By Akanksha Yelmar
Our biggest challenge in this century is to take an idea that seems abstract – sustainable development – and turn it into a reality for all the world’s people.
Kofi Annan
Transforming the consumption culture through the ‘zero waste’ prism has been one of the top agenda these days. In today’s generation, everyone is concerned about the environment. Never before have we had such an awareness of what we are doing to the planet and never before have we had the power to do something about it, and one of such power is green marketing.
Green Marketing is used by companies to promote their goods or services in an eco-friendly way, keeping in mind the protection of the ecological environment. Marketers market their product and services in a way that highlights the environmental benefits of using them. Here, either the products are eco-friendly or they are produced in an eco-friendly manner.
Nowadays, modern marketing has resulted in severe competition by using unhealthy marketing tactics to attract customers, for example by exaggerating in advertisements. Therefore, green marketing is an attempt to give fair deals to consumers in society, protect the environment by producing conservationist products, and promote the production and consummation of pure and quality products.
With the ever-rising environmental problems, more and more companies are shifting to ecologically sound products, and are adopting a greener approach to their products to minimize the ecological consequences. Green marketing is the right choice for marketing as it brings ample benefits like:
- By adopting a greener approach by the companies, in one way they are creating a better place for future generations to live. Thus, this small step or effort in this direction can go a long way in saving the environment.
- Because of this, people today are becoming more and more environmentally aware and are opting for eco-friendly products. If the companies promote their brand as green, it will really hit home to most of the consumers.
- As a result, this will enhance the credibility of the brand, as having an excellent image of the brand will help to draw not only consumers but also profits in the long run.
- Green Marketing can also help the companies to reduce cost which will come in the form of savings from production wastes, the sale of by-products, as well as reduction of penalties for environmental damage.
- After adopting green marketing methods, one has to make changes in their production process by replacing the material used for producing an eco-friendly product, and also add eco-friendly packaging to them. Thus, entering into a green marketing approach also means entering a new market.
- The company preferring green marketing would definitely have an edge over its competitors, not every company choose to transform into an eco-friendly company and change their process and marketing style of their product.
- As the company decides to switch to green marketing, they can also create more room to innovate their product, along with delivering eco-friendly products. Thus, this will be the cherry on the top of a cake.
There are successful companies across the worlds that have shifted to green and taken steps to be environmentally conscious. For example, Adidas is one of the brands that practise sustainable development through green marketing.
Adidas has collaborated with Parley for the oceans and developed an exceptional product, titled Adidas X Parley, an eco-friendly shoe that is made from recycled plastic from the oceans. They marketed this product in a way that emphasised the greenness of the product and the fact that it is made from recycled plastic.
If the idea of saving the planet, making this place safe for future generation, and most importantly winning new customers appeals to the company, then it should start its green marketing journey immediately. For this one can do few things listed below:
- As one has rightly said, “An investment isn’t an investment if it destroys our planet”. Thus, investing in green marketing is also investing in the company’s future and the future of CSR.
- The employees of the particular company must also be committed to saving the environment if the company is. One can also take the help of social media, to show the staff’s dedication towards this.
- If a company does not have any eco-friendly product or a product that can’t be turned into eco-friendly, then in such case the company can consider supporting a cause, by investing in charities to help to make the environment better.
Green Marketing is still in the infancy stage and a lot of planning and research needs to be done by the companies to project themselves as a green brand. In a nutshell, in future, only those companies will reap great rewards that would innovate their product in an eco-friendly way and which would not harm the environment in any manner.
