Green Marketing — Eco-Friendly Business
In modern day world, green marketing is becoming more and more popular. It is marketing where marketing products are based on environmental factors or awareness. So, it does not surprise the fact that nowadays many companies are adopting that way of providing services and products. The question is, whether the green marketing is fulfilling all needs or it fails to do so.
Benefits of green marketing
To begin with, the green marketing is availing companies to provide their products preserving the environment. In other words, we are facing with big pollution problems on our only planet, the Earth and we need to react in all possible ways. The people are becoming more conscious about that and companies are trying to satisfy consumers needs. They are willing to pay more for products and services seen as sustainable or with a positive social impact. Customers are reassured when their products are chemical free and made with recyclable materials that do not harm the environment.
Green marketing and awareness campaigns help customers to make infoemed choices potentially contributing to environmental causes.This is a major asset as conscious customers pay attention to the products they purchase and use and therefore will become more active in voicing your product, leading to an increase in sales.
One of the best examples are eco friendly cars like Toyota. Not only are you getting the kind of gas mileage that is usually exclusive to plug-in cars, you are also getting a full range of standard advanced safety technologies, a quiet, comfortable cabin, and a car that`s a blast to drive. Owing to the fact that a lot of people are conscious about ecological problems, companies started to invent that kind of cars because they recognized beneficial opportunity in that. They also can compete other companies providing that kind of product, as well as most of employees are accomplished working for the company that is environmentally responsible, so they will be more productive and devoted to that company.
Some disadvantages
On the other hand, they are still some disadvantages that could slow down the success of that products and services. For instance, the high price that is not acceptable to everyone and sometimes considered as overvalued. Some of example is Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil, that has visibly higher price than other producers of coconut oil because of its quality (Brian Shilhavy). The companies saw a good chance to make a profit by producing organic food, but there are many factors that are still refusing people to purchase only that kind of food such as higher prices, uncertainty that it is actually healthier and inaccessibility to everyone. Furthermore, companies have to adjust their technology and producing processes for that kind of manufacturing.
Second example is commercialize products as “green”, depending on industry you might have to go through a long and pricey process to obtain the environmental certifications. These certifications, which the governments, industry associations, professional associations and consumer rights groups distribute, use certain certifications to meet industry environmental standards. This is especially true for companies operating in the fields of energy consumption and recycling waste management.
As green marketing brings so many advantages to a business, a lot of big companies try to look “greener” and the majority of it is just green washing. This means a company will make something not sustainable look green by putting all of the attention on a little detail. For example, disposable water companies are extremely harmful to the environment. Yet you will see many that say “Our packaging is 100% recyclable”, while the entire production process is so polluting that they are not a sustainable business.
Growing trend
To sum up, the green marketing is good since many people are conscious about today ecological problems and the companies can succeed in providing the products and services that are environmentally acceptable. But, there are still many factors that could cause the fail of the production and demand. In my opinion, it is brings positive change to the world. “And while we’re light-years ahead from where we were 20 years ago, the green business model is quite new and we’re still ironing out the kinks.
Green businesses, just like traditional businesses, must still pay rent, make payroll, figure out marketing and branding strategies and so on.Given the global challenges such as climate change we face today, any company that is making a positive impact needs to have a green marketing strategy. Even companies that weren`t necessarily sustainable before can make important changes within their organization to become better.
A company that doesn`t sell eco-friendly products can start recycling and implement a waste management system, or participate in local sustainable initiatives or start carpooling to work. These are ways that green marketing will allow you to stand out as a responsible company. But there is one major difference. When a green business is done really well, you will see the positive social and environmental impact it has… while making a solid profit. And when that happens, it really doesn’t get any better than that.
