GREEN MARKETING: PREFERENCES AND PATHS? Nigamananda Biswas1

Abstract: Green marketing is a vital constituent of the holistic marketing concept. Many global players in diverse businesses are now successfully implementing green marketing practices. Green marketing is a new marketing concept and has become a corporate buzzword. It has been a new fashion for the marketers to be greener for gainingcompetitive advantage over the competitors in the turbulent market. The present paper has made an attempt to highlight the reasons of adopting green marketing approaches over the traditional marketing by the organizations. It has also identified some paths of going green to have edge over the other players in the same industry.

Introduction Green marketing is inevitable for any type oforganization. According to the American Marketing Association (AMA) ‘green marketing’ is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. It incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. Defining green marketing is not a simple task where several meanings intersectand contradict each other. Other similar terms used are ‘Environmental Marketing’ and ‘Ecological Marketing’. Ecological Marketing is a holistic marketing and environmental approach (Green or Environmental Marketing) comprise of all activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchanges intended to satisfy customer needs or wants with minimal detrimental impact on the natural environment witha view to have long-lasting impact on the creations of almighty. Business firms have risen to the occasion and have started responding to environmental challenges by adopting green marketing approaches. Green consumerism has played a catalystic role in ushering corporate environmentalism and making business firms green marketing oriented. « Green Marketing » refers to holistic marketing conceptwherein the production, marketing consumption an disposal of products and services happen in a manner that is less detrimental to the
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Assistant Professor, Deptt. of Business Administration, Assam University, SIlchar -788011. E-mail: [email protected]

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1656201

environment with growing awareness about the implications of globalwarming, non-biodegradable solid waste, harmful impact of pollutants etc. Both marketers and consumers are becoming increasingly sensitive to the need for switch in to green products and services. While the shift to « green » may appear to be expensive in the short term, it will definitely prove to be indispensable and advantageous, costwise too, in the long run. The evolution of green marketing hasthree phases (According to Peattie, 2001). First phase is termed as « Ecological » green marketing, and during this period all marketing activities were concerned to help environment problems and provide remedies for environmental problems. Second phase is « Environmental » green marketing and the focus shifted on clean technology that involved designing of innovative new products, which take care ofpollution and waste issues. Third phase was « Sustainable » green marketing came into prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000.

Some Cases of Green Marketing • The consumer electronics sector provides room for using green marketing to attract new customers. One example of this is HP’s promise to cut its global energy use 20 percent by the year 2010. • To accomplish this reduction below 2005levels, The Hewlett-Packard Company announced plans to deliver energy-efficient products and services and institute energy-efficient operating practices in its facilities worldwide. • New Delhi, capital of India, was being polluted at a very fast pace until Supreme Court of India forced a change to alternative fuels. In 2002, a directive was issued to completely adopt CNG in all public transport…