Whether Green Marketing Is a Fad and Will Vanish over the Period of Time - Assignment Example

Introduction Green marketing, by definition, is considered as the marketing of the products and services which are considered as safe for the environment. Over the period of time, increasing number of marketers used this new phenomenon in order to attract those customers who were more conscious in terms of their buying patterns. It is however, important to understand that due to green marketing, there have been many modifications in the way products were developed and packed, the process modifications have resulted into new and more innovative changes in the way products and services were manufactured and marketed. Some of the techniques and tools used by marketers were based upon the notion of fear and guilt. Apart from this the actual reasons as to why the consumers started to prefer such product is another important question to be answered. Despite its overall appeal, the green marketing is still considered as one of the hottest and debatable issues with advocates from both sides providing their own arguments in favor of each alternative. Over the period of time, it has been observed that green marketing as the primary sales pitch is on the decline and consumers are not actually giving more preferences to the products marketed by using green marketing tools and techniques. (J. Ottman 2011) This decline therefore does point out to the question of whether green marketing is a fad and will vanish over the period of time? This paper will therefore argue as to whether green marketing is a fad and will survive for long or not? Green Marketing Green marketing is relatively different from the traditional marketing because it is only limited to the marketing of products and services which are environment friendly and are targeted at a particular market. Green marketing as such therefore must two important criteria of improved environment as well as the customer satisfaction. (Ottman, Stafford and Hartman 2006) It is important to understand that no product or service has a zero impact on the environment however, it is generally accepted that those products and services which actually protect the environment by reducing or conserving the use of energy and other resources. It is therefore generally believed that the environment friendly products must improve the productivity of the natural resources and improve their competitiveness and life. It is therefore critical to accept that the green marketing pose a credible threat to the conventional marketing because it directly challenges the way products and their marketing were viewed in the past. Green marketing approach therefore not only refocuses and provides and alternative way of thinking about marketing but it can also offer a better and narrow view about marketing and how it can be exploited under different situations. (Belz and Peattie 2009) The idea of green marketing is not a new idea as it was originally proposed during 1975 by the American Marketing Association. The overall argument was based on the assumption that environment can be better protected under the private sector enterprises rather than through regulations of public sector entities. The overall idea was based upon striking a balance between the government as well as the private enterprises to share the burden of conserving the environment. (Kangis 1992) It is also important to note that over the period of time, green marketing has been considered as a solution- a tipping point. The increasing popularity of this type of marketing specially due to the celebrity endorsements, the overall appeal of the message, the increasing level of awareness which it promised to promote all contributed towards the popularity of this type of marketing. From the perspective of marketing and specially the green marketing, this provided a fresh and new perspective to the customers and offered a new way of looking at the environment and how it can be served through the marketing. It not only offered a new way to the consumers to adapt more green life style but it also seem to have served the business needs and requirements of the firms. At one point in time, most of the businesses and marketing agencies conceived that more and more businesses will be using the eco-marketing as an alternative way of doing the business. (Grant 2008) Appeals Used It is important to understand that the green marketing was based upon the idea that the rapid expansion of markets have resulted into rapid use of natural resources. Besides, environment was being damaged too and as such firms contributing more towards this damage should bear the cost of such damage too. There was a general increase in the overall awareness of the consumers too regarding how their decisions to purchase such products are actually contributing towards the damage of the environment. (Rahbar and Wahid 2011) It therefore attempted to influence such customers who were willing to feel responsible for the deterioration of the environment and their contribution towards this. There was mix of appeals used by the green marketers including using fear as well as guilt. Fear in the sense that marketers increasingly gave the message that the rapid exploitation of the environmental resources may result into shortages or even the widespread changes in the environment we live. (Ken Peattie and Crane 2005) The Al-Gore’s documentary on the global warming as well as the celebrity endorsements widely spread this message of fear and contributed towards the spread of this appeal to the target market. Why do consumers go for this? The late 20th century witnessed a dramatic increase in the flow of information for the consumers especially in terms of the environment. The widespread swings in the weather as well as other issues pointed out the subtleties of the environmental damage can actually hurt the way we live. Consumers based on the fear generation as well as guilt attempted to fulfill that gap by giving preference to the products which were supposed to be environment friendly. It is however, important to note that there is also debate going on suggesting the green marketing may not have actually marketing the products which contributed towards the improvement of the environment. (Lee 2008) Apart from this the capitalist societies of West always bank on new ways of doing things and require a constant and new ways of exploiting the resources. Apart from this, some statistics have also suggested that the shoppers tend to purchase green products because of their urge to improve their social status. Using non-environment friendly products therefore hinted that the consumers may be too selfish to use the products and services which were potentially damaging to the environment. Consumers therefore seem to purchase products marketed through the green marketing either in social pressure or they just want to be part of the wave without actually understanding the real value of the initiative. (Awad 2011) Is it fashionable? The way green marketing as a concept has evolved and used by the marketers to attract new customers, green marketing may be considered as a fashion for the consumers. Many studies have suggested that consumers really do not know much about these products and are often confused. Marketers therefore seem to have taken advantage of such confusion and used it for the purpose of marketing products which were even less efficient in performance than the products which were not environment friendly. It is now generally believed that though green marketing as an idea has been researched a lot but it still is less understood area both by the marketers as well as the consumers. (Grant, 2008) Some studies also suggested that consumers preferred to buy the green products when they are in public therefore giving an impression which coincides more with the word fashion rather than doing it out of the sheer sense of responsibility for the environment. How marketers have capitalized on this? As discussed above that green products or marketing must satisfy two important criteria of environment protection as well as the consumer satisfaction. A misjudgment in either of the two therefore can create what is called green marketing myopia. Over the period of time, marketers have seem to capitalize on this green marketing myopia because marketers and firms have increasingly focused on the so called greenness of their products while at the same time ignoring the essential part of what is needed by the consumers. (Stephen W. McDaniel and Rylander 1993) Marketers therefore seem to have taken advantage of the sheer lack of information and knowledge of the consumers and marketed products which potentially were not satisfying the exact needs of their customers. As discussed above that consumers are willing to purchase such products when they are in public therefore suggests that marketers tend to have exploited these fears and guilt and successfully marketed green products. (Norm Borin, Cerf and Krishnan, 2011) Sustainability of the green marketing As discussed above that there is a fundamental difference in the way green marketing is being practiced and supported. As discussed that firms and marketers increasingly focused upon the development of green products without recognizing the actual needs of their customers therefore this gap between the two may not allow green marketing to sustain for long. (Smith 1998) Any marketing effort can only be successful if it can be duly supported by different parts of the whole integrated marketing system. It is therefore critical that different Ps of the green marketing must be aligned with each other to make it more sustainable. Though green marketing has focused on understanding the social and environmental values however, it has failed to properly consider the overall implications for the consumers. The lack of information about the new products and services as well as the social pressure may have resulted into better performance for the marketers but this does not seem to be sustainable. Implications for stakeholders Some research studies suggest that green marketing as a process is not a linear process within the organizations. It is suggested that different green marketing profiles suit to different stakeholders therefore their impact will be different on each class of the stakeholders. (Jon F. Kirchoff, Koch and Nichols 2011) Modern organizations are complex organizations with multiple stakeholders with direct and indirect stakes within the organization. Though on the face of it, green marketing seems to be one of important ideas to conserve the environment as well as save the natural resources however, its implications can be different for different stakeholders. The success or failure of green marketing may have different implications for different sets of stakeholders however, it’s critical that the overall benefits may not be long term in nature. Though green products can be considered as most important in terms of ensuring that they can sustain the environment however, it is critical to understand that the green marketing may not have been designed the way it yielded greater results. Further the cost of implementing such marketing approaches may be high for a society as a whole. (Wasik 1996) Conclusion Though green marketing as a concept is important in the sense that it provides an alternative approach to the traditional marketing methods. It focuses on the marketing of the green products which can support the environment and conserve the energy and other resources. However, there seems to be a gap between the way products are developed and what consumers actually want. This gap between the two therefore may not allow green marketers to actually capitalize on this for longer period of time. Increasing number of studies has suggested that consumers buy green products because they perceive that the same may result into an improvement in their social status. Further, there is a general lack of awareness about the products and consumers do not seem to have a clear and vivid idea of how their behavior, modified as a result of green marketing, can actually result into contribution towards conserving natural resources. (Fuller 1999) Green marketing therefore may be considered as a Fad and I fully agree with the view that it started as a fad and died down out of its natural course of action. Though marketers seem to have enjoyed and produced results however, green marketing does not seem to sustainable in the long run. In order to improve the overall message put forward through green marketing, it is important to bring in more ideas and innovativeness in the way overall green marketing campaigns are designed and developed. Bibliography Awad, Tamer A. "Environmental segmentation alternatives: buyers profiles and implications." Journal of Islamic Marketing 2, no. 1 (2011): 55 - 73. Belz, Frank-Martin, and Ken Peattie . Sustainability Marketing: A Global Perspective. New York: Wiley, 2009. Fuller, Donald A. Sustainable marketing:managerial-ecological issues. London: Sage Publications, 1999. Grant, John. "Green marketing." Strategic Direction 24, no. 6 (2008): 25 - 27. —. The Green Marketing Manifesto. New York: Wiley, 2008. Jon F. Kirchoff, Chris Koch, and Satinover Bridget Nichols. "Stakeholder perceptions of green marketing: the effect of demand and supply integration." International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management 41, no. 7 (2011): 684 - 696. Kangis, Peter. "Concerns about Green Marketing." International Journal of Wine Marketing 4, no. 2 (1992): 21 - 24. Ken Peattie, and Andrew Crane. "Green marketing: legend, myth, farce or prophesy?" Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 8, no. 4 (2005): 357 - 370. Lee, Kaman. "Opportunities for green marketing: young consumers." Marketing Intelligence & Planning 26, no. 6 (2008): 573 - 586. Norm Borin, Douglas C. Cerf, and R. Krishnan,. "Consumer effects of environmental impact in product labeling." Journal of Consumer Marketing 28, no. 1 (2011): 76 - 86. Ottman, Jacquelyn A., Edwin R Stafford, and Cathy L. Hartman. Avoding green marketing myopia. June 2006. http://www.greenmarketing.com/files/Stafford-MyopiaJune06.pdf (accessed September 17, 2011). Ottman, Jacquelyn. The New Rules of Green Marketing: Strategies, Tools, and Inspiration for Sustainable Branding. New York: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2011. Rahbar, Elham, and Nabsiah Abdul Wahid. "Investigation of green marketing tools effect on consumers purchase behavior." Business Strategy Series 12, no. 2 (2011): 73-83. Smith, Toby Maureen. The myth of green marketing:tending our goats at the edge of apocalypse. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. Stephen W. McDaniel, and David H Rylander. "Strategic green marketing." Journal of Consumer Marketing, 10, no. 3 (1993): 4-10. Wasik, John F. Green marketing & management:a global perspective. New York: Wiley Blackwell, 1996. Read More