Importance and Evolution of

Green Marketing for Business

Today

Name: Hew Zi Jin

Student ID: 19035229
Lecturer’s Name: Ruba Loshani Langa Singham
Contents
1.0 Introduction...............................................................................................................................3
2.0 The Importance of Green Marketing.........................................................................................4
3.0 Building Company Image Through Green Marketing.................................................................5
4.0 Challenges faced and solution in adopting and promoting green marketing............................7
5.0 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................8
1.0 Introduction

Green marketing is where by businesses take in the concern of the consumers about
the preservation and conservation of the natural environment. Green marketing
highlights the characteristics of the company’s product being environmentally friendly
such as biodegradable, compostable and energy efficient.

As a response to the growing demand for environmentally friendly products by the

consumers, marketers have changed their way on marketing. They started
promoting the environmental attributes of the product and introducing products that
are specifically to reduce the concerns about energy efficiency, waste reduction,
sustainability and climate control. Finally, the marketing campaigns started to be
touting the environmental ethics towards the consumers.

The idea of green marketing began ever since the beginning of Earth Day in 1970.
Though that may be the case, green marketing only began to be popular in the
1980’s due to the rising public interest for more green products and services. Owing
to the fact above, producers began to claim that their products are “eco-friendly”.

The term green marketing came about during the late 1980’s. In the year 1975, the
American Marketing Association (AMA) held its first ever workshop on “ecological
marketing”.

In the 1980’s the green marketing world faced a difficulty. This is because of the
false claims that are made by the manufacturers about their products and services.
This came about when the environmentally friendly company CorpWatch announces
a list of the top ten greenwashing companies. The example of this companies is like
BP Amoco when they advertise the “Plug in The Sun” campaign, while drilling for oil
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge aggressively. (Corliss Karasov, 2018)
2.0 The Importance of Green Marketing

One of the importance of green marketing is that it can fulfil the company’s corporate
social responsibility. Corporate social responsibilities (CSR) is a good way to build
the company’s image as an ‘eco-friendly” company. This will convince the public that
they are trustworthy in protecting the environment of our planet.

The second importance is that it is that it can reduce waste on our planet. With the
number of wastes that is produced every day, we are slowly unable to deal with
them. The number of landfills is increasing and the size of it as well. Yet, we are
unable to get rid of the waste that we produce every day. This could be reduced by
using biodegradable packaging. The other way is that we can use recycled items to
produce new products.

This brings us to the next point, where the use of green marketing can stimulate
creativity and force the producers to reinvent their product and force the producers to
use the recycled materials instead. This is one of the ways that producers could do
to decrease the impact their product has on the environment in a negative way.
Using plant-derived materials are also safer for both humans and their animals. This
is because plant-derived are without toxic and therefore are safe if accidentally
ingested.

Green marketing also helps businesses to properly to use their resources in the best
manner so that they do not put their resources to waste. This includes trying to
promote renewable energy by installing solar panels on the roof of the offices or
having a timer to turn off electronics after the usual working hours. These small
actions can help change the environment for the better while keeping on track with
the purpose of green marketing.

Green marketing also helps the company to send out a positive message. These
messages will help the consumers to better understand the products “green”
benefits. This also helps the reassure the company’s standing on the environment.
This is one of the easier ways to build the image of the company using green
marketing.
3.0 Building Company Image Through Green Marketing

The green activities are a way promote the businesses image because it can
reflect the positive image of the firm and is able to show the commitment of the
business towards the environment. (Ko, 2013)

Marketing is becoming more relevant nowadays because of the increasing demand

of green products by the consumers ever since the 1970’s after the first Earth Day.
(Karasov, 2004)

Besides that, there are several reasons why companies are adopting green
marketing. One of those are the pressure that their government impose. Since the
world is currently moving towards a more “greener” future, governments are slowly
making corporate social responsibilities to be mandatory. This brings us to the next
point which is the need to do corporate social responsibilities and one of the ways to
do it is through green marketing and the activities that come along with it.

Green marketing can help build the company’s image by letting the public know
about the company’s commitment to the environment. It also states the company’s
ethos on providing “green” products and services to the public. Besides that, it will
state the benefits of their “green” products and services. All these actions will make
the public to acknowledge that the company is trying to go “green” and therefore
building a “green” image for the company. This will bring trust and viewed positively
by the environmentally-conscious consumers. (Anon., 2018)

There are lots of example where the companies are using green marketing to their
advantage. For example, Starbucks improves the recyclability of their coffee cups
and has an in-store water conservation program that they must follow to form the
“green” brand image that the customers are able to see from their takeaway
products. (Anon., 2018)

The other example would be grocers that advertise the organic produce in their
store. Since organic produce have been increasing in demand due to the expression
of the consumers wanting to have more non-genetically modified goods and that are
free of pesticides. (Ward, 2018)

The third example would be when Timberland introduced their “Earthkeepers”

campaign. Their product that is under this campaign feature items that are made with
recycled materials and it is said that each pair of their boots contain one and a half
plastic bottles. Besides that, in 2010, when the launch the campaign “Nature Needs
Heroes”, they used advertisements to convey the message that a small and simple
action can make a big change. (Hendricks, 2018)
4.0 Challenges faced and solution in adopting and promoting green marketing

One of the challenges while adopting green marketing is greenwashing. What is

greenwashing? Greenwashing is the act of claiming that your product is
environmentally friendly even though the product might not be as claimed by the
producers.

One of the examples of greenwashing is as said above when Bp Amoco when they
advertise the “Plug in The Sun” campaign, while drilling for oil in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge aggressively. (Corliss Karasov, 2018)

The other example of greenwashing would be when Volkswagen surfaced an

advertisement about the fact that diesel was bad and that they have a solution to
solve this problem in their engines. Later, the truth about them were released where
they have cheated the result on the emissions test and had emitted 40 times the limit
on pollutants that is allowed in the United States. (Faizal, 2018)

Another example of greenwashing would be EasyJet. During 2008, They announced

that their plane would emit 22% less compared to the other commercial planes on
the same route. But they have ignored to clarify that this number is related to the
number of passengers. This Is because their planes can carry more passenger
rather than having a more efficient engine. (Faizal, 2018)

There are many solutions that can solve the problem of greenwashing. One of them
is to test the products claims that it has made to the public whether it is that they
have said it is made with “natural” resources or with a “green” method, we must test
the truth of the statements that they have made.

Besides that, we must clarify the conditions of greenwashing so that the public would
understand what is greenwashing and what is not. This would prevent
misunderstanding among the public and the companies that make their claims.

The other way that could also help prevent greenwashing is to have a green seal to
indicate that this product is in fact environmentally friendly. This seal could be given
by the government to the companies after inspecting the set product.
5.0 Conclusion

In conclusion, I conclude that green marketing is a necessary step to move our

society forward to delay the regression of the environment. Green marketing is a
good way to increase the awareness of global warming and one of the solutions.
This current era has forced the companies to do Corporate Social Responsibility, so
that they would give back to the society. Green marketing also helps evolve the
products that already exist, so they would be produced with an eco-friendlier way.
Greenwashing is also the main issue that green marketing face at this current point
in time and we must come up with a better solution to inspect the products that are
released by the companies.
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