Green Marketing: A Study of Consumer Perception and Preferences in India

Concerns have been expressed by manufacturers and customers about the environmental impact of products during recent decades. Consumers and manufacturers have directed their attention toward environment friendly products that are presumed to be “green” or environment friendly like low power consuming (energy-efficient) electrical appliances, organic foods, lead free paints, recyclable paper, and phosphate free detergents. Indian marketers are also realizing the importance of the Green Marketing Concept. Although a variety of research on green marketing has been conducted across the globe; little academic research on consumer perception and preferences has been carried out in India. This research provides a brief review of environmental issues and identifies the green values of the consumers, their level of awareness about environmental issues, green products and practices. This paper highlights the consumers’ perception and preferences towards green marketing practices and products with the help of a structured questionnaire. A study was conducted on 106 respondents. High level of awareness about green marketing practices and products was found among the consumers. Green values were also found to be high among the respondents. Research has given good insights for marketers of the green products and suggests the need of designing the marketing communication campaigns promoting green products due to high green value among the consumers. Results of regression analysis reveals the view that overall green values, awareness about green products and practices and the perception regarding seriousness of marketing companies towards green marketing had positive significant impact on consumer persuasion to buy and prefer green products over conventional products.

[1]  S. Yantis,et al.  Amount of information about the attitude object and attitude-behavior consistency. , 1985, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[2]  Demond Miller,et al.  Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation , 1998 .

[3]  G. Odekerken-Schröder,et al.  Assessing the Impact of a Retailer's Relationship Efforts on Consumers' Attitudes and Behavior , 2003 .

[4]  John B. Unipan,et al.  Green Buying: The Influence of Environmental Concern on Consumer Behavior , 1997 .

[5]  E. Y. Tweneboah-Koduah,et al.  An Exploratory Study of the Impact of Green Brand Awareness on ConsumerPurchase Decisions in Ghana , 2011 .

[6]  Matthew S. Seligmann,et al.  The Public Perspective , 1998 .

[7]  C. Lei,et al.  On "Green Marketing" , 2006 .

[8]  Timothy F. Smith,et al.  The influence of consumers' environmental beliefs and attitudes on energy saving behaviours , 2011 .

[9]  Jeanne Liedtka,et al.  Corporate social responsibility: A critical approach , 1991 .

[10]  Michael E. Porter,et al.  Green and Competitive : Ending the Stalemate , 1996 .

[11]  Joel J. Davis,et al.  Ethics and environmental marketing , 1992 .

[12]  Michael Jay Polonsky,et al.  Using strategic alliances to develop credible green marketing , 1995 .

[13]  John H. Antil.  Socially Responsible Consumers: Profile and Implications for Public Policy , 1984 .

[14]  Stuart Oskamp,et al.  Relationships among Ecologically Responsible Behaviors , 1983 .

[15]  Josh L Wiener,et al.  A Framework for Promoting Cooperation , 1991 .

[16]  Michael Jay Polonsky,et al.  An Introduction To Green Marketing , 1994 .

[17]  J. Vandekerckhove,et al.  On the predictive validity of indirect attitude measures: Prediction of consumer choice behavior on the basis of affective priming in the picture–picture naming task , 2007 .

[18]  Sergio Rubio,et al.  Characteristics of research on green marketing , 2009 .

[19]  M N Welling,et al.  Analysing the feasibility of green marketing in small & medium scale manufacturers , 2010 .