GREEN MARKETING –AS A SOLUTION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL

ISSUES

Sreekala B.
Assistant Professor on Contract
P.G. Department of Commerce and Management Studies
S.V.T.B College, Mannampatta
Palakkad
[email protected]

Abstract

Environmental issues influence the human activities during recent decades and concerns
have been expressed by the manufacturers and customers about the same and its impact .Due
to the prominence of these issues emerges the idea of green marketing ,which benefits the
earth from pollution and its limited resources .The fact that need to realize is the available
resources of today may not be available for future use .Thus the present study is relevant to
explore the brand image of companies or organization by showing their concern and social
responsibility towards the community and the mother planet earth. Although entering a
company into green marketing seems good the companies are struggling to grow and beat the
challenges ongoing green. As any new market entry in positioning the product, the
companies going green have to struggle more since to convince customers about the
necessity and advantage on going green .The lack of awareness on environmental issues
and the advantage of going for green products is the major problem that we face on current
market .This research provide a brief review on environmental issues and identifies the
green values of consumers ,green product and services. The study was conducted using
secondary data’s collected from website, books, journals etc. Even though entry into a new
marketing concept by companies are not so easy ,companies tries to cope up with the
situation to raise their brand image by showing that they are responsible to protect the
environment ongoing green. And also reveals that both green advertising and green
packaging have influence on green marketing and had an insignificant impact in influencing
green purchase intention and can also be used as tool to evade environmental issues.

Keywords: Green Marketing, green products, environmental issues, green practices.

Introduction

The societal concern of natural environment makes the business concern to modify their
behavior in an attempt to address society by the acceptance of waste minimization and system
management .The environmental issues influences the human activities in a wide manner. In
order to cope up with this the thought of green marketing for sustainable environment
emerges. The green marketing had a wide scope and it consist of all activities designed to
generate and facilitate the needs and wants of human, such that the level of satisfaction due
to this occurs with minimum detrimental on natural environment. The concept was
introduced during the period of 1980’s and 1990’s

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 production process, packaging changes as well as modifying advertisement.

As green marketing is a holistic marketing concept, the production, marketing consumption

and disposal of product and services happen in a manner that is fewer tendencies to cause
harm to the environment with growing awareness about the impact of global warming, non-
biodegradable social waste harmful impact of pollutants etc. The consumer’s as well as the
marketers are aware about the cause and the need for the transformation into green products
and services. Although the transformation is expensive, it will definitely prove to be
indispensible and advantageous, cost-wise too in the long run.

Green Marketing is not a term which give emphasis on the promotion and advertising of
products with environmental characteristics like recyclable, refillable, ozone friendly,
environmental friendly . it is a wider concept and incorporates consumer goods ,industrial
goods and services which includes product modification ,changes to production process,
packaging changes etc. therefore we can say that green marketing is the subset of overall
marketing activity, that it considers and examine both the positive and negative activities
,and also review the environmental issues to a certain extent.
 equality
non- humanita
profit rian

new
consumer ecological
ism

GREEN
corporate
social sustainabi
responsib lity
ility

conservat
political ion
fair
trade

Source: (Peattie .k(1995), environmental marketing management , p. 26)

Objectives

 To determine the green practices adopted for environmental issues.

 To identify the green values of consumer towards the green products

Research Methodology

The present study attempts to throw light on the conceptual ideas associated with green
marketing as a tool to evade the environmental issues .For this purpose secondary data’s
were collected. The secondary data’s are obtained and collected from newspaper, magazines,
books, journals, websites

Importance of Green Marketing

Importance of Green marketing has increased due to the availability of limited resources to
satisfy the unlimited wants of individuals’ .Green marketing focuses on the activities which
utilizes these limited resources to satisfy both individual and industry by achieving the
organizational objectives. Green Marketing incorporates a group of approaches which seek to
address the lack of fit between marketing as it is currently practiced and ,the ecological and
the social realities of wider marketing environment .the green marketing approach not just
focus ,adjust or enhance existing marketing perspectives and practices but they seek to
challenge those approaches and provide a different perspective.
Challenges in Green Marketing

Need for standardization

Though a market sells green products it lack standardization to claim the product as organic
.If there are no regulatory bodies to involve the certification, there will not be any verifiable
means. Therefore a standard quality control board needs to be in place for such labeling and
licensing.

New concept

The consumers are not aware of the green products as it’s a new concept in the market .The
consumer have to be made aware of the environmental issues and threats on going with
products rather than green products which are harmful to nature .Go for Green concept takes
time to reach the mindset of consumers and effort will be hard to achieve. As now a days the
consumers are becoming more aware of the natural and herbal beauty products and more
concentrated towards the healthy living lifestyles such as natural food consumption, yoga etc
in these aspects the consumers will be inclined to accept the green products.

Patience and preservance

As green marketing is a new concept it has its own acceptance period so the marketers need
to look at the long term benefits from this new green movement. That the marketers require
patience and preservance.

Avoiding green myopia

The first and foremost importance of green marketing is of focusing on customer benefits. As
the acceptance rate of customers for green products are low we cannot impose a high
premium on green products till it gains acceptability in market. So only thing which can do is
to motivate green products till it satisfies the customer satisfaction criteria.

Green Marketing Mix

A structured green marketing mix includes:

Product: A manufacturer should produce the products which not only protect the
environment but also should produce products which can even liquidate existing
environmental damages.

Price: Even though the prices are higher than the conventional products in the market, the
standard and the quality made few customers willing to pay extra for green products.

Place: The important aspect of every business is the distribution logistics, and the main focus
is to be ecological packaging. The product of regional farms to be marketed green is easy
than imported to be going green.
Promotion: As ecological products require special promotional styles sponsoring the natural
environment is of vital important in green marketing .Furthermore, the fact that a company
spends expenditures on environmental protection should be advertised.

Green Marketing Process

The processes of green marketing involve both internal &external factors .These internal and
external factors integrate together to green success.

Green marketing

External green p’s Internal green p’s

 Paying customers  Production

 Providers  promotion
 Politicians  price
 Pressure groups  place
 Problems  providing
 Predictions information process
 partners  policies

The Ss of Green Success

 Satisfaction – of stakeholder needs

 Safety – of products and processes

 Social acceptability – of the

company

 Sustainability – of its activities

Source: (Peattie (1992), p. 104)

Green Products

Green products are products which are manufactured using green technology and which are
not hazardous for environment and consumers. The products which produces organically
helps to reduce the amount of toxins in the soil thus helps to improve the taste, odor and
health benefits. Therefore green products help to reduce the impact on environment to a
certain extent.
Characteristics

 Products can be recycled and reused.

 Products are biodegradable.
 Products are manufactured using natural ingredient.
 Products are non toxic
 Products don’t harm or pollute the environment
 Products are eco-friendly

The Reason for which Green Marketing has been widely adopted by the Firm is due to:

 The opportunities that explores ongoing green

 The realization of going green is the social responsibility as a individual to protect
the environment
 The government regulatory force to implicate green marketing in organizations
 To maintain position in the market competitive pressure arises, an attempt to address
cost or profit related issues.

Impact on Going Green

While going green there certain issues have to overcome .The major problem that the firms
using green marketing is that they should ensure that they are not violating any rules
regarding environmental marketing or the activities are not misleading to consumers. The
problem that the firms face on going with the increased consumer concern and modify their
products based on consumer perception may not be correct always. If the firms attempt to be
socially responsible they may have to face the risk of being responsible for the environment
because the actions of today will harm in future. There are difficulties for the government to
address and establish the environmental issues if regulations regarding green marketing.

Conclusion

Green marketing can be used as a tool to evade environmental issues for the upcoming
generations. It has a positive impact on environmental safety. As the growing concern
towards the environmental protection is increasing day by day the new marketing concept
green marketing is gaining its position in the market. Therefore in order to survive in the new
market as any market entry there are complications which strive to sustain in the green
market. To survive in the green market the company should go green in all aspects of their
business. Consumers have identified themselves for the companies which go for green and
pay premium for their greener lifestyles. Integrating all this we can say that green marketing
is not only a marketing strategy but also a tool to evade environmental issues.

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