IMPACT OF GREEN MARKETING ON CONSUMER PURCHASE

INTENTION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Meenakshi Vijay Lekshmi R Suresh

Department of Commerce and Department of Commerce and
Management Management
Amrita School of Arts and Science Amrita School of Arts and Science
meenakshivijay2897@gmail.com lekshmipunartham97@gmail.com

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus, India

Pravitha N R
Department of Commerce and Management
Amrita School of Arts and Science, Amrita Viswa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri
nrpravitha9@gmail.com

ABSTRACT- Today, the term green products and green marketing have a major impact on
people around the globe. Most of us are aware of the environmental issues caused by them
and now we are moving ahead with eco-friendly products inorder to make their part in
sustainable development. This study aims at looking into the impact of green marketing on
purchase intention of consumers and sustainable development. This study also highlights
the negative aspects of consumer intention on green products and the terms“green
washing” and“green myopia”. The study further highlights the issues related to the
environmental problems created by them. The data needed for the study is taken from 200
samples from the southern part of Kerala including Trivandrum, Alappuzha and Kollam
districts among all the adult age groups using a questionnaire based on the studies
conducted in the area. Some examples of the green products are also given in the article so
as to make consumers understand about the topic. The results of the study can be further
utilised to analyse the influence of green marketing on the purchase behavior of
consumers in diverse locations, thereby contributing to a sustainable development of the
economy.

KEYWORDS- Green marketing, green washing, green myopia, sustainable development

INTRODUCTION: In this new era of globalization, people are moving forward for new
innovations and new technology. The origin of the term green marketing arises in the late
1980s and early 1990s from the first book published named ‘Ecological Marketing’. The CSR
activities started from the financial reports of icecream seller Ben and Jerry’s as well as the
Bruntland Report of Sustainable Development by World Commission on Environment and
Development was the step towards sustainability every day. Green marketing seems to be
heard as a simple task but it was not that easy. It constitutes a broad range of activities from
the concept to the customers in a way so that it is less detrimental to the environment.
Our study mainly focussed on the consumer’s perception towards green marketing and
sustainable development. Growing awareness about environmental problems and its effect
on the world makes marketers as well as consumers switch into the green products. The
customers of green products mostly include people with traditional outlook as well as those
who are health conscious. There are two categories in this:
1) Those who have the knowledge who buy things after closely considering factors like
ecolabelling, greenwshing, and so on.

2) Those who do not have any knowledge about green products; however, buy them solely
based on external factors like advertisements, public interest and likes, and goodwill.

GREEN MARKETING MIX

For a firm, the term ‘green’ is used to promote themselves for greater advantage. In
marketing, 4P’s plays major role in customer satisfaction, in the same way green marketing
does. Every company has a marketing mix for a successful and standard marketing. The
marketing is not only influenced by its marketing mix, but also influenced by some other
internal or external factors. A company’s future is dependent on a good marketing mix and
can be done with good research and study on the same.

Product: The objectives of choosing green marketing products are to reduce the impact on
the environment and reduce resource consumption and pollution, thereby the environment
safety. The product can be manufactured in such a way that it can be repaired, recycled,
reduced and reused. Most of the customers’ decisions have an affect on green labelling.
Price: Mostly green products cost higher than non-green products. About 61% of the people
are willing to buy green products only if they cost less. But green marketing will be cost
efficient in a long run even though it is a bit expensive at the start. The customers are only
willing to pay for the product only but the visual appearance, packaging, advertisement and
all other resources cost more.
Place: Distribution of green products is a difficult task. Inorder to cut the cost of imported
goods and reduce the transport emissions, these products are licensed for local production.
People are not willing to travel long to buy a green product, rather they may choose a non-
green product. The company must constantly check if the suppliers and distributors are
environment-friendly, such as using environmental friendly vehicles etc.
Promotion: Green marketing promotions should be transparent; to make a product familiar
to the customers, the company should use advertisements, promotions, publicity and
corporate social responsibilities so as to attain faithful customers.

LITERATURE REVIEW: Ginsberg and Bloom in 2004 proposed that customers of green
products are not likely to compromise with their quality even though they are priced high
than non-green products. They stress on the fact that there is no single marketing strategy
that won for every green marketing company. Green consumers are unlikely to compromise
on attributes like convenience, availability, price, and quality.
According to Piattie in 2001, the green marketing evolution consist of three stages—the first
stage ‘Ecological marketing’ concerns about environmental issues in companies and they are
trying to find ways to overcome those issues. The evolution connects the ecological
problems with the marketing to find new ways of sustainable development; the second
stage was ‘Environmental Marketing’ where consumers demand for new green-friendly
product, pollution-free technologies and also people who works for the environment, for
instance, green political parties. The third stage of green marketing is ‘Sustainable
marketing’ and is completely based on sustainable development, focussing on current
generation needs without compromising future generation resources.
Tanner and Kast 2003, from the survey proposed that even though 67% of consumers
support purchases of organic food, only small proportions of 6% are actually purchasing the
same. This difference in the positive attitude towards green marketing and actual purchase
behavior of green marketing is termed as green-attitude behavior gap. We can overcome
this issue by finding out the actual factors lying behind the same and then steps can be
taken to make consumers actually buy the products.
Moisander 2007 suggested that when customers show a positive attitude towards green
purchase behaviour, then this decision-making is considered as a type of socially responsible
behaviour. Here, the green consumer takes into account the ecological or sustainable
development and attempts to be a part of social change.
According to Ottman, every one in this world is a green consumer. With the time, the need
of customers will also increase. And this makes firms, business owners, corporations focus
on green marketing more to withstand the competition, else those who does not meet the
requirements of customers will gradually go down and lose business. Hence, the
sustainability or green marketing will not be a niche in the market for long; it will be the
backbone for world market
Research Methodology: Both primary and secondary data have been collected and
analyzed. The analysis of secondary information provided the background for initiating the
collection of information and the interpretation of primary data. Secondary data are
collected through essays, reports and professional information concerning eco-consumer
studies and eco-marketing strategies in general using the internet and academic databases.
The primary data was collected through questionnaire; the population investigator selected
200 samples in a descriptive form where a group of individuals are studied. About 75% of
the questionnaire is collected through google forms and the rest 25% is filled by the
respondents directly.
Objectives of the study:
 To determine how green marketing tools improves purchase intention of the
customers
 To understand the trust of consumers in ecolabel and ecobrand.
 To determine how green marketing and sustainable development are interrelated.
 To offer helpful guidelines for government to formulate green policies.
 To find out the reasons for failure of green products.
Data Analysis and Interpretation:
The study is related to the impact of green marketing on consumer purchase intention and
the impact of green marketing in sustainable development.
FIGURE 1: MODE OF AWARENESS OF GREEN PRODUCTS OR ECO-FRIENDLY PRODUCTS

Television Magazines Class Lectures News Paper Others

11%

33%

25%

9%
22%

The mode of awareness has a major impact on the green marketing. Consumers buy
products after getting sufficient knowledge on it. Here, the media of advertisement plays a
major role. Out of the samples collected, about 33% of respondents get the awareness of
these products from television, 25% knows the products from newspaper, 22% of the
people get awareness from magazines, 11% of the people from some other sources of
information like Whatsapp and other social media, and the remaining 9% of the
respondents get the knowledge from class lectures.
FIGURE 2: ANALYSIS OF THE RESPONDENCE WHO PREFER USING GREEN PRODUCTS

YES NO

34%

66%
INTERPRETATION: Out of 200 respondents, a majority of the people prefer green products;
it can be interpreted as 66% of people out of 200 are likely to use green products rather
than non-green products, and 34% do not prefer to use green products, as they find some
discomfort related to the green products, maybe because of various disadvantages of the
product.
FIGURE 3: ANALYSIS OF MARKETING TOOL INFLUENCING BUYING BEHAVIOR OF GREEN
PRODUCTS

PRODUCT PRICE PLACE PROMOTION

15%

7%

52%

26%

INTERPRETATION: Marketing tool plays a major role in influencing the buying behaviour of
products. From the 200 respondents, 52% of the people are influenced by the product in
terms of the quality of the product, benefits etc, and 26% people are influenced by price; if
the price of the products is increased due to a product improvement, these customers will
not be ready to pay more. About 15% of the people were influenced by promotional
strategies, advertisements, posters, and media has a huge impact on them. Only 7% of the
people are influenced by place. Distribution channels have no impact on customers of green
product.