustainable marketing is helpful in creating a greater value to the consumer with the
cost lower than the benefits offered with the long-term motive of good returns. At present, there
are many companies, which are going green such as Wal-Mart, Starbucks, and General Electric.
These companies have invested a great sum of money in doing their functions eco-friendly. One
such company is Icebreaker, as the name suggest, it is all about breaking the ice to become
innovative. Since its, inception in 1995, the icebreaker company evolved around with sustainable
philosophy of producing clothes with the natural fibers. The company bases its foundation on
sustainability. The following report discusses about the company, its principals of sustainability,
organizational strategy, and analysis of company’s position against its competitors.
About Icebreaker
It is the story of 1994 when Jeremy Moon founder’s girlfriend introduced him to the
farmers who produce underwear by mixing the natural fiber merino wool with the traditional
wool. Back, then the fabrics produced had a low price (Woods & Woods, 2016). The idea
clicked him to produce fabrics from the 100% natural merino wool. In 1995, Jeremy Moon
established the Icebreaker, a clothing company in 1995 with the sustainable motive of producing
clothing apparels by using 100 % natural fiber (Icebreaker, 2019). The company has it’s
headquarter in New Zealand and has established its presence in 50 countries globally. It has the
staff of 400 employees. The range of the products offered by the company is outerwear, mid
layers, underwear, socks, and items made from natural fibers (Ice breaker, 2019).
The company has based its practices on the principles of Sustainability. The principals of
sustainable marketing followed by the company are environmental, consumer and innovative
principals (Emas, 2015). The Environmental sustainable principals mean being concerned about
the welfare of the environment. It is about avoiding any kind of harm inflicted on the
environment. The icebreaker is concerned about the animal welfare where the sheep are kept

MARKETING 4
under proper shade and are fed properly. The freedom of the sheep is not all obstructed. They are
free to roam in open pastures and mulling of the sheep is completely prohibited. The second
sustainable marketing principal is Consumer oriented.
The consumer-oriented sustainable marketing principal is concerned in putting the
consumers at the center to organize marketing activities. In the case, Icebreaker Company is
concerned with providing with the quality of products made from pure fibers. These products
have the highest durability and can survive for the longest time without the need of ironing them.
Once purchased, the apparel has the highest utility for the consumers. Another important
principal followed by the company is Innovative marketing principal, which requires the
marketer to continuously innovate the products and keep bringing sustainable changes in it for
consumers. Ice- breaker continuously innovates the products. It is the first company to come up
with the 100 % natural sportswear and the all-season outfits. Its innovativeness in its products is
the attractive feature for its customers.
The company follows its product, promotion, distribution, and pricing strategy with the
pinch of sustainable interest in it. The product strategy of the company is primarily focused on
the originality of the fabric as it is made from the 100% merino fiber. It focuses on versatility,
longevity, simplicity, and sustainability. The versatility of the product means the company
produces multiple clothing that suits to the lifestyle of a person. The simplicity aspect is
concerned with giving the touch of elegance to it which contributes to it timelessness. The
longevity aspect makes the product highly durable. Its high durability contributes to its longest
survival without appropriate care. The brand is sustainable for the consumer, as they must make
one-time investment to enjoy its life-long great quality. Its sustainability aspect is concerned with
its genuine and corruption free production where the stakeholders associated with its production
who are growers and animals. The stakeholders are genuinely taken care, which make them
sustainable.
The distribution strategy followed by the icebreaker is simple as it involves no agents and
they take the complete responsibility of the delivering their products to its consumers. The chain
involves seven stages. The first stage is procurement of merino fiber from New Zealand. The
second step is its processing china. The third step is spinning of yarn in the areas China, Italy,
and Japan. The fourth step involves manufacturing of fabrics in China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and

MARKETING 5
Japan. The fifth step in which the fabrics are woven into garments in China, Italy, Bangladesh. In
the last second step, its distribution is done in USA, Germany, Canada and Japan. The last step is
reaching the consumers. The process is highly sustainable involving good waste management
system with a rating of 8.7, the rating of 9.1 is given to hygienic working environment and good
labor practices keep the labor happy with rating given to them 9.9.
The promotion strategy of the company is highly sustainable which include its green
packaging where the water-soluble bags are used. They are environmentally friendly bags and
are highly degradable. The consumption of these bags by aquatic animals will serve as a food
source to them. There packaging policies disallows the use of any plastic and use of additives.
The sustainable pricing strategy provides the consumers with highest benefits at right price. The
pricing of the product is justified with the benefits provided to the consumers. The pricing
includes all the environmental elements such as expenditure on technology incorporated to
reduce carbon footprints, designing of the environmental-friendly bags, production of the fabrics
involving the usage of 85% natural merino fibers.
The product, promotion, distribution, and pricing strategy are successful but can be
improved by following other sustainable principles, which include sense of mission principal and
societal sustainability principal. The societal sustainability principal is all about taking care of
the society’s larger and long-term interest. The strategy should be framed by providing
affordable fabrics to consumers so that the middle group of the section of the society could wear
it with pride. The other important sustainable principal, which could be incorporated, is the
Sense of mission principal, which is concerned with defining the mission in the wider social
terms not in the product terms. The mission of icebreaker is exploring the relationship between
people and the nature, which does not bring about the strong sense of purpose. The strategies can
be improved by bringing in the mission of not letting a single person without proper clothing.
Such kind of missions can develop a better strategy of the elements.
The marketing position of icebreaker can be evaluated with its competitors’ position,
which includes companies like Smartwool and The North face (Fleisher, 2019).
Product attributes and benefits-

MARKETING 6
The smart wool company is into providing 100% natural merino fabrics to people living
and playing in the mountains (Hautbois, 2019). The products manufactured by the company are
resistant to shrinking. The products have anti-microbial properties, which help in the reduction of
odor on the other (Smartwool, 2019). The other competitor, which is North face, is known for its
high quality technical outwear for professional athletes. The North Face products are known for
its durability. On the other hand, the icebreaker company products are more positively positioned
with the concern to longevity and high durability and it encompasses the sustainability criteria in
its products with focus on animal welfare, environmental concerns.
Product pricing-
The product pricing of smart wool and Icebreaker brands are more or less the same. The
smart wool and the North face products tend to have a little higher price than the Icebreaker
(Mountain Gear Blog, 2019). The North Face products are highly priced. thus, making the
Icebreaker the preferred choice for consumers.
Product quality-
The quality of both products of smart wool and icebreaker are at same level, there is little
difference between the qualities offered to the consumer but the percentage of the natural wool
present in the items of icebreaker is more (Kim, 2015). For example, the socks present of
Icebreaker present 65% of merino wool while the socks of smart wool have 66% of the merino
wool. The North Face products are made from the fleece of synthetic fibers thus lacking the
originality in the clothes (The North Face, 2019).
Product uses and applications-
The clothing items of the Smart Wool come into colorful and vibrant colors (VFC, 2019).
The taste of the clothing of smart wool is more adventurous in nature, which one can use it for
the party purposes. The North Face brand manufactures highly technical clothes for athletes. The
brand outfits are known for its toughness. On the other, the icebreaker comes in less vibrant
colors but they have a slimmer cut, which attaches the stylish feature to it. The patterns printed
on this icebreaker fabric give it an alluring look and thus making it the first choice of consumer.
Pricing-

MARKETING 7
Pricing is the amount that the consumer has to pay to avail the utilities of the products. The
prices of the Smartwool and Icebreaker are almost same. There are little differences in the prices
of the products offered. The socks of Smart wool are cheaper when compared with Icebreaker.
When the prices of the products are compared. They are not influential enough to change the
mind of the consumers to switch between the brands as they both offer the high qualities to
consumers (Sutherland, 2018). The prices of the North Face products are highly expensive when
compared with the products of Smart Wool and The North Face.
Conclusion
The sustainable marketing development is a good way of connecting with the consumers
and making good long-term relations. The sustainable marketing is a way of building a strong
brand in the market. The icebreaker sustainable goals of producing the pure natural outdoor
apparels along with animal welfare and environmental concerns made it the best in the industry.
The sustainable marketing goals set by a company helps them to position in the market
successfully
Recommendations
Ice breaker company can come up with those segments of products which are affordable to
population who are not in the position to buy its highly expensive products. The affordability of
price will increase the market penetration of its products to other segments thus increasing its
popularity. The affordable pricing will make other segments of population aware about its
sustainable goals thus improving its market positions in other segments. The company can also
come up with the products of vibrant colors and prints thus improving their reach to other
segments.
The current sustainable goals of the company are related to its production of purely natural
fabrics, taking care of the rights of farmers, animal welfare and sustainable packaging. The focus
can be given on other sustainable charitable programs like Clothing the section, deprived of basic
right to clothing with their products. They can also launch various initiatives to teach the
population about the harmful effects of synthetic fabrics on human body and environment. They
can make natural fibers available at low price to normal income group. Such initiatives will
contribute to the positive image of the organization and can serve the company in long-run.

MARKETING 8
Bibliography
Emas, R. (2015). The concept of sustainable development: definition and defining principles.
Florida: Brief for GSDR.
Fleisher, C. S. (2019, August 20). Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of
New and Classic ... New York, New Jersey, United States.
Hautbois, C. (2019, march 1). The Global Sport Economy: Contemporary Issues. New York,
Oxon, United States.
Ice breaker. (2019, August 20). Icebreaker. Retrieved August 20, 2019, from icebreaker:
https://www.icebreaker.com/en-us/transparency.html
Icebreaker. (2019, August 20). Icebreaker. Retrieved August 20, 2019, from icebreaker:
https://www.icebreaker.com/en-au/our-story/our-story.html
Kim, J. (2015). Crafting a single cloth: an essay presented in partial fulfilment for the degree of
Master of Design, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand . Doctoral dissertation,
Massey University, 554-600.
Mountain Gear Blog. (2019, August 20). Smart wool versus Icebreaker. Retrieved August 20,
2019, from mountaingearblog: http://www.mountaingearblog.com/97/smartwool-vs-
icebreaker/
Muñoz‐Torres, M. J.‐I., M. Á., R.‐L., M., J., & Escrig‐Olmedo, E. (2019). Can environmental,
social, and governance rating agencies favor business models that promote a more
sustainable development. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental
Management, 439-452.
Smartwool. (2019, August 20). Smart wool. Retrieved August 2019, 2019, from Smartwool:
https://www.smartwool.com/discover/why-merino-wool/merino-wool-101.html
Sutherland, W. H. (2018). Merino sheep of the South Island high-country: past, present and
future. Journal of New Zealand Grasslands, 18-22.
The North Face. (2019, August 20). Durability. Retrieved August 20, 2019, from thenorthface:
https://www.thenorthface.com/about-us/responsibility/product/durability.html
VFC. (2019, August 20). Smartwool. Retrieved August 20, 2019, from VFC:
https://www.vfc.com/brands/outdoor/smartwool
Woods, C. R., & Woods, J. L. (2016). Fabric blend containing bamboo and merino wool.". U.S.
Patent Application No., 232.

MARKETING 9