Literature Review

Cateora Graham, in International Marketing, has drawn a parallel line between

green marketing and product development. The author has cited a variety of examples
where the importance of green marketing has been laid focus on. Green marketing is a
term used to identify concern with the environmental consequences of a variety of
marketing activities. It very evident from the author’s research and examples the
packaging and solid waste rules are burdensome but there are successful cases of not
only meeting local standards but also being able to transfer this approach to other
markets. [2]

Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller in Marketing Management has initiated the
topic by discussing about the relevance of green marketing in the past few decades
and has also discussed the explosion of environmentally friendly products. However,
according to the author from the branding perspective green marketing programs have
not been very successful. Marketers tried and failed with green sales pitches over the
last decade because of certain obstacles which the movement encountered. The
consumer behaviour is such that most consumers appear unwillingly to give up the
benefits of other alternatives to choose green products.

Along with definitions from different sources, the authors Debraj Dutta and Mahua
Dutta, of Marketing Management, have given an explanation of what is green
marketing. According to the authors green marketing incorporates a broad range of
activities including the modification of product, production process and packaging.
The authors have also discussed a few literature sources that have focused on green
marketing and its relevance in today’s era. It was evident that the possible reasons
because of which organizations engage in green marketing.

K.K.Shrivastava & Sujata Khandai, the author of Consumer Behaviour in Indian

Context, has discussed green marketing legislation in association with the
multinational corporations. These face a growing variety of legislation designed to
address environmental issues. Global concern for the environment extends beyond
industrial pollution, hazardous waste disposal and rampant deforestation to include
issues that focus directly on consumer products.
Kenneth E. Clow & Donald Baack the authors of Integrated Advertising,
Promotion and Marketing Communication. According to the authors the marketers
need to be aware of the threats and opportunities associate with four trends in the
natural environment namely shortage of raw materials, increased cost of energy,
increased pollution levels and the changing roles of government. New regulations hit
certain industries very hard and also that consumers often appear conflicted about the
natural environment.

Jacquelyn A. Ottman the author of Green Marketing: Opportunity for

Innovation, has explained green marketing from an organizational standpoint,
environmental considerations should be integrated into all aspects of marketing new
product development and communications and all points in between. According to the
author environment should be balanced with primary customer needs. The so-called
"green consumer" movements in the U.S. and other countries have struggled to reach
critical mass and to remain in the forefront of shoppers' minds. The lack of consensus
by consumers, marketers, activists, regulators, and influential people has slowed the
growth of green products.

According to the American Marketing Association (Wikipedia), green marketing is

the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Thus green
marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification,
changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying
advertising. It could be concluded that defining green marketing is not a simple task
where several meanings intersect and contradict each other; an example of this will be
the existence of varying social, environmental and retail definitions attached to this
term. As we know that the emerging greenhouse gas reduction market can potentially
catalyze projects with important local environmental, economic, and quality-of-life
benefits. The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), for example,
enables trading between industrial and developing nations, providing a framework that
can result in capital flows to environmentally beneficial development activities.

Prof. Sanjit Kumar Dash author of Green Marketing: Opportunities &

Challenges has mentioned that all activities designed to generate and facilitate any
exchange intended to satisfy human needs or wants such that satisfying of these needs
and wants occur with minimal detrimental input on the national environment. The
evolution of green marketing involves (three phases) from this article. First phase was
termed as "Ecological" green marketing, and during this period all marketing
activities were concerned to help environment problems and provide remedies for
environmental problems. Second phase was "Environmental" green marketing and
the focus shifted on clean technology that involved designing of innovative new
products, which take care of pollution and waste issues. Third phase was
"Sustainable" green marketing. It came into prominence in the late 1990s and early
2000.

In the Strategic Marketing and Green Marketing, the Green Imperative is

impossible to ignore, and companies are scrambling to understand how to develop
business models that are more sustainable. After an objective analysis of all product,
process, and policy issues associated with your company as well as performing an
assessment of your current marketing strategy, we can develop a comprehensive
sustainability and corporate responsibility strategy to increase ROI. The organization
will then become more efficient through environmental and social responsibility,
achieve superior competitive advantage and brand differentiation, as well as enhance
your brand image in the marketplace.

In accordance with the Strategic Marketing - Brand Development and Green

marketing the brand image is derived from marketing strategy. We can develop the
brand identity and mold the company's image within the framework of the strategic
marketing plan. This strategy and design teams develop the marketing
communications materials around maintaining a positive, distinctive, and consistent
brand image in the marketplace.

The American Wind Energy Association has associated green marketing with wind
energy. Green marketing can improve the environmental profile of the U.S. electricity
supply if marketers sell a power product that includes a substantial fraction of wind,
geothermal, biomass (including landfill gas) and/or solar resources. The generation of
power from these renewable resource technologies produces few or no air emissions,
no carbon. They will be most vulnerable in competitive markets and can most benefit
from consumer support. While "green" is difficult to define, and arguments can be
made that natural gas and large hydropower are less environmentally harmful than
coal, oil, and nuclear power, green-customer demand is unlikely to exceed the supply
of large, existing quantities of gas and hydro resources.

Anja Schaefer from the The Open University (BBC) has mentioned that green
marketing is there in a sizeable market segment of green consumers who are willing to
pay a little more for environmentally friendly products from environmentally friendly
companies. Producers and retailers will react to this green demand and
environmentally friendly practices will be pushed through the supply chain. Green
marketing dates back several decades now, with specialist manufacturers and retailers
such as Ben and Jerry’s, the Body Shop and so forth, leading the way.

Green Marketing and Social Networks have discussed the problems related to the
idea of greening the world through marketing. The article has discussed that
organizations are not running charities and their main objective should be to align
their own objectives with that of the protection of the environment. And if it is really
delivered the environmental goods will deliver positive results for the organization.
The programme already lists quite a few problems with the various environmental
targets and actions described by retailers.

David Wigder the writer of Reframing Global Warming across the

Political Spectrum provides a different approach towards green marketing from this
article. The author says that the green marketers are challenged to efficiently reach
consumers and effectively impact their attitudes and behaviors. Marketing Green’s
mission is to provide industry professionals with practical strategic marketing advice
on how to build green brands and motivate mass market adoption of more sustainable
products. Today, there is a common perception that Democrats are more pro-
environment than Republicans.

Green marketing and biotechnology (Wikipedia) has provided a relationship

between. Biotechnology is often used to refer to genetic engineering technology of the
21st century however the term encompasses a wider range and history of procedures
for modifying biological organisms according to the needs of humanity, going back to
the initial modifications of native plants into improved food crops through artificial
selection and hybridization. With the development of new approaches and modern
techniques, traditional biotechnology industries are also acquiring new horizons
enabling them to improve the quality of their products and increase the productivity of
their systems. Biotechnology is technology based on biology, especially when used in
agriculture, food science and medicine.