Tag: growth marketing

Author: Moh Al-Haifi
Co-Author: Isabelle Drury
Contributors: Odette Bester, Lee Fitzpatrick, Zac Schaap

In a world obsessed with predictability and control, conventional marketing strategies often promise direct paths from action to outcome. Create this campaign, get this many leads. Send these emails, generate this much revenue

But what if there’s a more powerful approach that embraces the beautiful complexity of living systems?

The Theory of Emergence offers exactly this shift. Consider the beaver: it doesn’t plan to create a wetland ecosystem, it simply builds a dam. Yet from this single action emerges a thriving network of life as water slows, plants take root, and creatures gather. No master plan, just the right conditions.

Similarly, when thousands of starlings dance across twilight skies, no choreographer directs their breathtaking movements. Each bird follows simple rules of distance and alignment, yet together they create fluid patterns of extraordinary complexity and beauty.

This is emergence at work, where unexpected, often transformative results arise naturally from healthy systems rather than through rigid control. First introduced to us through nRhythm’s regenerative organisation approach, this concept perfectly complements regenerative marketing principles, where success isn’t measured merely in quarterly profits but in the health of your entire ecosystem: your team, your customers, your community, and the living world we all share.

This article explores how creating the right conditions, rather than forcing predetermined results, can lead to outcomes far more meaningful than anything we could have engineered directly.

What is the Theory of Emergence?

The Theory of Emergence is a strategic framework that helps organisations align their resources, activities, and goals with a larger vision while embracing complexity and interconnectedness. Its fundamental premise is that emergent outcomes, those that couldn’t have been predicted or controlled in advance, are often the most valuable and transformative results of our work.

“So, how is this different from conventional strategic planning?” Well, most conventional marketing operates on the fantasy that if you just find the perfect funnel template or magic headline formula, success is guaranteed. We feel the equivalent of believing that if you arrange your desk items in the perfect Feng Shui configuration, venture capital will start raining from the sky. 

The Theory of Emergence doesn’t abandon planning, no, quite the opposite. It creates a more thoughtful, nuanced approach by focusing on creating optimal conditions where positive emergent outcomes can flourish. 

For impact-driven organisations and regenerative businesses, this shift is revolutionary. Instead of trying to force predetermined outcomes through increasingly aggressive tactics, we can focus on cultivating the right conditions, both internally and externally, and allow more authentic, sustainable emergent results to blossom naturally.

Inspired by Theory of Change

Many change-makers in the nonprofit world are already familiar with the Theory of Change, a methodology that helps organisations map out how their activities lead to desired outcomes. It’s been a powerful tool for planning and evaluating impact, particularly for social and environmental initiatives.

The Theory of Emergence builds upon this foundation but incorporates a distinctly regenerative lens. While a conventional Theory of Change often assumes linear pathways and predetermined outcomes, the Theory of Emergence embraces the inherent uncertainty and adaptability of living systems, with special attention to emergent outcomes that couldn’t have been precisely predicted.

“That sounds cool and all, but makes this approach truly regenerative?” Instead of prescribing exactly what outcomes must occur, it focuses on creating the conditions that allow novel, positive change to emerge organically. For marketing and growth activities specifically, the Theory of Emergence provides a framework that aligns strategic decisions with deeper purpose while remaining adaptive to changing conditions. It helps teams prioritise initiatives that truly matter rather than chasing every possible tactic or trend, creating space for unexpected outcomes to emerge.

This isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it approach. Like any living system, your organisation’s context evolves. That’s why we recommend revisiting this framework at least annually, ensuring you remains aligned with both your purpose and the changing ecosystem around you, while staying open to the emergent outcomes that continue to develop.

To help you apply this approach practically, let’s break down the five stages of cultivating emergence, a natural progression that mirrors how living systems develop and thrive.

The five stages of cultivating emergence

The Theory of Emergence follows a natural progression that mirrors how living systems develop and evolve. Each element builds upon the previous one, creating a coherent flow from foundational conditions to emerging possibilities, with a particular focus on the emergent outcomes that arise throughout the process.

This framework spans different time horizons: from immediate conditions and actions, through mid-term impacts (1-5 years), to long-term emergent futures (5-10 years). By considering these different timeframes together, you create alignment between present actions and future possibilities while remaining open to emergent outcomes at each stage.

Let’s explore each element and what it means for your marketing:

1. Seed: Thrivability conditions

Just as a seed requires specific soil conditions, moisture, and light to germinate, your initiatives need certain foundational elements to thrive. Thrivability goes beyond merely surviving or sustaining, it’s about creating conditions where everything can flourish and reach its full potential. Think of it as the difference between a plant that’s just staying alive versus one that’s vibrantly healthy, producing abundant fruit, and contributing to its ecosystem.

These conditions might include team health and wellbeing, adequate budgets, supportive mindsets, strategic partnerships, technological resources, or operational structures. The key is identifying what specific conditions will create the optimal environment for unexpected positive outcomes to emerge.

Unlike conventional planning that often overlooks these foundations in favour of immediate tactics, the Theory of Emergence recognises that nothing can succeed without fertile ground. By attending to these conditions first, you create resilience and capacity that supports everything that follows, including the emergent outcomes that often provide the greatest value.

Reflective journaling prompt: What are the conditions that your organisation needs in order for it to thrive and reach its emerging outcomes?

2. Grow: Key organisational growth initiatives

From well-prepared soil, growth naturally emerges. In this element, you identify the strategic priorities and key activities that deserve your focus in the coming year. These aren’t random tactics but carefully chosen initiatives that build upon your thrivability conditions and align with your larger purpose, while creating space for unexpected emergent outcomes.

For marketing and growth specifically, these initiatives might include developing new content platforms, launching community-building programs, redesigning customer experiences, or implementing regenerative practices in your communications. The key is selectivity, choosing fewer, more impactful initiatives rather than attempting to do everything at once, allowing room for emergent possibilities to develop.

This focused approach embodies the principles of “Essentialism” as described in Greg McKeown’s influential book (Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less), helping teams avoid the common trap of endless tactical execution without strategic direction. By identifying the essential activities that truly matter, you can allocate resources more effectively and create space for deeper work rather than constant reactivity, creating conditions where emergent outcomes can flourish.

Reflective journaling prompt: What are your key organisational growth initiatives that will help you create the desired/planned outcomes?

3. Produce: Intended outcomes/outputs

As your initiatives take root and develop, they naturally produce specific outcomes: the immediate, tangible results of your activities. These are the visible “fruits” that demonstrate your initiatives are working as intended, while also creating the foundation for unexpected emergent outcomes.

These outcomes might include increased engagement with your content, growing community participation, improved customer feedback, or enhanced team collaboration. They provide concrete indicators that your growth initiatives are generating positive results, both planned and emergent.

While conventional marketing often fixates exclusively on metrics like conversion rates or revenue targets, the Theory of Emergence takes a more holistic view. It considers not just financial outcomes but also relationship quality, ecosystem health, and team wellbeing as critical indicators of success, recognising that the most valuable emergent outcomes often arise in these less quantifiable dimensions.

By tracking these diverse outcomes, you gain insight into how your initiatives are performing while remaining open to unexpected emergent results that might suggest new opportunities you couldn’t have anticipated when you began.

Reflective journaling prompt: What are the outputs that you are planning for that will help you reach your impact?

4. Effect: Deeper impact

Beyond immediate outcomes lie deeper impacts, the mid-term effects that emerge as your work ripples outward into your wider ecosystem. This is where your marketing and growth activities begin to create meaningful change in the 1-5 year timeframe, often generating emergent outcomes that surpass what you could have directly planned.

Impact might manifest as transformed relationships with customers, shifts in industry conversations, enhanced community resilience, or evolution in how your organisation operates. These effects aren’t just about what you’ve done, but how your activities have influenced larger systems, creating conditions for emergent outcomes to develop at the ecosystem level. 

In other words, success doesn’t just mean ‘we sent more emails this quarter than last quarter’ or ‘our corporate TikTok dance challenge got seven views instead of the usual three’!

This element serves as the bridge between your short-term actions and long-term vision. By identifying the impacts you intend to create, you maintain connection to purpose while acknowledging that exact outcomes may unfold in unexpected ways, generating emergent results that couldn’t have been precisely engineered.

Reflective journaling prompt: What is the measurable and planned for impact that you are wanting to create in the world and to your ecosystem?

5. Dreams: Emerging outcomes

The final element looks toward the potential futures that might emerge in the 5-10 year timeframe as a result of the conditions you’ve cultivated. Unlike conventional strategic planning that attempts to prescribe exactly what will happen years in advance, the Theory of Emergence acknowledges the inherent unpredictability of complex systems and celebrates the potential for transformative emergent outcomes.

These aren’t rigid targets but visionary possibilities, dreams of what emergent outcomes might arise when the right conditions are nurtured over time. By articulating these potential futures, you create an inspiring north star while remaining open to how the path might unfold in unexpected ways, generating results more beautiful and impactful than could have been precisely planned.

This is perhaps the most profound difference from conventional planning approaches. Rather than creating an illusion of control over long-term outcomes, you cultivate conditions for positive emergence while embracing the creative potential of uncertainty and the transformative power of emergent outcomes.

Reflective journaling prompt: What are the potential emergent outcomes that you could dream of that can help you create long term systemic impact and change?

How to complete your reflections:

Though these elements are numbered 1-5, the Theory of Emergence framework is not meant to be followed linearly from start to finish. Instead, for maximum effectiveness, we recommend working through them in the order of the accompanying graph for a visual representation of how these elements interact in a cyclical process.

Why does the Theory of Emergence matter right now?

In a world facing accelerating climate change, social upheaval, and unprecedented ecological disruption, rigid planning frameworks increasingly fall short. The Theory of Emergence offers a more adaptive approach that creates space for valuable emergent outcomes.

It creates alignment around essential activities, focusing teams on what truly matters while reducing fragmented efforts. By bridging present actions to future vision, it connects immediate tactics to long-term purpose, enhancing motivation and creating pathways for emergent outcomes.

The framework builds genuine resilience by considering the health of the entire ecosystem, your team, customers, community, and environment, creating conditions where transformative emergent outcomes can flourish. Rather than clinging to rigid plans, it provides direction while maintaining adaptability to unexpected opportunities.

Perhaps most powerfully, this approach liberates us from self-imposed limitations, opening doorways to possibilities we couldn’t have imagined within conventional frameworks. For founding teams especially, it offers a path to release the illusion of control, redirecting that energy toward what can actually be influenced in the present moment. When embraced fully, the Theory of Emergence unlocks a natural state of flow and abundance, creating the conditions where even seemingly insurmountable challenges can be transformed through collective wisdom and emergent solutions.

As you embrace this regenerative approach, you may find that not only do your strategies become more effective, but the work itself becomes more meaningful. There’s profound satisfaction in cultivating conditions for positive change and witnessing the beautiful emergent outcomes that arise when we work with rather than against the living world.

So perhaps it’s time we all give ourselves permission to create space for wonderful surprises in our marketing efforts. After all, some of the best things in business and life happen not because we planned them down to the last detail, but because we created fertile conditions where good things could grow in their own unique way.

By shifting from control to cultivation, we open possibilities for emergent impact that conventional marketing simply cannot achieve. We invite you to explore and download our Go-To-Ecosystem Framework cards, a resource to inspire your journey toward more regenerative marketing practices that honour your values and nurture lasting positive impact.

Author: Moh Al-Haifi
Co-Author: Isabelle Drury
Contributors: Odette Bester, Lee Fitzpatrick, Zac Schaap

In the regenerative business space, there’s an unspoken pressure to get everything right from the beginning. Yet perfection isn’t just unrealistic, it’s contrary to regenerative principles.

As the Founder and Regenerative Growth Director at Zebra Growth, I’ll start with a confession: we’ve greenwashed too. I want to share what we’ve learned through our own messy journey, not lecture from a place of moral superiority.

Because even purpose-driven organisations with the best intentions fall into the trap of greenwashing. Greenwashing is a continuous learning process that every organisation in the impact space must navigate thoughtfully.

Modern greenwashing goes far beyond false environmental claims. I experienced this while working for a venture studio whose mission statement focused on “creating impact in the world.” This language attracted me to the position, but I quickly realised that internally, “impact” simply meant financial returns. When leadership discussed increasing impact, they were really talking about generating more profit.

“But isn’t that what most businesses do?” Perhaps. The difference is in the disguise, portraying extractive practices as regenerative ones. Even when profit isn’t the primary motivation, greenwashing occurs when organisations (including many NGOs) carry colonial patterns in their work, believing they know what’s best for communities without truly listening or co-creating with them.¹

The white saviour complex, not referring to skin colour but to a mindset and culture, is often what leads organisations to assume they know what’s best for communities they aim to serve. I’ve recognised this pattern in myself, having been educated in business schools influenced by Western extractive thinking.² This colonial mindset has deeply permeated how business is conceptualised and practiced globally, including across Africa where post-colonial capitalism often manifests as what scholars describe as ‘squanderation’, political economies driven by elite self-enrichment rather than development. I encourage readers to explore the article Dysfunctional Capitalism in Africa and the Theory of Squanderation to better understand how these extractive patterns continue to shape economic systems worldwide.

What I’ve come to understand is this: perfectionism is the opposite of regeneration. Regeneration acknowledges that life is messy, complex, and constantly evolving. It recognises that some things must die for new growth to emerge, including our outdated approaches and mindsets.

Practical Steps for Regenerative Marketing Without Greenwashing

The faster we accept that avoiding greenwashing isn’t as simple as having good intentions, the less prone we become to falling into its trap. The relationship between growth and authenticity is a dance, one that requires embracing imperfection while striving for continuous improvement.

So how do we dance with this complexity without stumbling into greenwashing? 

It starts with recognising that marketing isn’t a siloed department, it’s an extension of your entire organisation. When your marketing team operates in isolation, disconnected from finance, operations, governance, or product development, you create perfect conditions for unintentional greenwashing.

In impact organisations, especially scaling ones, I’ve observed how easily these silos develop, not because people don’t care, but because organisational structures don’t facilitate cross-departmental sharing. This challenge is particularly acute in growing purpose-driven businesses where teams are expanding and specialising rapidly. Creating pathways for information to flow freely between departments isn’t just good organisational practice, it’s essential for authentic communications.

Open conversations within your team are essential. Every business is at risk of greenwashing, including yours. Make discussing this possibility a regular ritual, at least monthly, where you examine recent decisions and communications through a critical lens. These conversations aren’t about blame or shame but opportunities to collectively identify extractive patterns you might be unconsciously perpetuating.

Adding a decolonial lens to these discussions is equally vital. Tania from Tandem Innovation Group (one of our speakers at the Regenerative Marketing Playground on decolonial marketing and a current client) has shared a valuable resource her team reviews almost weekly. It explores characteristics of white supremacy culture that permeate organisations, including perfectionism, sense of urgency, worship of the written word, binary thinking, and power hoarding. As the resource notes, these traits are often “taught as essential to success” when in reality they perpetuate harmful systems. You can find this resource here. Examining both greenwashing tendencies and colonial patterns in your regular team discussions helps make this critical awareness a cornerstone of your organisational culture rather than an occasional afterthought.

“What about when these conversations get uncomfortable?” That’s exactly the point. Regeneration is an uncomfortable process, you are changing, it’s going to be challenging.³ Many purpose-driven leaders (myself included) experience fear, anxiety, and guilt around accidentally greenwashing. I’ve recognised that this guilt actually makes the problem worse, keeping us trapped in extractive thinking.

The best protection against greenwashing is diverse input, particularly from those affected by your work. Go beyond your investors and board to engage local communities and stakeholders with various lived experiences. Seek out voices that can be honestly critical without bias or personal gain. These perspectives will help you see blind spots in your thinking.

The language we use also matters tremendously in avoiding greenwashing. Buzzwords can become particularly problematic as they often mean different things to different people. Terms like “impact,” “sustainable,” or “regenerative” can be interpreted in vastly different ways depending on the context and the audience. This ambiguity creates perfect conditions for unintentional greenwashing. Be specific about what these terms mean within your organisation and be ready to unpack them rather than relying on their positive associations.

Let me share a concerning example I’ve observed: the recent commodification of natural resources through biodiversity credits. While the intention may seem positive, creating assets that protect nature, these mechanisms often carry forward colonial patterns of extraction. As George Monbiot warns, “Something that should be a great force for good has turned into a corporate gold rush,” with “big corporations and financiers pile[ing] into this market.” When consulting firms and investment giants like BlackRock become major investors in biodiversity credits, we should question the approach. These credits often create what Monbiot aptly calls “carbon colonialism” with local communities, sometimes transferring land ownership to banks and investment firms if certain conditions aren’t met. Indigenous people, in many cases, have “not given their consent” yet find their lands incorporated into these schemes. What looks sustainable on the surface can become another form of colonisation if we don’t examine the relationships and power dynamics involved.⁴

One of the most powerful antidotes to greenwashing is radical transparency about your challenges and failures. When you only communicate your successes, you create an incomplete and potentially misleading picture. Consider how you might balance celebrating achievements with honest acknowledgment of areas where you’re struggling or still learning.

“But won’t admitting our flaws damage our brand?” Actually, the opposite is true. This approach builds deeper trust with your audience and models the kind of authenticity that regenerative business requires. Look at Dr. Bronner’s “All-One Report” which doesn’t shy away from areas where they’re still working to improve, creating an authentic picture of their journey toward regenerative business practices.

Conventional marketing is often one-directional, you craft a message and deliver it to your audience. Regenerative marketing invites conversation, creating space for questions, challenges, and evolved thinking. This might mean being willing to change your position after receiving new information, even if you’ve already published a campaign. While this adaptability might seem challenging from a conventional marketing perspective, it demonstrates an authentic commitment to learning.

Feedback from our community has also highlighted how oversimplification of messages often leads to greenwashing. Most issues in the regenerative space, climate crisis, social change, colonialism, are more complex than we might like to admit. While we often need to start with simplified messaging, particularly in short-form content like social media, we must acknowledge this limitation. Consider explicitly mentioning that you’re providing a simplified view and offering pathways to deeper engagement. Being scared of overwhelming people with complexity often leads to unintentional greenwashing.

We’ve experienced this ourselves when Ghalia Naseer, a co-steward of the regenerative marketing movement, recently called us out for oversimplifying regenerative marketing as one clear-cut concept without acknowledging its nuances. We’re thankful for her valuable intervention. This kind of accountability from our ecosystem helps us grow and reminds us that even with the best intentions, we can all slip into greenwashing if we don’t honour the full complexity of these issues.

“How do we balance complexity with accessibility?” Consider being explicit about the limitations of simplified content, especially on social media. You might include phrases like “This is a simplified overview” and direct people to more detailed resources. Create pathways for those who want to engage more deeply with nuanced topics.

Addressing greenwashing isn’t just about external communications, it requires internal work as well. Develop practices that help you manage the discomfort that arises when confronting potentially extractive patterns in your work. This might include therapy, breathwork, or other practices that build self-awareness and emotional resilience. By tending to our own personal growth, we become better equipped to hold space for honest conversations and respond non-defensively to critical feedback.

The Inner Development Goals framework also offers valuable guidance for leaders seeking to cultivate the inner capacities needed for regenerative leadership. These goals help us develop the emotional resilience and self-awareness required to hold uncomfortable conversations and manage the challenging feelings that arise when confronting our own extractive patterns. This inner work isn’t separate from our organisational efforts, it’s foundational to them. As leaders, we must be willing to face our discomfort, sit with uncertainty, and develop the capacity to respond rather than react when receiving difficult feedback.

Avoiding greenwashing while growing a regenerative business is a practice. And like any practice, it gets easier and less uncomfortable with time and repetition.

Remember that this is truly about baby steps. Each small improvement matters. The more you practise having these conversations, examining your communications critically, and inviting diverse feedback, the less uncomfortable it becomes. Over time, what once felt challenging becomes a natural part of how you operate.

The future of marketing, indeed, the future of business, depends on our willingness to embrace both the messiness and the possibility of regeneration. By rejecting perfectionism and cultivating honest relationships with ourselves, our teams, and our communities, we can transform marketing from an extractive practice into a catalyst for healing and renewal.

And isn’t that what regenerative business is truly about?

1. Want to dive deeper into how colonial mindsets show ups up in your work? Check out this piece on perfectionism as a colonial trait, this academic discussion on colonialism in environmentalism, and this podcast episode ‘perfectionism is colonialism in action’. ↩︎
2.  Curious about what the white saviour complex really means? Here’s a quick definition. For a real-world example, check out this Guardian piece on an HBO documentary exploring this issue. And for a throwback, here’s an old but insightful take on the KONY2012 phenomenon ↩︎
3.  Regeneration isn’t easy—it’s meant to challenge us. If you want to understand the ecological concept behind it, here’s a Wikipedia primer. ↩︎
4.  Biodiversity credits might sound good, but are they another form of colonialism? This article from The Conversation unpacks the risks of nature markets. For an even sharper critique, which we quoted, check out George Monbiot’s take on carbon colonialism. ↩︎

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.

Author: Moh Al-Haifi
Co-Author: Isabelle Drury
Contributors: Odette Bester, Lee Fitzpatrick, Zac Schaap

Marketing is facing a crisis. The conventional extractive methods, obsessive growth metrics, aggressive campaigns, manufactured urgency, are burning out marketers and audiences alike. Many of us feel caught in cycles that drain more than they give back, wondering if there’s another way to connect with customers without perpetuating systems that harm people and the planet.

The good news? There absolutely is. Regenerative marketing is fundamentally shifting how we think about the entire purpose and practice of marketing.

Unlike passing marketing fads, regenerative principles are grounded in patterns that have sustained life for billions of years. It’s less about following the latest industry buzz and more about realigning our work with the fundamental dynamics of living systems.

Here are ten practical steps you can take right now to embed this philosophy into your everyday efforts:

1. Embrace holistic thinking in your strategy

Conventional marketing often fragments our work into isolated metric: conversion rates, click-through percentages, cost per acquisition. But you can’t create meaningful change by focusing solely on these numbers.

Holistic thinking means recognising that every marketing decision creates effects through an interconnected web of relationships. Let’s consider a social media campaign planning, a conventional approach might only measure engagement rates and follower growth, but a holistic view reveals how that campaign affects your customer service team’s workload, influences your environmental impact through digital energy consumption, shapes community discussions, impacts your team’s creative wellbeing, and how it either strengthens or weakens trust with your audience.

“That sounds nice and all, but how do I actually implement this?” Start by mapping your marketing ecosystem, including all stakeholders, touchpoints, and relationships affected by your work. Before launching any campaign, gather perspectives from diverse team members and ask yourself: How might this impact our various stakeholders? This simple practice begins to shift decision-making from isolated metrics toward whole-system health.

Another powerful application of holistic thinking is reducing digital waste by using existing content more effectively. Rather than constantly chasing fleeting trends and creating disposable content, focus on repurposing high-impact messages across different channels and formats. Cultivate an evergreen content garden that provides sustained value, instead of relying on short-lived promotional cycles that deplete creative energy and digital resources. This approach not only reduces your environmental footprint but also builds deeper connections with your audience through consistent, meaningful engagement rather than constant novelty.

2. Practice authentic, non-violent and culture-aware communications

At the heart of regenerative marketing lies communication that honours truth, connection, and cultural context. Conventional marketing often manipulates through artificial urgency or manufactured scarcity, depleting trust and relationship potential.

Before writing any piece of content, ask yourself: Would you say this to someone sitting across from you at a coffee shop? If it feels manipulative or inauthentic in a face-to-face conversation, it doesn’t belong in your marketing.

This means abandoning manipulative tactics that have become normalised in digital marketing. You wouldn’t tell a friend “You only have 24 hours to decide before this opportunity disappears forever!” or “Only three spots left in my program–better act fast!” when neither claim is actually true. You wouldn’t deliberately make someone feel inadequate to sell them a solution. These approaches might drive short-term conversions, but they erode trust and deplete the energy of your relationship with your audience.

Instead, focus on creating genuine value in all interactions. What challenges are you authentically addressing? What transformation are you truthfully facilitating? Communicate with clarity and honesty, trusting that the right connections will naturally emerge from this fertile ground of authenticity. 

Truly regenerative marketing also embraces inclusion and accessibility. This means designing your communications,from messaging and visuals to platforms and formats,to welcome diverse audiences. Consider how your content serves people with different abilities, cultural backgrounds, and life experiences. Are your videos captioned? Is your website accessible to screen readers? Does your imagery reflect the beautiful diversity of humanity? 

You can also try different communication practices, and see how they feel to you, such as non-violent communication, a method that prioritises empathy, honest expression, and needs-based connection. Remember that your words create worlds, choose ones that cultivate resilience, connection, and possibility rather than extraction and scarcity.

3. Cultivate diverse partnerships

Just as a forest thrives through countless species working in symbiotic relationships, your marketing ecosystem grows stronger through diverse partnerships.

This goes beyond conventional networking or transactional relationships. Instead, it’s about creating genuine value exchanges that benefit all participants. Look beyond your immediate industry to find unexpected collaborators who share your values, even if they serve different audiences.

You might be thinking: “Interesting… but what kinds of partnerships should I actually be looking for?” The possibilities are endless, but consider:

• Community organisations that align with your values
• Complementary businesses (not competitors) serving similar audiences
• Thought leaders and educators in adjacent spaces
• Local environmental or social justice initiatives
• Artists and creatives whose work resonates with your brand

The key is ensuring these partnerships create mutual benefit and shared value. Each relationship should strengthen the entire ecosystem rather than extracting value from one party for another’s gain.

4. Adopt a continuous learning mindset

Regenerative marketers replace perfectionism with a commitment to evolution. 

When a campaign doesn’t meet expectations, they don’t see failure: they see valuable information that guides their next steps. This shift is crucial because you can’t be both regenerative and perfect. Perfectionism often stems from colonial and industrial mindsets that no longer serve us.

This approach resonates deeply with Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset Theory, which distinguishes between fixed mindsets (believing abilities are static) and growth mindsets (believing abilities develop through dedication and learning). Regenerative marketing embodies this growth mindset by viewing challenges as opportunities for development rather than evidence of limitation. Just as Dweck’s research shows that students with growth mindsets achieve more, marketing teams that embrace this perspective create more innovative, resilient, and ultimately successful campaigns.

Create safe spaces for experimentation by celebrating learning rather than just outcomes. When reviewing campaign results, start with: “What did we learn?” rather than “Did we succeed or fail?” Document these insights and let them inform future strategies.

What if your manager is expecting results, not just ‘learnings’? This is where communication becomes important. Help stakeholders understand that this approach actually improves results over time by allowing your strategies to evolve naturally, just as living systems do in nature. Short-term metrics still matter, but they’re viewed as feedback for evolution rather than final judgments of success or failure.

5. Integrate different communication practices

Conventional marketing often exploits pain points, triggers insecurities, and manufactures problems to sell solutions. Regenerative marketing rejects these tactics, and instead honours the diverse life experiences of your audience and creates communications that respect their wholeness. 

In practice, this looks like:

• Leading with empathy rather than pain points
• Creating safe, consent-based audience relationships
• Using language that empowers rather than diminishes
• Focusing on genuine needs rather than manufactured desires
• Regularly auditing content for accessibility and cultural awareness
• Inviting feedback from communities you aim to serve, especially those historically marginalised

“But doesn’t marketing need to address pain points to be effective?” There’s a crucial difference between acknowledging real challenges your audience faces and manufacturing or exploiting pain to manipulate behaviour. Regenerative marketing recognises genuine needs while approaching them with empathy and respect.

By communicating in this way, you build audiences who trust you deeply because they know you see their full humanity, not just their potential as customers or conversion statistics. 

6. Market in a way that feeds energy, not drains it

Fast-paced marketing tactics–constant product launches, short term growth hacks, urgency-driven ad campaigns–have become the norm in today’s business environment. But there’s a hidden cost: these approaches burn out teams and audiences alike.

“Isn’t that just how marketing works these days?” Not necessarily. While conventional marketing often creates frenetic energy that leaves everyone feeling drained, regenerative marketing respects natural rhythms and focuses on restoring energy rather than depleting it.

This means consciously stepping away from:

• Always-on campaign schedules that exhaust your creative team
• Manufactured scarcity that creates anxiety for customers
• Pressure-based sales tactics that feel energetically depleting
• Content calendars that prioritise frequency over quality

Instead, consider:

• Creating campaigns that follow seasonal or natural cycles
• Building in proper recovery time between major marketing pushes
• Designing customer journeys that feel spacious rather than rushed
• Prioritising depth over frequency in your content

When ethical clothing brand Patagonia famously ran their iconic “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign, they weren’t just making a statement about consumerism, they were also creating space for both their team and their audience to breathe, reflect, and engage more deeply rather than just react to another sales push.

Remember: energy is the currency of life. When your marketing consistently drains energy from your team or your audience, it cannot be considered regenerative, no matter how sustainable your product might be.

7. Practice radical transparency

Transparency has become a buzzword in marketing, but regenerative transparency goes beyond simply sharing your sustainability credentials. It means being radically honest about both your successes and your struggles in your regenerative journey.

“I’m worried that admitting our shortcomings will damage our brand!” This is an understandable fear, but the average citizen is sophisticated enough to recognise and appreciate genuine efforts at change, even when they’re imperfect. What damages reputation isn’t the acknowledgment of challenges, it’s the discovery of hidden contradictions between claims and actions.

Radical transparency includes:

• Openly discussing where you are in your regenerative journey
• Acknowledging mistakes when they happen (and they will!)
• Being honest about the tensions between current business models and regenerative ideals
• Creating feedback loops with stakeholders that invite them to hold you accountable

Companies like Dr Bronner’s demonstrate this principle by publishing comprehensive ‘All One’ impact reports that discuss both their achievements and their challenges. This transparency builds deeper trust with their communities while creating accountability mechanisms that drive internal improvement.

Start small if needed, perhaps with an honest blog post about your company’s sustainability journey or an email to your customers explaining a change you’re making to become more regenerative. The key is authenticity, your audience can tell the difference between transparency as a marketing tactic and genuine openness rooted in integrity.

8. Monitoring ecosystem health

“How do we know if our regenerative marketing is actually working?” This question reveals one of the most fundamental changes in shifting to regenerative approaches: our measurement systems often remain rooted in extractive thinking.

While conventional marketing focuses almost exclusively on conversion metrics and quarterly ROI, regenerative marketing embraces financial health as just one indicator within a holistic measurement approach–one that evaluates success through the wellbeing of your entire business ecosystem.

This doesn’t mean abandoning financial metrics completely, they still remain essential. Financial prosperity is a vital sign of health for your team members, organisation, community, and broader ecosystem. However, it’s merely one element in a more complete view of success. 

We strongly believe this approach is ultimately more profitable and ROI-friendly; the key difference is that we measure returns across generations rather than quarters. Try expanding your definition of success to include indicators such as:

• Team wellbeing and creative vitality
• Depth and quality of customer relationships
• Community impact and stakeholder health
• Environmental regeneration metrics
• Long-term resilience indicators

Start by asking different questions: Instead of just “How many sales did this campaign generate?” ask “How did this campaign affect our relationship with our community?” or “Did this marketing approach leave our team energised or depleted?”

Consider implementing tools like stakeholder surveys, wellbeing assessments for your marketing team, or community impact evaluations. These measurement systems take time to develop, but they provide a much richer understanding of your true impact than conversion rates alone.

9. Join regenerative communities of practice

No one can build a regenerative marketing practice in isolation. Your regenerative journey will be strengthened by the relationships you build with others on the same path.

From established networks like the Regenerative Marketing Movement and Conscious Marketing Movement to emerging spaces like the With Life Community (where a dedicated marketing community of practice is forming), opportunities for connection abound. Resources like ReStoried Earth offer valuable workshops and learning spaces where marketers can deepen their regenerative practices together.

Our own Regenerative Marketing Playgrounds provide informal gathering spaces where marketers and business leaders can share their learning, challenges, and successes in an environment that nurtures both personal and collective growth.

Don’t worry about being “regenerative enough” to join these spaces. Most welcome participants at all stages of their journey, from curious beginners to experienced practitioners. The key is approaching with openness and a genuine desire to learn and contribute.

Remember that asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness,it’s a crucial part of regenerative practice. Systems thinking experts, regenerative consultants, and fellow marketers can help you navigate the complexity of this work with more confidence and clarity.

10. Align your entire organisation

Perhaps the most crucial understanding in regenerative marketing is this: marketing cannot function regeneratively in isolation. If your marketing team embraces regenerative principles but your business model remains extractive, how authentic can your message really be?

Start by mapping the gaps between your marketing promises and organisational realities. Perhaps you’re promoting sustainability while your packaging isn’t actually recyclable, or emphasising community while maintaining extractive supply chains.

Once you’ve identified these areas, find allies throughout your organisation who share your vision. These regenerative comrades exist in every company–often feeling just as isolated as you might. Informal conversations, shared articles, or lunch-and-learns can spark interest across departments. 

Remember that marketing often serves as a powerful catalyst for wider organisational change. By championing regenerative principles in your work, you create opportunities for your entire business to evolve toward more life-giving practices.

Regenerative marketing is a journey

The shift to regenerative marketing isn’t about perfection or purity. It’s about progression: taking consistent steps toward practices that regenerate rather than deplete the systems we’re part of.

Whether you’ve spent years in aggressive growth marketing or you’re just starting to question conventional practices, your perspective and experience are valuable here. There’s no perfect starting point, and there’s no blame in recognising where we’ve been. What matters is our willingness to explore, learn, and evolve together.

But new stories are taking shape, and there are plenty of examples:

• Kiss The Ground and Climate Farmers are championing regenerative agriculture that sequesters carbon while rebuilding soil health. Community-Supported Agriculture models directly connect consumers with local farmers, creating resilient food systems that benefit both land and community.
• Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute  is transforming how companies design products to eliminate the concept of waste entirely. Their certification process ensures materials remain in continuous, safe cycles.
• Ecosia revolutionised the search engine model by directing the majority of their ad revenue to reforestation projects, having planted over 200 million trees across biodiversity hotspots while providing complete financial transparency.
• Capital Institute is developing new frameworks like Regenerative Economics and their “8 Principles of Regenerative Vitality” to shift financial systems from extraction to regeneration.

At Zebra Growth, we’re creating spaces for this exploration through our Regenerative Marketing Playgrounds, which are informal fireside chats where we gather to share insights and practices. If these principles resonate with you, we also invite you to join our mailing list to be notified when our next course becomes available, where we’ll help you apply these principles and create marketing that feels aligned, effective, and regenerative.

Author: Moh Al-Haifi
Co-Author: Isabelle Drury

Marketing isn’t working anymore. Not for people, not for the planet, and if we’re really honest, not even for most businesses. While your LinkedIn feed might be full of “growth hacks” and “foolproof scaling strategies,” there’s an uncomfortable truth lurking beneath the surface: conventional marketing often takes more than it gives back.

“But wait,” you might be thinking, “isn’t marketing just about connecting products with people who need them?” That’s what we’d all like to believe. The reality is more complex. Today’s marketing practices are deeply rooted in systems that prioritise rapid profits and scaling at all costs, while viewing competitors as enemies to be dominated rather than potential collaborators in solving real problems.

At Zebra Growth, our team and clients have witnessed firsthand how conventional marketing can drain not just our collective energy, but our hope for a better future. We’ve seen how chasing quarterly targets and aggressive growth metrics can disconnect us from the very people we’re trying to serve.

But what if there was a different way?

Understanding Regeneration and Marketing

Before we dive into regenerative marketing, let’s talk about regeneration itself. Think about the most resilient natural systems you know: perhaps a forest recovering after a fire, or a coastal ecosystem adapting to changing tides. These systems don’t just survive; they continuously renew and evolve.

From the soil beneath our feet to the communities we build, regeneration is the constant process of birth, growth, maturity, death, and rebirth. It’s not just a nice metaphor, it’s the operating system of life itself.

“That’s lovely, but what does this have to do with my marketing strategy?” The connection runs deeper than you might expect. Just as natural ecosystems thrive through cycles of renewal and interconnected relationships, our businesses and marketing efforts can follow the same patterns.

The Evolution of Marketing

To understand where we’re going, we need to understand where we’ve been. Marketing didn’t start as the data-driven, conversion-obsessed machine we know today. Its earliest forms were simply about human exchange: farmers trading goods at local markets, artisans sharing their crafts with neighbouring communities.

But something shifted during the Industrial Revolution. As mass production became possible, businesses needed ways to sell more products to more people. Marketing transformed from a tool for community connection into a mechanism for mass consumption. 

Over time, marketing became increasingly extractive and mechanistic, shaped by colonial mindsets that prioritised efficiency and competition over resilience and ecosystem health. Today’s conventional marketing practices aren’t just accidents of history, they’re direct products of systems designed to maximise short-term profits at the expense of long-term wellbeing.

(We’ve written a full piece on marketing’s history if you’d like to learn more: “Marketing’s Origin Story: The Good, The Bad, And The Colonial“.)

“But that’s just how business works, right?” Yes, that’s how business has worked. But as we face novel social and environmental challenges, more and more marketers are asking: Is this how business needs to work?.

A New Marketing Paradigm

“So if conventional marketing is part of the problem, what’s the alternative?” You might be wondering this as you look at your current marketing metrics, your team’s KPIs, your quarterly targets. The answer lies in understanding how living systems actually work.

Regenerative marketing isn’t just a set of new tactics or a different way to write social media posts. It represents a fundamental shift in how we approach the entire function of marketing, moving from a mechanical, extractive system to one that mirrors the patterns of life itself.

At its core, regenerative marketing operates through three essential patterns that we observe in all living systems: 

Holism: Seeing the whole picture

Conventional marketing often breaks everything down into isolated metrics–conversion rates, click-through percentages, cost per acquisition. But just as you can’t understand a forest by only counting trees, you can’t create meaningful change by focusing solely on metrics.

Holism means recognising that every marketing decision exists within a complex web of relationships. Consider a decision to launch a major social media campaign. Through a conventional lens, you might only measure engagement rates and follower growth. But through a holistic view, you see how that campaign affects your customer service team’s workload, influences your brand’s environmental impact through digital energy consumption, shapes community discussions, impacts your team’s creative wellbeing, and either strengthens or weakens trust with your audience. Each decision creates ripples throughout your entire ecosystem. This interconnected view leads us naturally to the next pattern.

Evolution: Learning through change

This is where we introduce the Theory of Emergence, an adaptation of the conventional Theory of Change framework. Instead of trying to control outcomes through rigid planning, the Theory of Emergence helps teams map out how their actions can catalyse positive systemic change.

In practice, this means:

• Deeply connecting with your team’s foundational beliefs
• Questioning assumptions about growth and success
• Mapping the systemic problems you’re trying to solve
• Identifying leverage points for positive change
• Creating conditions for natural evolution rather than forced growth

Interdependence: The web of relationships

An ecosystem isn’t just a collection of separate entities–it’s the relationships between them that create life. In marketing terms, this means understanding that your business exists within an interconnected web of stakeholders, relationships, and environments.

This shifts everything about how we approach marketing strategy:

• Every strategy must prioritise partnership development
• Value exchange must be genuinely reciprocal
• The more diverse your relationships, the more resilient your ecosystem
• Growth happens through nurturing relationships, not extracting value
• Success is measured by ecosystem health, not just profit

Now that we’ve explored these fundamental shifts in marketing strategy, the next step is turning them into action. Understanding these principles deeply is crucial, it forms the foundation for everything that follows. Let’s examine how these insights transform into regenerative marketing in practice.

Regenerative Marketing in Practice

After understanding these living systems patterns, the next question becomes obvious: How do we actually apply this in our daily marketing work? The shift begins not with changing tactics, but with transforming our fundamental approach to marketing itself.

Let’s start at the strategic level. Before creating any marketing plan, regenerative marketing requires us to deeply connect with our team’s core beliefs. This is about questioning everything we’ve been taught about growth, success, and impact. What do we actually believe influences how we see the world? How does that shape the way we run our business? What’s our real intention behind every action we take?

This mindset shift manifests in three key areas:

Firstly, authenticity in communication stands at the heart of regenerative marketing, especially when we consider how conventional marketing often creates artificial urgency or manufactured scarcity to drive sales. Regenerative marketing takes a radically different approach by returning to the fundamental truth of human connection. Before writing any piece of content, ask yourself: Would you say this to someone sitting across from you? If it feels inauthentic in a face-to-face conversation, it doesn’t belong in your marketing.

This means embracing new communication principles such as non-violent communication or taking a trauma-informed approach to audience engagement. Every email, social post, or campaign should be created with the full humanity of your audience in mind. Instead of relying on manipulation tactics or false scarcity, focus on creating genuine value and ensuring full consent in all interactions. The goal isn’t just to sell–it’s to build authentic relationships based on trust and mutual benefit.

Secondly, continuous learning over perfection is where regenerative marketing truly diverges from conventional approaches. Instead of seeking perfect campaigns or flawless execution, we embrace a continuous learning mindset. When a campaign doesn’t meet expectations, regenerative marketers don’t see failure–they see an opportunity for evolution. Teams come together with joy and curiosity to analyse results and identify learnings that will inform future strategies.

This shift away from perfectionism is crucial because you can’t be both regenerative and perfect. Perfectionism often stems from colonial and industrial mindsets that no longer serve us. By creating safe spaces for experimentation and adaptation, we allow our marketing efforts to evolve naturally, just like living systems do in nature.

Thirdly, partnership and value exchange form the foundation of growth in living systems, and the same principle applies to regenerative marketing. Every strategy must explicitly consider how we build and nurture partnerships across our ecosystem. This goes beyond conventional networking or transactional relationships, it’s about creating genuine value exchanges that benefit all participants.

The key is diversifying these relationships as much as possible. Just as a healthy ecosystem contains many different species working in harmony, regenerative marketing thrives on connecting with diverse stakeholders. This might mean collaborating with unexpected partners, engaging with community groups, or finding new ways to create value for your entire business ecosystem.

“This sounds all great in theory,” you might be thinking, “but what about metrics? Targets? KPIs?” This is where the Theory of Emergence comes into play. Instead of rigid planning and control, we map out how our actions can catalyse positive change while still achieving business objectives. This means creating marketing strategies that:

• Address systemic problems rather than just symptoms
• Consider impact across multiple time horizons
• Build capacity for long-term resilience
• Create conditions for natural growth
• Measure success through ecosystem health indicators

But here’s where we encounter both a challenge and an opportunity. While transforming our marketing approach is powerful, it can’t exist in isolation. This brings us to perhaps the most crucial understanding in regenerative marketing–the principle of holism.

Beyond Marketing: Incorporating The Whole System

After exploring how to implement regenerative marketing practices, we encounter a crucial truth: marketing cannot function regeneratively in isolation. This brings us back to our first pattern of holism, but at an organisational level.

Consider this: If your marketing team embraces regenerative principles but your business model remains extractive, how authentic can your message really be? When your marketing promises positive impact while your supply chain creates hidden harm, how long can that disconnect survive?

The reality is that regenerative marketing reaches its full potential only when it’s part of a larger organisational transformation. Let’s examine what this means in practice:

Business model integration

At its core, a regenerative business model must actively solve social and environmental challenges as it grows, not create new ones. This requires a fundamental shift in how we think about value creation and distribution. We must design business models that actively regenerate the systems they operate within.

This means taking a hard look at your supply chain relationships and understanding their true impact. How does money flow through your stakeholders? Does your growth model strengthen or weaken ecosystem health? When we examine business through this lens, we see how modern practices have strayed from their roots. While businesses originally formed to help communities thrive and build resilience over generations, today’s focus on quarterly profits often undermines these longer-term goals. The pressure to maximise short-term returns can lead to decisions that compromise future stability and growth.

Regenerative business models reclaim this longer view. By considering impact across generations, not just our children, but their children’s children, we make fundamentally different choices about how to structure our operations, manage our resources, and measure our success.

Governance and investment

Conventional corporate structures often force short-term thinking through their very design. 

Quarterly profit pressures and conventional ownership models can make it nearly impossible to prioritise long-term ecosystem health over immediate financial gains. This is why regenerative businesses need to explore alternative models like steward ownership and patient capital. 

When your governance considers all stakeholders and your investment vehicles prioritise long-term value creation, your marketing naturally becomes more authentic because it reflects real organisational values, not just aspirational messaging.

(Shout out to Purpose Foundation for accessible learnings on keeping businesses independent and purpose-driven. For an economy that works for people and the planet.)

Leadership and culture

Marketing often acts as a powerful catalyst for organisational change, but this potential can only be realised with full leadership commitment to regenerative principles. This means cultivating a team culture that truly embraces continuous learning and evolution. Your recruitment processes, internal communications, and decision-making practices all need to align with your regenerative values.

A regenerative organisation weaves this thinking into every department and function. The impact extends far beyond dedicated sustainability initiatives, transforming how each team approaches their work within the larger ecosystem.

The challenge here is significant, particularly for larger organisations. The bigger the company, the more complex this transformation becomes. Yet this is precisely where marketing can play a crucial role, helping to shift organisational consciousness from the inside out.

This might all sound overwhelming, which brings us to perhaps the most important part of the regenerative journey…

Authenticity vs. Greenwashing

“Is this just another green marketing trend? How do we even begin to make such big changes?” By now, you might be feeling overwhelmed. The scope of change required can seem daunting, and with it comes a legitimate fear: are we just engaging in another form of greenwashing? 

This concern sits at the heart of many organisations’ hesitation to embrace regenerative marketing. And it should–the business landscape is littered with examples of companies whose sustainability claims proved hollow.

The difference between greenwashing and genuine regenerative practice begins with intention. Regenerative transformation starts with an honest recognition of current extractive practices in your organisation. This can be uncomfortable, it means acknowledging where your marketing, and perhaps your entire business model, may have contributed to systemic problems.

This recognition must be shared across your entire team, especially leadership. Without aligned intention at every level, regenerative efforts risk becoming surface-level marketing initiatives rather than genuine transformation. Remember: regeneration is the opposite of perfection. The goal isn’t to present a flawless green image, but to commit to authentic evolution, even when it’s messy.

Real regenerative practice demands radical transparency about both your successes and your struggles. This means being vulnerable with your audience about where you are in your journey. If you make a mistake, and you will, acknowledge it openly. Create clear feedback loops with all stakeholders so they can hold you accountable and help guide your transformation.

Some organisations fear this level of transparency might damage their reputation. However, audiences today are sophisticated enough to recognise and appreciate genuine efforts at change, even when they’re imperfect. What damages reputation isn’t the acknowledgment of challenges–it’s the discovery of hidden contradictions between claims and actions.

Take when Blackrock, a major venture capital firm, purchased Oatly, for example. This serves as a powerful reminder of how business model decisions can impact brand authenticity. When Oatly was sold, it highlighted a crucial question for regenerative businesses: Can a company maintain its regenerative principles when its ownership structure prioritises rapid financial returns? The era of being able to claim regenerative values while maintaining conventional extractive business models is coming to an end.

Finally, remember that you don’t have to figure it out alone. An entire ecosystem of support exists: systems thinking experts, regenerative consultants, and communities of practice are all available to guide your journey. Many have navigated these same challenges and can help you avoid confusion and missteps. The key is recognising that asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a crucial part of regenerative practice. Just as natural ecosystems thrive through interconnection, your regenerative journey will be strengthened by the relationships you build with others on the same path.

Your Regenerative Journey

The shift to regenerative marketing isn’t about political ideologies or pointing fingers. It’s about our collective future and the health of the systems we’re all part of. 

Whether you’ve spent years in aggressive growth marketing or you’re just starting to question conventional practices, your perspective and experience are valuable here. In fact, some of our greatest insights come from those who’ve witnessed the limitations of extractive systems firsthand.

This is an invitation to everyone–regardless of your industry, background, or current practices. There’s no perfect starting point, and there’s no blame in recognising where we’ve been. What matters is our willingness to explore, learn, and evolve together.

At Zebra Growth, we’re creating spaces for this exploration through our Regenerative Marketing Playgrounds, informal fireside chats where we explore these ideas together, and our transformative 4-week course in partnership with With Life. But more importantly, we’re part of a growing movement of marketers, business leaders, and change-makers who believe in marketing’s potential to regenerate rather than extract.

The future of marketing isn’t about perfection, it’s about progression. And your voice matters in this conversation.