THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ONLINE CONSERVATION MARKETING FOR RELATIONSHIP MARKETING BETWEEN CONSERVATION ORGANISATIONS AND BUSINESSES

Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, marketing for online conservation was increasingly used by conservationists to appeal for funds from businesses and to improve public awareness on the need to reduce the loss of biodiversity. Yet, uncertainty remains in the academic literature about the effectiveness of online conservation marketing. Given that the potential impact of online conservation marketing in the corporate sector is evident (i.e., with a clear reduction in management and maintenance costs, and an increase fund collection), knowledge of online conservation marketing is important for building and maintaining a conservation group -to-business relationship. This study serves as an exploratory inquiry and aims to understand whether Environmental Education Centers (EECs) in Malaysia use electronic platforms for conservation marketing purposes. Based on an extensive literature search on conservation marketing and a search for EEC background information, from 2015 to 2020 many EECs in Malaysia have either used, or are using (i.e., WWF Malaysia) or will soon be using (i.e., Taman Hidupan Liar Gua Musang) online conservation marketing as one of their marketing strategies. The findings hold true even for the EECs with poor Internet connections (i.e., National Elephant Conservation Centre Kuala Gandah). This exploratory study underscores the need for more research in this area, especially with regard to the effectiveness of online conservation marketing among EECs since many of the EECs are situated in locations with poor Internet connectivity. Without an understanding of electronic marketing strategy used by the EECs, the conservationists’ role will likely be limited to that of conservation research, improving the standards of animal welfare and describing the loss of biodiversity.