S

ABS
TRA
CT
To
unde

Analysis of the responses

collected
Plz indicate the age group 2530

9 you belong to

3035

3540

4045

4550

5055

5560

Kindly indicate your approximate monthly income

Up to 50,000

73%

Greater than 1 lakh

9%

Between 1 lakh to 2 lakh

0%

Greater than 2 lakh

18%

Que1) Choose the activities you would prefer to do over a weekend .

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

Highly Preferred
Preferred
Not sure
Least Preferred
Not Preferred at all

Conclusion- The highly preferred activity is staying at home over weekends

followed by the watching tv/films on the weekend.

Ques 2) Please rate your interest levels in each of these activities:

8
7
6
5
HP

P
NS

3
2
1
0

People are highly interested in going on weekend outings also in meeting friends
and family.
Que3) Where do you generally prefer shopping for grocery?

Places for shopping

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

No. of responses

Conclusion- Maximum number of people prefer to go to supermarket for

shopping grocery items.
Que 4) Where do you prefer shopping for personal care items like
cosmetics, deodorants,hair care etc?

Preferred places for shopping

In a mall
At the local ladies
beauty store

2
2

Online on
Flipkart/Snapdeal
At the medical store
Other

Conclusion- Maximum number of people prefer to go to malls to purchase

personal care items.
Que5) Which items do you recycle?

Items that are recycled

Old newspapers
Milk bags/shopping
bags
5
3

7
3

Plastic/glass bottles,
cans
Old clothes, toys,
books, utensils
Other

Conclusion- Mostly old newspapers followed by old clothes, toys etc. are
recycled.
Que6) How do you prefer packaging for personal care products?

Prefered packaging for products

3
3

Sachet packets (use

and throw) for one
time use

Regular size packets

Refill packs

Depends on the
personal care product
purchased

Other

Conclusionpurchased

The preferred packaging depends on the personal care product

Ques 6) Indicate the frequency with which you refer to product labels while
purchasing the product

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

More than 90% of the respondants check the label

Ques 7) What information do you look out on the label while purchasing personal
care products
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

Que8) The personal care items like soaps, deodorants,toothpaste etc

have an impact on the environment.

X-axis - Scale
Y-axis- No. of responses.

Conclusion- Most of the people believe that

the personal care items do impact the
environment.
Ques 9) As a consumer I can contribute in reducing the environmental impact
caused by personal care products

Yes

10

91%

No

9%

Ques 10) Rate the factors influencing the choice of eco-labelled personal care
products.

Factors influencing the choice of eco labeled personal care products

10

9
8
7

5
4
3
2
1

5
4

3
2
11

2
11 1

2
1

0
I always purchase eco-labeled personal care
0 products
00 from
0 a 0fixed
00 vendor/retailer
00
00
Completely Agree

Agree

Disagree

Completely disagree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Considering the factors that have number of responses greater

than 7(completely agree + agree) in their favour

1. It can be clearly ascertained that the proper information about the product
surpasses all the other factors while influencing the customers buying
decision.
2. Also reliability on the past experience comes as the second most
important factor.
Customers are more likely to purchase eco label products if they have
some past experience regarding their usage.
3. Other factors such as availability, goodness for health are the important
factors.

Interview with a Chemist

Interviewer: Jay Singh and Ashish Jindal (Students)
Interviewee: Avinash (Owner of Sarthaki medical and general store,
Hinjewadi)

Conversation:
Jay: Name the personal care products available at your shop.
Avinash: The personal care products available with me are shampoos, soap,
hand wash, powder, toothpaste, deodorants, shaving cream, aftershave, razors,
face wash, hair oil, baby diapers and sanitary pads.
Jay: What are the brands available for each of these products?
Avinash: the brands available for each of the above products are:

Shampoo

pantene, head and shoulders, dabur,

nile, ayur, vatika, clean n clear

Deodorants

Foggs, Charlie, Gatsby, Kamasutra

Powder

Yardley , ponds, axe, denim

Face wash
Hand wash

Garnier, lakme, Himalaya, clean n

clear
Dettol, life buoy, palmolive

Shaving cream

Park avenue, axe, palmolive

Face cream

Vicco, fair and handsome, ponds

Soap

Dettol, life buoy, lux

Jay : How much inventory of these products do you keep and what is the
frequency of reordering the products?
Avinash: We do not keep much of inventory with us as the time of arrival of
goods when we place an order with a distributor is very less, therefore we prefer
to order products at a day to day basis. The inventory kept with us is 5-6 pieces
per product.

Jay: Are you aware of the eco-labelled products available in the market? Do you
think there is any difference between the regular products and eco labelled
ones?
Avinash: No, eco labelled products have not gained much recognition and such
products are not available extensively in the market.
Jay: What do you offer to consumers who seek your advice on purchasing
personal care products, products with good margin or brands whose stock you
need to clear up?
Avinash: Being a business man it is natural that we maximise the sale of
products having a greater margins over the ones that give less returns. However
at times when we are stuck with too much inventory of a particular product we
try to sell and promote it.
Jay: How frequently do consumers check the expiry date of products they
purchase?
Avinash: About 70% of the customers check the expiry date. Since this area is
an IT hub, the people are well aware of the hazards of using expired products.
Jay: Do consumers question you on the contents of the various personal care
products they purchase?
Avinash: No, in the personal care sector people are rarely bothered about the
ingredients involved in the products.
Jay: What do you do about the products that get expired?
Avinash: We order personal care products on a day to day basis, so it is very
rare that the products get expired. As people rarely check the expiry of
shampoos, deodorants etc so we tend to sell them anyway.
Jay: Do you encourage usage of plastic bags or do you prefer substitutes like
giving a paper bag or asking the customer to get his own carry bag?
Avinash: We tend to discourage the use of plastic bags by giving customers
paper bags as we realize the impact of non-biodegradable materials on the
environment. However, we still have to give plastic bags to 20-25% of the
customers in order to prevent any effect on our sales.
Jay: Would you prefer to stock up and promote eco- labelled products if you get
incentives for the same?
Avinash: Yes, the environment is our collective responsibility and making any
difference for the better is recommended.

Thank you

Interview with a consumer

Interviewer: Medha and Aditi (Students)
Interviewee: Vani Rangarajan, TCS

Conversation:
Medha: How long have you been working at this place?
Vani: Since 1.5 years
Medha: Where do you stay?
Vani: Baner
Medha: How far is your house from the office?
Vani: 30 minutes
Medha: How do you commute?
Vani: Office Bus
Medha: How you carry your own lunch to work?
Vani: No. I dont carry lunch. Eat office mess food
Medha: If you order take away (parcel) what do you do with the containers in
which the food is packedVani: Generally throw away the containers
Medha: How frequently do you use disposable items? Like spoons, tissues
Vani: Tissues are used on a regular basis. We dont use plastic spoons but steel
ones
Medha: How much time do you spend for yourself on a daily basis? What do you
do in that time? Do you exercise? If yes which form of exercise
Vani: I spend closed to 1.5 hours a day for myself. I read books, watch tv and
meditate at times.
Medha: What is it that you indulge in to maintain a healthy lifestyle?
Vani: I eat vegetables and fruits. Have green tea every day. I buy organic foods
sometimes if I go to a market where they are available.
Medha: What is that you indulge in to maintain your appearance?
Vani: I use hair shampoo and neem face wash by Himalaya brand. I prefer them
as they are less in chemical and more herbal in nature. I dont used a particular

cream but a normal sunscreen and moisturizer. My husband is 28 years and uses
Garnier products. We buy products generally looking at the use and the brand.

Literature Review
Introduction
In this modern era of societal marketing business ethics and social responsibility are
becoming the guiding themes for marketing strategies and practices. Within the field of
Ethics and social responsibility environmental and green marketing topics are the central
topics, which are closely related to biodiversity and sustainability.
Consumers now have worries about the future of the world and as results of this mostly
prefer environment friendly products. In return to these attitudes of the consumers,
companies have started to form their marketing strategies so as to appeal increasing
awareness of this Environment-friendliness. These marketing strategies, named as green
marketing, have caused companies to adopt green policies in their pricing, promotion,
product features and distribution activities. The green consumer is generally defined as one
who adopts environmentally friendly behaviours and/or who purchases green products over
the standard alternatives.
Green consumers are more internally-controlled as they believe that an individual consumer
can be effective in environmental protection. Thus, they feel that the job of environmental
protection should not be left to the government, business, Environmentalists and scientists
only; they as consumers can also play a part. Our project does a comprehensive research
and analysis to understand the awareness towards eco-labelled personal care products and
to study the attitude of women towards the environment.

Review
The demand for green products has been shown to be uneven across different market
segments (Ottman, 1992; Peattie, 1992). Thus, for organizations to position green products,
or communicate their environmental efforts, to members of the population who are likely to
be concerned about environmental issues, green consumer segments need to be identified
(Bohlen et al., 1993, p. 415). Over the last 20 years, there have been relatively few attempts
to classify consumers specifically according to levels of green purchasing behaviour.
However, there has been a whole wealth of research, using a variety of segmentation
variables, attempting to profile the environmentally conscious members of the population in
general. The measures that have been used fall into two distinct categories: sociodemographics, such as sex, age, education and social class (see Schlegelmilch et al.,
1994), and personality measures, such as locus of control, alienation, conservatism and
dogmatism (e.g. Balderjahn 1988; Crosby et al., 1981; Henion and Wilson, 1976; Kinnear et
al., 1974). Given the relative ease with which socio-demographics can be measured and
applied, it is not surprising these have been the most widely used variables for profiling
purposes. However, recent evidence illustrates that there is very little value in the use of
socio-demographic characteristics for profiling environmentally-conscious consumers in the
UK (Schlegelmilch et al. 1994, p. 348), with only very weak relationships uncovered on a
bivariate basis.

Indeed, focusing specifically on pro-environmental purchasing behaviour, Schlegelmilch et

al. (1994) explained, less than 10 per cent of variation through multiple regression
procedures; this is in line with US studies that have performed multivariate analyses to link
such characteristics to measures of green behaviour (Van Liere and Dunlap, 1980). The
limited utility of socio-demographics may be explained by the fact that the environment is no
longer a marginal issue; indeed, environmental concern is becoming the socially accepted
norm (Schwepker and Cornwell, 1991, p. 85). Thus, it perhaps should not be expected that
high levels of green purchasing behaviour would only be reflected in certain sociodemographic sectors of the consumer base.
Personality variables have been found to have somewhat higher linkages to individuals
environmental consciousness (Kinnear et al., 1974; Schwepker and Cornwell, 1991).
However, while this is true for general environmental measures, the results are somewhat
inconsistent for specific pro-environmental behaviours, such as green purchasing decisions
(see Balderjahn, 1988).
Furthermore, personality variables have been shown to explain only a small Green
purchasing decisions are a part of the total variability of the behavioural measures used
(Webster, 1975, p. 196). Indeed, Hooley and Saunders (1993; p. 145) suggest that caution
should be taken in using personality variables for market segmentation according to
behavioural criteria: In most instances, personality measures are most likely to be of use for
describing segments once they have been defined on some other basis. It is quite possible,
indeed probable, that behaviour and reasons behind it will vary within segments defined on
the basis of personality characteristics alone. Moreover, personality variables do not easily
lead to segmentation strategy (Webster, 1975, p. 196) due to the inherently complex
processes involved in their measurement and interpretation.
Given the failures of the above two classes of variables, this article proposes a new
segmentation approach, through an analysis of the linkages between pro-environmental
purchase behaviour and measures of environmental consciousness. The rationale for this
approach rests on the fact that consumers have traditionally been shown to express their
environmental consciousness through the products they purchase. In the first wave of postwar enthusiasm for environmental protection during the late 1960s and early 1970s, being
environmentally-concerned and being consumerist were seen as mutually exclusive. During
this period, it was thought that the only way to cut down on pollution and solve the worlds
environmental problems, particularly natural resource depletion, was to cut down on
consumption. Throughout the 1970s and1980s, energy efficiency and pollution control
measures appeared to promise a have your cake and eat it environmentalism (Henley
Centre, 1990, p. 24) and, as a consequence, green issues were not at the forefront of
consumer concerns.
However, in recent years when the environment surged in importance, rather than cut down
their consumption of products, consumers began to seek out environmentally-friendly
alternatives in preference to their usual product purchases. Hence the green consumer
was born. Evidence for this change in purchase behaviour can be found in numerous
surveys. For example, in July1989, a MORI (Market and Opinion Research International) poll
revealed that the proportion of consumers selecting products on the basis of environmental
performance had increased from 19 per cent to 42 per cent in less than a year (Elkington,
1989) and, by late 1992, a Nielsen study revealed that four out of five consumers were
expressing their opinions about the environment through their purchasing behaviour
(Marketing, 1992). It is likely, therefore, that consumers who exhibit high levels of
environmental consciousness make more green purchasing decisions than those exhibiting

low levels. Thus, it is envisaged that measures of environmental consciousness will be more
closely related to purchasing habits than either socio-demographics or personality variables.
The environmental consciousness constructed over the last 25 years, there have been
numerous attempts to conceptualize and operationalize the construct of environmental
consciousness. In addition to the marketing literature (Anderson et al., 1974; Antil, 1984;
Van Dam, 1991), studies have been conducted in a wide range of other disciplines, such as
European psychology (e.g. Arbuthnot and Lingg, 1975; Lounsbury and Tornatsky, 1977;
Maloney et al., 1975), sociology (Buttel and Flinn, 1978; Mohai and Twight,1987; Ray, 1975),
political science (e.g. Jackson, 1983), environmental studies(e.g. Dunlap and Van Liere,
1978; Scott and Willits, 1994; Vining and Ebreo,1990) and business research (Balderjahn,
1988). A number of different instruments have been used in the above efforts to measure
environmental consciousness. On the substantive front, these vary in the extent to which
they incorporate different green issues, such as population control, natural resources and
energy consumption. For example, some studies have focused on concern about acid rain
(Arcury et al., 1987), recycling issues(Vining and Ebreo, 1990) or pollution (Ramsay and
Rickson, 1976), while more common practices have been to either aggregate items dealing
with these various substantive issues into single environmental measures (e.g.
Hackett,1993; Jackson, 1985; Maloney et al., 1975), or to develop a number of measures,
each covering specific issues (Tognacci et al., 1972; Witherspoon and Martin,1992). The
latter two approaches would seem to provide a more comprehensive profile of green
consumers, however, such approaches have been criticized on the basis that: it is unclear
whetherthese various substantive issues reflect equally the broader concept of concern
with environmental quality (Van Liere and Dunlap, 1981: p. 653).Measurement instruments
also differ in terms of their implicit or explicit assumptions regarding the components of the
environmental consciousness construct. For example, some have solely addressed
environmental attitudes (Buttel, 1979), capturing individuals levels of concern/interest about
specific or general aspects of environmental, ecological, or energy-saving phenomena.
Other studies have focused on environmentally-sensitive behaviour (Brooker,1976),
capturing individuals past, current and intentional commitment to activities that aim to
ameliorate societys negative impact on the natural environment. However, given the
controversy of the attitude-behaviour link (see Foxall, 1984a,b), an analysis of attitudinal
components alone may not accurately predict actual behaviour. Indeed, weak linkages
between attitudes and behaviour have been noted in the environmental and social marketing
literature (Gill et al., 1986; Rothschild, 1979); moreover, in order to be green, it may be
argued that individuals require an understanding of the consequences of their behaviours
(Bohlen et al., 1993, p. 417). In this context, positive attitudes towards the environment are
not necessarily indicative of high levels of environmental knowledge (see Ramsay and
Rickson, 1976). Thus, along with attitudinal and behavioural components, knowledge items
that capture individuals level of factual information about specific or general aspects of
environmental, ecological or energy-saving phenomena should be contained within any
operationalization of environmental consciousness. However, to date, measures of
environmentalism have included relatively few components of the entire green semantic
domain (Hackett, 1992, p.

Green purchasing decisions

In addition to the existing substantive issues and theoretical Conceptualizations, many

existing measurement instruments have not been subjected to rigorous psychometric
assessments of dimensionality, reliability and validity. For example, some studies have
merely used internal consistency measures to assess both the reliability and dimensionality
of the employed items (Buttel, 1979; Jackson, 1985; Tognacci et al., 1972); however, if items
are combined that in reality measure two correlated yet distinct constructs, a combination
ofall their items might well yield internal consistency, even though they reflect two different
constructs (Spector, 1992, p. 54). Worse still, some studies have aggregated items into
composite measures without any reliability or validity checks (Corrado and Ross, 1990;
Lowe et al., 1980; Murphy et al., 1979; Ramsay and Rickson, 1976).
Finally, the vast majority of relevant literature is American (65 US studies have been
uncovered) and European academic research in this area has been relatively sparse
(Schlegelmilch et al., 1994, p. 348). In this context, there may be certain country-specific
factors, such as levels and types of pollution, environmental legislation and the availability of
green products that will affect the operationalization of the environmental-consciousness
construct.
Given the obvious problems inherent in previous measurement instruments, to capture
levels of environmental consciousness existent in the UK consumer base, it was decided to
develop a new series of summated rating scales, capturing the entire environmental
consciousness domain as it applies to the UK consumer, namely measures of environmental
knowledge, attitudes and behaviour.