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Environmental issues are the major concern for the business and public life across
the globe. The big corporate houses considered the issues related to environment and
taken green marketing as a part of their business strategy for product marketing.
Now green marketing had become a part of the business strategy, the marketing
concept that used to create the awareness about the products is now also creating the
awareness about saving the environment. Different methods are been used by the
companies to spread awareness about the environment between the consumers.
Some methods are- Designing the advertisements that focuses on the product as well
as environment, the best example is Idea Cellular, we all are aware about the
advertisement that spread the message to save the trees. Tata Indicom provides 1%
discount on monthly bill to those who opts for E-Bill. Further, Citibank Credit Card
provides extra reward points to those consumers who register themselves for EStatement.
After discussing about the green marketing one question strikes to the mind- What is
Green Marketing? The answer to this question is:
According to Polonsky (1994)- Green or environmental Marketing consist of all the
activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchange intended to satisfy human
needs and wants, such that the satisfaction of these needs and wants occur with a
detrimental impact on the natural environment.
Green marketing has been defined as an organized movement of concerned citizens
and government to protect and enhance people's living environment (Kotler and
Armstrong, 2008).
Grewal and Levy define it as a strategic effort by firms to supply customers with
environment-friendly merchandise (2008).
Thus the mammoth like challenge of green marketing is to meet the unlimited wants
of consumers within the constraint of limited resources by introducing modern
management tools like TQM, 6-Sigma, 4Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recovery)
principles in production processes of companies. Currently our concern is with the
total yield of production and product marketing processes including waste and
pollution. (Ghosh, 2010)
LITERATURE REVIEW
Businesses and Green Marketing
Businesses can adopt green marketing by facing three issues: "what it takes", "what it
makes" and "what it wastes". Fuller defines "what it takes" as the materials and
energy resources that are removed from the earth's ecosystems while "what it makes"
represents the products of commerce, goods and services while "what it wastes"
represent the cultural garbage/waste, pollution and the ongoing destruction of
natural systems (Fuller, 1999).
Kodak recycled its single use camera in its efforts to address "what it makes" issue. It
introduced a closed-loop recycling program which aimed to reuse the single-use
camera (Baron, 2000). The camera was designed in such a way that the consumer
would not dispose of them since he/she could not remove the film from the camera.
The recycling program focused on film processors who were paid USD0.05 for every
camera returned. Kodak paid for the shipping costs.
charges for on plastic bags whereas, the companies such as Woodland, Numero Uno,
Wills Lifestyle are providing the products in green bags to their consumers, which
can be reused.
too busy to change their lifestyle, they express their environmental concern through
their wallets.
Sprouts- The sprouts want pro-environmental laws but they do not believe that they
can do much to preserve the environment. They are on average, for green products.
They are active in environmental causes but they embrace green consumerism
slowly.
Grousers- The grousers take few environmental actions. They believe that business
should be fixing environmental ills and that green products cost more versus nongreen products. With below-average education and incomes, they feel that somebody
else should fix environmental problems.
Basic Browns- The least involved in environment, the basic browns comprise the
largest group. They are the least educated among all consumer segments.
Disproportionately male, Southern, blue-collar and economically downscale, they
believe that there is nothing that individuals can do about the environment.
Studies showed that consumers tend to be greener in direct proportion to their
income and education, and that female consumers are greener than their male
counterparts (Coddington, 1993). When shopping, women were more likely to
exhibit green behavior in their purchases. Further, women were more likely to
recycle products. Income, education, age, gender and place of residence were
positively related to the consumer's level of environmental commitment (Marneiri,
Barnett, Valdero, Unipan and Oskamp, 1997).
Other studies show a negative correlation between green behavior and demographic
variables (Chan, 2000). Thus, psychographic segmentation such as political
orientation (liberalism), altruism (concern for the welfare of others) and attitudes
such as perceived consumer effectiveness are proposed to be more effective
segmentation variables (Straughan and Roberts, 1999). Findings showed that
consumers who are more politically-oriented and altruistic are more likely to show a
green behavior (Straughan and Roberts, 1999).
The care for the environment is shifting from regulation to consumer's responsibility
(Kotler, Armstrong, Ang, Leong, Tan and Tse, 2005). This new environmentalism is
causing many consumers to rethink what products they buy and from whom (2005).
Kotler and Armstrong state that a simple model of the consumer decision-making
process involves three major components: inputs, process and output (Kotler and
Armstrong, 2008). According to them, the input component of the consumer
decision-process has external and internal influences. The external influences are the
marketing mix activities involving product, promotion, price and place while the
internal influences are the socio-cultural environment (family, informal sources,
other noncommercial sources, social class and subculture and culture, knowledge,
etc.). The process component involves the psychological field such as motivation,
perception, learning, personality and attitudes (Kotler and Armstrong, 2008).
Figure 1 states the place of green marketing in consumer decision making after
consumers understands the importance of green marketing. As shown in Figure 1
before making the product choice the consumer would think of the green marketing
and then they will be making the decision. This is proposed model of consumer
decision making when green marketing will be the constraint in decision making
process of consumers in India.
Decision
Product Choice
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The study is conducted on the following objectives:
To find out the awareness about green marketing among Indian consumers.
To find out the most influencing source used to create the awareness about green
marketing among Indian consumers.
HYPOTHESES
H01. Indian consumers are not aware about the green marketing.
H02. There is no in medium to create the awareness about the green marketing.
H03. Indian Consumers does not have any profile based on the Roper Organization's
Model.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Study Area
The study is done in Lucknow, the most popular markets of Lucknow are selected for
collecting the data.
Data Collection
The Study is based on Primary data and Secondary data both. The primary data is
collected through structured questionnaire from the 100 respondents from Lucknow.
The secondary data is collected through the magazines, journals, periodicals, people
opinion and internet.
33.8
51.9
35-45
17
22.1
22.1
74.0
45-55
14
18.2
18.2
92.2
Above 55
6
7.8
7.8
100.0
Total
77
100.0
100.0
The study was also concluded to know whether the consumers are aware about the
green marketing or not. As per Table 2, it was found that 43 (55.8%) out of the 77
respondents are aware about the green marketing whereas, 34 (44.2%) respondents
are not aware about the green marketing.
100.0
Further it was analyzed that the hypothesis that was prepared was the null
hypothesis indicated with H0, below the null hypothesis is followed by the alternate
hypothesis indicated with H1
7.752
76
.000
.44
.33
.56
Till now the study was done on 77 respondents out of 100 but as the data is filtered
for rest of the study to 44 respondents who are aware about the green marketing.
Table 4 indicates about the sources or medium through which the information is
spread among the consumers about green marketing. These sources or medium can
be electronic, print or seminars and the peers of the consumer.
15.6
27.3
63.6
Newspaper
9
11.7
20.5
84.1
Seminar and Peers
5
6.5
11.4
95.5
Internet
2
2.6
4.5
100.0
Total
44
57.1
100.0
As per the findings from Table 4 it is derived that the majority of consumers or
respondents came to understand the concept of green marketing through television.
The respondents who got aware about green marketing through television are 16
(20.8%) out of 44 respondents followed by radio with 12 (15.6%) respondents and
newspaper with 9 (11.7%) respondents.
43.2
52.3
Sprouts
16
20.8
36.4
88.6
Grousers
2
2.6
4.5
93.2
Basic Brown
3
3.9
6.8
100.0
Total
44
57.1
100.0
Table 6 provides information about the green consumer profile that is based on
Ropers organization's green consumer classification. According to the Table 6 the
consumers are divided into 5 classifications i.e. True Blue Green, Greenback Green,
Sprouts, Grousers and Basic Brown. The total respondent who agrees that they
accepts and adopts the new product is 44. The maximum number of respondents are
19 (24.7%) who comes under the category of greenback green followed with sprouts
16 (20.8%).
CONCLUSION
It is concluded 55.8% of Indian consumers are aware about the green marketing.
This can be due to certain different reasons such as initiative taken by corporate and
government. Whereas; 44.2% of the consumers are not aware about the green
marketing.
The Television plays an important role in creating awareness about green marketing
among the Indian consumers. 20.8% of respondents consider television as most
influencing medium of spreading awareness among the Indian consumers. For
attracting the Indian consumers, government and companies can use television as a
tool to create awareness among the Indian consumers. Though television is costly
medium but it has high influence on consumers.
In terms of Roper Organization's green consumer classifications (Ottman, 1998) it is
concluded that most of the Indian consumers are greenback green (24.7%), that is
these consumers are able to buy green products but they do not have time and energy
for environmental activities and they do not want to change their lifestyle to promote
environment. Therefore it is concluded that there is huge scope of green marketing
among the Indian consumers but still there is need to change the mind of Indian
consumers about green marketing by using different mediums of awareness.