Maturity in implementing ESG idea and building purpose brand

ESG factors (Environmental, Social, Governance) are changing the business environment of organizations in many cross sections. The key issue now is how companies are responding and able to adapt their business strategies to the new conditions. Sustainability brings a number of changes and challenges in the areas of regulation, access and financing conditions, as well as increasing pressure and expectations from consumers, employees, suppliers for transparent, valuable and realistic ESG activities of organizations. Based on these, it is possible to credibly build brand purpose strategies. The aim of the article is to demonstrate whether companies that have implemented the first sustainable activities are planning in the near future or have already started building value-based brands in relation to the idea of sustainability. The empirical basis are the results of the research conducted in Poland, in October 2023 on a group of 122 marketing managers with the use of the CAWI method. The research indicated that the size of the organization, the type of relationship or the sources of income make it possible to assess the maturity and sophistication of companies and identify two paths for implementing sustainability transformation. At the same time, building brands on values is important to most Polish respondents. Currently, companies in the B2C sector, in the traditional channel, which have already started implementing regulations (large and medium-sized companies) are recognized as those which will the most widely build brands on values in 12 months. The least advanced are companies in which the digital channel is the dominant source of revenue. It should also be noted that there is an apparent knowledge gap among Polish marketers regarding reporting qualifications and sustainability requirements. This is an area in which marketers should quickly improve their qualifications.

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