GREEN MARKETING
INTRODUCTION:
Although environmental issues influence all human activities, few academic disciplines have integrated green issues into their literature. This is especially true of marketing. As society becomes more concerned with the natural environment, businesses have begun to modify their behavior in an attempt to address society’s “new” concerns. One business area where environmental issues have received a great deal of discussion in the popular and professional press is marketing. Terms like “Green Marketing” and “Environmental Marketing” appear frequently in the popular press. Many governments around the world have become so concerned about green marketing activities that they have attempted to regulate. For example, in the United States (US) the Federal Trade Commission and the National Association of Attorneys-General have developed extensive documents examining green marketing. 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, it comes from divergent perspectives.
WHAT IS GREEN MARKETING
Unfortunately, a majority of people believe that green marketing refers solely to the promotion or advertising of products with environmental characteristics. Terms like Phosphate Free, Recyclable, Refillable, Ozone Friendly, and Environmentally Friendly are some of the things consumers most often associate with green marketing. While these terms are green marketing claims, in general green marketing is a much broader concept, one that can be applied to consumer goods, industrial goods and even services. 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. Indeed the terminology used in this area has varied, it includes: Green Marketing, environmental marketing and Ecological Marketing. While green marketing came into prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was first discussed much earlier. The American Marketing Association (AMA) held the first workshop on “Ecological Marketing” in 1975. The proceedings of this workshop resulted in one of the first books on green marketing entitled “Ecological Marketing”. Since that time a number of other books on the topic have been published.
The Term Paper on Rural Marketing Mba
Ans: Meaning of Rural marketing:Rural marketing is promotion of a company’s products in the rural markets by using strategies which differ from that of urban market. The rural market more price sensitive but it has preference quantity. Nature of Rural market:1. Large, diverse and scattered market:Rural marketing in India is large, and scattered into a number of regions. There may be less number of ...
The AMA workshop attempted to bring together academics, practitioners, and public policy makers to examine marketing’s impact on the natural environment. At this workshop, ecological marketing was defined as:
“The study of the positive and negative aspects of marketing activities on pollution, energy depletion and non energy resource depletion”
This early definition has three key components,
* It is a subset of the overall marketing activity;
* It examines both the positive and negative activities; and
* A narrow range of environmental issues are examined.
The definition is:
“Green or Environmental Marketing consists of 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 definition incorporates much of the traditional components of the marketing definition, that is “All activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchanges intended to satisfy human needs or wants .Therefore it ensures that the interests of the organization and all its consumers are protected, as voluntary exchange will not take place unless both the buyer and seller mutually benefit. The above definition also includes the protection of the natural environment, by attempting to minimize the detrimental impact this exchange has on the environment. This second point is important, for human consumption by its very nature is destructive to the natural environment. (To be accurate products making green claims should state they are “less environmentally harmful” rather than “Environmentally Friendly.”) Thus green marketing should look at minimizing environmental harm, not necessarily eliminating it.
The Essay on Marketing Planning Activities
The four marketing planning activities undertaken by all corporate headquarters are a.Product – The corporate headquarters focus on this activity is product variety, quality, design, features, brand name, packaging, sizes, services, warranties and returns. They focus on customer feedback and utilize market intelligence services to make sure the customer is happy and is impressed from the product. ...
WHY IS GREEN MARKETING IMPORTANT
The question of why green marketing has increased in importance is quite 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 she/he must attempt to provide for the worlds’ unlimited wants. (There is extensive debate as to whether the earth is a resource at man’s disposal, While the question of whether these wants are reasonable or achievable is important, this issue will not be addressed in this paper. 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 consumers wants, both of individuals and industry, as well as achieving the selling organization’s objectives.
The Research paper on Marketing Permission Consumers Consumer Web
Godin (1999) has proposed a new idea- permission marketing. Here, consumers provide marketers with the permission to send them certain types of promotional messages. This is seen as reducing clutter and search costs for the consumer while improving targeting precision for marketers. This paper makes three contributions: First, a critical analysis of the concept and its relationship to existing ...
WHY ARE FIRMS USING GREEN MARKETING?
When looking through the literature there are several suggested reasons for firms increased use of Green Marketing. Five possible reasons cited are:
1. Organizations perceive environmental marketing to be an opportunity that can be used to achieve its objectives
2. Organizations believe they have a moral obligation to be more socially responsible
3. Governmental bodies are forcing firms to become more responsible Competitors’ environmental activities pressure firms to change their environmental marketing activities; and
4. Cost factors associated with waste disposal, or reductions in material usage forces firms to modify their behavior.
OPPORTUNITIES
It appears that all types of consumers, both individual and industrial are becoming more concerned and aware about the natural environment. In a 1992 study of 16 countries, more than 50% of consumers in each country, other than Singapore, indicated they were concerned about the environment .A 1994 study in Australia found that 84.6% of the sample believed all individuals had a responsibility to care for the environment. A further 80% of this sample indicated that they had modified their behavior, including their purchasing behavior, due to environmental reasons [EPA-NSW 1994]. As demands change, many firms see these changes as an opportunity to be exploited.
Given these figures, it can be assumed that firms marketing goods with environmental characteristics will have a competitive advantage over firms marketing non-environmentally responsible alternatives. There are numerous examples of firms who have strived to become more environmentally responsible, in an attempt to better satisfy their consumer needs.
* McDonald’s replaced its clam shell packaging with waxed paper because of increased consumer concern relating to polystyrene production and Ozone depletion [Gifford 1991, Hume 1991].
* Tuna manufacturers modified their fishing techniques because of the increased concern over driftnet fishing, and the resulting death of dolphins [Advertising Age 1991].
* Xerox introduced a “high quality” recycled photocopier paper in an attempt to satisfy the demands of firms for less environmentally harmful products.
The Research paper on Consumer Trust In Green Marketing
The whole marketing related processes and activities aim to build a good relationship with the consumers in order to successfully implement the desired marketing goals. One of the most crucial aspects of this marketing-consumer relationship is – trust. Consumer trust plays, actually, the major role in the marketing activities. Not taking the “consumers’ trust” aspects into consideration, as ...
This is not to imply that all firms who have undertaken environmental marketing activities actually improve their behavior. In some cases firms have misled consumers in an attempt to gain market share. In other cases firms have jumped on the green bandwagon without considering the accuracy of their behavior, their claims, or the effectiveness of their products. This lack of consideration of the true “greenness” of activities may result in firms making false or misleading green marketing claims.
Conclusion
Green marketing covers more than a firm’s marketing claims. While firms must bear much of the responsibility for environmental degradation, ultimately it is consumers who demand goods, and thus create environmental problems. One example of this is where McDonald’s is often blamed for polluting the environment because much of their packaging finishes up as roadside waste. It must be remembered that it is the uncaring consumer who chooses to disposes of their waste in an inappropriate fashion. While firms can have a great impact on the natural environment, the responsibility should not be theirs alone.
It appears that consumers are not overly committed to improving their environment and may be looking to lay too much responsibility on industry and government. Ultimately green marketing requires that consumers want a cleaner environment and are willing to “pay” for it, possibly through higher priced goods, modified individual lifestyles, or even governmental intervention. Until this occurs it will be difficult for firms alone to lead the green marketing revolution.
