A stakeholder theory approach to designing environmental

marketing strategy
Michael Jay Polonsky

In a firm, conflicts may appear between the firm and its stakeholders regarding their
expectations about its performance. Stakeholder management process is a strategic process
which is beneficial to industrial marketers. They are strongly influenced by the stakeholder
theory which allows the organization to consider a wider range of influencers when
developing strategy.
Michael Jay Polonsky demonstrates how industrial marketers can readily apply the
stakeholder theory, through the stakeholder management process to marketing strategy
development.
The stakeholder approach is based on anticipating customer or client needs and
directing a flow of need-satisfying goods and services to the consumer. It also suggests the
common objectives of consumers and organizations.
The four-step stakeholder management process forces industrial marketers to
identify the main groups that can affect or are affected by the firms environmental
marketing activities; determine the stakes and importance of each group in relation to the
firms environmental marketing strategy; determine how well each groups environmental
expectations are met by the firms existing environmental behavior; and allow the firm to
develop environmental marketing strategies that socialize key stakeholder groups.
The purpose of this article was to demonstrate how this theory (ST) can be applied
to the specific issue of environmental marketing.
The article does not discuss ST in detail, it appears that ST is ideally suited to
environmental marketing for it provides a process, which if followed, allows the industrial
marketer to develop an environmental marketing strategy that satisfies the goals of the firm
and its stakeholders.