Business Forecasting : Consumer Behavior For Green Products

Since there is a real passion around “green” products, an eco-friendly brand which promotes fair trade has a significant value-added.

First, Mark Earls, author of Designing for the Herd holds a unique perspective on the most effective approach for marketing products and services. Earls believes that despite the common belief in a society of individuality, we need to market less toward the individual and more towards the herd. In other words, “…we are a ‘We’ species laboring under the illusion of ‘I’…” (Earls, 2003, p. 312). The individual is a social creature and relies on schemas learned from others while making decisions. Thus, stressing the importance of social influence on individual attitudes and behaviors. While Earls does not specifically address the marketing of green products, this model of mass behavior is intriguing and readily could unfurl into promoting the realm of green design.

Since the mid 1990s consumers had become more concerned about environmental issues (Strong, 1996). He defines a green consumer as someone who rejects products that are harmful to him/her self or others around him, its manufacturing process damage the environment, consume a large amount of energy, involves unnecessary waste, and use material originated from threatened animal. According to Uusitalo and Oksanen (2004), this consumption concept is known as ethical consumerism. They suggest that ethical consumerism includes concerns about unethical and unfair global trades, like child labor, low paid labor, disrespect of human rights, animal testing, and environmental damage. These concerns had led the origin of sustainable marketing, which means that enterprises build and maintain sustainable relationship with consumers, social environment, and natural environment (Lee, 2008). Lee (2008), predicts two consequences of these increasing sustainable concerns in the near future. First, he says that concepts of green products or going green will be the mainstream. Second, Companies from developing countries will develop international green campaigns to increase their sales, expand their markets, and establish positive image trough green marketing.

While research has indicated a consumer preference for environmentally-preferable products, there appears to be a significant gap between environmental beliefs and action (Gabler, Butler, Adams 2013; Kronrod and Wathieu 2012; Peattie, K. and

In their studies, the found out that quality of the product was affect the most on consumer buying decision. Consumer will avoid buying the product even though the products is 100% green products because the product have low quality (Bei & Simpson, 1995). In (M. Laroche et al., 2001) research, they found out that consumer willing to spend more money on green products and did not feel troublesome to behave in an ecologically manner. They also stated that company and marketer are the important factor that will affect consumer to purchase green products because they can educate consumer on the important to purchase green product and change their lifestyle to go for eco-friendly

Since the low-income class has huge demand for food and basic consumer goods (e.g. washing powder, shampoo and soaps), international consumer goods companies, such as P&G, can tap into the market. Even more, they can use this market as a testing ground for eco-friendly products. Because these products can reduce the use of resources such as water.17

Going Green, Eco-Friendly, Green Product are all buzzwords many companies use in order to glean

A company stating that they identify with being green is an intelligent statement. Although it may seem unimportant, customers will refuse to purchase products from a particular business if they choose not participate in protecting the environment. In

In an increasingly complex industry and market place, Australian cosmetics manufacturers thrive by going green. Mother Nature Health Products Australia is one relevant example in this sense, yet it is a small size company, competing on niche markets. The company could benefit from an increase in its product palette, and the specific recommendation formulated in this sense is that of developing a new sunscreen lotion, with 100 per cent natural ingredients, and added red raspberry seed oil. To ensure the success of the new item, the company would have to develop a sustainable marketing campaign.

The company’s values are firmly rooted in being an eco-friendly, greener way of doing its business. Every product we offer should deliver these values to our most valuable assets, our customers.

Last decade, no one knows or cares about the word “sustainability”; however, the world we know today is very different. Today, we encounter the term “sustainability” or “green”, “environmentally friendly”, and “organic”” everywhere. It is easy to find those terms in products or services claiming to be green in retail stores, or TV or online advertisement. As more people are becoming environmentally conscious, businesses and organizations are looking for ways to drive more profits while reducing the ecological footprints and minimizing their negative impacts on the environment. Furthermore, today, more products are claiming to be green more than ever; however, the definition of green is still unclear. For this paper, I will introduce a term, “greenwash”, how it relates to green and sustainability, and how it relates to all of us. In addition, I will focus on Vitacost Extra Virgin Certified Organic Coconut Oil, a product that claims to be green and sustainable and determines if it is really green.

What seems to be the trend in today’s market and what some are already practicing is the “green” life style. There is a need to create a product that can adhere to this lifestyle in a way that helps the planet, can be done safely and in style, with effortless routine, while clearly stating that you are contributing to the “green” way of life. Environmentalism, which is associated with the color green, is a broad philosophy and social movement which is centered on a concern for the conservation and improvement of the environment (Wikipedia, 2009). This movement is

Large corporations such as Wal-Mart and Target have started to incorporate green changes such as composting and recycling, changing transportation routes to save gas, reducing packaging, and stocking their shelves with greener products (Lorette, n.d.). By doing this, the companies have seen a positive response and will continue to find ways to institute more of

Product- In order to satisfy the needs of consumers who want to reduce needless wastage of resources or pollution, products need to be developed according to them. Adopting the current social trends in to the designing of the new product like organic products or local sourcing of green chemicals helps in the purchase decision.

The United States is a powerful economic nation, existing broad prospects for the food industry. PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, forecasted that it will maintain stable growth, and reach 2.9% CAGR by 2022 (“U.S. food”, 2016). Hurst (2014) believes that the green product needs in America appeared earlier, brands like Whole Foods Markets and Ben & Jerry’s started to enter the organic food market back in 1980s, and in 2012, Whole Foods