Sustainable Marketing - A Theoretical Perspective - IJGHC

IJGHC; December 2012 – February 2013; Vol.2, No.1, 149-153.
E-ISSN: 2278-3229
International Journal of Green and Herbal Chemistry
Review Article
An International Peer Review E-3 Journal of Sciences
Available online at www.ijghc.com
Green Chemistry
Sustainable Marketing - A Theoretical Perspective
M. Padmavathi
Department of Biotechnology, DVR & DR. HS MIC College of Technology,
Kanchikacherla, A.P. India
Received: 20 January 2013; Revised: 4 February 2013; Accepted: 6 February 2013
Abstract: Green, environmental and eco-marketing are part of the new marketing
approaches which do not just refocus, adjust or enhance existing marketing thinking and
practice, but seek to challenge those approaches and provide a sustainability. Many
consumers are environmentally conscious, seeking eco-friendly products and services
from organizations that are socially responsible. The present paper gives the idea of all
the implications of green marketing, product processing and packaging principles to
reduce pollution and to protect the environment.
Key words: Green marketing, Green consumers, Green washing and Green labelling.
INTRODUCTION
Green marketing is the process of selling products or services based on their environmental benefits. The
product or service should be an eco-friendly one. Green marketing is the marketing of products that are
presumed to be environmentally safe 1 . Green marketing is the potential consumers will view a product or
service's "greenness" as a benefit and base their buying decision. Assumption of green marketing is that
consumers will be willing to pay more for green products than they would for a less-green comparable
alternative product. Green marketing is growing greatly as increasing numbers of consumers.
Thus green marketing shows a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the
production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. The meaning of green
marketing is different in the existence of varying social, environmental and retail definitions attached to
this term 1 . This ecological marketing also referred as green marketing or environmental marketing or eco
marketing. Eco-marketing belongs to the group of approaches which seek to address the lack of fit
between marketing as it currently practiced and the ecological and social realities of the wider marketing
environment 2 .
149 IJGHC; 2012-2013, Vol.2, No.1, 149-153.

Sustainable...
M. Padmavathi
The term Green Marketing came into familiar in the late 1980s and early 1990s 3 . The American
Marketing Association (AMA) held the first workshop on "Ecological Marketing" in 1975 4 .The
proceedings of this workshop resulted in a book on green marketing entitled "Ecological Marketing" 5 . In
1987 a document prepared by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED)
defined sustainable development as meeting “the needs of the present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own need”, this became known as the Brundtland Report and was
another step towards widespread thinking on sustainability in everyday activity. Green marketing came in
the form of publication by Ken Peattie (1992) in the United Kingdom and by Jacqelyn Ottman (1993) in
the United States of America 6 . Jacqelyn also wrote a book on "The New Rules of Green Marketing:
Strategies, Tools, and Inspiration for Sustainable Branding" 7 . In this, he mentioned an organizational
standpoint; environmental considerations should be integrated into all aspects of marketing — new
product development and communications. In this, he suggests besides suppliers and retailer’s new
stakeholders, educators, members of the community, regulators, and NGOs are included. Environmental
issues should be balanced with primary customer needs.
Fig 1: Green marketing helps to protect the nature
Consumer power to effect positive environmental change called as ‘Green consumer’ 8 . In essence, there
is no definition of "how good is good enough" when it comes to a product or company making green
marketing claims. This lack of consensus—by consumers, marketers, activists, regulators, and influential
people—has slowed the growth of green products, says Makower, because companies are often reluctant
to promote their green attributes, and consumers are often skeptical about claims.
Green marketing has continued to gain adherents, particularly in light of growing global concern about
climate change. This concern has led more companies to advertise their commitment to reduce their
climate impacts, and the effect this is having on their products and services 9, 10 .
Green house gases are the one more dangerous to the environment. Therefore, the main aim of the green
marketing is to reduce this and provide safety to the product. Green house gas 11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_marketing - cite_note-14reduction holds substantial promise as a
source of new funding for sustainable development. To facilitate participation and broaden the benefits,
several barriers must be overcome, such as lack of market awareness among stakeholders and prospective
participants, specialized, complicated participation rules, and the need for simplified participation
mechanisms for small projects, without which transaction costs can overwhelm the financial benefits of
participation. Greenhouse gas trading can play an important role supporting activities that
benefit peoples’s lives and the environment.
Despite the growth in the number of green products, green marketing is on the decline as the primary
sales pitch for products.
150 IJGHC; 2012-2013, Vol.2, No.1, 149-153.

Sustainable...
M. Padmavathi
One challenge green marketers -- old and new -- are likely to face as green products and messages
become more common are confusion in the marketplace. "Consumers do not really understand a lot about
these issues, and there's a lot of confusion there," says Jacquelyn Ottman 12 . Marketers sometimes take an
advantage of this and purposely make false or exaggerated "green" claims referred as "green washing”.
The primary objective of green washing is to provide consumers with the feeling that the organization is
taking the necessary steps to responsibly manage its ecological footprint. In reality, the company may be
doing very little that is environmentally beneficial 13 . Environmentalist Jay Westerveld first used the term
green washing. Green washing has become a central feature of debates about marketing communications
and sustainability, with “awards” for green washing established and numerous campaigns, law and
advices developed in an attempt to reduce or curb it.
In January of 2012, Patagonia became the first brand to register for "Benefit Corporation" status 14 . A
benefit corporation is an alternative to its standard counterpart as it operates under the legal premise of
(1) creating a positive impact socially and environmentally in its materials,(2) uphold Corporate Social
Responsibility in terms of considering its workers, its community, and the environment as well as
challenge its current boundaries in those areas, and (3) report its activity as a company as well as its
achievements in social and environmental areas publicly using a non-partisan third party source.
Year by year the adoptability of the green market increases not only in a country but also throughout the
world. An important challenge facing marketers is to identify which consumers are willing to pay more
for environmentally friendly products. It is apparent that an enhanced knowledge of the profile of this
segment of consumers would be extremely useful.
Five factors can help to determine whether a new idea will be adopted or not, including the idealism of
the shift towards “green”. These are
• Relative advantage
• Observability
• Trialability
• Compatibility
• Complexity
LOHAS stands for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, and describes an integrated, rapidly growing
market for goods and services that appeal to consumers whose sense of environmental and social
responsibility influences their purchase decisions.
A model of a green marketing mix should, of course, contain all 8P’s:
• Product: The product should be eco-friendly and should not contaminate or damage environment.
• Price: Prices of these products may be a little higher than the conventional. But they are willing to pay
extra for green products.
• Place: It is the crucial importance and focus for ecological packaging. Local marketing and seasonal
products such as vegetables from region farms is easier to be marketed “green” than products
imported.
• Promotion: The product should have ISO 14000 certification to improve a firm’s image. Company’s
expenditure on environmental protection, sponsoring the natural environment and ecological products
requires special sales promotions.
• Publics: Effective social marketing and public external or internal who involved in this either approval
or implementation of the program.
• Purse Strings- The strategic effort cost and the funding effort are important for it 15 .
151 IJGHC; 2012-2013, Vol.2, No.1, 149-153.

Sustainable...
M. Padmavathi
• Partnership-Social change issues, including "green" initiatives, are too complex for one person or
group to handle up strengthens and the chance of efficacy.
• Policy- Social marketing programs in motivating individual behavior change, it is difficult to sustain
unless the environment supports it for the long run.
Fig 2: 8 P’s helps to prevent the pollution
The Green labelling is necessary to prevent the skepticism i.e., various factors such as lack of language,
the absence of scientific knowledge necessary to interpret advertising meaning, and, in particular, the
falsehoods and exaggeration of some advertising techniques. To resolve this problem, independent
organizations may choose to guarantee messages on the environmental benefits of brands with
environmental labelling systems sponsored by independent organizations. The aim of improving
confidence in the evaluation of environmental benefits of products—all of which should positively affect
the purchase intention.
Recycled products for example, are one of the most popular alternatives that can benefit the environment
such as plastics, bangles, tins, rags, paper etc., These benefits include sustainable forestry, clean air,
energy efficiency, water conservation, and a healthy office. Like this introduction of CNG in public
transport systems to curb pollution.
CONCLUSION
152 IJGHC; 2012-2013, Vol.2, No.1, 149-153.
Fig3: Green market saves our lives
Green marketing or ecological marketing helps to reduce pollution as a result the flora and fauna would
be safe in the environment, the man lives happily with sustainable marketing. Each and every product

Sustainable...
M. Padmavathi
should contain the green label to know eco-friendly product even for an illiterate to understand about the
product. Then only the consumers can purchase the product even it is high rate to maintain the
sustainability.
REFERENCES
1. "Green Trade & Development" (html). Green Markets International, Inc. Retrieved January 2008.
2. F. Belz K. Peattie Sustainability Marketing: A Global Perspective. John Wiley & Sons, 2009
3. Dodds, John (May 21, 2007). "Green Marketing 101" 2008
4. Curtin, Emily (2006-09-14). "Lower East Side Green Market". January 2008
5. E Karl., Henion; C.Thomas Kinnear "Ecological Marketing". Ecological Marketing. American Marketing
Association Jan 1996, pp. 168.
6. "Green Marketing: Challenges & Opportunities for the New Marketing Age" 2010
7. "Greenleaf publishing bookshop" and "Green Marketing" 2010
8. Mendleson, N. Icola; Michael Jay Polonsky "Using strategic alliances to develop credible green
marketing". Journal of Consumer Marketing (MCB UP Ltd) 12 (2) , 1995 : 4–18.
9. McDaniel, W. Stephen.; H. David Rylander "Strategic green marketing". Journal of Consumer
Marketing (MCB UP Ltd) 10 (3) 1993 : 4–10.
10. L Thomas. Friedman "The Power of Green". The New York Times, April 15, 2007
11. Ottman, Jacquelyn "The Real News About Green Consuming". Retrieved January 2008.
12. E Orange, From eco-friendly to eco-intelligent. THE FUTURIST, September–October 2010, 28-32.
13. King, Bart. "Patagonia Is First to Register for ‘Benefit Corporation’ Status in California" 2012
14. Weinreich, Nedra. "What is Social Marketing" 2012
15. F.J Montoro-Rios, T Luque-Martinez, and M.-A Rodriguez-Molina, (2008): How Green Should You Be:
Can Environmental Associations Enhance Brand Performance Journal of advertising research, December
2008, 547-563.
Corresponding author: M. Padmavathi; Department of Biotechnology, DVR & DR.
HS MIC College of Technology, Kanchikacherla, A.P. India
153 IJGHC; 2012-2013, Vol.2, No.1, 149-153.