A Study On Consumer Perception And

Attitude Towards Green Products

With Specific Reference To
Consumer Durables,
In Surat City

A Research Proposal

Submitted to

Head of the Department,

Department of Business & Industrial Management
Veer Narmad South Gujarat University

For admission to the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Faculty of Management)

By
Baxis Patel

Date : 4-4-13
A. Introduction:

The term green product which is the part of green marketing or eco-friendly or
sustainable marketing have been widely used by the majority of the companies across the
globe. In this study researcher will focus on green product of green marketing and its
impact on customer. The term Green Marketing came into dominance in the late 1980s
and early 1990s, began in Europe in the early 1980s when certain products were found to
be harmful to the environment and society as a whole. Consequently new types of
products were created, called "green" products that would cause less damage to the
environment, so on gradually the term green marketing has raised its head in the field of
business.

As with most marketing and advertising jargon, the term “green” can be defined in many
ways—its definition tweaked to support a particular message or point of view. In recent
years, “green” has even made its way into the scientific dictionary. Yet, while the general
consensus is that “green” refers, in some way, to environmentally-preferable attributes of
a product, service, and/or technology, there is no single, universal definition of the term.

According to Peattie (2001), the evolution of green marketing can be divided into three
phases.

1. First phase was termed as "Ecological" green marketing, to help solve

environment problems through remedies.
2. Second phase was "Environmental" green marketing with focus on clean
technology that involved designing of innovative new products, which take care of
pollution and waste issues.
3. Third phase was "Sustainable" green marketing came into prominence in the late
1990s and early 2000 where it becomes necessary for companies to produce
environment friendly products as the awareness for such products is on the rise as
customers are demanding eco-friendly products and technologies. It is also a part
of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).

Most of the corporate houses have taken green-marketing as a part of their strategy to
promote products by employing environmental claims either about their attributes or
about the systems, policies and processes of the firms that manufacture or sell them.
Clearly green marketing is part and parcel of overall corporate strategy; along with
manipulating the traditional marketing mix (product, price, promotion and place) , it
require an understanding of public policy process.

According to Polonsky(1994)- green or environmental marketing consists of all activities,

designed to generate and facilitate any exchange indented to satisfy human needs and
wants, such that the satisfaction of these needs and wants occur with minimum
detrimental impact on the natural environment. Green Marketing is defined by Peattie
(1995) as “the holistic management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and
satisfying the requirements of customers and society, in a profitable and sustainable way”.
According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of
products that are presumed to be environmentally safe.

According to Ottman (2006) the green marketing satisfies two objectives: improved
environmental quality and customer satisfaction. Davis (1993) says that green marketer
can develop a communication message which can address the environment problem
presenting motivational and relevant attitudes approach in advertising for example
communicating that “you are contributing for the improvement of the society as a whole”.
Robins (2008) points out that a company must accept its responsibility for its operations
and their impact on society and Natural Environment. Companies should work for
betterment of society as a whole and more greening the world. Further Sirsly suggested
that Corporate Social Responsibility is not always generating the monetary and economic
value for the firms, but it helps to promote firm uniqueness efforts towards society. So it
can be a part of their CSR activities.

Introduction to Green Products:

Ultimately green Products looks at how marketing activities utilize these limited
resources, while satisfying consumers wants, both of individuals and industry, as well as
achieving the selling organization's objectives.

The majority of green products have one or more of the following environmental
attributes:

 They promote clean air quality (typically through reduced emissions)

 They are durable and have low maintenance requirements.

  They are recyclable and reusable.

 They are made using natural, renewable or environment friendly resources.

 They do not contain any ozone-depleting substances like green house gases.

 They do not contain highly toxic compounds, and their production does not result
in highly toxic by-products or waste products harmful to society and environment.

 For wood or bio-based products, they employ "sustainable harvesting" practices

 They are biodegradable.

 They consume low electricity or electricity efficient.

About Consumer Durables and White Goods:

Consumer durables refer to those consumer goods that do not quickly wear out and yields
utility over a long period of time. Some of the popular and common examples of these
kinds of items are electronic goods, kitchen appliances, home furnishings and leisure
equipments etc. Consumer durables can be broadly categorized into the following 3
heads:

1. White Goods: White goods mainly include air conditioners, refrigerators,

washing machines, audio equipments and speakers.
2. Brown Goods: This kind of consumer durables mostly include kitchen appliances
like chimneys, electric fans, grinders, iron, microwave ovens, mixers and varied
other cooking ranges.
3. Consumer Electronics: Some of the mostly used consumer electronic goods are
DVD players, MP3 players, mobile telephones, televisions, VCD players etc.

Glimpse of Indian Consumer durable sector :

 Industry Size : Consumer Durables is A Rs. 350bn industry in India

 CAGR: ~15% growth over next 5 years
 Key Categories : White Goods, Brown goods and Consumer electronics.
 Competitive landscape: dominated by Korean majors like LG and Samsung in
most of the segments
  Growth opportunities : Lower penetration coupled with increasing disposable
income

It is believed that the consumer durables industry’s growth has been two pronged:

(a) Driven by lower penetration in rural markets and

(b) New innovations and replacement demand in urban markets.

Some Key growth drivers include:

1. Continued economic growth demonstrated through 8.4% CAGR growth in GDP

over last 5 years
2. Favorable demographics; 64% of the population in working age category
3. Increasing Urbanization, nuclear families
4. Increase in disposable incomes; which drives consumption
5. Increasing affordability coupled with declining prices of products
6. Lower consumer product penetration
7. Availability of new products and technologies,
8. Easy financing schemes and
9. Increase in organized retail

TVs, Refrigerators and air conditioners constitute more than 60% of the market

Chart 1 : Market Share of different consumer Goods in India, 2012

(Sources : IBEF, GEPL Capital Research)

Green marketing and consumer durables:

Now is the era of recyclable, non-toxic and environment friendly goods. This has become
the new mantra for marketers to satisfy the needs of consumers and earn better profits in a
greener way. It includes a broad range of activities like product modification, changing
the production process, modified advertising, change in packaging, etc., aimed at
reducing the detrimental impact of products and their consumption and disposal on the
environment. Companies all over the world are striving to reduce the impact of products
and services on the climate and other environmental parameters. Consumer durable
companies are taking the indication and are going green. Green marketer of consumer
durable can attract customers on the basis of performance, money savings, health and
convenience, or just plain environmental friendliness, so as to target a wide range of
green customers (who believes in “save environment save earth”).

Green Marketing has become a trend in the recent past with numerous of companies
including consumer durables entering into the manufacturing of green products in India.
Consumers in metro cities have already started using products like cars, food products
and construction materials. But, the problem with green products is premium price. Most
of the green products are premium priced when compared to normal products.
Consumers, who don’t have awareness on the global warming and environmental
protection, never look into the premium priced products unless they see additional
personal benefits rather than social benefits. It does not matter even if the consumers are
well educated or falls in high income brackets, their mind set will not change until they
get the awareness on benefits of eco-friendly products. At the outset, companies need to
start focusing on marketing the benefits of the green products and make people know why
they need to use green products. And the Government of India has introduced the
mandatory Energy Efficiency Star Labeling System from January 2010 on home
appliances, i.e. refrigerators and air-conditioners. Also, the government is committed to
phasing out “ozone depleting layer substances” used in air-conditioners. So ultimately the
entire cost of it will be passed on to the customers.

B. PROBLEM STATEMENT:

Unlike developed country India is still at emerging stage in using eco friendly products.
Consumers started gaining the awareness about environmental protection and global
warming slowly. So here with keep in mind above discussion researcher would like to
study the customers attitude towards green marketing practice of Indian consumer durable
companies especially for white goods. Which factors generally customers consider while
purchasing consumer durables and how they react on energy efficient product. We know
little about how consumers actually respond to green products and to companies’ efforts
to market them. Without this crucial information, it is problematic to suggest guidelines
for how international executives can most effectively leverage their marketing efforts
within the confines of the green business arena.

This study will identify the perception and attitude of consumers towards green products
in consumer durable sector in the Surat city, and also attempts to bring some clarity to a
number of facets relating to how consumers focus on different aspects of green products
when they make purchasing decisions. This information has the potential to help guide
companies that need to understand the driving forces behind their current and future
customers’ decision making process when they interface with green products.

The extended tenor of this investigation may be the perceived attribute of green products
as either “mostly benefiting society” or “mostly benefiting the individual.” Based on
individual and partially culturally informed characteristics, the expectation is that
consumers will respond differently depending on the degree to which the perceived
benefits of a certain product ally with their own preferences and inclinations. One such
assumption is that individuals that are collectivist in nature will be especially prone to
focus on messages relating to a green product’s benefit to society as a whole. It is the goal
of this study to identify various aspect of consumer behavior on green products which
will be formed through their attitude towards it.

C. RESEARCH METHODS:

1. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:

Primary Objective:
To study the consumer perception and attitude towards green products with
specific reference to consumer durable in Surat City.
Secondary objectives :
1. To study factors affecting the purchase decision related to consumer
durables
2. To study customers behavior towards green marketing for consumer
durables
3. To understand whether consumers are concerned about environment
 4. To know customers’ level of understanding about green marketing for
consumer durables

2. LITERATURE REVIEW:

Literature review will cover few existing researches available to this research
topic this includes literature review on green marketing as green products are the
part of it and later part of it will discuss literature review on consumer durables.
On Green Marketing

Mintu and Lozada(1993) defined green marketing as the application of marketing

tools to facilitate exchanges that satisfy organizational and individual goals in
such a way that the preservation, protection and conservation of the physical
environment is upheld”.

According to Stanton and Futrell(1987)-all activities designed to generate and

facilitate any exchanges intended to satisfy human needs and wants; therefore it
ensures that the interest of the organization and all it consumers are protected, as
voluntary exchange will not take place unless the buyers and sellers are mutually
benefited.

Elingston (1994:93) defines green consumer as one who avoids products that are
likely to endanger health of the consumer or others; cause significant damage to
the environment during manufacture, use or disposal; consume a disproportionate
amount of energy; cause unnecessary waste; use materials derived from threatened
species or environments; involve unnecessary use of, or cruelty to animals;
adversely affect other countries.

According to Mintel's report, 66% of consumers in United States do not buy green
products because of high cost, while 34% say there is lack of availability of green
products in the market. This shows the huge potential for untapped market and
customer demand and requirement for eco-friendly products which the companies
can exploit for capturing the market share and thereby enhancing the profitability
and sustainability of the organisation in the global competitive scenario.

According to Nielsen’s 2011 Global Online Environment & Sustainability Survey

of more than 25,000 Internet respondents in 51 countries. Among the
environmental and sustainability efforts that matter to Indian consumers, 86
percent of Indian consumers surveyed place faith in energy efficient products and
appliances, followed by recyclable packaging (79%). Least impact was given to
products not tested on animals (41%), and fair trade products (44%).

While A recent research study in the realm of Corporate Social Responsibility

(CSR) by Trudel and Cotte (2009) elucidates how consumers respond to CSR
messages relating to products and companies. In this study, the authors confirm
the notion from previous studies that consumers expect companies to behave
ethically and that they are prepared to punish them if they do not. Some CSR
researchers go as far as to warning companies about the hazards of being
perceived as socially irresponsible precisely because of the finding that consumers
are more susceptible to negative CSR information than to positive CSR
information.

A study of Pranav Mishra, Payal Sharma (2010) says that Marketers also have the
responsibility to make the consumers understand the need for and benefits of
green products as compared to non-green ones. In green marketing, consumers are
willing to pay more to maintain a cleaner and greener environment. Finally,
consumers, industrial buyers and suppliers need to pressurize effects on minimize
the negative effects on the environment-friendly. Green marketing assumes even
more importance and relevance in developing countries like India

Based on secondary research, Debdipto Majmudar 2011, a researcher found that

marketers have to adapt their green marketing strategies depending on the nature
of the product. For high involvement products, environmentally friendly attributes
may not be sufficient to persuade customers to prefer the product or pay a
premium for it. Such products must match or provide additional value when
compared with other products on various parameters such as performance, brand,
convenience and price. In contrast, green marketing can offer benefits for low
involvement products. claims of environ-mental friendliness of products, if clearly
advertised, can cause a shift in consumer preferences.

According to Dr. Vemuri Lakshmi Narayana, Mr. S. Dhinesh Babu, 2011, A

clever marketer is one who not only convinces the consumer, but also involves the
consumer in marketing his product. Green marketing should not be considered as
just one more approach to marketing, but has to be pursued with much greater
vigor, as it has an environmental and social dimension to it. With the threat of
global warming looming large, it is extremely important that green marketing
becomes the norm rather than an exception or just a fad.

According to Nai-Jen Chang and Cher-Min Fong (2010), In recent year, business
ethics, social responsibility, sustainable development, and environmental issues
have become important strategic concerns among companies. At the same time,
customers in major international markets were demanding that companies
produced higher quality products that are consistent with societal and
environmental values if they wish to remain competitive in global markets.
Therefore, companies increasingly paid attention to green concepts, such as green
management, green marketing, green products, etc.

Jay Zarnikau has done some very good work on consumer‟s attitude about green
marketing. I use his research to understand some important aspects of consumer‟s
attitude towards green marketing (Zarnikau, 2003).

On Consumer Durables
According to Hitesh D. Vyas, It indicates that consumers are well aware about
their choice. Also they are Purchasing of consumer durable goods mostly from
authorized dealers’ shop, which ranked at top, while, role of TV as media also
found important in this result. As it happens basic durables like, Mixer,
Tape/Music System, Flour Mill and Refrigerator becomes requirement than
luxury. Where, in Television next generation products have still same glitters, so
in Washing Machine, Water Purifier, Vacuum Cleaner and Air conditioner
consumers of all classes are mostly untapped.

Marketers have to utilize price and product combination well to satisfy the hidden
needs of these consumers. While in upper class consumer the same products may
at the replacement level or at second/another piece demand level, where producer
can push the high priced, higher version or the latest edition of their products. It
can help them to position their brand between the different income group
consumers. The market for consumer durables is becoming more competitive now
a day. Therefore, the producer of durable products should understand consumer
interest much to find higher sale of their products. The study concludes that the
competitive market provides opportunity on one hand and threats on the other
hand to both the consumer and the producer; it is become quite important to
improving core products with value addition to enrich customer satisfaction more
in the similar price range. Not only quality improvements but improvement in
after sales service can development replacement demand or demand for second
piece in the households.

Mr. Paramanand Dasar, Dr. S.G. Hundekar & Mr. Mallikarjun Maradi in their
research concluded that the market for consumer durables is becoming more
competitive now a day. Therefore, the producer of durable products should
understand consumer interest much to find higher sale of their products. Overall, it
is argued that the study of consumer behaviour is rapidly evolving as researchers
recognize and implement new techniques and Trans disciplinary perspectives to
understand the nature of purchase and consumption behaviour. This wider view
attempts to study Consumer Behaviour: behaviour in the light of rapidly evolving
lifestyles, values, priorities, and social contexts. Various theories on consumer
research were not tested empirically until the middle twentieth century. The
distinctly practical emphasis awaited development of the field of marketing in the
business curriculum. In particular the buying process of consumer behaviour is of
more importance to marketing practitioners than the consumption process.

Aradhana Krishna (2003) viewed that buyers’ purchase behaviours can be

influenced not only by the current prices of a product but also by those prices
expect in the future.

Bhawaniprasad and Kumari (1987) have analyzed “Impact of advertising on

consumer durables markets: A study of Refrigerator consumer”, in this study a
ranking / importance of refrigerator among other consumer durables is studied.
Study of 200 owners of Allwyn refrigerator in the twin cities of Hyderabad and
Secunderabad and Districts of Nizamabad and Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh
indicates that a very positive impact of advertising is found on the consumer
durables market.

Bayus (1991) studied “The consumer durable replacement buyer”, and found that
replacements account for a substantial portion of the sale of consumer durables in
the U S. Results of replacement of automobiles indicate that “early” replacement
buyers are more concerned with styling and image and less concerned with costs
than “late” replacement buyers.

Gupta & Verma (2000) have done a study under convenience sampling of 50
household of New Delhi by questionnaire. It indicates that husband’s influence is
considerably higher that the wives. Children also play an active role in brand
selection of CTV.

Jain and Sharma (2000) studied 584 respondents out of 800 questionnaires of
Delhi in five professional category observed that selected products represent
different product categories in terms of both durability and frequency of purchase
as required. Study shows that the levels of consumer involvement differ across
products. As against non-durables, consumer perceives durables as more
involving products.

Mujahid-Mukhtar E, Mukhtar H (1991) has studied role of decision making for

household durables: good measure of women's power within a household in
Pakistan. It is their influence in the purchase of new home improvement
technology good (cars, appliances, etc.), who’s expense and life-long nature
makes their purchase.

Bhagbati Das, Sangeeta Mohanty and Nikhil Chandra Shil, in their research
concluded that consumers and households make decisions about the goods and the
services they purchase. The factors that influence this buying decision are
commonly price, quality, advertisement, recommendation from near and dears etc.
This research work finds that the consumers’ perception on buying color
television is mostly affected by the factors such as “structural add-ons, Word of
mouth, Technical features, Durability and Ground reality.” The results have far
reaching implications for the Television marketers, dealers and advertising
agencies as it gives insight into the minds of consumers and how they view their
televisions. There are many dimensions associated with Television and their usage
which need to be explored and understood. In view of this, a research study like
this can serve as an ideal guideline and precedent for further research in any
product in consumer durable markets.
Other fact and figures of the consumer durable sector has been discussed earlier in
introduction part, further more there are no such literature reviews are available
online for the consumer durable research which discuss about green marketing
practice of company. Researcher thinks that this research will bridge the gap
between consumer durable sector and its practice of green marketing with
customers attitude.

3. IMPORTANCE / BENEFITS OF THE STUDY:

From this study marketer will come to know how a sign of a good green
marketing program is one that has strong links to local environmental groups and
that achieves broad support among regional and national groups with an interest in
promoting green products. And also to a green marketer that is seriously interested
in greening marketing activities will have a program that is linked to a larger
vision and a strategic plan for making green consumer durables. It will also light
on how green marketing programs to be successful in the long run, they should
both improve the environment and be fair to consumers.

4. RESEARCH DESIGN:

In this section, you will have to mention about following aspects:

A. Research type : This will be a descriptive research because according to Hair

et al (2002, p.41), the descriptive research is applicable when a researcher look
to answers to the how, what, who, when and where. These questions are
interconnected with marketing and decision variables in a uniqueness market
structure.
Hair, J., F. Bush, F., P. & Ortinau, D., J. (2002, p.41) define descriptive
research as methods and strategy to compile and consolidate data in structured
form that show the existing characteristics i.e. “attitude, intentions, preferences,
purchase behaviors, evaluation of current marketing strategies” of a target
population.
B. The Universe : Consumers of durables (white goods) in Surat City

C. The Sample Elements : decision makers who decide to buy consumer

durables.
D. Sampling Technique to be used: Collection of the samples will be done with
one of the non probability sampling technique that is convenient sampling.

E. Method(s) of Data Collection : Tool will be developed that is designing the

questionnaires. For that different format of questions are available like multiple
choice question, dichotomous questions, rating scales, checklist, Likert scales,
open end & closed questions. Mostly for this researcher would like to use
Likert scale of attitude measurement.

Data will be collected through Personal Interview method, over different

methods of data collections that are Mail Survey, Telephonic Survey, etc.

F. The Time Dimension of the study: one or two years from now on

G. The Topical Scope of the Study: The research will cover consumer’s interest
in consumer durable goods. Which factors that affects consumers while making
decision for purchase of consumer durable. Their interest in environment
saving.

H. The Research Environment : As researcher will conduct a survey this study

will be purely field study

I. Data Analysis: selected data will be analyzed with the help of charts and
tables. More over collected data will be analyzed with the help of MS-Excel
and SPSS software. Where ever researcher will find applicability of One way
ANOVA, T test, these will be applied to test the hypotheses.

J. Data Presentation:
The research will be presented in a report format which may have following
content the outcome of the research has been presented as per the following
chapterisation scheme:
Chapter 1: Introduction
It includes the overall scenario of green marketing and consumer durable
industry.
Chapter 2: Review of Literature
An existing literature available on this subject has been reviewed and presented
in this chapter. The researcher has also attempted to identify the research gap in
this area.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
This chapter focuses on the research methodology. It covers Objectives of the
research study, Research design, Universe size, Sample size, Sampling frame,
Sampling method, Statistical tools used in the study, Data collection sources of
the study etc.
Chapter 4: Data Analysis
Collected data will be analyzed in this chapter with earlier said techniques.
Chapter 5: Findings of the Research Study
In this Major Findings will be presented in this chapter.
Chapter 6: Conclusion & Recommendations
Finally, the conclusion and recommendations have been given in this chapter.
References/Bibliography
Annexure
REFERENCES:

 Elkington, J. (1994), "Towards the sustainable corporation: win win business

strategies for sustainable development", California Management Review, Vol. 36
No.2 pp. 90-100.
 Mintel (1991). London, The green consumer report.
 Mishra Pavan and Sharma Payal, Green Marketing in India: Emerging Opportunities
and Challenges., 25th December, 2010. Journal of Engineering, Science and
Management Education/Vol. 3, 2010/9-1.
 Ottman, J.A. (1993), Green Marketing: Challenges and opportunities, NTC Business
Books, Chicago, IL.
 Porter, M.E., Van der Linde (1995), "Green and competitive: ending the stalemate",
Harvard Business Review, Vol.73, No.5, pp.120-33.
 Shelton, R.D. (1994), "Hitting the green wall: why corporate programs get stalled",
Corporate Environmental Strategy, Vol.2, No.2, pp.5-11.
 Smithe, T. (1998), "The Green Marketing Myth: Tending out Goats at the Edge of
Apocalypse, university of Toronto press, Toronto.
 Wong, V., Turner, W., Stoneman, P.(1996), "Marketing strategies and market
prospects for environmentally-friendly consumer products", British Journal of
Management, Vol.7, No.3, pp.263-81.

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