Eco friendly marketing in India

By Abhinash on December 17, 2011

Green Marketing, a strategic approach to market eco-friendly products, is considered as one of the popular marketing approaches in recent times (Kassaye, 2001). With an increased awareness of adverse effects of global warming, Indian consumers started showing interest in purchasing eco friendly products to protect environment. Eco-friendly cars, construction material like glass, food products, stationery and even clothing have become a way of life for developed countries like America, but in India it is still at a nascent stage. There are several reasons behind this situation. This paper assesses Indian consumer’s green buying behavior by taking the issues like awareness of eco-friendly products, income levels and education levels into consideration.

Proposition

  1. Price difference between normal products and eco-friendly products. Consumers may not buy eco friendly products because of premium prices.
  2. Income and education levels of consumers may not affect the buying behavior of eco-friendly products

Background research

Green Marketing has become a trend in the recent past with numerous of companies entering into the manufacturing of green products in India. Consumers in metro cities have already started using products like cars, food products and construction materials. But, the problem with green products is premium price. Most of the green products are premium priced when compared to normal products. Consumers, who don’t have awareness on the global warming and environmental protection, never look into the premium priced products unless they see additional personal benefits rather than social benefits. It does not matter even if the consumers are well educated or falls in high income brackets, their mind set will not change until they get the awareness on benefits of eco-friendly products. At the outset, companies need to start focusing on marketing the benefits of the green products and make people know why they need to use green products.

Conclusion

India is still at nascent stage in using eco friendly products. Consumers started gaining the awareness about environmental protection and global warming slowly. Because people do not aware about the benefits of eco-friendly products, they are going ahead with purchasing normal products that come at cheaper price. Moreover, eco-friendly products are premium priced, which makes people to take back step while purchasing. It is the responsibility of the individuals, organizations and Government to take further steps to increase the awareness on benefits of eco-friendly products.

References

  • Kassaye, W. W. (2001). Green dilemma. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 19 (6), 444-55.

Discuss