The current marketing assignment presents the reflective analysis of two articles where one relates to the marketing trends and another one explores the concept of misconception of consumers while buying sustainable products.

1. Reflective Analysis Marketing
Assignment
Article 1: The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Trends in 2019
The following article explored within this study of marketing assignment relates to the
changing face of business today. Since change is inevitable, businesses must have the
ability to master and exploit change in order to maintain a consistency of image (Decker,
2019). Each day, marketers come up with new trends and techniques to attract and
connect with their audiences. However, the issue lies in understanding the feasibility and
longevity of the trends and techniques. According to Hall (2016), every industry is
keeping up with developments but also cares about following the market trends to
remain one step ahead in the game. Successful businesses follow the most significant
marketing trends in the scope of their businesses. History shows that companies that are
reluctant to adapt to their environment and current marketing trends will disappear. As
the whole business environment is changing, it is important for businesses to understand
that creating or following marketing trends is not enough, but they must also understand
their customer preferences and needs.
The issues illustrated in this article are a good illustration of importance of
acknowledging the impact of marketing trends on businesses. As opined by Ordun
(2015), marketing trends are heavily influenced by consumer behavior and their
preferences and can have direct impact on the overall performance of the business. As
highlighted in the marketing assignment, marketing trends allows businesses to know

2. their target audience, secure a strong marketplace, and stay up to date with the
consumer behavior and priorities (Decker, 2019). The frequent changes in the marketing
world allow businesses to adapt to the developments and equip with adequate
knowledge. However, general marketing trends are not always sufficient to effectively
reach out to the target customers. The marketing capabilities of any company decide its
fate in the long run. Trends help businesses to identify better ideas to improve the
overall performance. The important thing to notice is that marketing trends provides
with early warnings that is helpful for businesses to understand if these trends are
reliable business needs to discover more reliable sources of changes. The current and
future trends applicable for any business must be improved to quickly predict what is
expected to happen tomorrow. Mehta (2018) suggests that businesses are not only
relying on general marketing trends but also have adopted trends like social media
marketing trends, content marketing Search Engine Optimization marketing trends,
technology marketing trends and trends.
When the brand image of a company required itself to grow bigger in the marketplace, it
needs to feature it's creative ideas and innovative thinking through their content, social
engagement, influence on target market, technology being used and ways to being
responsive to their audience. Therefore, in order to acknowledge the ever-changing
marketing environment, businesses must conduct trend analysis to compare data over a
set period of time, the consistency of changing trends and aligning them with
achievement of the goals of the company. As mentioned earlier change is inevitable,
businesses must absorb up to date industry research and the real picture of where they
currently stand in the marketplace. As per Uzialko (2018), most successful businesses do
not follow random marketing trends, but they understand the nature of their business
and accordingly innovate to reach out to the target audience.

3. Article 2: Research: Actually, Consumers Do Buy Sustainable Products
The following article discussed within this marketing assignment is related to the
misconception of consumers while buying sustainable products (Whelan & Kronthal-
Sacco, 2019). It has been observed that aware of sustainable development and use of
sustainable products, but they do not seem to buy sustainable products. The reason is
they are not aware of what sustainable products actually mean or did not have the
intention to buy sustainable products. However, as opined by Dangelico & Vocalelli
(2017), marketers have utilized this as an opportunity to sell their products under the
light of sustainability. The concept of going sustainable has been new for many of the
consumers. This wisdom has been taken by companies as they can expect healthy return
on investment by providing environmental and socially sustainable products and
practices. Sustainability has become a new way of life for many of consumers as their
efforts are directed towards purchasing healthy and greener options from companies
which label themselves as selling green products. Each purchase made by a single
consumer impacts their health, the environment and supports the sustainable practices
around them. According to the article by Whelan & Kronthal-Sacco (2019), meaning of
the consumers are still unaware of healthy and sustainable products. This results in the
purchase of consumer-packaged goods that has increased over the last 5 years.
Companies claim on pack that their products are healthy and market them as sustainable
products which eventually cells at a faster rate than the normal products. The reason
being, consumers are willing to pay more money for sustainable products rather than
eating anything unhealthy. According to Ghvanidze, Velikova, Dodd & Oldewage-Theron
(2016), consumers have become health conscious and understand the importance of
living a healthy life which has resulted substantial growth in the market for companies
selling sustainable products. According to Whelan & Kronthal-Sacco (2019), products like

4. facial tissues, yoghurt, milk, salty snacks, bottled juices, and toilet tissue are claimed to
be highly in demand as consumers want these products to be highly sustainable. These
products account to hold largest share of sustainability marketed products followed by
chocolate candy and laundry cares. However, products like sanitary napkins, products
containing plastic, and laundry cares are required to be made sustainable as much as
possible. Companies have their corporate social responsibilities which we must follow
the rule of being environmentally responsible and reducing the carbon footprint. At an
individual or personal level, becoming more responsible towards the environment and
have started setting great examples by making responsible buying choices.
Consumers are becoming responsible and object on buying unsustainable brands which
has shifted the core of several companies to adopt sustainable practices. Since
consumers are most important assets for any company, they must consider the changing
consumer tastes and attitude. As opined by Helsen (2018), there can be criticism from
stakeholders and investors for shifting their attitude and marketing techniques that has
worked well for them. It is also important for companies to understand the nature of
changing business environment and reinvent their marketing strategies and legacy
products. As consumers are becoming health conscious, creating sustainable products
will allow them to deliver better products and generate high turnover growth. The
perception of brand managers needs to change as consumers are also shifting towards
purchase of products that are greener, healthier and come from greener companies.

5. References
Dangelico, R. M., & Vocalelli, D. (2017). “Green Marketing”: an analysis of definitions,
strategy steps, and tools through a systematic review of the literature. Journal of Cleaner
production, 165, 1263-1279.
Decker, A. (2019). The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Trends in 2019. Retrieved from
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-trends
Ghvanidze, S., Velikova, N., Dodd, T. H., & Oldewage-Theron, W. (2016). Marketing
assignment Consumers' environmental and ethical consciousness and the use of the
related food products information: The role of perceived consumer
effectiveness. Appetite, 107, 311-322.
Hall, J. (2016). 7 Ways to Identify and Evolve With Industry Trends. Retrieved from
https://www.inc.com/john-hall/7-ways-to-identify-and-evolve-with-industry-trends.html
Helsen, K. (2018). Sustainable Marketing Strategies: Overview.
Mehta, S. (2018). Social media marketing trends 2019. Retrieved from
https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/social-
media-marketing-trends-2019/
Ordun, G. (2015). Millennial (Gen Y) consumer behavior their shopping preferences and
perceptual maps associated with brand loyalty. Canadian Social Science, 11(4), 40-55.
Uzialko, A.C. (2018). 20 Small Business Trends and Predictions for 2019. Retrieved from
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7605-business-trend-predictions.html

6. Whelan, T. & Kronthal-Sacco, R. (2019). Research: Actually, Consumers Do Buy
Sustainable Products. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2019/06/research-actually-
consumers-do-buy-sustainable-products