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GREEN MARKETING AND ITS IMPACT ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR
Dr. Rupinderkaur
ASSIST. PROFESSOR OF COMMERCE C.M.K. P.G. National Girl’s College Sirsa (Hry.) (India)
ABSTRACT
Consumers have started to realize that their purchasing behavior can cause a huge impact to the environment as there is a worldwide concern on environmental degradation issues such as global warming and pollutions.
Green is now in the mainstream of modern businesses. Therefore being socially, responsible by offering green (environmentally friendly) products and services should be the practices of any companies that wish to sustain a competitive advantage in today’s business world.This study investigated the consumers' green purchase behavior using price and quality attributes as contributors to the formation of purchase intention.Global warming and greenhouse gas emission is the main problem which today everybody isfacing. This led to the increasing awareness among the marketers to brand and rebrands their products to their concerns towards this global problem..Everybody isputting their efforts and innovations to reduce this greenhouse emission The risingnumber of consumers who prefer and are willing to buy eco-friendly products are creatingopportunity for businesses that are using "eco-friendly" or "environmentally friendly" as acomponent of their value proposition.
Many scholars have done survey on green marketing and allied subject’s shows thatconsumer preferences are changing due to this global phenomenon. Moreover manygovernments are forcing to adopt green processes through policy change. This paper assesses Indian consumers' pro-environmental concerns, knowledge of environmental issues, awareness of eco-friendly products, effects of income level and educational levels and any potential effect that these factors may have on green buying behavior.
KeywordsGreen marketing, Consumer behavior, Consumer marketing, Environment,and Eco-
friendly.I. INTRODUCTION
Green marketing consists of all activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchanges intended to satisfy human needs and wants, such that the satisfaction of these needs and wantsOccurs, with minimal detrimental impact on natural environment. Due to increase in climatechange and global warming, the public concern for environmental problems is continuously increased over the past decades. The businesses and consumers have started to challenge eco-friendly products as they become more concerned on the environment, health and wealth in order to protect the earth’s resources and the environment. In addition, the firms have slowly applied green marketing practices in their projects as a part of social conscience and they are demanding to reach the consumers with their green messages (Nagaraju & Thejaswini, 2014). For instances, the firms remain to
681 | P a g e introduce different forms of green packaging programs through the recommendation of recyclable and reusable packages as the importance of green marketing to market success has been increased. Furthermore, firms today are experienced with consumers who are environmentally conscious when making a purchase as green marketing is a current focus in business enterprises. Therefore, consumers are becoming more conscious towards their environmental approaches, desires and purchases. Therefore, this has led to increased motive of consumers to purchase environmentally friendly products and services. The green movement has been expanding rapidly in the world. With regards to this consumersare taking responsibility and doing the right things. Consumer awareness and motivationcontinue to drive change in the marketplace, notably through the introduction of more ecofriendlyproducts. Compared to consumers in the developed countries, the Indian consumer has much less awareness of global warming issues. Successful marketing has always been about recognizing trends and positioning products, services and brand in a manner that supports buyer Intentions.
II. GREEN MARKETING
Green marketing is somewhat new concept which evolves in recent years. But Marketing is theHolistic approach towards identifying and satisfying need and wants of consumer and potentialConsumer. Green Marketing means manufacturing and marketing of those products and servicesWhich are manufactured through green processes? Thus green marketing incorporates aBroad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process,Packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. Other terms use for Green Marketing isEnvironmental Marketing and Ecological Marketing. Green Marketing is not limited to adding green theme to company brand name or making Websites or product/packaging design with green color.
It is the overall efforts of a company toeliminate processes which are detrimental to the environment and use environmental friendly Processes and packaging for manufacturing and presenting product. e. Recently due to changes in policies for corporate results compliance procedure bySEBI all companies are using e mail channels for reporting of financial results which has saved Lot of paper and trees.
A product may be considered ―green‖ if it:
1. Conserves water and energy
2. Prevents contributions to air, water and land pollution 3. Protects indoor air quality
4. Uses renewable, responsibly sourced materials 5. Produces little environmental impact
6. Is manufactured in an environmentally conscious way
7. Using one’s own bag, rather than a plastic carrier provided by a shop.
Broad and fairly ambiguous, the terms ―green‖ and ―eco-friendly‖ may be misleading. For example, a Product labeled ―green‖ may have been responsibly sourced but may not necessarily is organic. What’s more, some?
Manufacturers have been known to intentionally mislead consumers in a practice known as ―green washing.‖
Products and businesses that have been green washed may appear to be eco-friendly, but upon closer inspection, often amount to little more than a well-executed green marketing campaign. Green marketing and its impact on consumer buying behaviorFor green marketing to be effective, you have to do three things; be genuine, educate your customers, andGive them the opportunity to participate.Being genuine means that
682 | P a g e a) That you are actually doing what you claim to be doing in your green marketing campaign and
b) That the rest of your business policies are consistent with whatever you are doing that's environmentally friendly.Both these conditions have to be met for your business to establish the kind of environmental credentials that willAllow a green marketing campaign to succeed.
Educating your customers isn't just a matter of letting people know you're doing whatever you're doing toProtect the environment, but also a matter of letting them know why it matters. Otherwise, for a significant portionof your target market, it's a case of "So what?" and your green marketing campaign goes nowhere.
Giving your customers an opportunity to participate means personalizing the benefits.
III. LITERATURE REVIEW
Laroche et al. (2001) in their study to identify target consumers who were willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products were looking at a different perspective from Lee (2008). Basically, Laroche et al. (2001) were examining on the variables of demographic, values, knowledge (eco-literacy), attitude (such as severity of environmental problem) and behaviors (such as considering environmental issue when making a purchase).
Many past studies (Akram, 2008; Rahbar, 2008; Farah, 2008; Fong, 2006) were using respondents from the general public who do not necessarily have the love for the environment. Therefore, this study intends to fill the gap by investigating on the factors that would determine the green purchasing behavior of volunteers in Penang who are participating in various environmental related volunteering campaigns (such as saving water, saving nature, involving in recycling, planting trees and providing environmental related educations). Diamantolopous and others (2003) conducted a study on 1697 questionnaires in Britain. According to this study, demographic variables were found insufficient to determine green consumer profile. However, again according to this study women are more related to the environment and women display pro environmental behaviors. Married couples are more likely to have pro environmental behavior. There is a negative correlation between age and pro- environment attitude. There is a positive correlation between education, information and Attitudes and behavior.
However, in high social class, environmental information and Environmental quality and participating in green activities hypotheses were not supported
Belz & Peattie (2008) stated that green marketing and environmental marketing in the late198O's focused on green consumers who would be willing to pay premium prices for more environmentally friendly products.
Many consumers choose products that do not damage the environment over less environmentally friendly products, even if they cost more. With green marketing, advertisers focus on environmental benefits to sell products such as biodegradable
A green consumer is defined by Pattie (2001, p. 187-191) as someone who voluntarily engages in consumer practices that are regarded as environmentally friendly by marketing academics and practitioners. Thus, green or environmentally friendly activities deal, for instance, with energy efficient operations, better pollution controls and recycled materials (Armstrong and Kilter, Gradually, the rise of green consumerism has led to an even broadened consumption concept Called ethical consumerism (Uusitalo and Oksana, 2004). According to Uusitalo and Oksana (2004), ethical consumerism refers to buyer behavior that reflects a concern with the problems That arises from unethical and unjust global Infringement of human rights, animal testing, labour
683 | P a g e union suppressions, inequalities in trading Relations with the Third World and pollution of the environment (Strong, 1996). Both green Consumerism and its subsequent ethical consumerism are forms of symbolic consumption because consumers consider not only individual but also social values, ideals and ideologies
IV. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The present study is a descriptive research and involves the use of “Survey Method”. Both The personal and electronic survey methods can be used as the mode of administration. In Personal method, we will use in-home, institute and local train Marketers need to understand the implications of green marketing. If you think customers are not concerned about Environmental issues or will not pay a premium for products that are more eco-responsible, think Again. You must find an opportunity to enhance you product's performance and strengthen your Customer’s loyalty and command a higher price. The awareness about the products should be done through advertising so that individual buying behavior can be changed which can have an impact on the welfare of the environment Green marketing is still in its infancy and a lot of research is to be done on green marketing to fully explore its potential. This study confirms the existence of an environmental value-action gap, a gap between Consumers’ beliefs and behaviors over being green. This paper has highlighted various aspects of Consumer behavior and shown that consumer preference for greener goods could be influenced by marketing.
Products given greater exposure will be more likely to sell in greater numbers the current low levels of consumer awareness about global warming; India’s brands need to help Raise consumer consciousness. Indian manufacturers have yet to find a market for green Products, even as consumers have a low awareness of them because of the insufficient efforts Made by the marketers. But by embracing the green imperative, and investing in green initiatives and consumer education, Indian brands can break this vicious cycle This finding suggests the there is greater Use of marketing brands to sell green products that are genuinely environmentally friendly.
V. BENEFITS OF GREEN MARKETING
As a marketing actors you should give the best to customers, by making green marketing strategy you can do it.
For the better to consumers could mean you provide packaging that can support surrounding environment or it could be if you have a food product you can pay more attention to consumer health impacts. With more attention to that, you have given something better than other products and it can make you more stand out in front of the customer. As said by Carrie Walsh, director of marketing at Frito-Lay: “Our customers are consumers who care about their personal health and planetary health” (Source!). Doing a green marketing makes you different from the others, and this is will make its own interest to your product. However, implementing green marketing is certainly not easy, for the first you must know surefire steps that lead you to green marketing. Here are 3 tips for you when using green marketing to be more interesting.
Tips 1Be specific
In doing with green marketing campaign you should be more specific in choosing the words, choose words that are not vague and simple so your customers not confused. Please use the English language properly and correctly so that easily can be understood by your customers.
Tips 2Offer personal benefit
684 | P a g e Use a green marketing campaign is your chance to offer a personal benefit to your customers, such as campaign belonging by method, who provide home cleaning products have a green marketing campaign motto “Inspire a Happy, Healthy Home Revolution”. With that motto consumers will get a secure feeling will get products that are safe for them. Like you can see in the example picture below, method make customer feel secure because even flower still can live in the method bottle.
Tips 3
You must be honest In conducting your campaign act honesty and sincerity, by providing the best quality for your product is needed to be successful in doing this campaign, because green marketing is a form of manifestation of consciousness to become better and healthy.Not everyone is aware of the importance of protecting the environment, by making your green marketing campaign can educate your customers to become better at preserving nature.
By doing green marketing campaign you will get benefit as I have mentioned above, with a variety of benefits that you can certainly get, this campaign worth to become your consideration to breakthrough,a more humane can make your customers motivated to more loyalty in your product brand. How do you think? Do you want to add the other advantages? Don’t hesitate to share with us in the comment below.
Car sharing services
Car-sharing services address the longer-term solutions to consumer needs for better fuel savings and fewer traffic tie-ups and parking nightmares, to complement the environmental benefit of more open space and reduction of greenhouse gases.[citation needed] They may be thought of as a "time-sharing" system for cars.
Consumers who drive less than 7,500 miles a year and do not need a car for work can save thousands of dollars annually by joining one of the many services springing up, including Zip car.
Electronics sector
The consumer electronics sector provides room for using green marketing to attract new customers. One example of this is HP's promise to cut its global energy use 20 percent by the year 2010.[36] To accomplish this reduction below 2005 levels, The Hewlett-Packard Company announced plans to deliver energy-efficient products and services and institute energy-efficient operating practices in its facilities worldwide.
Products and services
Now companies are offering more eco-friendly alternatives for their customers. Recycled products for example, are one of the most popular alternatives that can benefit the environment. These benefits include sustainable forestry, clean air, energy efficiency, water conservation, and a healthy office. One example, is the E-commerce business and office supply company Shoplet which offers a web tool that allows you to replace similar items in your shopping cart with greener products.
Introduction of CNG in Delhi
New Delhi, capital of India, was being polluted at a very fast pace until Supreme Court of India forced a change to alternative fuels. In 2002, a directive was issued to completely adopt CNG in all public transport systems to curb pollution.[37]
VI. OPPORTUNITIES
685 | P a g e It appears that all types of consumers, both individual and industrial are becoming more concerned andaware 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 [Outman 1993].As demands change, many firmssee these changes as an opportunity to be exploited.Given these figures, it can be assumed that firms marketing goods with environmental characteristics willhave a competitive advantage over firms marketing non-environmentally responsible alternatives. There arenumerous examples of firms who have strived to become more environmentally responsible, in an attempt tobetter 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 .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.
VII. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Many firms are beginning to realize that they are members of the wider community and therefore must behave in an environmentally responsible fashion. This translates into firms that believe they must achieve environmental objectives as well as profit related objectives. This results in environmental issues being integrated into the firm's corporate culture. Firms in this situation can take two perspectives.
1) They can use the fact that they are environmentally responsible as a marketing tool
2) They can become responsible without promoting this fact. There are examples of firms adopting both strategies. Organizations like the Body Shop heavily promote the fact that they are environmentally responsible.
While this behavior is a competitive advantage, the firm was established specifically to offer consumers environmentally responsible alternatives to conventional cosmetic products. This philosophy is directly tied to the overall corporate culture, rather than simply being a competitive tool. An example of a firm that does not promote its environmental initiatives is Coca-Cola. They have invested large sums of money in various recycling activities, as well as having modified their packaging to minimize its environmental impact. While being concerned about the environment, Coke has not used this concern as a marketing tool. Thus many consumers may not realize that Coke is a very environmentally committed organization. Another firm who is very environmentally responsible but does not promote this fact, at least outside the organization, is Walt Disney World (WDW).
VIII. GOVERNMENTAL PRESSURE
As with all marketing related activities, governments want to "protect" consumers and society; thisProtection has significant green marketing implications. Governmental regulations relating to environmental.Marketing are designed to protect consumers in several ways:
, 1) reduce production of harmful goods or byproducts;
2) Modify consumer and industry's use and/or consumption of harmful goods; or 3) ensure that All types of consumers have the ability to evaluate the environmental composition of goods.
686 | P a g e Governments establish regulations designed to control the amount of hazardous wastes produced by firms.
Many by-products of production are controlled through the issuing of various environmental licenses, thus Modifying organizational behavior. In some cases governments try to "induce" final consumers to become more responsible. For example, some governments have introduced voluntary curb-side recycling programs. Making it easier for consumers to act responsibly. In other cases governments tax individuals who act in an Irresponsible fashion. For example in Australia there is a higher gas tax associated with leaded petrol. One of the more recent publicized environmental regulations undertaken by governments has been theEstablishment of guidelines designed to "control" green marketing claims.
IX. COMPETITIVE PRESSURE
Another major force in the environmental marketing area has been firms' desire to maintain theirCompetitive position. In many cases firms observe competitors promoting their environmental behaviors and Attempt to emulate this behavior. In some instances this competitive pressure has caused an entire industryto modify and thus reduce its detrimental environmental behavior. For example, it could be argued thatXerox's "Revive 100%
Recycled paper" was introduced a few years ago in an attempt to address the Introduction of recycled photocopier paper by other manufacturers. In another example when one tunamanufacture stopped using driftnets the others followed suit [Advertising Age 1991].
XI. COST OR PROFIT ISSUES
Reduce waste, but reduce the need for some raw materials. This serves as a double cost savings, since both Waste and raw material are reduced. In other cases firms attempt to find end-of-pipe solutions, instead of minimizing waste. In these situations Firms try to find markets or uses for their waste materials, where one firm's waste becomes another firm's Input of production. One Australian example of this is a firm who produces acidic waste water as a byproduct of production and sells it to a firm involved in neutralizing base materials.
The last way in which cost or profit issues may affect firms' environmental marketing activities is that newIndustries may be developed. This can occur in two ways: 1) a firm develops a technology for reducingWaste and sells it to other firms; or 2) a waste recycling or removal industry develops [Yurman 1994].
For Example, firms that clean the oil in large industrial condensers increase the life of those condensers, Removing the need for replacing the oil, as well as the need to dispose of the waste oil. This reduces Operating costs for those owning the condensers and generates revenue for those firms cleaning the oil.
XII. SOME PROBLEMS WITH GOING GREEN
No matter why a firm uses green marketing there are a number of potential problems that they must overcome.
One of the main problems is that firms using green marketing must ensure that their activities are not misleading to consumers or industry, and do not breach any of the regulations or laws dealing with environmental marketing. For example marketers in the US must ensure their green marketing claims can meet the following set of criteria, in order to comply with the FTC's guidelines. Green marketing claims must clearly state environmental benefits;
• Explain environmental characteristics;
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• Explain how benefits are achieved;
• Ensure comparative differences are justified;
• Ensure negative factors are taken into consideration; and
• Only use meaningful terms and pictures.
Another problem firm’s face is that those who modify their products due to increased consumer concern must contend with the fact that consumers' perceptions are sometimes not correct. Take for example the McDonald's case where it has replaced its clam shells with plastic coated paper. There is ongoing scientific debate which is more environmentally friendly. Some scientific evidence suggests that when taking a cradleto-grave approach, polystyrene is less environmentally harmful. If this is the case McDonald's bowed to consumer pressure, yet has chosen the more environmentally harmful option. When firms attempt to become socially responsible, they may face the risk that the environmentally responsible action of today will be found to be harmful in the future. Take for example the aerosol industry which has switched from CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) to HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) only to be told HFCs are also a greenhouse gas. Some firms now use DME (dimethyl ether) as an aerosol propellant, which may also harm the ozone layer. Given the limited scientific knowledge at any point in time, it may be impossible for a firm to be certain they have made the correct environmental decision. This may explain why some firms, like Coca-Cola and Walt Disney World, are becoming socially responsible without publicizing thePoint.
They may be protecting themselves from potential future negative backlash; if it is determined they made the wrong decision in the past. While governmental regulation is designed to give consumers the opportunity to make better decisions or to motivate them to be more environmentally responsible, there is difficulty in establishing policies that will address all environmental issues. For example, guidelines developed to control environmental marketing address only a very narrow set of issues, i.e., the truthfulness of environmental marketing claims [Schlossberg 1993]. If governments want to modify consumer behavior they need to establish a different set of regulations. Thus governmental attempts to protect the environment may result in a proliferation of regulations and guidelines, with no one central controlling body.
XIII. 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. Consumers gave the following reasons for why they damage the environment.Green marketing should not neglect the economic aspect of marketing.
Marketers need to understand the implications of green marketing. If you think customers are not concerned about environmental issues or will not pay a premium for products that is more eco-responsible, think again.
You must find an opportunity to enhance you product's performance and strengthen your customer's loyalty and command a higher price. Green marketing is still in its infancy and a lot of research is to be done on Green marketing to fully explore its potential.
688 | P a g e The aim of this study, by analyzing the impact of environmental awareness, green product features, green product prices, green product advertisement and demographical features of consumers on purchasing behaviors of consumers, is to determine whether there is a significant relationship between them and if there is, to reveal direction and level of this relationship and hence to give advices to companies producing environment-friendly products. As result of the study, as environment consciousness, green product features, green promotion and green price increase, green purchasing behavior increases as well. In most of the studies conducted until today, a negative relation between green price and purchasing behavior has been observed. Nevertheless, the result of our study shows that people are now willing to pay more for environment-friendly product against environmental pollution that threatens our world together with developing technology and industrialization. It is required that consumers have environmental awareness in the name of protecting the environment by non- governmental organization, governments, companies and individuals. Moreover, companies should especially pay attention to promotion activities and should increase their activities in this direction and should develop their contents
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