Green Marketing

Environmental concerns are growing and the related awareness is developing globally. So, there is a need to evolve comprehensive green marketing plans to obtain competitive advantages for businesses. The marketing plans would form an important plank on which all green investing would rest. The advantages of doing this are inherent in eco-sustainability and the growing market for socially responsible and sustainable products and services.

What is Green Marketing?

Green marketing involves the development and promotion of products and services that provide customer satisfaction in terms of quality, affordable pricing, convenience and performance. It achieves this objective without any detrimental impact on the environment.

The essence of green marketing is to propagate a very important idea. It is that when all other aspects of products and services such as quality, price, availability, and performance are equal, those that offer environmental benefits will be preferred.

Green investing should therefore fund only the development of energy efficient, eco-sustaining, and environmental-friendly products and services. It is in this endeavor that the role of green marketing becomes critically important.

By achieving the above objective, green marketing can make the world a much better place to live in. Other fallouts of successful green marketing will provide the important benefits of healthy profits and enhanced shareholder value to businesses. The other important benefits of green marketing include facilities for top line growth and incentives that encourage a much better bottom line for businesses.

The Value of Green Marketing to Old-Style Businesses

Initially, modification of existing manufacturing processes to make them eco-friendly will involve conversion costs. However, businesses will definitely benefit in the long term. Those that undergo the environmental friendly modifications will reap benefits in terms of competitive advantages vis-à-vis those that ignore the need to ensure environment-friendliness.

Product differentiation, pricing, quality, and convenience (vis-à-vis their environmental friendliness) are features that green marketing can emphasize on to achieve the goal of eco-sustainability.

Individual eco-friendly products or services may be costlier than their non-ecofriendly counterparts. However, once the negative impact of product life cycle costs and environmental non-compliance on the Earth is factored in, non-ecofriendly products or services will be easily much more costly than their eco-friendly counterparts.

Green Marketing Makes Eco-Friendly Practices Business Friendly as Well

Green marketing can be used to highlight these aspects for the benefit of businesses. It can help inculcate an environmental focus in businesses. It can even help educate agencies that provide funds towards green investing, so that these agencies can then take necessary care. The care will be to offer funds to only those businesses that are committed to develop environment-friendly products and services.

Green marketing can also help in preferential treatment being provided to environment-friendly products and services by educating customers through its role in advertising. It can also help through its role in sales promotions, direct marketing, and on-site promotions of the products and services.

Green marketing can be successfully practiced by its marketers. They can easily do so through reinforcement of environmental credibility and use of sustainable marketing and communications tools and practices.