Table of Contents

Study of Impact of Green Marketing on Sale
Ashish Vasantrao Gadekar, HEAD, Department of Business Studies, Maha Maya University, India
Rimalini Ashish Gadekar, Faculty In Mechanical Engineering, Government Polytechnic Nagpur
Introduction
According to The American Marketing Association, “Green
or Environmental Marketing consists of all activities
designed to generate and facilitate any exchanges intended
to satisfy human needs or wants, such that the satisfaction of
these needs and wants occurs with minimal detrimental
impact on the natural environment.”
Thus according to the American Marketing Association,
Green marketing is the marketing of products that are
presumed to be environmentally safe. Green marketing
incorporates a broad range of activities, including product
modification, changes to the production process, packaging
changes, as well as modifying advertising. Other similar
terms used are Environmental Marketing and Ecological
Marketing. Recently, Green Marketing has drawn the
attention of government and this has forced them to
introduce environment-friendly policies. As resources are
limited and human needs and wants are unlimited, resources
have to be utilized economically and in an environment
friendly way. The marketers should realize this and head on
towards Green Marketing. Indian Government has already
introduced Environment Protection Act in1986 and
Environment Audit in 1992, the marketers have to realize
that with increasing amount of global warming and
Similarly, green marketing can operate from three
perspectives: the personal, through products and individual
benefits, the social, through communities and associations,
and public, doing business and cultural leaders, credible
resources (Grant , 2007). Goods and services exchanged in
the green marketing are known as organic products or
products that respect the environment. To Minetti (2002),
three types of organic products: a) healthy products, those
that have some ecological feature to connect to the market,
b) natural products, goods that are environmentally friendly,
and c) pseudoecológicos products, they say going green to
win the favor of a market segment.
The Evolution of Green Marketing
Green marketing has evolved over time. According to
Peattie (2001), green marketing has had three phases. The
first phase occurs during the decades of 60 and 70, and is
called the Green Marketing Green . This phase relates all the
activities that seek to help solve environmental problems
and aims to recognize the role that businesses, products and
consumers from environmental problems such as
degradation of biodiversity, global climate change and
deterioration of the ozone layer. This phase is also
evidenced by the increase in environmental standards and
regulations that appear incorporated into development plans
and sectoral programs.
The second phase corresponds to the Green Environmental
Marketing and occurs in the 80's. At this stage the main
purpose is to use clean technology in innovative product
design and production systems. For this reason, we have
taken steps in certain production processes for the care of
the environment by preventing and controlling pollution and
waste, mainly. During this time, it happens one of the
stronger chemical disasters in the world, especially in India,
caused by a gas leak in Bhopal region that wiped out more
than 15,000 people. This second phase is characterized by
the rise of activist groups and boycotts against the
environmental damage caused by products, companies and
governments.
The third phase consists of the Sustainable Green Marketing
and evidence during the 90's very close to the millennium.
This stage shows the development of deeper and more
meaningful green marketing, by providing an opportunity
for sustainable consumption and production based on the
protection and enhancement of natural resources (Peattie,
2001). As resources are limited and the needs of human
beings are unlimited, it is important that marketing experts
use resources efficiently, to achieve the corporate objectives
of companies and organizations. The consumer is aware of
the environmental impact and more of those products that
are related to this initiative. At this stage it is found that
green marketing is inevitable in the current context given the
growing interest among global consumers regarding
environmental protection.
Challenges of Green Marketing
Implementing Green marketing is not going to be an easy
job. The firm has to face many problems while treading the
way of Green marketing. Challenges which have to be faced
are listed as under:
1. Green marketing encourages green
products/services, green technology, green power/energy; a
lot of money has to be spent on R&D programmes. Thus
practicing green marketing initially will be a costly affair.
2. The customers may not believe in the firm‟s
strategy of Green marketing, the firm therefore should
ensure that they convince the customer about their green
product, this can be done by implementing Eco-labeling
schemes. Eco-labeling schemes offer its “approval” to
“environmentally less harmless” products have been very
popular in Japan and Europe. In fact the first eco-label
programme was initiated by Germany in 1978.
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