How memes can be used as part of the marketing strategy to communicate a corporate sustainability engagement ?

Abstract

There is a significant potential of memes being used by corporations to engage with younger target groups within their own language. The Generation Z and Millennials are already using memes to share their views and thoughts on environmental-related subjects and are eager to exchange, participate and inspire others to follow their example. Especially under the current circumstance of the Covid-19 epidemic, topics such as environment and health are trending. Now it is time for corporations to answer this need. Based on existing examples of memes as part of a marketing strategy of different corporations on sustainability unrelated subjects and data gathered from websites like Know you Meme and Google trends, this paper highlights the impact such campaigns could have on sustainability campaigns. And even if there are already many good examples regarding other topics of how to use memes as a marketing strategy, the paper also shows to be aware of the risks of using memes and that they need to be well done if corporations do not want to be left behind embarrassed. The paper spotlights the only example of the corporation Bosch that ventured on this path with their sustainability campaign “Like a Bosch”, and it is an example worth following.