Green Marketing : Think Before You Act Essay

assuage any guilt they might feel about consuming mass quantities of unnecessary, disposable goods by dutifully tossing these items into their recycling bins and hauling them out to the curb each week”. (Westervelt, Amy. "Can Recycling Be Bad for the Environment?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 5 Dec. 2015). So why is the reason that companies are starting to “Go Green”? Its clearly obvious that the change in America from an industrial country to a environmental country has taught big business how to market environmentalism in mass quantities of their product. The strategy of the consumption-environment mindset are increasing rapidly. If this trend of buying without thinking does not slow down, with problems like not shifting priority from consumption to being environmentally aware, things will certainly worsen. On the topic of green marketing, people often see that green marketing refers to the advertising of objects or products with environmental characteristics to them (Like the Nestle bottle, for example). Terms like “Environmentally Friendly”, “Refillable”, and “Recyclable”, are some of the things people associate with green marketing. In reality

The Marketing process is made up of simple concepts that involve lots of research on the part of the marketer. The process begins with understanding the consumer, without knowing what consumers need or want, it would be extremely hard for firms to both develop and sell a product. Knowing that consumers want more green products due to growing environmental concerns is a very important detail. Needs and wants are what fuel consumer purchases and marketers must perform research in order to best serve their customers. Through this research, marketers are led to the next step of the process and can now develop a customer driven marketing strategy. Here, the firm must decide how it will differentiate its product from others on the market.

As we have seen an increase in awareness around sustainability and climate change, with the help of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth documentary in 2006, we see organizations moving towards mitigating the effects of climate change in various ways (Al Gore, n.d). As this corporate social responsibility has become more prevalent, organizations are now pushing their green agenda by publishing sustainability reports, doing mass marketing and implementing sustainable business practices to portray the image that they too are working towards protecting the earth’s natural environment all the while focusing on their underlying goal of selling their products and

In 1979, Henion first presented the definition of greeen marketing. He assumed that the programs and activities of green markeintg are foucing on the environment –friendly sectors, According to Chamorro and Bañegil, green marketing is the way to conceive exchange relationships that goes beyond consumers’ current needs while taking social interest in protecting the natural environment into consideration (Chamorro & Bañegil, 2006, p. 12). Likewise,

Sustainability has achieved a more ecological tone in the past few decades in terms of a business model, but it originally derives from the concept that a business is successful due to the interconnected areas of economics, culture and ecology. Sustainability is now becoming a somewhat fad and thus it is understandable that it could be misconstrued by some as a form of “greenwashing”. Greenwashing is the idea that a company markets their “green” or environmentally friendly changes in policy and values, despite no actual concrete changes in these areas, for example some argue that Fiji Water greenwasher in terms of their marketing as an environmentally friendly water company despite their little effort to actually go carbon-neutral. Many companies are seeing the

In the article “Are You Being Green Washed?” Robbins (2008) states the image of “greenwashing” which is that numerous number of companies promote their services and their products as environmentally friendly but in reality it is harmful for the environment. The author illustrates that by giving some example of companies that claim they are eco- friendly such as Palm oil and Rayon. He states the impacts of such claim on the environment and consumers in some ways. However, in order to protect the environment form the negative impacts of globalization and consumerism, government and individual must make a joint effort by enact laws and educate people and companies about the impacts of such problem.

Being “Green” is an economic and socially driven philosophy that many companies adapt in an effort to help improve the environment and attract more customers into buying their products. Companies claiming to be “Green” started when more customers became aware of the growing effects of global warming and began to show interest in helping the environment by recycling, reusing, and reducing their products. Two companies, McDonalds and Apple, sought to join the Green Movement. They make the company look “Green” by eliminating their waste products that mostly end up in landfills and by saving energy through renewable sources. However, their claims may be questioned because of the way their products are made and the transportation involved in shipping them. In the book, Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Crisis, Vandana Shiva expresses how companies play a big role in global warming due to deforestation and chemical emissions being released by the burning of fossil

Today, society is cluttered with marketing activities, and these activities surround us constantly. Among the issues of marketing, a vital part that influences human roles and activities is “environment”, more specifically the “green environment”. The green environment is now a leading concern for marketers. Moreover, on a global level, there is an increased awareness of global warming and adverse climatic conditions and as a result there is a spur in interest toward environmental protection and sustainable development. This study attempts to find out if Australian young consumers’ pro-environmental concerns, awareness and knowledge about environment related issues impact their buying behavior to prefer and buy eco-friendly products and pay a premium price for such products.

“The four Ps can contribute to a company’s positioning as focused on sustainability. If a product or service is competitive in terms of price, then a sustainability focus on product attributes, place, or promotion can give that product or service an advantage, particularly among those consumers most interested in sustainability, such as super or middle green consumers. Sustainable marketing often requires creativity in marketing different than with traditional products, but at its core is truthful about the ecological and social impacts of products and services. The consumers that will be most attracted to sustainable products and services will also tend to be the most scrutinizing about ecological and social impacts and most interested in the truth and transparency.”( Marketing Focus on the Triple Bottom Line: People, Planet, and Profit. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr.

We’ve all heard about whitewashing: trying to cover something up that is unsavoury or unwanted, and hoping that no one sees through the white paint. It’s a metaphor meaning to gloss over or cover up vices. It’s leaving out an important detail in a story, or distracting people from mistakes that have been made. Greenwashing, is cleverly derived from “whitewashing” to describe a more modern concept: pretending to be more environmentally friendly than you actually are – hence the “green”.

In this day and age companies have mastered the technique of misleading customers by fabricating false claims about a green product or service that they swear to provide. This insincere display of information is called ‘Greenwashing’, a spin-off of ‘Whitewashing’. Greenwashing could be said to be a global phenomenon and it’s commonly seen in advertisements, on products packing, websites, emails, speeches, and videos (just to name a few). Greenwashing is a thought out process, a planned and typically well designed campaign. There is a wide range of reasons why companies are eager to partake in greenwashing; divert attention for regulatory change, to persuade critics or consumers, expand the company's

In the business world, companies compete for the lowest price because they want consumers to purchase their products. If consumers buy them, corporations generate money. Companies don’t care about the methods to obtain the lowest retail price for their products. They will do it even if it means that companies have to degrade working condition, paying worker less, or even ignoring regulation and unloading harmful waste straight into the environment. However, in recent times, more and more people are joining the “conscious consumerism” movement. People start to favor products and companies that are environmentally and socially friendly. This also propels the idea of “conscious capitalism”, which when companies choose to follow a path that can bring benefits to both the people and the environment. Some companies respond to conscious consumerism by producing more environmentally friendly products, while others respond by “greenwashing” their products and themselves. “Greenwashing” is when Companies start to shine their spotlight on their green side and hide their destructive and unpleasant side. Greenwashing is an easy way for the companies to associate themselves with an image of environmentally responsible and “conscious capitalism”. However, companies shouldn’t be allowed to “greenwash” their products because it prevents conscious consumerism from moving forward and harms the environment even more.

Nowadays, the whole world is developing rapidly in a lot of sectors such as economics, infrastructure, production and industry. The field of marketing is mostly affiliated with the business sector, especially in the production, consumption and the public opinion about these activities. However, as reflected to this rapid development, mankind is polluting the environment in many ways and putting Mother Nature in grave danger. There are still many countries that use a production and consumption method that harms the environment because of their lack of technical equipment and knowledge. In order to maintain long-lasting development, the United Nations (UN) has established the sustainable development goals (SDG). One of these goals is "responsible production and consumption"(UN.org, 2015). From a perspective of a marketing person, the business sector has a great potential to contribute to this goal by promoting a green environment to the public, encouraging industrial sectors to consent green production and a campaign to plant more trees in the deserted areas.

This paper will outline the sustainable marketing plan for a client. As the marketing consultant I will first analyse the organisation and its stakeholders2 and will offer a market report on this company, before putting a final report together (which will follow this initial paper).

In today’s day and age, everyone is concerned about the environment. Our society is increasingly encouraged to “go green,” to do our part in making the world a cleaner, more eco-friendly place. Green marketing is one major strategy being used to promote such efforts, but is it effective? There is some debate about this concept, including the history of green marketing, the problems with green marketing so far, the effectiveness of marketing schemes like Sunchips and Toyota, and the strategies that could be used to increase the ability of green marketing. While protecting our planet is a noble concept, its execution seems to be a little vague. Of all the aspects concerning green marketing, one thing is clear: our planet still has a long