With the increase in environmental pollution, there has been growing concern about the eco-friendly strategies that can be adopted to reduce the carbon footprint (Chan, He, and Wang, 2012). The majority of the people in the developed nations consider environmental protection as a crucial factor while making their purchase decisions. Green marketing involves the entire lifecycle of a product that begins from acquiring raw materials to the manufacturing of the products, selling the final goods, and disposing of waste materials (Ansar, 2013).
This is assumed to be a marketing model that involves the concept of environmental protection in designing the products, production of goods, and service processes. Along with the green consciousness, innovation is other aspect that affects the purchase intentions of the consumers. Large car companies such as General Motors and BMW have used water-based paint for their vehicles so as to reduce the emission of the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) (Cherian and Jacob, 2012). The landfill gas project was undertaken by BMW also reduces around 60,000 tons of CO2 and the company is able to produce heat and electricity from the combustion of methane from the available waste so that the company is able to obtain operational stability (Cherian and Jacob, 2012).
Green marketing enables the managers to invent new products that are based on renewable sources of energy to reduce the level of environmental pollution (Cherian and Jacob, 2012).Cherian and Jacob (2012) have defined green marketing as an activity to fulfill human needs with minimal effect on the environment. There are different dimensions of green marketing identified by the researchers such as green manufacturing, packaging, green promotion, and green consumption (Cronin, et al., 2011). These indicators support the green marketing awareness of the marketing managers.
The perceived quality of the consumers is influenced through environmental contexts and the consumers believe that the products would cause less pollution in the society (Cronin, et al., 2011). The purchase intentions of a particular group of consumers interested in purchasing hybrid cars also depend on the green marketing strategies that are adopted by the companies in the global market (Rahbar and Abdul Wahid, 2011). Furthermore, the green products area assumed to create value for the customers and this value is expected to match the perceived value (Rahbar and Abdul Wahid, 2011).
Consumers have the perception that the products would create value for them according to the prices charged (Ko, Hwang, and Kim, 2013). The low-cost products are expected to develop low perceived value as compared to that of the high-cost products. However, there may be a difference in the perceived and the actual value of the product due to the differences in quality of raw materials used for manufacturing the product (Ko, Hwang, and Kim, 2013).
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