Retail Dude

Every company or retailer worry about their bottom line, because this is the thing which they want to see increasing on day to day basis and for that they strive day and night. But now their problem become triple and they have to worry triple times as now their is not bottom line their is triple bottom line to take care of.

The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) is the phrase was coined by John Elkington in 1994. It was later expanded and articulated in his 1997 book Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. The concept can be old but because of the much hype of green, many retailers are going to materialised this concept now. The green is about sustanability which in turn is an explicit component of most CSR agendas and is being used by many to rethink and retool business processes and their responsibility for ’stakeholders’ rather than shareholders. In this case, ’stakeholders’ refers to anyone who is influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the actions of the firm. According to the stakeholder theory, the business entity should be used as a vehicle for coordinating stakeholder interests, instead of maximising shareholder(owner) profit.

TBL determines the impact of three P’s : profit, people and planet on the business and this is becoming the standard framework for CSR. “Profit, People and Planet” are used to succinctly describe the triple bottom lines and the goal of sustainability. Thus a comprehesive CSR agenda should cover economic, social and environmental factors.

In my marketing classes I saw these “P”s increasing from 4 (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) to 7 (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Packaging, Positioning, People) but now what I am seeing is a new P is adding to it which is “Planet” making them 8Ps of marketing mix, but ultimately all these Ps lead to one P only that is “Profit”, which really matters in the end.

-Prateek Katiyar

 Email

 Print