GREEN MARKETING: A New Initiative In Changing Environment CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Thus green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. Yet defining green marketing is not a simple task where several meanings intersect and contradict each other; an example of this will be the existence of varying social, environmental and retail definitions attached to this term. Other similar terms used are Environmental Marketing and Ecological Marketing. Thus "Green Marketing" refers to holistic marketing concept wherein the production, marketing consumption an disposal of products and services happen in a manner that is less detrimental to the environment with growing awareness about the implications of global warming, non- biodegradable solid waste, harmful impact of pollutants etc., both marketers and consumers are becoming increasingly sensitive to the need for switch in to green products and services. While the shift to "green" may appear to be expensive in the short term, it will definitely prove to be indispensable and advantageous, cost-wise too, in the long run. 1
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GREEN MARKETING: A New Initiative In Changing Environment
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing
of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Thus green marketing
incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to
the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. Yet
defining green marketing is not a simple task where several meanings intersect and
contradict each other; an example of this will be the existence of varying social,
environmental and retail definitions attached to this term. Other similar terms used are
Environmental Marketing and Ecological Marketing.
Thus "Green Marketing" refers to holistic marketing concept wherein the production,
marketing consumption an disposal of products and services happen in a manner that
is less detrimental to the environment with growing awareness about the implications
of global warming, non-biodegradable solid waste, harmful impact of pollutants etc.,
both marketers and consumers are becoming increasingly sensitive to the need for
switch in to green products and services. While the shift to "green" may appear to be
expensive in the short term, it will definitely prove to be indispensable and
advantageous, cost-wise too, in the long run.
Green marketing is a phenomenon which has developed particular important in the
modern market. This concept has enabled for the re-marketing and packaging of
existing products which already adhere to such guidelines. Additionally, the
development of green marketing has opened the door of opportunity for companies to
co-brand their products into separate line, lauding the green-friendliness of some
while ignoring that of others. Such marketing techniques will be explained as a direct
result of movement in the minds of the consumer market. As a result of this
Businesses have increased their rate of targeting consumers who are concerned about
the environment. These same consumers through their concern are interested in
integrating environmental issues into their purchasing decisions through their
incorporation into the process and content of the marketing strategy for whatever
product may be required. This paper discusses how businesses have increased their
rate of targeting green consumers, those who are concerned about the environment
and allow it to affect their purchasing decisions. The paper identifies the three
particular segments of green consumers and explores the challenges and opportunities
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GREEN MARKETING: A New Initiative In Changing Environment
businesses have with green marketing. The paper also examines the present trends of
green marketing in India and describes the reason why companies are adopting it and
future of green marketing and concludes that green marketing is something that will
continuously grow in both practice and demand.
In the last decade, consumers have become more enlightened on environmental
issues. Green marketing refers to selling product or rendering services based on
environmental benefit. It came into existence in late 1980s and early 1990s. Green
marketing is growing rapidly and consumers are willing to pay a lot for green product.
There have been little analysis of the impact of this new market on the consumers and
the environment so far. Green marketing affects all areas of our economy, it does not
just lead to environmental protection but it also create new market and job
opportunities. Companies that are environmental stewards stand a chance of gaining
many satisfied and loyal customers. There is a common perception among the general
population that the term green marketing refers only to advertising or promoting
products that possess environmental characteristics. People associate terms such as
recyclable with green marketing. Green marketing, while incorporating these claims,
is a broader concept. It includes not only altering the advertising of a product but
also a variety of activities such as altering production processes, changing
packaging and modifying products. Polonsky defines green marketing as “all
activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchanges intended to satisfy human
needs or wants, such that the satisfaction of these needs and wants occurs, with
minimal detrimental impact on the natural environment.”
This question of “why green marketing is important” has increased in importance. It
is quiet simple and relies on the basic definition of economics. “Economics is the
study of how people use their limited resources to try to satisfy unlimited wants.”
Thus mankind has limited resources on the earth, with which he must attempt to
provide for the worlds’ unlimited wants. In market societies, where there is
“freedom of choice”, it has generally been accepted that individuals and
organizations have the right to attempt to have their wants satisfied. As firms face
limited natural resources, they must develop new or alternative ways of satisfying
these unlimited wants. Ultimately green marketing looks at how marketing activities
utilize these limited resources, while satisfying consumes wants, both of individuals
and industry, as well as achieving the selling organization’s objectives.
OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
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GREEN MARKETING: A New Initiative In Changing Environment
One of the biggest problems with the green marketing area is that there has been little
attempt to academically examine environmental or green marketing. While some
literature does exist, it comes from divergent perspectives. This paper attempts to
throw light on the conceptual issues associated with green marketing
HYPOTHESIS
H0 – Companies do not adopt the concept of Green Marketing.H1 – Companies willingly adopt the concept of Green Marketing to prevent
Environmental conditions.
H0 – Consumer do not bother if the product is eco-friendly or not.H1 – Consumers prefer buying eco-friendly green products
NEED OF STUDY
To understand the importance of Green Marketing in current globalized world.
To understand different concepts of the firms or companies in India who adopted
green marketing.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The reason for carrying out this research is to identify the importance of the Green Marketing. This project is based on secondary data collection with the help of questionnaire which will be explained in more detail in next semester with sampling method. Data is collected from the news papers, internet blogs and relevant literature reviews.
LIMITATIONS OF STUDY
The study is limited to secondary data only primary data will be presented in semester 4. This study mainly focused on importance and current scenario of Green Marketing activities. Surveys interviews have to be collected for next semester.
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GREEN MARKETING: A New Initiative In Changing Environment
CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Prothero, A. (1998) introduces several papers discussed in the July 1998 issue of
'Journal of Marketing Management' focusing on green marketing. This includes; a
citation of the need to review existing literature on green marketing, an empirical
study of United States and Australian marketing managers, a description of what a
green alliance look like in practice in Great Britain, ecotourism and definitions of
green marketing.
Oyewole, P. (2001). In his paper presents a conceptual link among green marketing,
environmental justice, and industrial ecology. It argues for greater awareness of
environmental justice in the practice for green marketing. A research agenda is finally
suggested to determine consumers' awareness of environmental justice, and their
willingness to bear the costs associated with it.
Kilbourne, W.E. (1998) discusses the failure of green marketing to move beyond the
limitations of the prevailing paradigm. The author identifies areas that must be
examined for their effect in the marketing/environment relationship, namely
economic, political and technological dimensions of the cultural frame of reference.
Karna, J., Hansen, E. & Juslin, H. (2003) interpret that proactive marketers are the
most genuine group in implementing environmental marketing voluntarily and
seeking competitive advantage through environmental friendliness. The results also
give evidence that green values, environmental marketing strategies, structures and
functions are logically connected to each other as hypothesized according to the
model of environmental marketing used to guide this study.
Brahma, M. & Dande, R. (2008), The Economic Times, Mumbai, had an article which
stated that, Green Ventures India is a subsidiary of New York based asset
management firm Green Ventures International. The latter recently announced a $300
million India focused fund aimed at renewable energy products and supporting
trading in carbon credits.
Sanjay K. Jain & Gurmeet Kaur (2004) in their study environmentalism have fast
emerged as a worldwide phenomenon. Business firms too have risen to the occasion
and have started responding to environmental challenges by practicing green
marketing strategies. Green consumerism has played a catalytic role in ushering
corporate environmentalism and making business firms green marketing oriented.
CHAPTER 3
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WHY GREEN MARKETING?
It is really scary to read these pieces of information as reported in the Times recently:
"Air pollution damage to people, crops and wildlife in US. Total tens of billions of
dollars each year". "More than 12 other studies in the US, Brazil Europe, Mexico,
South Korea and Taiwan have established links between air pollutants and low birth
weight premature birth still birth and infant death". As resources are limited and
human wants are unlimited, it is important for the marketers to utilize the resources
efficiently without waste as well as to achieve the organization's objective. So green
marketing is inevitable.
There is growing interest among the consumers all over the world regarding
protection of environment. Worldwide evidence indicates people are concerned about
the environment and are changing their behavior. As a result of this, green marketing
has emerged which speaks for growing market for sustainable and socially
responsible products and services. Thus the growing awareness among the consumers
all over the world regarding protection of the environment in which they live, People
do want to bequeath a clean earth to their offspring. Various studies by
environmentalists indicate that people are concerned about the environment and are
changing their behavior pattern so as to be less hostile towards it. Now we see that
most of the consumers, both individual and industrial, are becoming more concerned
about environment friendly products.
Green marketing was given prominence in the late 1980s and 1990s after the
proceedings of the first workshop on Ecological marketing held in Austin, Texas
(US), in 1975. Several books on green marketing began to be published thereafter.
According to the Joel makeover (a writer, speaker and strategist on clean technology
and green marketing), green marketing faces a lot of challenges because of lack of
standards and public consensus to what constitutes "Green". The green marketing has
evolved over a period of time. According to Peattie (2001), the evolution of green
marketing has three phases. First phase was termed as "Ecological" green marketing,
and during this period all marketing activities were concerned to help environment
problems and provide remedies for environmental problems. Second phase was
"Environmental" green marketing and the focus shifted on clean technology that
involved designing of innovative new products, which take care of pollution and
waste issues.
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GREEN MARKETING: A New Initiative In Changing Environment
Third phase was "Sustainable" green marketing. It came into prominence in the late
1990s and early 2000.
THE GREEN CONSUMER
The green consumers are the driving forces behind the green marketing process. It is
they who drive consumer demand, which in turn encourages improvements in the
environmental performance of many products and companies. Thus, for a marketer it
is important to identify the types of green consumers. Many organizations have found
that two out of every three consumer is green in developed country but country like
Bangladesh and its organization has found that one out of every six consumer is
green, but their environmental commitments vary because of their different standards,
expectation from producers, demand and buying power.
It is thus not efficient to say that the green consumer is one who engages in green
consumption, specifically, consumes in a more sustainable and socially responsible
way. A consumer acquires bundle of wants and needs and this is also true for the
green consumer. To satisfy those needs businesses have to break down the market into
different groups of consumers that differ in their responses to the firm‘s marketing
mix program. The segments (Kotabe & Helsen (1998)), arrived at should preferably