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The webcasts provide members with relevant information pertaining to the latest information on branding, strategy, analytics, content marketing, and much more. For example, one webcast they offer is titled “7 Tips for Building Out Your Marketing Dream Team” (American Marketing Association, 2016). This provides marketing leaders with ideas on how to make a more creative, focused team. One specific aspect of team building that this webcast focuses on is that marketers need to discover where time and resources are being wasted so that they can improve the effectiveness of their team. Whether you want to learn how to create a marketing strategy to present to your boss or just learn how to create a great team, AMA provides the necessary tools that are useful to any marketing professional.

Business Marketing Association

The Business Marketing Association, or BMA, differs from AMA in that it provides B-to-B marketing techniques rather than focusing on just marketing professionals. The BMA focuses on business to business marketing in order to improve companies across the nation. BMA gives its members the chance to make better business decisions faster, stay current, and stay connected. Events consist of members-only conferences, national events, and chapter events. BMA provides “senior-level conferences and networking events around the country for business marketers” (Business Marketing Association, 2016). This association provides members of BMA the opportunities to learn, network with other members, and share their own insights about the industry.

Additionally, BMA members can attend national industry conferences. These conferences typically focus on the best current practices in the industry. BMA members have the opportunity to learn about digital marketing, multicultural marketing, media, and much more. Finally, BMA offers chapter events in 16 different locations across the U.S (Business Marketing Association, 2016). These events provide the B-to-B marketing members the opportunity to engage with other professionals similar to them. Overall, BMA provides many professional opportunities to those who are involved with business to business marketing.

A Look into a Successful Company: Patagonia

Discourse Community: Environmentalist

The environmentalist discourse community values sustainability, respect, and simplicity. This group strives to impact the Earth as positively as possible while identifying and discontinuing harmful practices. The discourse community exists to protect the environment and help others practice business that does not harm our earth. Patagonia belongs to the discourse community of environmentalists because this company embodies environmentally friendly practices. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal by Leah Nash, Patagonia has spent 2016 looking for ways to set strict animal welfare standards. Rachel Cantu, the head of supply chain at Patagonia, told their growers that they would need to “consistently meet the quality requirements and all of the other requirements we’d have for animal welfare or environmental responsibility” (Nash, 2016, August 17). Patagonia prides itself on being socially and environmentally responsible, and this is why they appeal to the environmentally friendly discourse community.

According to Jermier and Forbes (2016), Patagonia has included a link on their website titled “The Footprint Chronicles” (Jermier, Forbes, 2016, p.1016). This database tracks Patagonia’s factories, textile mills and farms across the globe and allows the public to see the impact that Patagonia makes on the environment. Patagonia’s website also features a section dedicated to their environmental efforts. The New Yorker published an article by Paumgarten (2016) about the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard. In the article Chouinard states, “the environmental cost of everything we make is astonishing” (Paumgarten, 2016, September 19). After he realized how many resources went into producing only one jacket, Chouinard decided to run a marketing campaign titled “Don’t Buy This Jacket”. This, along with many other efforts, has helped Patagonia position itself as a company that cares about social and environmental sustainability. The innovative programs and ideas that Patagonia implements helps sets them apart from their competition and helps them differentiate themselves when it comes to marketing their brand.

Issue in Debate

Green Washing

Green washing occurs when a company spends time and money claiming to be “green” through advertising and marketing while not actually implementing business practices that minimize environmental impact. According to a study done by Nielsen, 66% of global consumers say they are willing to pay more for sustainable brands (Nielsen, 2016). Because there is a growing market for green consumers, companies are willing to compromise honesty for profit. According to Green Marketing and Sustainable Development, the author states that “company’s performance and environmentally-friendly practices are positively correlated to each other” (Khandelwal, Yadav, 2014, p.2). Companies see the financial success that comes with being sustainable, so they claim their products are more green or environmentally friendly than they actually are. This is a problem for consumers who expect to get truthful information from companies and do not have time to research all of the products and companies that exist. This issue hurts green marketing efforts because it makes consumers question which products are truly good for the environment.

One company that was caught green washing is Volkswagen. Volkswagen claimed that their cars were environmentally friendly but they ended up being exposed in an emissions scandal. They were found to have “systematically manipulated tests so its cars’ emissions appeared lower than they really were” (Rogers, 2016, p.15). Many customers were outraged at Volkswagen’s green washing and lost faith in the company. Green washing can make it hard for a green consumer to know which products and services are actually environmentally friendly. As marketers, we have a responsibility to adhere to high morals and not be coerced into damaging the environment for a profit.

One way companies can avoid green washing is by being transparent with their consumers. Many companies claim to be environmentally friendly but provide their consumers no statistics or trustworthy data to back up these claims. One practice companies can engage in to address this issue is creating sustainability reports. Patagonia released an Environmental