Since the 1992 UN Conference for Environment and Development held in Rio de Jaineiro, Sustainable Development has become the global thesis. More than 170 countries signed the Agenda 21 for the sustainable action plan, and adopted the sustainability concept as the key concept of dealing with the environmental, social, ethical, and economic problem. Sustainability is one of the main marketing challenges in the 21st century. By integrating social and ecological criteria, marketing may can make valuable contributions to sustainable development. Regarding the sustainability marketing, it is difficult to find the domestic marketing research on the thesis of sustainable development, and this is the definite evidence that the Korean marketing researchers do not realize the importance of the thesis of sustainable development which is internationally suggested as the new paradigm of change. The purpose of this study is to build the conceptual background and explore the research direction in order to introduce and adopt the concept of sustainable development in the domestic marketing research field. The present paper proposes a comprehensive conception of sustainability marketing, defined by six step: analysis of social-ecological problems; analysis of consumer behavior; normative sustainability marketing; strategic sustainability marketing; instrumental sustainability marketing; and transformative sustainability marketing. The aim of the paper are to clarify the concept of sustainability marketing. To accomplish this research purpose we discuss the sustainable development which is the conceptual background of sustainability marketing, analyze the characteristics of the sustainability marketing, and finally summarize the research results and present the suggestions for further research. Sustainability marketing embraces the idea of sustainable development, a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs. Sustainability Marketing goes beyond conventional marketing thinking. If marketing is about satisfying customer needs and building profitable relationships with customers, sustainability marketing may be defined as building and maintaining sustainable relationships with customers, the social environment and natural environment. By creating social and environmental value, sustainability marketing tries to deliver and increase customer value. Sustainability Marketing aims at creating customer value, social value and environmental value. Sustainability marketing integrates social and ecological criteria into the whole process of marketing, and can be differentiated in six steps: (1) Analysis of the social and ecological problems, generally and specifically with respect to products which satisfy customer needs and wants; (2) Analysis of customer behavior with special aspect to social and ecological concerns; (3) Corporate commitments to sustainable development in the mission statement, development of sustainability visions, formulation of sustainable principles and guideline, setting of socio-ecological marketing objectives and goals (normative aspects of sustainability marketing); (4) Sustainability segmentation, targeting and positioning, and timing of market entry (strategic aspects of sustainability marketing); (5) Integration of social and ecological criteria into the marketing-mix, i.e. products, services and brands, pricing, distribution and communication(instrumental aspects of sustainability marketing); (6) Participation in public and political change processes, which transform existing institutions towards sustainability (transformative aspects of sustainability marketing). The first two steps begin with an analysis of the company situation. In sustainability marketing it is crucial not just to know consumer needs and wants, but also to find out about the ecological and social problems of products along their whole life cycle. The intersection of socio-ecological problems and consumer wants sets the ground for sustainability marketing. Step three to five describe the implementation of sustainability marketing. Social and ecological criteria are fully integrated into the mission statement, strategies and marketing-mix. Step six is one of the specifics of sustainability marketing. It is about the commitment of company to sustainable development and their active participation in public and political processes in order to change the existing framework in favor of sustainability.
