Author: Moh Al-Haifi
Co-Author: Isabelle Drury
Contributors: Odette Bester, Lee Fitzpatrick, Zac Schaap
If you’ve been exploring alternatives to conventional marketing, you’ve likely encountered terms like “regenerative marketing” or “regenerative branding”. They sound really promising, a refreshing approach that aligns with values of sustainability and positive impact.
(Thinking what the hell is regenerative marketing? Check out What is Regenerative Marketing and The Problem with Marketing as Usual blogs for the full background.)
…But diving into this space can often feel like entering a conversation where everyone seems to speak a different language. Terms like “ecosystems” and “regenerative growth” get tossed around, often without clear explanation. For marketers, founders, and change-makers trying to implement these approaches, this jargon can create a barrier to entry and leave you wondering: “Am I missing something here? What does this actually mean in practice?”
This guide aims to decode the essential vocabulary of regenerative marketing, translating complex concepts into simple understanding so you can confidently navigate this approach to helping your purpose-driven business thrive.
1. Ecosystem Marketing
Ecosystem marketing is a holistic approach that recognises marketing doesn’t happen in isolation, but within interconnected networks of relationships. Ecosystem marketing intentionally considers and nurtures the relationships between your brand, customers, partners, communities, plants, animals, as well as other natural systems. It focuses on creating value that circulates throughout this network rather than extracting it from one part to benefit another.
It’s not: A tech platform where Mac and Windows battle for world domination! When we say “ecosystem marketing,” we’re not talking about software ecosystems, digital ecosystems, or any ecosystem that requires an IT department. (Though admittedly, those tech giants could learn a thing or two about actual ecosystem thinking.)
Think of it as: Cultivating a diverse garden where all elements nourish each other, rather than focusing on an isolated plant. Just as a healthy garden supports multiple species that benefit one another, ecosystem marketing creates environments where customers, communities, partners, and natural systems can all flourish through interconnected relationships. In practice, this might mean creating platforms where suppliers, customers and partners connect directly, establishing circular value flows (like repair networks or knowledge exchanges), and measuring success by the health of the entire system, not just your bottom line.
(To learn more about ecosystem marketing, explore these resources: Ecosystem ecology and Living Systems: A new story for a regenerative future. Our learnings have also been heavily inspired by The Regenerative Marketing Movement, nRhythm “with life” framework, and Unity Effect’s “Impact Garden” framework)
2. Reciprocity
Reciprocity is a fundamental principle that reframes marketing relationships as mutual exchanges rather than one-way transactions. Drawing from ancient indigenous wisdom traditions that have honoured balanced relationships for millennia, reciprocity in regenerative marketing means creating genuine cycles of giving and receiving that build trust and generate shared prosperity over time.
Indigenous cultures worldwide have long understood what modern businesses are only beginning to grasp, that acknowledging the gift through gratitude and reciprocal action creates powerful, sustainable relationships. Reciprocity acknowledges that every interaction carries an energy exchange and seeks to ensure that exchange is balanced and beneficial for all parties, including your business, customers, communities, and the systems that sustain us.
It’s not: It’s not a calculated “one free sample, now buy the entire product line” strategy. That’s about as reciprocal as a one-way street. True reciprocity runs deeper than these calculated exchanges.
Think of it as: The underlying pattern of healthy relationships in nature. Consider how plants and pollinators have evolved together: bees receive nourishment while plants receive pollination. In regenerative marketing, this might look like creating content that genuinely enriches your audience’s lives whether or not they ever purchase from you, investing in community initiatives that strengthen the environment in which your business operates, or designing your business model so that your success directly contributes to ecological restoration.
(To learn more about reciprocity, explore this resource: Relationship and Reciprocity. We also invite you to explore Decolonial Futures as we reflect on regeneration through a decolonial lens. For deeper insights, check out the work of Tania Lo (Co-CEO, Tandem Innovation Group Inc.), sahibzada mayed (صاحبزادہ مائد) (Decolonial Researcher, Pause and Effect), Ashanti Kunene (Founder, Learning 2 Unlearn), and John Fullerton (Founder, Capital Institute).)
3. Systems Thinking
Systems thinking is an approach to marketing strategy that draws inspiration from how systems function in nature: adaptable, interconnected, and cyclical.
This principle recognises that marketing exists within complex networks of relationships that cannot be fully controlled or predicted. Instead of trying to dominate or manipulate these systems with rigid plans, work with their inherent patterns and emergent properties, allowing strategies to evolve organically in response to changing conditions.
It’s not: Just another framework or model to optimise conversion funnels or maximise click-through rates. Systems thinking represents a fundamental shift in how we conceptualise marketing itself, moving from mechanical metaphors (e.g., marketing “machines” or “engines”) to ecological metaphors (marketing “ecosystems” or “gardens”).
Think of it as: Marketing that mirrors how nature works, instead of forcing outcomes through control, systems marketing works with natural patterns and emergent properties, allowing strategies to evolve organically and respond intelligently to changing conditions, just as healthy ecosystems do. This might look like creating more adaptive campaigns that can respond to audience feedback in real-time, collaborating with competitors on industry-wide challenges, or allowing your brand identity to evolve naturally through genuine community co-creation.
(To learn more about systems thinking, explore these resources: First Nations Systems Thinking and Systems Thinking: What, Why, When, Where, and How? Regeneration is deeply rooted in Indigenous knowledge and practices that have sustained ecosystems for millennia.)
4. Regenerative Storytelling
Regenerative storytelling is a transformative approach to narrative that moves beyond simply selling products to healing relationships and catalysing positive change. Regenerative storytelling recognises the immense power that stories have to shape our reality and takes responsibility for that power. It crafts narratives that reconnect people with themselves, each other, and the living world–narratives that inspire possibility, restore wholeness, and invite participation in creating a better future.
It’s also about relating differently to our living experience and environment. Concepts of myths and animism become key within a regenerative storytelling approach, inviting us to see the world as alive, sentient, and worthy of deep relationship rather than as mere backdrop or resource.
It’s not: Superficial cause marketing, greenwashing, or purpose-washing where sustainability or social impact claims serve merely as marketing veneer.
Think of it as: Narratives that heal rather than exploit. While extractive marketing stories often push on insecurities or create artificial needs, regenerative stories reconnect people with themselves, each other, and the living world. These narratives leave audiences feeling more whole, capable, and connected rather than more lacking or inadequate after engaging with them.
(For a deeper dive into this approach, explore ReStoried Earth’s perspective on regenerative communications and check out Rūta Žemčugovaitė’s Regenerative Transmissions newsletter for practical examples.)
5. Slow Marketing
Slow marketing is a deliberate countermovement to the breathless pace of conventional digital marketing, with its constant demand for more content, more channels, and more immediate results.
Prioritising depth over breadth, quality over quantity, and long-term relationship building over short-term conversion optimisation, it recognises that meaningful connections and sustainable growth often require patience, presence, and careful cultivation.
It’s not: Simply reducing your marketing output or slowing down your timeline. Slow marketing is an intentional approach that often involves deeper thinking, more meaningful creation processes, and more authentic engagement, its quality and intention rather than just pace.
Think of it as: The marketing equivalent of slow food: thoughtfully crafted, ethically sourced, and designed to nourish deeply rather than stimulate temporarily. Slow marketing might involve publishing less frequent but more substantial content, taking time to genuinely listen to customer needs before developing offerings, or measuring success over years rather than quarters. (In a world obsessed with ‘overnight success,’ we’re championing ‘over months and years’ success. Less catchy, infinitely more effective.)
(To learn more about slow marketing, explore this resource: What is Slow Marketing? An Introduction for Small Businesses)
6. Attunement
Attunement is a practice of deep listening and responsive adaptation that goes far beyond conventional market research. Attunement involves developing a heightened sensitivity to the needs, values, and evolving contexts of your audience, community, and the broader systems your business affects.
This requires cultivating genuine curiosity and presence, suspending assumptions to truly hear what’s being communicated through both explicit feedback and subtle signals from your ecosystem.
It’s not: Simply collecting customer data, running automated sentiment analysis, or conducting periodic surveys that confirm what you already believe. Attunement is an ongoing relational practice rather than a one-time or periodic activity.
Think of it as: The difference between hearing and listening. While conventional marketing often “hears” audience feedback to better position products, attunement truly listens to understand the underlying needs and contexts. This might look like hosting regular community conversations where you’re genuinely open to having your assumptions challenged, creating feedback loops that influence not just your messaging but your actual offerings. (You could see it as developing a marketing sixth sense, minus the creepiness of ‘I see dead people. ‘ Think ‘I sense actual human needs’ instead.)
(To learn more about attunement, explore these resources: Attunement and Attunement: The Real Language of Love)
7. Regenerative Growth
Regenerative growth is a fundamentally reimagined approach to business expansion that measures success by the health and vitality it creates within the whole system, not just the financial returns it generates for shareholders.
This type of growth recognises that true prosperity comes from creating conditions where all life can flourish, including employees, communities, ecosystems, and future generations. It actively works to increase the capacity and capability of the systems it touches rather than depleting them for short-term gain.
It’s not: The “growth at all costs” mentality that dominates conventional startup culture, nor the relentless quarterly growth expectations of public markets. Regenerative growth often follows natural patterns of succession, periods of rapid expansion balanced with periods of consolidation, maturation, and even release.
Think of it as: Growth that follows natural cycles and increases the health of the whole system. Rather than pursuing endless expansion that depletes resources, regenerative growth creates increasingly fertile conditions where prosperity naturally emerges. Success is measured not just by financial returns but by improvements in ecosystem vitality, community resilience, and capacity for future generations to thrive.
(To learn more about regeneration, explore these resources: Regeneration (Ecology), and Regenerate Nature, Ellen MacArthur Foundation.)
8. Stewardship
Stewardship is a fundamental shift in how businesses view their relationship with resources: from ownership and exploitation to care and responsibility.
This means recognising that the attention, trust, and relationships you cultivate through your work aren’t possessions to be monetised but rather precious resources held in trust. And extends this same care to how marketing activities impact communities, ecosystems, and future generations, taking responsibility for both intended and unintended consequences.
It’s not: A corporate social responsibility initiative or sustainability program that operates separately from core business strategy. Stewardship is an integrated philosophy that informs every aspect of how a business conducts its marketing.
Think of it as: Approaching marketing resources–attention, trust, relationships, data–with the mindset of a caretaker rather than an owner. Good stewards recognise these aren’t commodities to be exploited but living assets held in trust, requiring responsible management that considers long-term impacts on all stakeholders, including those who cannot speak for themselves. Basic manners, really.
(It’s essential to honour Indigenous communities around the world who have practised stewardship for thousands of years. Their deep relationship with the land is the true foundation of sustainable care. For more information, visit: Ecology and Society. You can also explore these resources: The Benefits of Environmental Stewardship, Why Environmental Stewardship Is Key to These Companies’ Success, and What Is Steward-Ownership?)
9. Right Relationship
Right relationship is a guiding principle focused on cultivating balanced, equitable, and life-affirming connections between all entities involved in marketing exchanges.
Recognising that how we relate matters as much as what we accomplish: the means shapes the ends. It seeks to create marketing interactions characterised by mutual respect, appropriate boundaries, transparency, and care rather than manipulation, domination, or extraction.
It’s not: Simply maintaining good customer service or positive brand sentiment. Right relationship challenges more fundamental power dynamics in how marketing traditionally functions, asking not just “Is the customer satisfied?” but “Is this interaction contributing to healing and wholeness for all involved?”
Think of it as: Marketing interactions based on the same principles that sustain healthy personal relationships: mutual respect, appropriate boundaries, transparency, and genuine care. Right relationship means designing marketing approaches that honor both your audience’s dignity and agency while creating exchanges where power is balanced and value flows in multiple directions.
(To learn more about right relationship, explore these resources: What is Right Relationship? and The Practice of Right Relationship)
10. Thrivability
Thrivability is an evolutionary step beyond sustainability that embodies a more ambitious and generative vision.
While sustainability focuses on reducing harm and maintaining current conditions, thrivability actively cultivates the conditions for all life to flourish. In marketing, thrivability means designing strategies and practices that don’t just minimise negative impacts but actively contribute to the health, vitality, and evolutionary potential of the systems they touch.
It’s not: Just offsetting the harm caused by conventional marketing tactics or making incremental improvements to fundamentally extractive systems. Thrivability requires more fundamental reimagining of what marketing can be and do in the world.
Think of it as: The difference between a garden that merely survives and one that vibrantly flourishes, attracting butterflies and birdsong. While sustainable marketing focuses on reducing harm, thrivable marketing actively regenerates resources and builds capacity. It measures success by how marketing efforts leave people and places more vibrant, connected, and capable than they were before.This might look like designing campaigns that strengthen community resilience while selling products, creating marketing platforms that actively regenerate rather than extract from the digital commons, or measuring success by improvements in system health rather than just reductions in harm or increases in profit.
(To learn more about thrivability, explore these resources: Why Thrivability and Flourishing, Thrivable, Regenerative: Is There a Difference?)
Understanding these terms offers an invitation to reimagine how we connect with audiences and create value in the world.
Eager to explore these concepts further? Join our Regenerative Playground Series, fireside chats with thought leaders and guest speakers designed to spark deep discussion and nurture connections.
BYO sustainable snacks, regenerative thinking caps optional but encouraged.
