Green Marketing: A Study of Consumers’ Attitude towards Environment Friendly Products

Asian Social Science; Vol. 8, No. 12; 2012
ISSN 1911-2017 E-ISSN 1911-2025
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education
117
Green Marketing: A Study of Consumers’ Attitude towards
Environment Friendly Products
Jacob Cherian1 & Jolly Jacob2
1 Department of Management, College of Business Administration, Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
2 Department of Applied Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Correspondence: Jolly Jacob, Department of Applied Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Abu Dhabi
University, Abu Dhabi, UAE. E-mail: [e-mail]
Received: June 13, 2012 Accepted: July 3, 2012 Online Published: September 20, 2012
doi:10.5539/ass.v8n12p117 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v8n12p117
Abstract
Increasing awareness on the various environmental problems has led a shift in the way consumers go about their
life. There has been a change in consumer attitudes towards a green lifestyle. People are actively trying to reduce
their impact on the environment. However, this is not widespread and is still evolving. Organizations and
business however have seen this change in consumer attitudes and are trying to gain an edge in the competitive
market by exploiting the potential in the green market industry. The current study introduces the concept of green
marketing and looks into the various ways in which the different consumer attributes are related to the concept of
green marketing. A conceptual framework is presented and the information is analyzed on the basis of the
framework.
Keywords: green marketing, green products, consumer attitude
1. Introduction
Today the concept of sustainability is almost ubiquitous by showing application in corporate strategy, consumer
choice, student education and academic research. The need for sustainable business practices by corporations
around the world is identified to be a result of overall increase in the consumer awareness of lack of
environmental protection and social inequities. Over the last decade environmentalism has emerged to be a vital
aspect due to increasing issues related to acid rains, depletion of the ozone layer, and degradation of the land and
many more pressing environmental issues. This resulted in increase in consumer concern with regards to
restoration of ecological balance by presenting demands for eco friendly products in countries around the world
(Doyle 1992; Vandermerwe and Oliff 1990). The research on environmental consumerism is a well researched
topic with the first research dating back to the 1970s (Henion and Kinnear, 1976). There has been extensive
growth in interest exhibited by marketing academics as well as practitioners with regard to the impact of
marketing on promoting and maintaining ecological balance (Chammaro et al., 2009; Bhattacharya, 2011). There
is a great deal of depletion of non renewable energy resources which accompanied by generation of non bio
degradable pollutants has lead to an increase in consumer and corporate awareness of green marketing issues.
The growth of green marketing research dates back to 1980s when there was emergence of concept of green
marketing. Early literature indicates green marketing to be an approach which indicated signs of shift in consumer
attention to green product. At that time green marketing research concentrated on the shift in consumer
consumption of green products. There was a great deal of empirical research carried out to identify interest among
consumers in using and purchasing green products (Mintel 1991). Green marketing approach was researched from
a corporate interest point of view in the early 90s. Research indicated that 92% of MNCs from Europe changed
their products to address growing concerns of environmental pollution. (Vandermerwe and Oliff, 1990). Green
marketing research has come a long way since then. Consumers from the developed countries including USA and
Western Europe were found to be more conscious about the environment (Curlo, 1999). Research in the last decade
(Lee, 2009, Rahbar and Wahid, 2011, Lee 2008; D Souza 2004) has indicated that consumer are aware and are
willing to pay more to "go green". There is limited research which has examined the impact of green marketing on
consumers from emerging economies like India (Bhattacharya, 2011; Prakash, 2002).
Most of the studies related to green consumerism have been conducted in well developed countries. It is to be

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acknowledged that when considered from a developing country context there is a lack in number of studies. It is
against this backdrop from the above discussion it is quite clear that there is a large research gap in terms
conceptually identifying those areas of consumer awareness impacting the concept of green marketing.
1.1 Aims
The main objective of the current study is to understand the concept of Green marketing and to review some of
the studies that have dealt with the concept of Green marketing and to identify the relationship between the
various consumer attitudes and green marketing.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Green Marketing and Green consumers
Environmental marketing, more popularly known as green marketing or sustainable marketing can be defined as
the effort by a company to design, promote, price and distribute products in a manner which promotes
environmental protection (Polonsky, 2011). Green marketing has be defined as 'all activities designed to generate
and facilitate any exchanges intended to satisfy human needs or wants such that the satisfaction of these needs
and wants occurs, with minimal detrimental impact on the natural environment' by Polonsky (2011).
In this paper, green marketing covers the overall brand of marketing activities undertaken by companies in a
manner that they promote manufacture of products which have a positive impact on environment or alternatively
reduce negative impact on the environment. Today green marketing is a vital component of marketing research
which began due to increasing media exposure and pressure on firms to present eco friendly behaviour. The
growth in green marketing over the years has been promoted by adoption of product packaging and presenting to
the public these improvements. Over the years there has been a subtle shift from practicing environmental
marketing practices as a result of compulsion identified as a result of legislations and pressure from
environmental groups to genuine efforts to improve sustainable marketing plans and behaving in an eco
responsible manner (Polonsky and Rosenberger, 2001).
Consumerism can perhaps be identified as a movement which initially begun as a process which was presented
to protect consumers against practices of unethical marketing. Over time this has extended and become broader
in nature. When today's agenda with regards to consumer activism is taken into consideration it can be observed
that protection of the environment is the most vital aspect (Dono et al., 2010). There is a resultant increase in the
concern expressed towards environmental protection leading to "green consumerism" (Eriksson, 2002).
The growth of green marketing and green consumer is “perhaps the biggest opportunity for enterprise and
invention the industrial world has ever seen" (Cairncross 1992: 177). A green consumer can be identified to be
one who avoids any product which may harm damage to any living organism, cause deterioration of the
environment during process of manufacturing or during process of usage, consume a large amount of non
renewable energy , involves unethical testing on animals or human subjects (Elkington, 1994).
There have been a number of different factors which are instrumental in promoting green consumers to purchase
green products. Extensive research over the years identify that heightened awareness of green issues; increased
level of information availability on environmental sustenance; green advertising by corporations; increased
concern for the environment; increase in popularity of green products by social and environmental charities as
some factors. This overwhelming increase in the overall environmental consciousness among different consumer
profile there have been efforts undertaken by firms to "go green" by presenting the concept of corporate
environmentalism (Banerjee, 2003; Hay and Lichter 2000). Today green development are identified as
opportunities by business firms as opportunities to improve their marketing niche rather than just actions which
need to be carried out.
2.2 Global Scenario in Green Marketing
“Green’ is the buzzword that is gaining popularity among the current generation. A number of businesses right
from private entities such as Wal-Mart trying to push the concept of organic food to public entities like the
London governments congestion charge are all aimed at improving the environment by promoting ‘Green’
products and issues. 87% of people from various nations like Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, the
UK and the US have shown an interest in reducing their impact on the environment, according to a survey by
(McKinsey, 2007). However, showing interest and actually acting on the interest are two different deeds. This
fact is proved by a survey that was conducted on a global scale, which was repeated in 2008 with the help of
BBC World, which showed that not a lot of people were actually doing something to move their lifestyle to a
green lifestyle.

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The overall market for green marketing is said to be worth $ 3.5 trillion by the year 2017, according to a report
by Global Industry Analysts Inc. of 2011. The report also states that increasing awareness about the
environmental issues among the people, businesses and the governments is one of the main reasons for such
market potential. Another research study by Mintel, clearly showed that 12% of the American population
actively sought green products.
There is a growing need to switch over to green products and services by both marketers and consumers. Even
though the shift to ‘green’ will be expensive to both the consumers as well as businesses, it will most definitely
pay off in the long run. There are a number of literatures that focus on various aspects related to green marketing
and also delves into the various inter relationships between the customers attitudes and environmental strategies
in relation to the organizations use of marketing. Environmental issues are addressed in green marketing efforts.
The core idea of green marketing is to create awareness among people on the environmental issues and how
consumers would be helping the environment if they switch over to green products. Thus green marketing aims
to provide more information to people and also gives those more choices to switch over to green lifestyle.
According to (Rex and Baumann, 2007), those aspects will spur businesses to develop more products from an
environmentally friendly perspective. Green marketing is a part of marketing and therefore shares a number of
aspects with traditional marketing such as price, promotions, products and place. Even green marketing requires
that businesses develop and maintain a strong relationship with all their suppliers, their market intermediaries
and significantly with the consumers, according to (Chan et al., 2012). A number of businesses have
begun committing themselves to making their entire operation more environmentally friendly. Thus corporations
are becoming more aware of their responsibilities towards the environment. This has forced the law makers,
environment groups, consumers, financial institution, insurers and the organization's own employees to become
more aware of environmental aspects and this in turn has led to an increase in the number of policies and
schemes and regulations at both the national and international levels.
2.3 The Attitude-Behavior Link
It has always been believed by consumer behaviorists that an individual’s actions can be predicted by their
attitudes. There have been a number of attempts to improve the ability to predict an individual’s actions and a
variety of factors have also been suggested to involve factors which can be classified as either dispositional or
situational. Spruyt (2007) indicate that prediction of behaviour is directly dependent on attitude of the consumer
which is found to be associated with knowledge and personal experience they have (Davidson et al., 1985). The
impact of beliefs and attitude on consumer buying habits has been studied extensively (Fazio and Zanna 1981;
Ajzen 1989).
Furthermore research in this area has indicated that if attitudes are to be used in predicting the consumers
behavior’s then there are a number of methodological issues that have to be sorted out. According to (Ajzen and
Fishbein, 1977), behavior and attitudes have to be measured at the same correspondence level.
There are a number of theories that have been put forth to explain the process by which attitudes predict behavior.
According to (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980, p. 5), theory of reasoned action, “people consider the implications of
their actions before they decide to engage or not engage in a given behavior”. Thus according to the above theory,
people’s attitudes play a significant role when it comes to their forming an intention to act in a certain behavior.
The model primarily argues that people engage in processing that leads to the formation of attitudes, norms and
intentions prior to performing the behavior.
However, the theory of reasoned action is not the only theory that deals with people’s attitudes and behaviors.
Fazio (1986), proposed another theory in which he states that “attitudes guide behavior through an automatic and
spontaneous process instead of a deliberate one as argued by the earlier two theories”. Furthermore Fazio (1989)
also stated certain conditions in which behaviors and attitudes will be consistent. They are:
When the attitude influences perception. Thus when an individual forms a favorable (or unfavorable) attitude
towards an object then the object will automatically be seen as one that has many favorable (or unfavorable)
characteristics to the individual.
the attitude is accessed spontaneously by the mere presence of the object
In spite of the presence of theories that aid in prediction of behaviors from an individuals attitude, when it comes
to environmental consumerism, the predictive ability of attitude is still being debated by researchers. There have
been a number of attempts to provide a valid explanation to the presence of inconsistencies among behavior and
attitudes, effects of external variables and lack of measurement reliability and validity (Mainieri et al., 1997),
low correlations among environmental behaviors and different levels of specificity in the attitude behavior