To the uninformed, the field of marketing is all about selling and consuming more. However, since the origin of marketing, societal issues like sustainability, ethics, and responsibility have been discussed and researched. In this course you will learn about the current state-of-art of the field of Responsible Marketing, and the research gaps that need to be addressed. Practical implications and company cases are studied. During the course students will also learn how marketing is related to the United Nation's Sustainable Development goals, particularly those of sustainable production and consumption, poverty, decent work and economic growth, and good health and well-being.

Competency goals: After completing the course you will have a broad knowledge of sustainable and ethical marketing, social marketing, macromarketing, and stakeholder marketing. You will also have insights in ethical, sustainable, and anti-consumption as well as consumption resistance. You will have a capacity to apply and evaluate the role of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in marketing and the role of responsible marketing in branding and corporate image as well as distinguish greenwashing and related phenomenon from the critical marketing perspective.

Students will learn how to ...

• define and describe sustainable, ethical, social, macro-, and stakeholder marketing,
• differentiate between, and analyze, ethical and sustainable marketing, as well as anti-consumption and consumption resistance,
• apply and evaluate role of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in marketing and the role of responsible marketing in branding and corporate image,
• recognize and judge greenwashing and related phenomenon from a critical marketing perspective
• gather and filter information efficiently and effectively on a specific research topic
• learn to organize teamwork efficiently and effectively
• reflect on others' and one's own role in a team
• evaluate the individual learning and development progress
• develop critical thinking
• defend developed arguments orally and in writing 
• structure material in to a coherent line of arguments and present it in a concise way
• not only learn how to communicate information, but also develop creative ideas to get the message across 

As we want to all benefit from your ideas and experience, we are looking forward to your presence in the classroom. You can miss 10% of the lectures (i.e., 1 session max). Please let us know in advance if possible.

Within this course, a variety of didactic elements are utilized to facilitate the successful completion of learning outcomes outlined above. The course is delivered as a mix of lectures covering theoretical concepts and their application, as well as assignment (prepared at home and in-class, individually and in group work, discussed in class). 

·     The course literature gives introductory information of the weekly theme sessions. It also deepens the information of the sessions, at the same time as it can be used as references for your bachelor’s and master’s thesis.

·     The theme sessions introduce the assignments and discuss the course literature and provide extra material. The guest lectures give an expert or a practitioner view on the topic.

·     The assignments deepen your understanding on the theme, teach you to apply your knowledge to a given problem or issue, and give you room to provide your own thoughts.

·     Debate: The aim is to practice presenting constructively different solutions for responsibility or sustainability issues. 

Your performance is based on 

• Participation 15%
• Assignment 1  15%
• Assignment 2 15%
• Assignment 3 15%
• Assignment 4 15%
• Debate  25%

Grading Scheme (Total 100pts):

• 100-90 pts - 1
• 89-80 pts - 2
• 79-70 pts - 3
• 69-60 pts - 4
• below 60 - failed

Please look at the section "Additional information for course members" for details on the assessment

This course is part of the elective pool "Marketing for a Better World" of the MSc Marketing at WU.

MSc Marketing students can only register if they have successfully completed the following mandatory courses from the 1st year:

• Management by Experiments (5 ECTS)
• Marketing Analytics (7.5 ECTS)
• Digital Marketing (5 ECTS)

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