Om Kothari Institute of Management & Research, Kota

Green marketing a new phenomenon of marketing

MS Richa Chaturvedi, Mr.Prashant Unnithan

Authors information Name Richa Chaturvedi

Designation

-Asst professor

Institute

-Om Kothari institute Of

Management & Research Kota Mailing Address -44,adarsh colony,chopra farm, dadwara

kota

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-9783585616

Mail

richa31_2006@yahoo.co.in,mishrapratha@gmail.com

Co Authors information Name Mr.Prashant Unnithan

Designation

-Asst professor

Institute

-Jaipur National University

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-9772058632

Mail

Hello2pras@yahoo.co.in

Green marketing - a new phenomenon of Marketing Abstract Marketing is always considered as a consumer oriented concept, all marketing practices always focused on providing desired satisfaction to customer. But as we all know business world is so very dynamic no concept no technique can be remain forever. As the changes occur in business environment especially in term of consumer taste & preference marketers has to change in their activities accordingly. Growing concern of the customers about environmental issues & health can also be considered as a drastic change in consumers perception. Now consumer prefers to have those products which are healthy for their own health as well as for the environment. Green marketing comes as a panacea in this concern. Green marketing is concerned as a marketing of product that is presumed to be environmentally safe. It incorporates a broad range of activities include product modification, changes to the production process, packaging change as well as modifying advertising. This paper focus on identifying various factor responsible for green marketing, it also focus on various green marketing strategies used by the marketers, green marketing mix. Key words: s concept of green marketing ,Motives behind green marketing strategies, elements of green marketing mix. Other strategies targeting, positioning .Challenges for green marketing practices. Managerial implications.

What is green marketing Environmental issues have gained importance in business as well as in public life through out the world. It is not like that a few leaders of different countries or few big renowned business houses are concerned

about the day to day deterioration of oxygen level in our atmosphere but every common citizen of our country and the world is concerned about this common threat of global warming. So in this scenario of global concern, corporate houses has taken greenmarketing as a part of their strategy to promote products by employing environmental claims either about their attributes or about the systems, policies and processes of the firms that manufacture or sell them. Clearly green marketing is part and parcel of over all corporate strategy; along with manipulating the traditional marketing mix (product, price, promotion And place) , it require an understanding of public policy process. So we can say green marketing covers a broad range of activities. Different writers has given different definition about green marketing which tried to cover all major components of green marketing According to Polonsky (1994)- green or environmental marketing consists of all activities, designed to generate and facilitate any exchange indented to satisfy human needs and wants, such that the satisfaction of these needs and wants occur with minimum detrimental impact on the natural environment. Mintu and Lozada(1993) defined green marketing as the application of marketing tools to facilitate exchanges that satisfy organizational and individual goals in such a way that the preservation, protection and conservation of the physical environment is upheld. According to Stanton and Futrell(1987)-all activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchanges intended to satisfy human needs and wants; therefore it ensures that the interest of the organization and all it consumers are protected, as voluntary exchange will not take place unless the buyers and sellers are mutually benefited. The definition also includes the protection of natural environment by attempting to minimize the detrimental impact; this exchange has on the environment. This second point is very important for human consumption by its very nature is destructive to the natural environment. So we can see that green marketing encompasses a broad range of activities including product modification, change to production process, packaging change as well as modifying advertising.

Why Green marketing Firms may choose to green their systems, policies and products due to economic and noneconomic pressures from their consumers, business partners, regulators, citizen groups and other stakeholders(non market environment).some other reasons may includes: Some scholar claim that green policies/products are profitable: green policies can reduce costs; green firms can shape future regulations and reap first mover advantage.

Now days firms are becoming more concerned about their social responsibilities (S.R). they have taken S.R as a good strategic move to build up an image in the heart of consumers. Even the socially responsible firms are getting leverage, whenever they intend to enter into foreign countries. There are example of firms like ITC, HLL (Surf excel) who are heavily promoting them as an environmentally concerned firms, where as there is example of firms who are working in this direction in a silence manner like coca cola, who have invested corers 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 their concern as a marketing tool. Change in customers attitude: With increasing concern about environment, consumers attitude towards firms having green policies or green products are becoming motivating factor.

Governmental pressure: In all most all civilized countries Govt. has the law to protect the consumers and the environment from the harmful goods or byproducts and ensure through law that all types of consumers have the ability to evaluate the environmental composition of goods. Govt. established several regulations to control the amount of hazardous waste

produced by firms and many by-products of production are controlled through the issuing of various environmental licenses, thus shaping the behavior of organization towards more socially responsible one.

Competitive pressure: Competition is the integral part of business; and you can not Over-look any competitive action taken by your competitor. So to be in the market you have to have a vigil over your competitors move for marketing its products. Some firms have taken green-marketing as a strategy to build up its image rather than inculcate it as a part of the policy and work silence. In some instances this competitive pressure has caused an entire industry to modify and thus reduce its detrimental environmental behavior.

Cost or profit issue: Firms may also use green-marketing in an attempt to have an Control over the cost associated with waste disposal. Therefore firms that would able to introduce green-marketing by not inculcating or lesser use of harmful ingredients would able to reduce its operating cost to a considerable extend.

Green Marketing Strategies Marketing mix elements that are product, price, place & promotion are always considered as pillars for any marketing strategies .without considering them properly no marketing strategies can be implemented effectively & successfully. As green marketing emerged as a new phenomenon in marketing .to be part of marketing it can be effective without considering it marketing mix elements or green marketing mix elements these elements are:

GREEN PRODUCT The products have to be developed depending on the needs of the customers who prefer environment friendly products. Products can be made from recycled materials or from used goods. Efficient products not only save water, energy and money, but also reduce harmful effects on the environment. Green chemistry forms the growing focus of product development. The marketer's role in product management includes providing product designers with market-driven trends and customer requests for green product attributes such as energy saving, organic, green chemicals, local sourcing, etc., For example, Nike is the first among the shoe companies to market itself as green. It is marketing its Air Jordan shoes as environment-friendly, as it has significantly reduced the usage of harmful glue adhesives. It has designed this variety of shoes to emphasize that it has reduced wastage and used environment-friendly materials . GREEN PRICE Green pricing takes into consideration the people, planet and profit in a way that takes care of the health of employees and communities and ensures efficient productivity. Value can be added to it by changing its appearance, functionality and through customization, etc. Wall Mart unveiled its first recyclable cloth shopping bag. IKEA started charging consumers when they opted for plastic bags and encouraged people to shop using its "Big Blue Bag". GREEN PLACE Green place is about managing logistics to cut down on transportation emissions, thereby in effect aiming at reducing the carbon footprint. For example, instead of marketing an imported mango juice in India it can be licensed for local production. This avoids shipping of the product from far away, thus reducing shipping cost and more importantly, the consequent carbon emission by the ships and other modes of transport.

GREEN PROMOTION

Green promotion involves configuring the tools of promotion, such as advertising, marketing materials, signage, white papers, web sites, videos and presentations by keeping people, planet and profits in mind. British petroleum (BP) displays gas station which its sunflower motif and boasts of putting money into solar power. Indian Tobacco Company has introduced environmental-friendly papers and boards, which are free of elemental chlorine. Toyota is trying to push gas/electric hybrid technology into much of its product line. It is also making the single largest R&D investment in the every-elusive hydrogen car and promoting itself as the first eco-friendly car company. International business machines Corporation (IBM) has revealed a portfolio of green retail store technologies and services to help retailers improve energy efficiency in their IT operations. The center piece of this portfolio is the IBM SurePOS 700, a point-of-sale system that, according to IBM, reduces power consumption by 36% or more. We even see the names of retail outlets like "Reliance Fresh", fresh@Namdhari Fresh and Desi, which while selling fresh vegetables and fruits, transmit an innate communication of green marketing.Green marketer can attract customers on the basis of performance, money savings, health and convenience, or just plain environmental friendliness, so as to target a wide range of green consumers. Green Targeting Consumers often encourage companies to start with green products, as energy-efficient light bulbs, ecological food or ecological clothes what cause less harm to the nature and to the health or energy saving services. More and more consumers seek to become green and want to pay a competitive price or even higher price for that. The target group of green products and serviced are existing green consumers or potential green consumers who care about green company efforts to supply with green products to the market and to provide with added-value to consumers.

Green positioning

Strategic positioning is about building a picture of the market and the interrelationships between the targeted customers, competitors and the competitive advantage. The company should target a segment of the market where it can satisfy customer needs better than its competitors, based on the companys distinctive strengths (Christmann, 2000). Strategic positions can emerge from three different sources (Porter, 1995): Customers need Customers accessibility Range of a companys products or services Needs-based positioning focus on if the companys strategy is about serving most or all the needs of a particular part of its customers. Accessbased positioning focus on customers that is accessible in different ways, which can be based on geography, how dense the customers are situated and so forth. Variety-based positioning centre on the product or service varieties rather than customer segments. A company can base its strategic position on one or a combination of the three (Porter, 1995). Having defined positioning, strategy can be identified as the creation of a unique, valuable position, involving a different set of activities.

Challenges for going green uses Majority of the consumers are not willing to pay a premium for green products Green products require renewable and recyclable material, Requires a technology, which requires huge investment in R & D Water treatment technology, which is too costly Majority of the people are not aware of green products and their which is costly

MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS Green marketing subsumes greening products as well as greening firms. Though normative concerns impact consumers and firms decision making, economic aspects of green marketing should not be neglected. Managers need to identify what ought to be greened: systems, processes or products? Consumer apathy to green products is due to many factors, including inadequate information about levels of greenness, lack of credibility of firms claims and the tendency to free ride. It also seems that green products that offer direct excludable benefits to consumers (such as pharmaceuticals with minimum side effect and nutritious and natural foods) would have higher acceptability. Consumer apathy may also be attributed to the belief that individual actions alone cannot impact the macro picture, and collective endeavors are impeded by free riding. To tackle these market-related problems, perhaps initiatives in the nonmarket environment may bear fruit. To curb free riding and to reassure consumers that their actions will have macro impact, some green marketers favor policies/regulations that lead to collective sacrifices. This leads to another set of challenges, because environmental issues are often highly contested in terms of their etiologies and solutions. Many such disputes are attributable to ideological and economic factors. To some, collective sacrifices signify intrusive big government and sidestepping individual responsibility. Economic considerations are even more complex. There is a rich literature in public policy on how the distribution of benefits and costs impacts policy processes and what types of political strategy are appropriate in different contexts (Lowie, 1964; Wilson, 1980). Actors may favor the status quo if the proposed collective sacrifice imposes costs on them. If the benefits are diffused, policy supporters could have Difficulties in mobilizing winning coalitions. On the other hand, with concentrated benefits and diffused costs, mobilizing winning coalitions to support collective sacrifices is easier. When both benefits and costs are concentrated or diffused, the outcomes are difficult to predict. As this discussion suggests, the tasks of green marketers who favor collective

sacrifices as vehicles for achieving their objectives are complicated by the politics of the nonmarket environment (Koll man and Prakash, 2001).Information provision about greenness is a key component of green marketing. Clearly, firms should not advertise products environmental benefits unless such claims can be credibly substantiated. . This paper has identified different strategies that the company must follow in order to face the new world challenges.

A Political Economy Model of Enviro-marketing Strategies

With the help of this model the marketing managers will be able to better understand the critical forces that drive organizations to become environmentally oriented, their association with marketing strategy formulation will be established and the ultimate impact on marketing performance will be demonstrated. Companies that have adopted some types of environmental accountability have found Some benefits in the adaptation of an ecological approach. Some of the activities that have been implemented include building consumers demand for green products, spending revenues to educate buyers, Building new infra-structure to facilitate recycling and prevent pollution. Being branded a green company can be potentially beneficial to business organizations. The green image generate a more positive public image

which can, in turn, enhance sales, increase stock price and open access to public capital markets. It may enhance the overall perception of product quality and when coupled with environmental benefits inherent in a product and its use, may provide the added value that customer would favor. Key to success in green marketing Being genuine means a) That companies are actually doing what they claim to be doing in their green marketing campaign b) And that the rest of their business policies are consistent with whatever they are doing that's environmentally friendly. Both these conditions have to be met for their business to establish the kind of environmental credentials that will allow a green marketing campaign to succeed. Educating customers Isnt just a matter of letting people know companies are doing whatever they are doing to protect the environment, but also a matter of letting them know why it matters? Otherwise, for a significant portion of their target market, it's a case of "So what?" and their green marketing campaign goes nowhere. Giving customers an opportunity to participate Means personalizing the benefits of companys environmentally friendly actions, normally through letting the customer take part in positive environmental action.

Some cases: HLL (Surf-excel) some kids in Mumbais Bainganwadi slums are grateful to Surf-Excel, the Rs 485cr brand which introduces a feel-good marketing campaign-The Surf Excel 10/10 drive.

This the excel buyers the

saw surf in four

cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata Samsung an amount to HLL (now HUL). The company in turn donates that amount to an NGO that was involved in educating underprivileged children. Ponds: The Rs355cr brand ponds of HLL, tied up with United Nations Development Fund for Women. For every flap of ponds cold cream mailed by the consumers, the company would contribute Rs2/- to the fund to fight domestic violence. Even though the proportion of ad spends from its Rs1000cr advertising and promotion budget have been minimal, HLL says most of its brands will look for long term strategic Linkage with social causes.

Vice President Skin care, HLL, Ashok Venkatramani told CNBC-TV18, if the activity is not housed in brand promise, than it looks like a charitable activity and in my view, those activities are difficult to sustain in long run. In our case, specific to fair and lovely, or even ponds, these are strongly housed in what the brand stands for and what brand promise is all about, hence they are easy to sustain and will reap huge benefits.

Sun feast: Here another difference to note, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is being used to build individual brands rather than the corporate brand. A case in point is the Rs16000Cr ITC, that ran their CSR campaign, about putting India first for its e-copal initiative two years back. Cut to the present, the company has linked the Sun feast brand to its social forestry campaign, where the company chips in with 25 paisa for every pack of Sun feast biscuit and pasta sold and consumers, who buy the Atta brand, Aashirvaad, contribute towards ITCs rain harvesting campaign. Divisional chief executive, ITC, Ravi Navarre says, Consumers like to connect with brand, if the brand is seen as a socially responsible brand, then consumers get an emotional connect that far beyond just usage of the brand and consuming it. It is this higher level of

connect that we are attempting to create through this campaign.

Conclusion: Green marketing emerged as a new panacea of marketing. now a days when customers become cautious about their environment so it become compulsory for companies to incorporate green marketing practices in their strategies. Though there are many challenges in the way of green marketing in form of consumer awareness about it, its efficiency for the companies in terms of cost benefit .but by proper incorporation of green marketing phenomenon in business strategies company can improve its

profitability in term of money as well as securing favorable image in society.

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