Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Management & Information Systems, 2012

7Ps of Green Marketing as Factors Infuencing

Willingness to Buy Towards Environmentally
Friendly Beauty Products
Heldira Larashati, Herry Hudrasyah and Novika Chandra
School of Business and Management, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia
E-mail: heldira.l@sbm-itb.ac.id; herryhud@sbm-itb.ac.id; novika.candra@sbm-itb.ac.id
ABSTRACT
With society increasingly conscious to the environment, it affected consumers decision in choosing a product. For
business producers, this phenomenon is seen as opportunities to attract consumers by implementing green values in the
marketing process. In this research, the product discuss is environmental friendly beauty product. The 7Ps framework
of marketing that has been implemented in The Body Shop Indonesia modifed with green values of producers may be
a useful tool as consumers willingness to buy factors. Each elements of 7Ps green marketing are evaluated based on
its importance and effect in willingness to buy for woman consumers in Indonesia. This study aims to determine which
attributes of 7Ps green marketing that perceived as important and affect most Indonesian consumers willingness to
buy for environmentally friendly beauty products (The Body Shop Indonesia) and also the relationship in between. This
research is conducted by distributing questionnaires that was addressed to woman age between 19-27 years old and
the data was analyzed using frequency and factor analysis, and MANCOVA. Results indicate that attribute in People
dimension of 7Ps green marketing is considered as the most important and most affecting in consumers willingness to
buy. It is also found that there is relationship between importance levels of each 7Ps dimension with its degree of infuence
towards willingness to buy. Furthermore, there is also relationship between consumers environmental knowledge with
level of importance of each 7Ps green marketing dimension. The fndings can be used as suggestion for managers and
producers to generate the 7Ps green marketing strategy for their environmental friendly beauty products.
Keywords: Willingness to Buy Factor, Green Marketing, 7Ps, Environmental Friendly Beauty Products
Introduction
In recent years, news of the growing environmental damage show many evidences found by the
scientists such as sea level rise caused by melting of the ice surface in Antarctic. Exposure from the
media involves in the spread of information and supported by technology development; internet. Many
business people apply awareness towards those problems in their strategy, as they are competing to
portray themselves Green to attract the consumer into buying their products and feel of having
contributed to the environmental restoration efforts. However, the author noticed that there is no
exact indicator from the concept of green marketing that applied in Indonesia, which dimension and
attributes that are actually affecting consumers willingness to buy, or not. When the attributes of 7Ps
green marketing that cause most on consumers willingness to buy and perceived as most important are
found, then it can help companies/producers of beauty product with green value to develop and update
their strategy in order to gain consumers willingness to buy. In addition, this research also conducted
to fnd relationship between consumers environmental knowledge and the level of importance of each
7Ps green marketing dimension. This research uses The Body Shop Indonesia as the case study.
7Ps of Green Marketing as Factors Infuencing Willingness to Buy Towards Environmentally Friendly Beauty Products 277
Literature Review
7Ps Marketing Mix
This marketing framework invented by Booms and Bitner (1981) which is an extension of the
4Ps theory by McCarthy (1960) [1]. An exploratory survey of using 7Ps marketing mix as generic
framework was conducted by Mohammed and Pervaiz (1995). Research was conducted on respondents
UKs Marketing Education Group (MEG) Conference in Salford (1992) and the European Marketing
Academy (EMAC) Conference held in Aarhaus, Denmark (1992) and got the result that there is a high
degree of dissatisfaction with the 4Ps among European academics [2].
7Ps of Green Marketing
Pranam Dhar and Soumyajit Das (n.d) described the 7Ps of green marketing as follows:
1. Product
Variety of green products:
Products are recycled from the former goods
Products are able be recycled or reused
Effcient products to save water, energy or gasoline, save money, and reduce environmental
impact
Products with environmentally friendly packaging
Product with green labels (with proved evidence)
Organic products
A service that rents or loans product
It is vital to ensure the product meet or exceed consumers expectation.
2. Price
Since people tend to put price as a critical consideration, it is important for marketer to provide
additional values that improve many aspects of the products. It may be developed performance,
function, design, visual appeal, or taste. The consumers will only want to pay the premium price when
the extra value of products (for example: green benefts) is attracting. Environmentally responsible
products are often less expensive if the product life cycle is taken into consideration.
3. Place
The choice of where and when to make a product available have signifcant impact to attract the
consumers. Very few customers will go out of their way to buy the green products. Moreover, the
location must also be consistent with the image which a company wants to project.
4. Promotion
Sustainable marketing and communication tools and practices are should be used by smart green
marketers to reinforce the environmental credibility. There are several examples that had been done
by several companies:
5. People
People are those who are involved in establishment of green services/products. The provider should
have green mindset to be implemented in their activities.
6. Process
In this section, the process refers to the methodology the services will be provided. It should be
given a serious attention, so the process can be executed in the right way with the main objectives.
278 Business Management and Information Systems
The greenness of entire system is also should be kept in mind to establish a comprehensive green
marketing implementation.
7. Physical Evidences
The physical evidences must ensure that the greenness for every part of system is implemented, so
it should be implemented from holistic point of view.
Green Knowledge
Green knowledge is also called as ecological knowledge or environmental knowledge. Fryxell
and Lo (2003) defned green knowledge as the general knowledge of facts, concepts and relationship
concerning the natural environment and its major ecosystem[3].
In addition, on the topic of consumer green purchasing behavior, Kaufmann, Panni, and Orphanidou
(2012) stated that Environmental knowledge involves what people know about the environment, key
relationship leading to environmental aspects or impacts, an appreciation of whole systems, and
collective responsibilities necessary for sustainable development. [4]
According to Darnall, Pointing, and Vazquez-Brust (n.d), there are two types of environmental
knowledge; general knowledge and action based knowledge. General knowledge is consumers basic
knowledge and understanding towards environmental issues. It is including basic terminologies
and concepts understanding of consumers. Furthermore, action based knowledge refers to consumer
understanding of the activities required to reduce environmental problems. It is including understanding
about consequences and solution for environmental problems [5].
Methodology
The methodology of this research consists of nine main stages; problem identifcation, research
planning, literature collection, research design, sampling design, variable identifcation, questionnaire
design, questionnaire distribution, and data collection and analysis. To determine the variables of
questionnaire, author conducted interview with The Body Shop Indonesias executive and beauty
expert and literature research. The questionnaire consists of three parts. The frst part measures the
attributes of 7Ps green marketing based on its level of importance according to consumers. The second
one measures degrees of infuence of each 7Ps green marketing attributes on consumers willingness
to buy. The last one measures consumers understanding on green knowledge. All of the questions are
measured using likert scale that has tendency of:
Level of Importance Section Willingness to Buy Factors Section Knowledge Section
1 1.86 = Very Unimportant
1.86 2.72 = Unimportant
2.72 3.58 = Less important
3.58 4.44 = Indifference
4.44 5.3 = Somewhat Important
5.3 6.16 = Important
6.16 7 = Very important
1 1.86 = Very Infuential
1.86 2.72 = Not Infuential
2.72 3.58 = Less Infuential
3.58 4.44 = Indifference
4.44 5.3 = Somewhat Infuential
5.3 6.16 = Infuential
6.16 7 = Very Infuential
1 1.86 = Very Suitable
1.86 2.72 = Not Suitable
2.72 3.58 = Less Suitable
3.58 4.44 = Indifference
4.44 5.3 = Somewhat Suitable
5.3 6.16 = Suitable
6.16 7 = Very Suitable
7Ps of Green Marketing as Factors Infuencing Willingness to Buy Towards Environmentally Friendly Beauty Products 279
Table 1. The Variables/Attributes of 7Ps Green Marketing
Table 2. The Variables/Attributes of Green Knowledge
280 Business Management and Information Systems
The questionnaires then distributed to 250 women who at least had visited The Body Shop Indonesias
store in this past year.
Analysis
Frequency Analysis
According to the result of frequency analyses, there are three variables that considered as the most
important by woman consumers age 19-37; companys honesty towards environmental friendly claim
in the Promotion dimension, natural and vegetarian ingredients from Product dimension, and staffs
awareness and behavior toward environmental protection from People dimension. Being considered
as the most important factors, it is better for producers of environmental beauty product should give
special attention in these areas. By giving maximization on the area that considered as important it will
be easier to attract womans shopper willingness to buy.
In measuring the level of consumers environmental knowledge, the frequency analysis indicates that
the respondents already have understanding towards Environmental Knowledge. Result of the analysis
shows that the statements in Knowledge section have means of 5.3391 which indicates the statement;
that demonstrates knowledge about facts, issues, regulations, terminology, and causes and impact, are
ft with respondents.Furthermore, the frequency analyses are also conducted to fnd the variables that
considered as most infuent towards consumers willingness to buy for The Body Shop products. The
three variables are the same as the variables; companys honesty towards environmental friendly claim
in the Promotion dimension, natural and vegetarian ingredients from Product dimension, and staffs
awareness and behavior toward environmental protection from People dimension. It can be concluded
that The Body Shop Indonesia has successfully implement those three variables to attract consumers
willingness to buy. This means that what The Body Shop Indonesia has done in these three variables; it
should be maintained.
MANCOVA
Figure 1. MANCOVA Analysis Framework
7Ps of Green Marketing as Factors Infuencing Willingness to Buy Towards Environmentally Friendly Beauty Products 281
MANCOVA analyses were conducted to fnd effect of consumers environmental knowledge on 7Ps
green marketings level of importance and the 7Ps green marketings importance level on their degree of
infuence. The result indicates that there are effects of consumers environmental knowledge towards 7Ps
level of importance. In the other words, every shifting on consumers level of environmental knowledge,
it has impact for every 7Ps importance level. The higher level of consumers environmental knowledge,
the more every 7Ps green marketing is perceived as important by consumers.
Figure 2. Summary of MANCOVA Analysis
The other MANCOVA analysis resulted that there are also effects of every 7Ps dimensions
importance towards the 7Ps degrees of infuence on consumers willingness to buy. Here is one example;
when a consumer thought that variables in Product dimension are important, it will affect Product as their
willingness to buy factor. The more important variables in Product are perceived, the more variables in
Product attract consumers willingness to buy. This conclusion also stands for the other dimensions such
as Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidences.
Mapping
Mapping is performed to see the position of each dimension 7Ps level of green marketing on the level
of importance and infuence on the willingness to buy. The dots resulting position is the result of
scoring calculations by calculating the average of the scores of each variable in each dimension. Score
was obtained by multiplying number of respondents with the choices in the questionnaires.
Figure 3. 7Ps Level of Importance and Degrees of Infuence Mapping
282 Business Management and Information Systems
Recommendations
Recommendations for Environmental Friendly Beauty Products Producers
The biggest levels of importance belong to People, Promotion, and Product dimension of green
marketing. Furthermore, results indicate that there are effects of level of importance towards 7Ps as
willingness to buy factor. From that point, producers should be more aware to factors that perceived
as important by consumers in order to enhance their willingness to buy. In addition, environmental
knowledge of consumers also should be taken into consideration, because it affects the importance
level of green marketing strategy (7Ps), and the importance levels also affects the degree of infuence
of each 7Ps elements.
Recommendations for the Body Shop Indonesia
There are three dimensions that are perceived as most affecting the willingness to buy for consumers
of The Body Shop; which are People, Promotion, and Product. For The Body Shop Indonesia, these
factors are already well-performed to attract consumers willingness to buy, so it should be maintained,
and the other four dimensions are should be enhanced.
Recommendations for Further Research
The author limited this research only to fnd the factors that infuence consumers willingness to buy,
not infuence their buying decision. Further research that discovers this area might be interesting.
This research was limited to women because it fts the companys target market, but other research
that covers man respondents might be possible to do.
The variables in Knowledge section that have been conducted the factor analysis only explain
52.710%. It indicates that there are parts of knowledge are not included in this research as the rest
percentage. Adding the variables may improve the accuracy of things researcher want to measure.
References
[1] Bitner, J. and Booms, B. 1981. Marketing Strategies And Organizational Structures For Service Firms. In:
Donnelly, J. and George, W, Marketing of Services, Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1981, IL,
pp. 47-51.
[2] Dhar, Pranam and Das, Soumyajit., n.d. Green Marketing: Challenges and Opportunities for Innovation
and Sustainable Development. [online] Available at: <http://www.indianresearchjournals.com/pdf/
IJMFSMR/2012/May/6_IJM_MAY12.pdf > [Accessed date: 21 May 2012].
[3] Fryxall, G. and Lo, C., 2003. The infuence on environmental knowledge and values on managerial
behaviours on behalf of the environment: An empirical examination of managers in China. Journal of
Business Ethics, Iss. 46, pp. 45-59.
[4] Kaufmann, Hans Ruediger., Panni, Mohammad Fateh Ali Khan,. and Orphanidou, Yianna., 2012. Factors
Affecting Consumers Green Purchasing Behavior: An Integrated Conceptual Framework. [online] Available
at: < http://www.amfteatrueconomic.ro/temp/Article_1100.pdf> [Accessed date: 8 May 2012].
[5] Darnall, Nicole., Pointing, Cerys., and Vazquez-Brust, Diego. n.d. Why Consumers Buy Green. [online]
Available at: <http://asu.academia.edu/nicoledarnall/Papers/548176/Why_Consumers_Buy_Green>
[Accessed date: 10 May 2012].