By Bertrand Laurioz, Chairman and CEO of the Dékuple group
Grandstand. What do we aspire to, if not a pleasant life that meets our needs, in a society that takes sustainability issues seriously? Decreasing cannot be considered as an end in itself, just as a systematic rejection of the use that could be made of our data is not justified. Because if the data are of multiple nature, the marketing data have, for their part, an essential role to play in this mutation.
Is degrowth the future of the world? Nope !
Social progress cannot exist without growth, which creates jobs, finances social protection and support for the weakest. Why not consider a positive vision of contributive and favorable development for Man and for the Planet? Because growth does not necessarily consist in buying more and more non-essential or even useless things, nor in consuming blindly, compulsively.
On the other hand, it can allow everyone to be more in tune with their needs and deep aspirations. Everyone welcomes the growth of companies working on the creation of links or services between people, the development of products that consume less resources, the emergence of repair, recycling and reuse players. These activities are now major vectors of sustainable growth.
The transformation of companies towards sustainable growth
After having transformed an industrial company into a service company, then a leisure company, we are entering the era of a company of social and environmental responsibility. The trend is very clear, and the convergence of interests between society and businesses is accelerating: this is the wish of customers and employees alike, and increasingly of shareholders. Thus, for example, 72% of French people are mobilized in favor of responsible consumptionwhen 80% of French companies have formalized a CSR approach or roadmap.
In addition to the need to communicate on these subjects, companies will tomorrow be keen to reduce their CO2 emissions in the same way that they have always sought to save costs. Thus, a company’s efficiency will be increasingly correlated with its energy efficiency.
Data marketing, a sustainable growth accelerator
We now have a pool of data that is proving to be a formidable tool for guiding our decisions, rationalizing and making our actions more accountable. A sector such as data marketing is growing three times faster than the French economy and is moving towards both greater asceticism and greater relevance. It also contributes to the transformation of entire sectors of professions to support the ecological and societal transition.
No one will dispute that marketing has become essential to the economy, to explain, give meaning, motivate and mobilize energies and of course promote trade, a central element of the economy. Proof of this is the associations which campaign for a fairer society and which are heavy users of marketing data, in the same way as brands.
Consumers have also fully appropriated the rules of marketing – particularly with the rise of social networks – they are becoming more demanding and legitimately want both more consideration, personalization, services in line with their centers of interest, without however accepting that brands know everything about them.
Data marketing allows us to enter a new era of reason and segmentation, where the techniques of ” carpet bombing (mass, untargeted marketing messages) will disappear, where we will see a continued decline in mass media in favor of better targeted, more relevant, and therefore more accepted messages. A new era where environmental responsibility goes through a rationalization of means such as the reduction of paper, ink, messages and also the use of more efficient and less energy-consuming technological solutions to exploit or store data.
At a time when some data marketing players are stigmatized for their use of data, consider this data marketing as a major and essential element in our transition. It will enable brands to continue to develop new concepts and products, to interest our fellow citizens in these innovations and to offer them what corresponds to their affinities, while saving the planet’s financial means and resources. Let’s work collectively so that a reasoned use of data accompanies and multiplies the transformations beneficial to all.
Responsible consumption barometer 2021 – Greenflex / ADEME
2021 report on the implementation of the extra-financial performance declaration by French companies – MEDEF / Deloitte / EY