An Overview on Green Marketing

Purview:


Green marketing is the marketing of products that are assumed to be environmentally safe. Business Dictionary defines green marketing as promotional activities aimed at taking advantage of changing consumer attitude towards a brand. Companies involved in green marketing make decisions relating to the entire process of the company’s products, such as methods of processing, packaging and distribution. It is also known as sustainable marketing, environmental marketing or ecological marketing.

History of Green Marketing:


Green marketing has been around for several decades. Green marketing began in the 1980’s, with the implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reports which provided an overview of companies’ environmental, social, and financial impacts. When consumers were able to monitor a company’s operational practices, they were better able to understand which companies were wasteful and which were implementing sustainable measures. With the establishment of CSRs and the publication of several books highlighting green marketing, the movement gained traction as well as evolved to become more profitable.

Need of Green Marketing:


 Concept of green marketing concerns with protection of ecological environment. Modern marketing has created a lot of problems. Growth in marketing activities resulted into rapid economic growth, mass production with the use of advanced technology, comfortable and luxurious lifestyle, severe competition, use of unhealthy marketing tactics and techniques to attract customers, exaggeration in advertising, liberalization and globalization, creation of multinational companies, retailing and distribution by giant MNCs, etc., created many problems. These all factors have threatened welfare of people and ecological balance as well. Green marketing is an attempt to protect consumer welfare and environment (the nature) through production, consumption, and disposal of eco-friendly products.

Basically, green marketing concerns with three aspects:

  1. Promotion of production and consumption of pure/quality products,
  2. Fair and just dealing with customers and society, and
  3. Protection of ecological environment.

The Green Marketing Mix:


Green Marketing

  • Product– A producer should offer ecological products which must not contaminate the environment.
  • Price– Pricing green products and services seem difficult, but it shouldn’t be. The price of green product has to be affordable for the customers to encourage purchase.
  • Place– The environment where a sale happens can have a big impact on the outcome. We should make this environment more natural and eco-friendly, which in turn will increase the chances of making an eco-sale.
  • Promotion– A communication with the market should put stress on environmental aspects. The fact that a company spends expenditures on environmental protection should be advertised. Sponsoring the natural environment is also very important. And last but not least, ecological products will probably require special sales promotions.

Importance of Green Marketing:


  • It encourages integrated efforts for purity in production and consumption as well.
  • It promotes worldwide efforts to recycle wastes of consumer and industrial products.
  • It provides more emphasis on social and environmental accountability of producers.
  • It promotes consumption of herbal products instead of processed products.
  • It assists in regulating strict provisions to protect forests, flora and fauna, protection of the rivers, lakes and seas from pollution.
  • It encourages imposition of strict norms for pollution control and strict legal provisions for restricting duplication or adulteration.

Conclusion:


Green marketing is a tool for protecting the environment for the future generation. It has a positive impact on environmental safety. Because of the growing concern of environmental protection, there is an emergence of a new market which is the greenmarket. For companies to survive in this market, they need to go green in all aspect of their business. Consumers want to identify themselves with companies that are green compliant and are willing to pay a premium for a greener life style. As such, green marketing is not just an environmental protection tool but also, a marketing strategy.

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Published by

Shushant mallik ( Chartered Accountant & Cost Accountant )

Shushant is a Chartered Accountant and a Cost Accountant. He has secured All India Rank-34 in CMA Final Exams. He is a Financial Controller at Mount Meru Soyco Limited, Rwanda. He is a administrator of this site . In his spare time he hang out with his friends and discuss about the current issues in market. You can find his latest blog posts at www.enrollmyexperience.com and at his facebook profile.

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