Green Marketing: Its Influence on Consumer Behavior

al damage to the environment since the products are free of pesticides. To achieve this objective such products are produced taking into consideration the effects on the environment. A green consumer for this purpose is defined as the one who purchases green products. Such consumers believe that by the purchase of such products they are helping the environment. According to the EU 10% of the consumers in Europe recognize the benefit of green products. They understand the importance that such products have on the ecology and energy (Boztepe 2016).

Green marketing is a very hot topic with the consumers identifying the importance of such products. The consumers of green products are aware of the different products in the market and the methods of manufacture of such materials.  These consumers are environment friendly and they are concerned for the environment. Thus, marketing organizations are employing different strategies to market such products and to retain loyal consumers. Retaining of the consumers is important in the long run because of the high cost of green products (Saini 2013).

The strategy of green marketing is based on the 4 P’s which are Product, Price, Place and Promotion. The above 4 P’s are solved with Customer Solutions, Customer Cost, Communications and Convenience (Deshwal 2012).

A study was conducted in Australia to analyze the relationship between green marketing and the intentions of the consumer in purchasing green products. The consumers who were graduate students were shown three different types of advertisement and asked their intention to purchase the product. The results revealed that the consumers did not differ in purchase intentions across the advertisement. However, the same study also revealed that the consumers behavior was directly related to environmental impact. Hence the study showed that green marketing intentions should be aligned towards the environmental impact of the green products (Grimmer and Woolley 2014.

The concern of the consumer towards an environment friendly world is growing. This concern is due to the green marketing strategies being taken up by the marketer. The awareness of the consumer towards a green product has been influenced by: his reduction in the use of non-green products, his eagerness to purchase green products and use of environment friendly ways of living. From the study done by Suki (2013) in Malaysia that the purchasing decision of green products by the consumers was directly related to the awareness, the price of the product. The awareness of the brand of the product is also an important factor in his decision to purchase.

Although the concept of green marketing started in the 60’s it was not until the 90’s that such products were visible. The concept of green marketing starts from the planning of functions to generate such product which are green. The green purchasing behavior of human beings shows his intention to contribute to the environment (Akehurst Afonso and Gonçalves 2012).

Research Aim

The aim of the research is to evaluate the green marketing strategies and how it influences the purchasing behavior of the consumer

Research Question

The research question for this assignment is as follows:

• Do you prefer green products over normal products?
• How often do you purchase Green Products. ?
• Are you aware of the harmful effects of pesticides on consumable food products ?

Research Objective   

The objective of the research is as follows:

• To explore the ways in which green products are marketed
• To examine if the consumer is price conscious or quality conscious
• To gain an insight into the awareness amongst the consumers towards green products

Research Methodology

Primary data will be collected in the form of a survey questionnaire (refer Appendix for survey questionnaire). The primary data collection method is chosen since data from a large population can be collected and then further analyzed.  The focus of the survey would be to understand the awareness of the consumers towards green products. The survey would also be able to understand the concern of the consumers towards the environment. It would focus of the long term purchase behavior of the consumers. Exploratory data analysis techniques with multiple regression analysis would be used for the analysis (Delafrooz, Taleghani and Nouri 2014). The analysis will be used to understand the strategies that the marketer of the green product uses to successfully market a green product.

Expected Research Outcome

The study will demonstrate the techniques that a producer of green product uses to market his goods. Green products are mostly cost-intensive. Thus, they must be effectively marketed so that consumers prefer a green product to a non-green product. The study will also demonstrate if the consumer has enough information about the beneficial effects of Green products to the environment. The study will therefore be able to say that the perceived importance of a green product has percolated to the consumer. The study wishes to understand that given a choice between green and non-green products will the consumer choose a green product.

Conclusion

The concept that the environment is our concern has given rise to consumer products which are green. These products are manufactured keeping the environment in mind. Thus to manufacture such products a cost is involved.   Thus a marketer of green products should use different marketing strategies to influence a consumer to purchase a eco-friendly product. They should be able to show the perceived the beneficial effects of such products. They should emphasize the importance of such products on the environment to offset the higher price. These green products should be advertised aggressively so that the consumers interest on such products increases. Then only will the marketer be able to create new, loyal green consumers.

References    

Akehurst, G., Afonso, C. and Martins Gonçalves, H., 2012. Re-examining green purchase behaviour and the green consumer profile: new evidences. Management Decision, 50(5), pp.972-988.

Boztepe, Aysel. "Green marketing and its impact on consumer buying behavior." European Journal of Economic and Political Studies 5, no. 1 (2016): 5-21.

Delafrooz, Narges, Mohammad Taleghani, and Bahareh Nouri. "Effect of green marketing on consumer purchase behavior." QScience Connect (2014): 5..

Deshwal, P., 2012. Green marketing: Issues and challenges. ZENITH International Journal of Business Economics & Management Research, 2(6), pp.105-114.

Grimmer, M. and Woolley, M., 2014. Green marketing messages and consumers' purchase intentions: Promoting personal versus environmental benefits. Journal of Marketing Communications, 20(4), pp.231-250.

Saini, Babita. "Green marketing and its impact on consumer buying behavior." International Journal of Engineering Science Invention 2, no. 2 (2013): 61-64.

Sharma, Meghna, and Prachi Trivedi. "Various Green Marketing Variables and Their Effects on Consumers? Buying Behaviour for Green Products."

Suki, Norazah Mohd. "Green Awareness Effects on Consumers’ Purchasing Decision: Some Insights From Malaysia." Ijaps 9, no. 2 (2013): 49-63.