Institute of Management, Nirma University

MBA (FT) - 2014-16

Integrated Marketing Communication
Group Assignment - 2
(Library Assignment & Presentation)

Topic: Green Advertising

Submitted by:
Group No. 8 & IMC Section A
Jigna Jani (141120)
Shivi Sharma(141251)
Parakh Gupta(141234)
Akshay Meetal(141207)
Govinda Jakhotia(141422)

Rubric for Evaluation

Criteria Marks

Conceptual understanding and subject knowledge (25 %)

Research and Connections: Theory and Practice (45 %)

Presentation (30 %)

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Green Advertising:

Green Advertising is the advertising of the products and the services based on environmental
factors and awareness. It can also be considered as a business practice that also gets into
consumer’s perspective about preservation and conservation of the natural environment.
Additionally, Green Advertising incorporates a broad range of activities including product
modification, changes to production process, sustainable packaging, as well as modifying
advertising.

Companies involved in Green Advertising makes decisions considering the entire process of
the product such as processing, packaging and distribution.

Nowadays, companies have responded to growing consumer demand for environment-

friendly products in several ways:

 Focusing on promoting the environmental attributes of products.

 Keeping in mind the energy efficiency, waste reduction, sustainability, and climate
control, introducing new product.
 Redesign the existing products according to the needs of consumers.

It’s hard to find which companies engage in Green Advertising to make profits or they
actually conduct their operations because they feel responsibility to preserve the integrity of
the natural environment. Green Advertising may be defined as any marketing activity that
follows environmental stewardship as a fundamental business development and growth
responsibility.

Green Marketing Mix:

Green Advertising can be described as all the activities designed to satisfy consumer’s need
with minimal detrimental impact on the natural environment.

These are the 4 P’s to describe the basic Green Marketing Mix:

1. Product: Here we talk about the ecological objectives in planning products to

increase effective utilization of scarce resources and reduce pollution and resource
consumption.

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 2. Price: Due to the availability of the high quality of ingredients, prices of the products
should be high.
3. Place: It is true that very few consumers will go out of their way to buy any product
so the availability of that product is of utmost importance. So the choice of when and
where to make the product available should be kept in notice.
4. Promotion: The strategies to promote the product should focus on the environmental
benefits of the product.

In this new era of Sustainability, the traditional 4P’s are replaced by 3P’s which are namely
People, Planet and Profit. It promotes the basic idea that businesses must consider their
environmental and social impact in addition to the traditional bottom line. Corporations are
not going to change their entire business models to improve the world because, well, they’d
be entirely different businesses. People refer to the fair and beneficial business practices
towards labor and the community and region in which a corporation conducts its businesses.
Planet refers to the sustainable environmental practices, endeavors to benefit the natural order
as much as possible or at the least do no harm and minimize environmental impact. Profit is
the economic value created by the organization after deducting the cost of all inputs,
including the cost of the capital tied up.

How Marketing can effect Environment:

 Over consumption of the resources can lead to scarcity of the resources.

 Marketing can lead to replace environment friendly products to increase profit
margins.
 Unnecessary packaging can also lead to degradation of resources and in turn of
environment.
 Long supply chains can also effect environment by increasing carbon-dioxide
footprint of products.

Green products:

In these types of products, we basically talk about products which are environment friendly.
These products are manufactured by green technologies and caused no environment hazards.

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Promotion by advertising is necessary of these products for conservation of natural resources.

The characteristics of green products fall into basic six categories:

 Green process: In manufacturing sector, product is manufactured according to the

consideration of exposure to workers to chemicals, source of materials, energy-
efficient production methods.
 Improved Sustainability: The whole is considered through sustainability instead of
specifics. Product is renewable and makes good use of available resources.
 Recycled Content: The product is manufactured or fabricated by post-consumer
materials or post-industrial by-products.
 Recyclable: The product can be reused or reprocessed after use and can be re-
fabricated. For example soda cans.
 Low Toxicity: Here basically we compare the product with other products of same
kind if they are less toxic than them.
 Bio-degradable: The product comes back to Earth when exposed to other elements.

Now we will talk about how Marketing can be part of solution:

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Sustainable marketing is the basic process of creating, delivering and communicating values
to customer and companies such as both human and natural capital are preserved or enhanced
throughout. These can be defined as Environmental, Societal and Economic Sustainability. It
makes the need for marketing more explicit. Sustainability is still based on creating a
competitive advantage through superior performance in the meeting of consumer’s needs.

Integrating sustainability into marketing strategies:

 Allows a company to realize cost savings

 Reduces a company’s exposure to regulatory and resource based risks

 Spurs innovation to stay ahead of competition

 Can reduce conflicts with retailers and business partners

 Can improve a company’s reputation and positioning

 Improves a company’s chances to recruit talented employees

 Sustainable marketing improves a company’s chances for long-term survival

Green Marketing: Examples

Product

Toyota:

It formed a small and hybrid. The CH stands for compact hybrid. It is gasoline-electric hybrid
car which is modified form of prius which was Toyota’s most cleanest vehicle awarded by
United States Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources
Board (CARB) car in USA. It is a concept that can best be defined by comparing it with the
mid-size class Prius. The FT-CH captures the spirit and functionality of a car that thrives in
the inner-city environment; sized right to be nimble, responsive, and maneuverable. The FT-

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CH would have a lower price point than the Prius and is 6" shorter than the current Prius on
the outside, but only 1" shorter in the interior cabin. It is also half an inch thinner and is
lighter than the current Prius, which also helps make it more fuel efficient. The concept was
styled by Toyota's European Design and Development (ED²) centre in Nice, France. Its world
premiere occurred at the 2010 North American International Auto Show. This compact,
nimble hybrid represents the expansion of hybrid options for the customer. The FT-CH is
lighter in weight and more fuel efficient than the Prius. The concept is designed to target a
lower price point than the Prius, thus appealing to a younger, less-affluent buyer
demographic.

At an overall length of 153 inches and width of 68.5 inches, the FT-CH is sized to be
maneuverable and responsive. In spite of its compact size, the concept is designed for
maximum passenger comfort and interior space. The FT-CH was designed at Toyota
European Design and Development. The NiMH batteries are made by Panasonic EV Energy
Co - a joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic. concept is targeting a lower price range
than the Prius line-up, thus appealing to a younger, less-affluent buyer demographic.

Pricing

FairTrade:

Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions and fair terms of trade for farmers
and workers.

It’s about supporting the development of thriving farming and worker communities that have
more control over their futures and protecting the environment in which they live and work.
Fairtrade ingredients in the product have been produced by small-scale farmer organisations
or plantations that meet Fairtrade social, economic and environmental standards. The
standards include protection of workers’ rights and the environment, payment of the Fairtrade
Minimum Price and an additional Fairtrade Premium to invest in business or community
projects. For certain products, such as coffee, cocoa, cotton and rice, Fairtrade only certifies
small-scale farmer organisations. Working through democratic organisations of small-scale
farmers, Fairtrade offers rural families the stability of income which enables them to plan for
the future.For some products such as bananas, tea and flowers, Fairtrade also certifies
plantations - companies that employ large numbers of workers on estates.

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Why it is different?

In fair-trade producers have share of 50% which represent farmers and worker organisations.
They have equal voice in decision making. Hence they are involved in decisions on overall
strategy, use of resources and setting prices, premiums and standards.

Fairtrade minimum price:

For most Fairtrade goods there is a Fairtrade minimum price which is set to cover the cost of
sustainable production for that product in that region. If the market price for that product is
higher than minimum price, then producers should receive the market price. Payment of the
minimum price is regularly audited and checked by FLO-Cert. This acts as a vital safety net
for farmers and workers and protects them from fluctuations in the market prices of the
products they grow for a living. This protection ensures they can have an assured and stable
income and plan for their future. Fairtrade is the only certification scheme that offers such a
unique minimum price protection for farmers.

Fairtrade Premium:
Over and above the Fairtrade price, the Fairtrade Premium is an additional sum of money
which goes into a communal fund for workers and farmers to use as they see fit to improve
their social, economic and environmental conditions.

Producers determine what is most important to them; whether this is education or healthcare
for their children, improving their business or building vital infrastructure such as roads and
bridges for their community.

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Place

Tesco

Every small thing helps

As Tesco embarked on the monumental task of determining the carbon footprint of each of its
products, it came to the stark realisation that emissions were concentrated at the beginning
and end of the food chain – on farms and in customers' homes or journeys to the shops.

As part of its goal to cut product emissions by a third by 2020, Tesco combined financial,
product and carbon information to come up with a framework it could apply to the sausages,
bottles of conditioner or bunches of bananas that fill up supermarket trolleys each week. It
stopped using waste contractors to pick up and dispose of general rubbish, including unsold
food, from 600 of its largest stores in the UK. Instead, waste is piled into cages lined with
clear plastic and loaded onto the trucks, which take it waste centres.

After depositing the waste at nearby centres the trucks then return to one of Tesco's
distribution centres to be loaded up once more with groceries and products for the next
delivery. It removed 20,000 additional trips a year and reduced our carbon emissions by 4.5
tonnes a year. Tesco said that if food could not be sold it was either donated to poverty
charity FareShare, converted into animal feed for livestock, or was recycled into renewable
fuel. At Tesco, meanwhile, we have made two medium-term targets to cut our carbon
footprint, one of which is to halve the carbon emissions per square foot of our stores and
distribution centres across all our operating markets by 2020 against a 2006/07 baseline.

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 Scope 1 - 1.31 million
Scope 2 - 3.15 million
Scope 3 - 1.17 million

Fig: 2014/15 total carbon footprint

(million tonnes CO2e)

Tesco’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2014/15 totalled 5.62 million tonnes of CO2e. In
2014 net carbon intensity decreased by 4.3% compared to last year and 40.9% since the
baseline was set in 2006/07.

Carbon footprint labelling on food products in Tesco store.

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Tesco lotus showing wind and hydro energy usage for electricity consumption inside the
store. Hence using eco-friendly energy.

Tesco Lotus

Tesco opened the first zero-carbon store ever in Asia in Bang Phra district of Chon Buri
province, following its pledge to protect the environment. Tesco targets reduction of carbon
emission by 50 per cent within the year 2020.

A zero-carbon store means that net carbon-dioxide emissions from lighting, air-conditioning,
and refrigerants in this store will be zero over the year. The aim is to reduce the impact on the
environment as carbon dioxide is a major cause of global warming. It has 99 initiatives to
reduce energy consumption. Features such as LED lighting, solar farm, wind turbine, natural
refrigeration, biogas system, rammed earth walls, and rain-water conservation.

The zero-carbon store generates electricity by using solar energy from a solar farm, with
photovoltaic or PV cells on the rooftop. The electricity generated by the solar farm accounts
for about 70 per cent of what the store needs for its operation. Besides electricity from the
solar farm, another form of alternative energy used to generate electricity is a low-speed wind
turbine.

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Natural refrigeration with hydrocarbon, which emits less carbon than conventional widely-
used refrigerants, is also used to preserve fresh food products. Leftover food products from
the store will be collected and turned into biogas. The biogas will used for heating and
cooking food for customers.

The walls of the zero-carbon store will be different from other stores. They will not be made
with plaster or bricks, but chemical residue-free rammed natural earth. These walls will
reduce heat from outside and keep the inside temperature stable. To reduce the use of water
in the store, a rain-water reserve pond will be built to collect rain water for watering plants
and trees, cleaning cars in a car-cleaning service, as well as in the store's restrooms.

After opening two green stores in Rama I in 2004 and Salaya 2008, the zero-carbon store is
the third one in Tesco Lotus's green family. the zero-carbon store is just a pilot project. The
company has no plan to open a new green store in the next couple of years.

Promotion

Tom: Project Holiday (2008)

To give 30,000 shoes in 30 days

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For the month leading up to Christmas 2008, TOMS promoted their Project Holiday
campaign to sell 30,000 pairs of shoes, so they could give 30,000 pairs of protective rubber
shoes to kids in Ethiopia. When all the holiday dust had settled, TOMS and all the customers
who participated in Project Holiday had made it possible for 37,000 Ethiopian children to
receive shoes and slow the spread of this heartbreaking disease. Ethiopian children get this
disease from walking in silica, rich,ancient volcanic mud without shoes. By simply wearing
shoes prevents this disease entirely. Style tip-Toms really showed up on my radar when they
created the ultra hip and ultra chic wrap bootie. This boot is completely vegan and in olive
green, pictured above, there is no better choice for a completely chic, utilitarian outfit. Just
add Toms wrap boot and you are guaranteed to be the best dressed humanitarian in the room.

Double style tip-Olive green, better known as army green is one of my favorite colors to
work with in wardrobing. You cannot put a color next to olive/army green that won't look
interesting,edgy and spectacular. From your brights, blacks and earthtones.

Green Washing

Green washing (a compound word modelled on "whitewash"), or "green sheen," is a form

of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception
that an organization's products, aims or policies are environmentally friendly. Evidence that
an organization is green washing often comes from pointing out the spending differences:
when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being "green" (that is,
operating with consideration for the environment), than is actually spent on environmentally
sound practices. Green washing efforts can range from changing the name or label of a
product to evoke the natural environment on a product that contains harmful chemicals to
multimillion dollar advertising campaigns portraying highly polluting energy companies as
eco-friendly

Whitewashing is defined as a coordinated attempt to hide unpleasant facts, especially in a

political context.“Greenwashing” is the same premise, but in an environmental context.

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It’s green washing when a company or organization spends more time and money claiming to
be “green” through advertising and marketing than actually implementing business practices
that minimize environmental impact. It’s whitewashing, but with a green brush.

A classic example is an energy company that runs an advertising campaign touting a “green”
technology they’re working on — but that “green” technology represents only a sliver of the
company’s otherwise not-so-green business, or may be marketed on the heels of an oil spill or
plant explosion.

Or a hotel chain that calls itself “green” because it allows guests to choose to sleep on the
same sheets and reuse towels, but actually does very little to save water and energy where it
counts — on its grounds, with its appliances and lighting, in its kitchens, and with its vehicle
fleet.

Or a bank that’s suddenly “green” because you can conduct your finances online, or a grocery
store that’s “green” because they’ll take back your plastic grocery bags, etc.

Reasons to go for Green Washing:

People are becoming more and more aware about the dangers. Dangers can be related to
environment, animals, human, natural conditions, etc.

People are looking for environmentally friendly products. When two products are kept on the
rack people will choose environment friendly product as it will give customer satisfaction.

Corporations want to look more environment conscious and friendly. It is a type of marketing
used to attract customers as they think product is environment friendly. Such products are not
thought to be cheap and companies can ask for high prices.

Problem with Green washing:

 The problem is compounded by lax enforcement by regulatory agencies such as

the Federal Trade Commission in the United States, the Competition Bureau in

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 Canada, and the Committee of Advertising Practice and the Broadcast Committee of
Advertising Practice in the United Kingdom.

 Critics suggest that the rise of green washing, paired with ineffective regulation,
contributes to consumer scepticism of all green claims, and diminishes the power of
the consumer in driving companies toward greener solutions for manufacturing
processes and business operations.

 Many corporate structures use greenwashing as a way to repair public perception of

their brand. The structuring of corporate disclosure is often set up so as to maximize
perceptions of legitimacy.

 However, there is a growing body of social and environmental accounting research

finds corporate posturing and deception in the absence of external monitoring and
verification.

Why is Green washing a problem?

Environment: Green washing is bad for the environment because it can encourage consumers
to do the opposite of what’s good for the environment. At its most benign, green washing
makes claims that are neither good nor bad for the environment — it’s just making green
claims to sell more stuff.

Consumers: Customer may be misguided. Truth about the advertisement may be partially
true or total gimmick to increase sales. The last thing you want to do is spend money on a
product or service you believe is doing right by the environment, but in reality is not — or
not as much as the ad might lead you to believe.

Businesses: Smart businesses are finding out that doing right by the environment actually
does increase profitability in many cases. With so many easy ways for businesses to reduce
their environmental impact or improve their products and processes, it’s just sad when they
don’t. It’s even worse when they don’t make changes and claim to be a green company just to
push their agenda. When properly trained, consumers see right through this “green screen.”
Then green washing backfires, hurting the company’s reputation and, ultimately, their sales.

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Seven sins of Green Washing:

 Sins of the hidden trade-off

 Sin of no proof
 Sin of vagueness
 Sin of worshipping false labels
 Sin of irrelevance
 Sin of lesser of two evils
 Sin of Fibbing

Coca Cola Life

It is product of coca cola and it was launched in Argentina in June 2013 after five years of
research. After that it was launched in many countries. It was produced with
stevia and sugar as sweeteners. It was a lower calorie version of Coca-Cola, having
27kcal/100mL, containing 60% of the calories of regular Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola Life is the
first branded Coke product to use stevia leaf extract.[10] However, it was not the first product
owned by the Coca-Cola Company to use stevia. Vitamin Water and Seagram's Ginger Ale
both used it. The drink comes in glass bottles, plastic bottles, or aluminium cans. The logo is
a small green leaf.[12] The plastic bottle is based on 30% plant-based resources (like the
normal PET bottles). Said that 70% of the bottle remains with fossil raw-materials

Reasons for blame of greenwashing customers are:

 Health experts have accused Coca Cola of ‘health washing’ consumers with the
launch of its new ‘lower-calorie’ soft drink as it still contains the full amount of an
adult’s recommended daily allowance of sugar.
 The soft drink giant’s latest product, Coke Life, is partly made from a naturally sweet
plant called Stevia, in a bid to target health conscious soft drink lovers.
 But a 330ml can of Coca Cola Life still has 22g of sugar, equivalent of six teaspoons
and 89 calories.
 When compared to a 330ml can of regular Coca Cola which has 35g of sugar,
equivalent of almost 10 teaspoons of sugar and 139 calories, that is 35 per cent less
sugar.

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  However, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that adults of normal
body mass index only eat 25g (six teaspoons) of sugar in total per day.
 Coke Life has its very own ‘super mix’ of both sugar and Stevia - a type of sweetener.

Challenges of Green Advertising in India

1. New concept:

The idea of green advertising is yet to emerge in the Indian market. Thus the
challenge lies on both the sides of a door; i.e. from customer’s point of view as well
from the advertiser’s side as well.

The viewers/consumers might not be able to understand the concept on the first go
and the very first attempt might not have an impact on the AIDA process of the target
audience. Considering the example of Levis’ jeans which started its green advertising
last year with a message that read every jeans is made by recycling the used water
bottles. The consumers were initially confused of what exactly the company wants to
convey through that media platform. However, on later stages, it launched various
promotional campaigns including a few on social media platforms as well that
increased the visibility and success path of Levis’ to convey their message to the
ultimate consumer.

Considering from the advertiser/ company’s point of view, the challenge stands to be
that it is a new concept and thus the advertisers do not know of how exactly they can
promote the product on the green lines. There was a concept of “green wash” by a few
organisations considering it to be a part of green advertising but the result did not
match the intended ones at any level. It did not include sustainability of the product.
Hence, the marketer needs to develop a crisp idea in this new concept to reach higher
target audience.

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2. Need for Standardization:

Every step towards saving environment can be considered to be feasible and persistent
only if there is a standardization set for it. Being a new concept, there isn’t any
standardization for green advertising and marketing so far and thus the level of
sustainable marketing is not yet defined.

To prove that a product is natural and is on the path of saving the globe for a better
future, a certification has to be initiated that will ensure the minimum level to be
achieved and this approval will also gain consumer’s trust on the product.

Unless there isn’t any regulatory body involved in this concept, the standardization of
green advertising is near to impossible. Thus India is in need of a standard quality
control board that will handle labelling and licensing.

3. Patience:
In this haste environment right now, every person is in a hurry to take up shortcut to
success. But Green advertising is not that same to reach through a shortcut. Marketers
and investors are resistant to use green advertising as they might not see immediate
results of such changes adapted by the company. But as the saying goes, “Rome was
not built in a day”, similarly, success does not touch your feet in seconds.
The marketers and investors need to consider long term benefits of these green
practises rather than just giving up on this. This concept will have its own acceptance
period. Understanding human psychology, it takes time for a person to adapt to any
changes all at a sudden in his/her environment. But once if get used to it, then the
results reap the benefits.
Once the concept reaches its BEP (break-even point), then the investors will get the
fruits for their patience.
4. Avoiding Green Myopia:
Green marketing myopia can be understood by recollecting the concept of Marketing
Myopia as explained during our previous courses. It is about short sightedness
approach to the marketing that focuses on the needs of the company rather than
satisfying customers’ needs.
The first rule of green advertising is to satisfy the customer needs and benefits with
safety. Any product will lose its purpose in the market if it concentrates only on the

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 various green aspects in the features of the product but does not clear the consumer
satisfaction criteria. This leads to “Green Myopia”.
Also if the products with green advertising, are priced too high, then the consumers
might not prefer purchasing such products. Thus pricing should be done in a feasible
range of the target audience. Penetrating pricing strategy is suggested over skimming
strategy.
5. Huge investment for technology:
Promoting on the green lines is doable to an extent. But the level of challenge
increases at the base wherein the products now need to be manufactured with new
technology that sustains energy and produces the products that are most suitable with
the environment. A high cost will be involved in manufacturing considering the
change in the product mix as well as change in the manufacturing process and
functions at the production level. Thus this challenge of huge investment on
technology might get the investor on a back-foot before actually entering into the
competitive market with the new USP.

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 Conclusion

1. Green advertising and marketing should not be considered as just another form of
promoting and advertising. Infact, it should be driven with much force as it involves
the concepts of environmental and social dimensions into it.
2. The role and responsibility of a marketer does not end on creating a green
advertisement and promoting their offering as an environmental friendly, but the role
is extended to actually educating the target audience of the various benefits that the
consumers can reap by using such products and the edge of such products over other
non-green products.
3. Combine short term satisfaction with long term benefits. These products that are
environmental friendly will give the user a satisfaction only till the moment it is
actually used. But this satisfaction has to be combined with the long term benefits
w.r.t. sustaining the environment to be able to enjoy the fruits of the resources to a
longer term. Only when this link is connected, the marketer can be successful in
marketing environmental friendly and environmentally responsible products.
4. As the trends spread across the globe, the consumers are able to understand the value
of the green products and the role of these products in saving the environment. Thus it
is inferred that consumers are willing to pay an additional amount for the products
that are environmental friendly. But yes, there is a limit to this as well. The consumers
might not take an extra mile to buy these products, but might pay a little over the price
of the products that they purchase every time.
5. India being a developing country since past 68 countries, it needs to handle its limited
resources in the most optimal way to sustain its position in the race towards
development against all the other nations across the globe. Thus the concept of green
marketing and green advertising stands of much value and importance in the Indian
market.
6. Global Warming vs Green advertising: In this era of industrialization and
globalization, every economy is on the race track to grab the global market share to
the extent possible in the shortest possible time. In this race against time, the
organizations forget to consider the level of global warming that is being emitted by
them. Thus to save our earth and increase the life of the planet, it is very much

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essential for the companies to take up global advertising instead of wasting resources
on promotion and in the products as well.

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References:

http://wikipedia.org

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/en/what-is-fairtrade/what-fairtrade-does

http://sinsofgreenwashing.com/findings/the-seven-sins/

http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=e9f7c75f-65ca-4b45-9e97-
78dba56c4100%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=109

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