What is Conscious Messaging?

Conscious messaging is the practice of utilizing the ethical and innate qualities and essences of a business to effectively convey the right message, attract the ideal customer, and establish strong trust and brand loyalty.

Typically this can be referred to as sustainability marketing, but in many ways this can be limiting to the businesses that don't necessary consider themselves "sustainable." The fundamental practice is to implement environmental and ethical stewardship into a marketing strategy in order to create stronger public relations.

There are three primary categories of conscious messaging, which come down to the impact a business has on the planet, people and profit. These "3 Ps" are the fundamental structure of constructing a strategic conscious marketing plan and as a consumer one can think of these three things when assessing the quality and ethics of a business.

Traditionally, profit has always been the central and "only" indicator of a successful business. When this is the case all other practices become byproducts, or mere considerations while profit margin still remains at the top. This is how the market has gotten itself into the ethical pickle of the success of a business being more important the the thousands of lives of their sweatshop workers, or profit at the expense of catastrophic environmental disasters, like toxic waste polluting in the waterways, oil spills, immense amount of waste per one unit sold, etc. Separating the business and profit from the impact and externalities of the supply chain is not fair practice and allows for lackluster accountability.

Traditionally marketing, advertising, and branding go hand and hand as a fine tuned dance to boost profits and sales at all costs. How can they evoke the most potent emotional response that will enact a buying frenzy? What images, graphics and "in your face" techniques will best suit the desired rate of expansion? How bad, sad, not enough is necessary for the consumers to desperately need their product? While none of the actual implications of the purchase are ever mentioned, accounted for, or considered.

As the world changes, the consumer base is waking up. Curious, more knowledgable, and asking questions. Not to mention, the access to technology, information, and global connection gives light to new considerations and comprehensions about how the world and business actually works.

As consumers become more conscious, the environmental degradation more extreme, and populations reaching new heights, it becomes ever more important for businesses to adapt how they operate and how they present themselves. The new conscious model for business success puts the people and planet at the center of operations. How does a business best serve the world and its inhabitants, and as this is maximized, profit becomes a byproduct of good business practices.