Page 1 of 4
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 12
December 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 230
An overview of Green marketing
Racharla Haribabu
M.B.A, Satavahana University, Karimnagar, Telangana, INDIA
Abstract: Green marketing refers to the process of selling
products and/or services based on their environmental benefits.
Such a product or service may be environmentally friendly in
itself or produced in an environmentally friendly way. Green
marketing is a vital constituent of the holistic marketing concept.
It is particularly applicable to those businesses that are directly
dependent on the physical environment. Changes in the physical
environment may pose a threat to fishing, processed foods
tourism and adventure sports industries. Consequently new types
of products were created, called "green" products, which would
cause less damage to the environment. Thus green marketing
plays an important role to promote and reinforce the idea of
environmental protection and sustainable development both in
the minds of the customer and the firms. The most of the
consumers, both individual and industrial, are becoming more
concerned about environment-friendly products. Majority of
them feel that environment-friendly products are safe to use. As
a result, green marketing has emerged, which aims at marketing
sustainable and socially-responsible products and services. Now
it is the era of recyclable, non-toxic and environment-friendly
goods. Green marketing is the process of developing products
and services and promoting them to satisfy the customers who
prefer products of good quality, performance and convenience at
affordable cost, which at the same time do not have a
detrimental impact on the environment. Companies all over the
world are striving to reduce the impact of products and services
on the climate and other environmental parameters. Green
marketing ties closely with issues of industrial ecology and
environmental sustainability such as extended producers
liability, life-cycle analysis, material use and resource flows, and
eco-efficiency.
Key Words: Green Products, Recyclable, Environmentally safe,
Eco Friendly, Eco efficiency, Natural Environment, Sustainable,
Ecological, Green Marketing.
I. INTRODUCTION
According to the American Marketing Association (AMA),
Green marketing consists of all activities designed to generate
and facilitate any exchanges intended to satisfy human needs
such that the satisfaction of these needs occurs, with minimal
detrimental impact on the natural environment. Thus, Green
marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including
product, modification, changes to the production process,
packaging changes as well as modifying advertising. Green
Marketing" refers to holistic marketing concept wherein the
production, marketing consumption and 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 [1]. Both marketers and consumers are
becoming increasingly sensitive to the need to switch into green
products and services.
Objective
One of the biggest problems with the green marketing area is
that there has been little attempt to academically examine
environment or green marketing. The presents study is
exploratory in nature to provide a clear guidance for empirical
research. It is also descriptive where the focus is on fact-finding
investigation with adequate interpretation. For this purpose
secondary data were collected through magazines, books,
journals and websites.
II. HISTORY OF GREEN MARKETING
Green marketing term was first discussed in a seminar on
Ecological Marketing organized by AMA in 1975 and took its
place in the literature. The term green marketing came into
prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The first wave of
green marketing occurred in the 1980s. The tangible milestone
for the first wave of green marketing came in the form of
published books, both of which were called Green Marketing.
They were by Ken Pattie (1992) in the United Kingdom and by
Jacquelyn Ottman (1993) in the United States of America.
According to Peattie (2001), the evolution of green marketing
has three phases [4].
First phase was termed as "Ecological" green marketing, and
during this period all marketing activities were concerned to help
environmental problems and provide remedies for environmental
problems [2]. 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. Third phase was "Sustainable"
green marketing. It came into prominence in the late 1990s and
early 2000concerned with developing good quality products
which can meet consumers need by focusing on the quality,
performance, pricing and convenience in an environment
friendly way.
Why Green Marketing?
The Growing awareness all over the world regarding protection
of the environment, consumers is becoming more concerned
Page 2 of 4
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 12
December 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 231
about environmental friendly product. Manufacturers have
recognized environmental concerns as a source of competitive
advantage and have developed products with a green image.
Various regulations recently framed by the government to
protect consumers and the society at large, led to the adoption of
Green marketing as a compulsion rather than a choice [3]. For
example, the ban of plastic bags in many parts of the country.
Green Products are the products or services whose
manufacturing, purchase and use allows economic development,
while still conserving for future generations. Such a product or
service do not pollute the earth or abort natural resources. Such a
product/service is biodegradable, can be recycled and is eco- friendly.
III. NECESSITY OF GREEN MARKETING
Global warming and depletion of ozone umbrella is the main for
the healthy survival. Every person rich or poor would be
interested in quality life with full of health and vigor and so
would the corporate class. Financial gain and economic profit is
the main aim of any corporate business. But harm to
environment cost by sustain business across the globe is realized
now though off late. This sense is building corporate citizenship
in the business class. So green marketing by the business class is
still in the selfish anthological perspective of long term
sustainable business and to please the consumer and obtain the
license by the governing body. Industries in Asian countries are
catching the need of green marketing from the developed
countries but still there is a wide gap between their
understanding and implementation.
Challenges in Green Marketing
Need for standardization
It is found that only 5% of the marketing messages from
“Green” campaigns are entirely true and there is lack of
standardization to authenticate these claims. A standard quality
Control board needs to in place for such labeling and licensing.
New Concept
Indian literature and urban consumers is getting more aware
about the merits of green products. But it is still a new concept
for the masses. Indian consumers do appreciate the importance
of using natural and herbal beauty products and are exposed to
healthy lifestyles such as yoga and natural food consumption.
Patience and Perseverance
The investors and corporate need to view the environment as a
major long-term investment opportunity, the marketers need to
look at the long-term benefits from this new concept. It will
require a lot of patience and no immediate results.
Avoiding Green Myopia
The first rule of Green-Marketing is focusing on customer
benefits, the primary reason why consumers buy certain products
in that‟ve first place. Do this right and motivate and motivate
consumers to switch brands or even pay a premium for greener
alternative.
IV. GREEN MARKETING: GLOBAL SCENARIO
According to Paul Stoneman, financial incentives are necessary
if the market for green products is to improve and grow.
According to Mintel's report, 66% of consumers in United States
do not buy green products because of high cost, while 34% say
there is lack of availability of green products in the market. This
shows the huge potential for untapped market and customer
demand and requirement for eco-friendly products which the
companies can exploit for capturing the market share and
thereby enhancing the profitability and sustainability of the
organization in the global competitive scenario. Most of Global
Companies have taken up several initiatives that help to protect
the environment including greenhouse gas reduction, renewable
energy and noise reduction, recycling and using alternative fuels
for increasing their accountability towards the environment and
the society as a whole.
Green Marketing: Indian Scenario
The subject of green marketing is vast, having important
implications for business strategy and public policy. Clearly,
green marketing is part and parcel of the overall corporate
strategy (Menon and Menon, 1997). Green marketing also ties
closely with issues of industrial ecology and environmental
sustainability such as extended producers liability, life-cycle
analysis, material use and resource flows, and eco-efficiency.
What Are Green Companies?
Firms contributing to conservation of environment through
Biodiversity, producing environment friendly products,
conservation of energy, water and natural resources, climate
protection, maintenance of schools, roads, parks, providing
assistance for upliftment of the rural sector and the
underprivileged, and so on so forth. The Common
Characteristics of Green Companies are
• Use natural gas for boiler fuel, Recycle biodegradable waste.
• Minimum use of plastic material; use recyclable packaging
materials.
• Use biomass and solar radiation as sources of renewable
energy.
• Generate electricity from hydroelectric plants, Reduce toxic
emissions, etc.
A survey conducted by BT- AC Nielsen ORG-MARG, ranked
Oil and Natural Gas Company (ONGC) the greenest company in
India followed by Reliance Industries. BPCL, Castrol India and
HPCL are other companies in this sector that were rated green
companies in the survey. India‟s software companies are
Page 3 of 4
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 12
December 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 232
considered green companies. HCL is duty bound to manufacture
environmentally responsible products and comply with
environment management processes right from the time products
are sourced, manufactured, bought by customers, recovered at
their end-of-life and recycled.
Johnson and Johnson Ltd., Chillibreeze, IBM, LG Electronics,
PNB, Tata Motors and Hero Honda Motors are some of the other
green companies in India. The private sector companies were in
a majority (13 out of 20) in the list of Top 20 greenest
companies in India. As per study about 25% of the Indian
consumers in India consider environment friendly products to be
safe for nature, 28% are concerned with safety to human health
and happiness and protective to nature. With above figures, it
can be assumed that firms which are marketing to market goods
with environmental characteristics will have a competitive
advantage over firms which are marketing non-environmentally
responsible alternatives.
Recent Trends in Green Marketing in India
Governmental Bodies are forcing Firms to become more
responsible. In most cases the government forces the firm to
adopt policy which protects the interests of the consumers.
Competitors' Environmental Activities pressure the firms to
change their Environmental Marketing Activities.
V. FUTURE OF GREEN MARKETING
There are many lessons to be learned to avoid green marketing
myopia, the short version of all this is that effective green
marketing requires applying good marketing principles to make
green products desirable for consumers [5-7]. Evidence indicates
that successful green products have avoided green marketing
myopia by following three important principles:
1. Consumer Value Positioning
Design environmental products to perform as well as (or better
than) alternatives. Promote and deliver the consumer desired
value of environmental products and target relevant consumer
market segments. Broaden mainstream appeal by bundling
consumer desired value into environmental products.
2. Calibration of Consumer Knowledge
Educate consumers with marketing messages that connect
environmental attributes with desired consumer values Frame
environmental product attributes as “solutions” for consumer
needs. Create educational internet sites about environmental
products desired consumer value.
Why is Green Marketing Chosen by Most Marketers?
Most of the companies are venturing into green marketing
because of the following reasons:
a. Opportunity
In India, around 25% of the consumers prefer environmental- friendly products, and around 28% may be considered healthy
conscious. Therefore, green marketers have diversified and fairly
sizeable segments to cater to. The Surf Excel detergent which
saves water and the energy-saving LG consumers durable are
examples of green marketing
b. Social Responsibility
Many companies have started realizing that they must behave in
an environment-friendly fashion. They believe both in achieving
environmental objectives as well as profit related objectives.
Respecting the principle of extended producer responsibility
(EPR), the Sony Company will continue to promote the
development and efficient operation of low-environmental- impact recycling systems suited to the needs of local
communities.
c. Governmental Pressure
Various regulations are framed by the government to protect
consumers and the society at large. The Indian government too
has developed a framework of legislations to reduce the
production of harmful goods and byproducts. These reduce the
industry's production and consumers' consumption of harmful
goods, including those detrimental to the environment; for
example, the ban of plastic bags, prohibition of smoking in
public areas etc.,
d. Competitive Pressure
Another major force in the environmental marketing area has
been a firm„s desire to maintain its competitive position. It is
only in some instances that this competitive pressure causes an
entire industry to modify and thus reduce its detrimental
environmental behavior.
Some Problems with Green Marketing:
Although a large number of firms are using green-marketing,
there are a number of potential problems which need to be
addressed. One of the main problems is that firms using green- marketing must ensure that their activities are not misleading to
the consumers or the industry do not breach of any of the
regulations or law dealing with environmental marketing. In
short green-marketing claims of a firm must:-
Clearly state environmental benefits
Explain environmental characteristics
Explain how benefits are achieved
Ensure negative factors are taken into consideration
VI. CONCLUSION
Green marketing in India is still in its infancy and a lot of
research is to be done on green marketing to explore. Marketers
need to understand the implications of green marketing. With the
threat of global warming looming large, it is extremely
