Futures Studies on the Evaluation of Humanitarian Marketing Functions: Perspectives on the Development of Green Products

Abstract

Marketing strategies in the contemporary era, beyond technological innovations and product competitiveness in market offerings, are increasingly grounded in humanitarian approaches due to growing social sensitivities. These approaches can contribute to the dissemination of widespread social ethics and civic engagement within competitive markets, thereby fostering the path toward achieving environmental sustainability. The purpose of this study is to conduct a foresight-based evaluation of the functions of humanitarian marketing in shaping the development perspectives of green products in the automotive industry. From a methodological standpoint, the research is exploratory in nature and developmental in its intended outcomes. Initially, thematic analysis was employed to identify the core themes of humanitarian marketing functions in the context of green product development. A Delphi analysis was subsequently conducted to examine the reliability of the identified themes. Finally, scenario analysis was used to structure prospective pathways for the development of green products in the automotive industry through humanitarian marketing. In this study, experts in the field of marketing who possessed substantial conceptual and contextual knowledge of humanitarian marketing participated through interview tools and matrix-based checklists. Additionally, in the quantitative phase, 25 managers from active companies in the automotive industry—who had completed training courses on green product development in industrial management—were selected to contribute to the matrix implementation processes. The results of the first phase of the research, obtained from 12 expert interviews, led to the identification of three overarching themes, six organizing themes, and 32 basic themes. The Delphi analysis confirmed that the organizing themes demonstrated sufficient reliability for generalization within the study's context. The second phase of the study, by validating the two key themes—green cognitive value creation in customers and green trust-building among customers—as pivotal axes for constructing plausible scenarios, revealed that four matrices could define the future perspectives for evaluating humanitarian marketing functions in green product development. The findings indicate that Iran’s automotive industry is at an early stage of producing environmentally compatible products. To advance this trajectory, the industry must adopt humanitarian approaches that prioritize the rights of citizens and future-generation customers and pursue emergent marketing strategies in a non-monopolistic market.