Interviews allowed to author to gain insight as how companies choose green marketing strategies and for what reasons? Findings indicate that the green market strategies differ for each company and must be derived from a company’s individual circumstances including its objectives, resources and competitive advantages. Furthermore, the findings show that most companies can implement green changes in their marketing mix but these should be actively promoted when a product’s green attributes constitutes a key selling point.
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Finally, the findings indicate that financial benefits, and the possibility of gaining a competitive advantage, are the foremost incentives for implementing green measures. Key words: Green Marketing, Green Marketing Mix, Competitive Advantages, Target Market. Introduction A majority of people believe that green marketing refers solely to the promotion or advertising of products with environmental characteristics. The terms like Phosphate Free, Recyclable, Refillable, Ozone Friendly, and Environmentally Friendly are some of the things consumers most often associate with green marketing.
While these terms are green marketing claims, in general green marketing is a much broader concept, one that can be applied to consumer goods, industrial goods, electronic goods, processed food, clothing, footwear, cosmetics and even services. For example, around the world there are resorts that are beginning to promote themselves as “ecotourist” facilities, i. e. , facilities that “specialize” in experiencing nature or operating in a fashion that minimizes their environmental impact and hence they are differentiating their products and services in the market.
Definition: “The marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe”. American Marketing Association. “Promotional activities aimed at taking advantage of the changing consumer attitudes toward a brand. These changes are increasingly being influenced by a firm’s policies and practices that affect the quality of the environment, and reflect the level of its concern for the community”. Businessdictionary. com. “Integrating business practices and products that are friendly to the environment while they also meeting the needs of the consumers”.
Pearson Education. As you can see these definitions range broadly from ‘taking advantage’ of consumer attitudes. One focuses on the nature of the product, another on the practices of the organisation. Green Marketing Strategy Developing a strategy, of any kind, is a complex undertaking which can be facilitated with the help of theoretical frameworks. Therefore, this section will present two models, The Green Marketing Grid (Grant, 2007, pp. 57-273) and The Green Marketing Strategy Matrix (Ginsberg & Bloom, 2004) hich will be used to analyse a corporation’s strategic options within green marketing.
The Green Marketing Grid: Grant views green marketing as “a creative opportunity, to innovate in ways that make a difference and at the same time achieve business success” (2007). He has developed the Green Marketing Grid, consisting of 18 different types of green marketing aimed at making green alternatives seem normal and accepted (2007). They are laid out in two 3 x 3 grids. |Green |Greener |Greenest | |Company (Trust) |Set an Example |Develop the Market |New Business Concepts | |Brand (Belief) |Credible Partner |Tribal Brands |Trojan Horses | |Product (Performance) |Market a Benefit |Change Usage |Challenge Consuming | The first grid is illustrated in Table 1.
Grant says that the three column categories refer to what degree the marketing activity contributes; if it does more than just sell a product/company. A. Green – Setting New Standards: These activities focus on applying a classic marketing approach to greener products, brands and companies. Greener means greener than the product/service/idea of the substitutes and competitors. These companies have got their act together and have modified their supply chain, sourcing, distribution and so on. The result shows mainly in the commercial outcome. Sustainability targets are constantly updated and therefore companies must do the same.
The key is to be truthful about what you are doing, committing to and even how you are fixing what was not right before; stay away from any form of greenwashing. B. Greener – Sharing Responsibility: Targeted at inciting more enthusiasm about a product than just to say “buy our brand”. It involves giving the consumers a chance to contribute and participate by sharing the responsibility with them. The result is a bigger outcome than just the commercial results. Relative to their competitors, these companies have stronger green credentials and are differentiated by what they bring to the market.
Focused on making cultural changes in order to substantially change how and what people consume. The central issue is two-fold, to create radically different and better offers through innovation and then to make them feel intuitive, familiar and easy to adopt.
