Green Marketing: Benefits and Challenges for Marketers

Abstract

The term ‘Green marketing’ was first used by the American Marketing Association (AMA) in 1975. According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are environmentally safe. The present exploratory paper is descriptive in nature and is based on secondary data derived from online databases like SSRN, Research Gate, etc. It attempts to study various aspects of green marketing. Increased sensitivity to environmental protection has given a boost to green practices. Firms are motivated to adopt green marketing strategies due to a number of reasons like customer's preference for environmentally sound products/services, governmental pressure, competitive pressure, long term cost advantage and tag of a socially responsible firm. Green marketing helps to boost sales, reduce operating and production costs, helps to decrease the long-term risks of depletion of resources, promote corporate social responsibility, etc. The present study focuses on the meaning of Green Marketing, the push factors of going green in business, the benefits of green marketing, and various challenges in the adoption of green marketing. The study concludes that it is still in its infancy stage and faces many challenges such as lack of cooperation, lack of consumer awareness, a trade-off between short-term and long-term cost-benefit analysis, perils of green myopia and limited scientific knowledge. Businesses should attempt to overcome these challenges and adopt green marketing because the present time is favorable to capitalize on this new trend given the emergency kind of situation of our environment and increasing eco-sensitivity of consumers.