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Introduction
Pollution in water and air, cruelty to animals, chemical-laden cosmetics and other environmental issues are causes of concern.
American Marketing Association (AMA) organized a seminar in the year 1975 on the topic of Ecological Marketing. It was here that the first time the Green Marketing concept came into being.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the term green marketing became prominent.
Let us understand what it is and how it works.
Green Marketing Definition
American Marketing Association says “Green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe.”
What is Green Marketing?
We also know green marketing as eco-marketing or sustainable marketing. It is the practice of marketing a product based on its environmental benefits.
Here marketing is done on the products that are environmentally friendly in themselves and the production of those products is also eco-friendly.
In essence, Green marketing applies to all efforts that support the creation, marketing, and promotion of products and services that can have a lower environmental impact than the alternatives in the market.
The objective is to provide the stage of manufacturing, marketing, and usage so that they persuade the end-users to opt for ecologically responsible and sustainable consumption.
Green Marketing Strategies
It is for enterprises that genuinely work to save the environment and would like to give the community back. These sorts of activities usually win a lot of customer respect and loyalty.
Below are 5 useful strategies to gain customer trust.
Green Design
In Green Marketing, design as the strategy is pretty effective. It is to make the products or services sustainable.
An example could be reusable food bags, which reduce plastic use drastically.
Green Positioning
This is a strategy in which the organization shows its value for sustainability in order to project itself as a cautious organization.
Mostly, the purpose of such types of companies is to obtain certifications from relevant authorities. This eventually, opens the doors to the customers who also are with the said cause.
Body Shop, is such a company, which never uses animals to test their products. This is one such great example of green positioning. The company also raises donations to promote worldwide awareness of issues such as HIV and domestic abuse.
Green Pricing
Another green marketing method that firms engage in is to make their services more attractive.
This strategy focuses largely on emphasizing how green services can help clients conserve money or other resources.
A green pricing example may be a company that sells battery-operated automobiles to illustrate how cost-effective it would be, compared to fossil fuel cars.
Green Logistics
Green logistics encompasses the company’s initiatives to reduce the ecological impact from point of origin to point of consumption of all logistics activities.
Amazon realizes this cause hence they use the so-called frustration-free packaging as a green Logistics Strategy.
Frustration-free packaging is an easy-to-open recycled packaging that employs fewer non-wired packaging materials, plastic ties, and plastic coil boxes.
Green Disposal
Green disposal could be a great green marketing approach for companies that produce a lot of waste material. An ever-increasing environmental concern.
They can boast of sustainability by demonstrating responsible disposal of waste material procedures.
Principles of Green Marketing
Consumer-Oriented
This forms the premise that a company should see marketing operations from the perspective of the consumer, in order to build sustainable and profitable relationships.
Value Marketing
Rather than only using alternative product packaging or making huge publicity, the company should think about how to add value to the product or service.
This is because the customers should also be benefitted and would like to see value increased by themselves.
Innovative Marketing
This is aimed at genuine product and marketing advancements.
As the world is changing constantly, and the same holds true for customers’ tastes and preferences. The business should continuously try to find new methods to prevent the visible loss of consumers.
Collective Marketing
This is unique as this relates to social terms and not to the product itself.
The vision of the firm is already defined. And this, in fact, makes employees feel proud because they and the company work for a worthy cause.
The Importance of Green Marketing
Being the most environmentally sensitive company won’t help the brand if nobody is aware of it.
To realize the full potential of eco-friendly products or policies, brands need to market themselves well.
To convey to potential customers how the products they are using also help the environment.
For example, a detergent that washes all clothes perfectly in cold water eliminates the need for a warm-water wash. That saves plenty of energy.
With the use of green packaging, buyers see a lot of plastic and paper are saved.
With recycling, the products don’t pile up in landfills, consumers should know about it.
It is disappointing that a lot of companies pretend to be eco-friendly by claiming the use of recycled materials but in reality, they don’t.
By faking it, a brand ensures that any credibility that they had earned will go down the drain.
Advantages of Green Marketing
Apart from the positive impact on the environment, what can green marketing companies gain?
Improved Brand Image
By positioning the organization that practices sustainability will help them gain credibility fast.
Companies with actionable plans and resources to care for the environment enjoy a great brand image. As people nowadays are interested in eco-friendly practices. So it is safe to say that going green is an excellent way to make consumers trust the brand.
New Patrons
A brand can convince consumers to buy green products by learning the benefits.
However, another advantage is when you market your products as green, there are groups of people (Environment Enthusiasts) who can become brand advocates. A surefire benefit.
Future Growth
Several companies are advancing toward sustainability.
If the product and the process are environment friendly, multiple investors and partners will be eager to join the bandwagon.
Increased Sales
With time, buyer preference has changed. Buyers these days fancy brands with a considerable sustainable image.
If you observe closely, you are eyeing a massive number of potential end-users.
A report from Mintel states that over one-third of Americans are willing to pay more for green products.
Competitive Advantage
Green marketing is not a traditional way of marketing. Rather, a relatively new concept. And many of the brands are yet to realize their full potential.
Hence, companies that adopt this trend will have an early movers’ advantage. Additionally, it is easier to build up a loyal customer base where the competitors are not offering green options.
Disadvantages of Green Marketing
It is not rosy with green initiatives always.
If a product and services of a brand are already established, changing the marketing tactics takes a significant amount of money, effort and time.
The objectives of a company, its mission and its vision statement, will have to be reworked. Yet there is no guarantee that consumers will get the same experience with the new products as they used to have with older ones.
Green Marketing Mix
Green marketing involves incorporating sustainable elements into a company’s marketing processes or strategies.
Below are the 4Ps of green marketing in play.
Product
Green products are meant to be a cleaner version hence they should not contaminate, instead, they should holistically work to eliminate the damage already done.
Price
This is the challenging part. Those Green items, most of the time, come with slightly higher price tags than traditional options.
For environmentally-conscious people like LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) it is completely fine to pay a premium for green products.
But for common people? Debatable, perhaps.
Place
This is where your customers search and find your products to purchase. It is another important factor to be considered.
As we know, the focus is on environmentally friendly packaging. This gives rise to another challenge as to how the products will be delivered from production to end-users. For instance, food and other perishable items from local farms are more accessible to the market as “green” than imported products.
Promotion
Promotion is the key to green marketing. It is the way and means to get your message across to your target audience.
For promotion, we use a two-pronged scheme
First, position the products as eco-friendly solutions to the problems consumers are looking for. Second, position yourself as the best company to offer these solutions.
Green Marketing Approaches
Using sustainable materials to develop green products is crucial to green marketing.
The ultimate aim of the products is not to harm the environment.
For instance, biodegradable detergent or reusable coffee cups, etc.
Sustainable design and packaging
Apart from products, another critical area of concern is packaging and its design. As we dont use plastics, hence it is important to understand the nature of the products we are going to pack. Design and packaging to keep fruits and vegetables fresh is what companies should focus on.
People and campaigns
It is imperative to get people who are concerned about the said cause involved.
This will boost your sustainability efforts. Influencers and related campaigns are great ways to encourage the target audience to get creative with sustainability practices.
Giving back to the community
Companies should also always look out to sponsor projects aimed at making the environment better.
For example initiatives like planting trees, cleanliness, waste disposal, park cleaning, etc.
The company Monster Insights associated themselves with a project to plant five trees for every purchase of their pro plan during their Black Friday deal. The big goal was to plant 10,000 in total.
Cutting down energy use
Using renewable energy options instead of fossil fuels reduces manufacturing costs while saving on resources.
The good news is, that sustainable energy devices are easy to install and have less cost on production.
What’s more, you don’t have to keep purchasing resources that decrease over time.
For example, solar panels on the roof of your building. Other renewable energy sources could be wind and hydropower plants.
Collaboration and partnership
Companies can associate with, and donate to, non-profit bodies dedicated to saving the environment.
The great thing with collaboration is, that you go green without directly carrying out projects.
Electronic promotion and advertising
This is in the best interest of everyone involved to shift from print media to digital media.
By doing this, we will save paper, and in turn, save trees.
Electronic marketing includes social media marketing, email marketing campaigns, and blogging.
The bonus is these new-age tools are great for testing (A/B testing) the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns.
User reviews, and social media comments, are great ways to connect and track the success of your efforts.
Green Marketing Examples
Whole Foods
Whole Foods is an Amazon-owned store that sells organic products.
The company has green products under its belt. And has been built with a focus on concerning demands, desires, and demographics.
They recognize the company as a brand with trust, having no room for artificial flavors, colors, conservation agents, and sweeteners.
None of them are used or sold in their foods.
Furthermore, the company has a green mission that involved initiatives to protect the environment. Recycled documents to be used for composting, carpooling is encouraged, and strictly no plastic bags.
The Body Shop
The Body Shop has become a popular brand dedicated to environmental conservation.
As mentioned above, the products are cruelty-free. No test on animals and are also certified for Leaping bunny.
The firm produces its Tea tree oil from a cooperative. They are made up of 380 small farmers, a group of Kenya Organic Oil Farmers Association (KOOFA).
Love Beauty and Planet
The giant of FMCG, Unilever has several brands in its arsenal. Love Beauty is one of them, a multinational consumer products firm.
The brand was conceptualized as a beauty product for the consumers of the world with some great green initiatives. They have developed shampoo bottles, hand lotions, and other items with recyclable plastic items.
The brand has the ability to empower people to live better, be aware, and be accountable for the environment.
Conclusion
A brand should let the target audience know via Green Marketing initiatives that you are concerned with these burning issues.
This is sure to boost the reputation of your brand, invest in a cause you care for, and contribute to.
So, Green marketing truly focuses on developing and advertising products and services that meet the voice of customers in terms of quality, performance and safety. At the same time, causing no damage to the environment.