Green marketing

New business opportunity

S. Jesukumar Eastern University, Batticaloa

The global changes in the environment are becoming critical not only for the consumers but also for the businesses across the globe.

Businesses have begun to adapt their behaviour in an attempt to address the society's new concerns. Some businesses have been quick to accept concepts like environmental management systems and have integrated environmental issues into all business activities. One business area where environmental issues have received a great deal of discussion is green marketing.

Many governments around the world have become so concerned about green marketing activities that they have attempted to regulate them by emphasizing what to use and what not to use.

Green marketing refers to the process of selling products and/or services based on their environmental benefits. Such a product or service may be environmentally friendly in itself or produced and/or packaged in an environmentally friendly way.

Here an important thing is that the potential consumers for green marketing will view a product or service's greenness as a benefit and base their buying decision accordingly. The not-so-obvious 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.

Actually, the green marketing evolution has evolved steadily over the period of time into three phases. The first phase was known as the ecological phase. In this phase, all the marketing activities were carried out to assist the ever increasing environmental problems and offer solutions for these problems. The second phase was called the environmental phase as after the environmental problems, the entire focus was shifted on the implementation of cleaner technologies. The last phase is termed as the sustainable phase of green marketing which is still prevalent.

Operating a green business is not only good for us and the environment, but also good for one's business' bottom line, because conserving resources and cutting down on waste saves a lot of money.

Consumers, for their part, have to play an important role in making sure that these companies are responsible for preserving the environment. They should stop buying products from the obstinate companies which continue to pollute the environment with impunity. To promote the environmentally friendly products, consumers should be willing to pay extra money if a company incurs extra cost in manufacturing such products. Marketeers must be genuine in marketing activities. That is doing exactly what you claim to be doing in your green marketing campaign and that the rest of business policies are also consistent with your environmentally friendly claims.

As a green marketeer to grasp business opportunities do the followings:

4 Procure and sell products that are natural.

4 Package and promote responsibly. The marketer can use recycled materials, provide recycling stations for customers, recycle waste and promote multi-use packaging.

4 Promote responsible transportation.

4 Set prices that encourage customers to try green products.

4 Encourage customers to buy green by donating part of business profits to green causes.

4 Refrain from selling products that pollute or harm the customers and deplete natural resources.

4 Conduct educational programs: conduct in-store testing or other promotions and produce brochures and signage, to promote eco-friendly products.

As consumers become more aware of the aspects of green marketing, a marketeer who is conscious of the environment will have more opportunities to retain existing customers and attract new customers to his business.