Marketing for Sustainable Development. Группа авторов

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as a threat.

      With this in mind, and in view of the digitalization of social interactions and the increased speed of virtual exchanges (Kozinets 2012), we propose to explore practices of resistance, particularly those organized by consumer groups online, especially on social networks, given their significant impact.

      As an example, following price increases, a boycott campaign against Danone, launched online, took place in North Africa in 2018 and cost the brand 178 million euros3. The main lessons that we want to highlight are intended to underline the ability of pressure from consumer movements to force companies to reevaluate their marketing practices and to push the public authorities and associations to rethink the regulatory mechanisms of the markets.

      More specifically, we will be working on answering the following two-part question: “How does the online resistance of individuals adhering to a responsible consumption approach express itself in the face of market ideology? And which possibilities for social development does it open up?” In order to do this, a two-year netnographic study was conducted in three virtual communities based around responsible social opposition, specifically, “Le changement par la consommation [Change through consumption]”, “Mr Mondialisation [Mr. Globalization]” and “Objecteurs de croissance [Growth Objectors]”.

      1.2.1. From an adaptive perspective of uprising recovery by the companies...

      As a result, companies that subscribe to the traditional market-oriented system are considered responsible, by anti-consumption groups, for damaging the environment, encouraging over-consumption and spreading poor-quality food (Daniel et al. 2008). The one factor these activists have in common is the contestation of a market logic that encourages excessive consumption, without respect for individuals and groups developing practices supporting opposition and anti-consumption, or even deviance (Amine and Gicquel 2011). There appear to be several elements at play at the intersection of different types of socio-environmental contestation, at the micro level, companies and their enslaving mercantile practices, and at the macro level, the overall functioning of society, which is deliberately based on a consumerist logic emerging from the capitalist system.

      With this in mind, traditional marketing, which has, to date, adopted reactive and adaptive strategies towards consumer efforts, should now make a change to become part of a proactive strategy to transform its values, provisions and processes, in order to meet the expectations of socially responsible consumer-citizens.

      1.2.2. ...to a transformative market logic under pressure from protest movements

      Further to the socio-environmental criticisms, the market is no longer considered, from a consumer perspective, to be a place where beneficial exchanges can occur. It is instead perceived as a space of influence in which unbalanced exchanges take place, with poorly equipped and influenced consumers who make sub-optimal choices (Dobscha 1998).

      The representation of the market from critical sociology (Baudrillard 1970) highlights behavior in opposition to the market, which is considered as combative in view of the market’s hegemonic and oppressive role. Moreover, the postmodern paradigm (Firat and Venkatesh 1995) emphasizes the “fragmentation of society” that makes it possible for consumers to free themselves through various alternatives to consumption that constitute as many degrees of freedom. From this point of view, this opposition concerns an “expression of self” more than a “fight”. This being the case, the opposition movements sometimes express themselves in relation to the deterioration of the environment, considering the capitalist system that governs the market to be a “structure of destruction” (François-Lecompte and Valette-Florence 2006), and sometimes in relation to the techniques of the market-oriented system, viewing the market as a “structure of domination” (Murray and Ozanne 2009). At the same time, the emphasis is on the “conscientization” of the consumer in regard to the tools and methods of the market-oriented system. Roux (2007) refers to this “awareness” as a precondition for learning about market relationships and then acquiring skills that make it possible to have, in fine, a clear idea of the context of trade and the unbalanced relationships of the powers involved.

      The communities we have investigated have, in this regard, shown criticisms and denunciations of the market system, as well as guidelines for an alternative marketing model. This position is in line with the values of these opposition communities, whose protest is focused on social and environmental concerns (Benhallam 2016). Indeed, in using the analysis of the data collected within these communities (see Box 1.1), several possibilities for change, or even for transformation, present themselves to the field of marketing.

      Box

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