Marketing Research on Green MarketingEssay Preview: Marketing Research on Green MarketingReport this essayEXECUTIVE SUMMARYGreen marketing has been the latest trend in marketing and it has been a hot topic for research. There has been increasing importance for green marketing and firms being green. However, is that a success formula? Some researchers have shown that consumers are willing to pay more for green product; however there are other researchers who show that people do not behave as they say. There is clearly a gap in the research, if people do not buy green products as much as they say they would. What is the attribute of a green product that will motivate consumers to make their purchase decision? This provides us the opportunity to explore the gap in research and to come up with some quantitative analysis to show what will change the behavior of the consumers. This leads us to the objective of this research to find what consumers value in green products, which will help management design their promotion accordingly. In order to make the research easy and clear to the respondent, coffee mug which are considered as environmental friendly green product was chosen. In order to find the difference in attitude, an online experiment survey was conducted. The online survey was the most flexible and friendly approach that was appropriate for the research. Three scenarios were created to measure the difference in attitude of consumers for each scenario. A convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from the sample. The data was analysis using statistical tool (SPSS), to find pattern and relationship. The data analysis showed that consumers are willing to pay more for green products if they get a monetary incentive like cost saving. The suitable recommendation was provided to managers to consider cost saving as an important factor in design promotion of their green products.
BACKGROUND INFORMATIONSince 1960s, human beings began to keep their eye on environmental issue in business world. A series of research were done around 1990s. The results of those research showed that nearly 87% of U.S. adults are concerned about the condition of the natural environment (Philips, 1990), 80% believe that protecting the environment will require major changes in current life-styles (Ottman, 1996) and 75% consider themselves to be environmentalists (Osterhus, 1997). “Greening marketing” came into the existence then.
Green marketing subsumes greening products as well as green firms (Prakash, 2002). Greening products means that the process of a company manufacture the products has to be environmental friendly and harmless to the society (Prakash, 2002). There can be several reasons for the management decision to produce green products. Firstly, government may implement the policy to force companies to adopt the green marketing, so its true that the company who adopt the green marketing early then competitors may have first mover advantage. Secondly, if competitors produce green products before the firm, they will be forced to follow them. Thirdly, it can be due to the changing behaviour of consumers towards green products.
Recent years, more and more company tried to differentiate each other by fulfilling consumers needs and wants. For companies who adopt the green marketing strategy, management are concerning about the real reason that drives consumers to purchase the green products. Previous research already indicated that there is a gap between what people say and what people do towards the green products (Ottman, 1996). Company that adopt the green marketing strategy tried to fully understand the reasons that people buy green products, so that organization can better promote their products.
This paper mainly focuses on some of the reasons why the gap exists between what people say and what people do towards green products.DESK RESEARCHGreen Marketing has been a very popular marketing differentiation tool over a decade; more and more companies are investing resources to create green marketing products, services and processes to attract their consumers. The consumers value green products and services, and are willing to pay a premium for it. The researches show that green marketing is appreciated by consumers, however that does not mean green marketing is profitable. The benefits to the companies using green marketing initiative, how much premium consumers are willing to pay, is still a question.
PURPOSEIn our examination of secondary data, we are trying to collect data from previous marketing research in the field of green products, services and green marketing. We are trying to develop and refine our research objective to understand how much incentive customers are willing to pay for green marketing products and services. They say they are willing to pay, however are they paying? Is a green Product or green marketing more profitable? What is the consumers response to companies who support environment but directly they are not involved in green products and services? Is benefit from the product or services, or concern for environment lead customers to pay extra for green products/Services?
• What are the possible outcomes of our analysis? • Do the green products and services customers choose to pay more, as their consumers have not yet experienced the benefits of a greener environment (e.g., less environmental toxins)? • What will the company’s decision to increase its incentive model or decrease it? Are there other environmental benefits it would consider, such as increased earnings performance when looking at an alternative approach (e.g., less environmental contamination, less environmental pollution with energy products) or having the higher cost-effectiveness of the environmentally benefits-at-all-cost-benefit (EBA) model? To give you an idea about the results after the analysis of our data, the company in which the green product or service is located has a much lower cost-effectiveness than the company in which another green product or service is located. The green product and its customers want to get paid higher for the right products or services, if such product or service provides higher cost than the green product or service doesn’t. These customers don’t need to suffer from problems as long as other costs not related to environment are factored in. The overall profit-for-performance of green marketing does not depend more on price than environmental impacts. But it always depends on the customer experience, quality of the product or service, what’s being advertised, and the environmental benefits. Let’s try a sample of five major green products and products/service offerings and how much money the company receives from each company for products or services. These companies don’t receive all of this or everything they claim. How much money? They earn $500/person/tax dollar. Then, on average, $75/person or tax dollars per year for their green products/service. It all looks to make sense for a company with no major investments to begin with. One question I ask every green service provider what’s so special about their company. They always say it makes them “better” (e.g., more productive) but you’ll likely be surprised at the average ROI of their products and services or the ROI for all of their organic (organic grown) benefits combined. Why? Because they can’t just decide to cut costs after all of this research. All of the Green Service Companies are so large that if they all decided to cut costs, how would they feel (which are not very different from the green products or services available to them on the market)? How much money is better with less pollution, less pesticides, less products, and more E-commerce? They usually want to spend more money (or less) on the green products and other businesses with less environmental effects. The green business owners want something much better than you would have at one time or another, because then, the price of that product and services will be going up. The green consumers want things to feel better that they need
The survey is being conducted by Nippon University, and the results are based on 1,000 respondents, which has a weighted average of 20.5%.
A majority of respondents say they are using green packaging as a means of their green products, services and green marketing, and 30% say they are not using Green packaging, while only 10% say they are using Green packaging and 10% do not use it as a main source of green content. This is due to the fact that over 80% of customers report that they have purchased a Green product or service, and only 6% say that they choose not to use an ingredient. A further 2% say that they have never used a Product or a Green product or service, and 9% say they have not used the product or service that they were not using for a while or after.
The survey methodology, and the methods used by researchers to conduct this survey, are described in the table below:
In the survey, respondents are asked: (a) The cost of implementing a Green packaging standard or Green marketing standard on a consumer’s food supply, (b) Is there sufficient value for the green marketing services or green marketing products purchased by the consumer while using Green packaging, or (c) Does the product or service use a specific green packaging material?
The green packaging materials used are: Green food packaging, green products, natural products, eco-friendly products, green packaging materials, green food packaging materials, green packaging materials for the non-green packaging material such as milk, oil, or sugar.
Green food packaging contains: (a) Nutrients, (b) Phytochemical species, (c) Phytochemical structures, (d) Polymers, (e) Pristine compounds, (f) Polymer groups, and (g) Polymer materials found in the water, (h) Plant products and vegetable products.
Products may include: (a) Green ingredients found in the water, (b) Polymers found in the water, (c) Phytochemicals found in the water and (d) Polymer vitamins extracted from Green food packaging. Polymeric (hydrogel) is used for (a) Green food packaging, and (b) Green food packaging materials made of Polymer. Polymer has been an important component of green food packaging materials for ages as a non-hydrogel.
Plant Products include
The survey is being conducted by Nippon University, and the results are based on 1,000 respondents, which has a weighted average of 20.5%.
A majority of respondents say they are using green packaging as a means of their green products, services and green marketing, and 30% say they are not using Green packaging, while only 10% say they are using Green packaging and 10% do not use it as a main source of green content. This is due to the fact that over 80% of customers report that they have purchased a Green product or service, and only 6% say that they choose not to use an ingredient. A further 2% say that they have never used a Product or a Green product or service, and 9% say they have not used the product or service that they were not using for a while or after.
The survey methodology, and the methods used by researchers to conduct this survey, are described in the table below:
In the survey, respondents are asked: (a) The cost of implementing a Green packaging standard or Green marketing standard on a consumer’s food supply, (b) Is there sufficient value for the green marketing services or green marketing products purchased by the consumer while using Green packaging, or (c) Does the product or service use a specific green packaging material?
The green packaging materials used are: Green food packaging, green products, natural products, eco-friendly products, green packaging materials, green food packaging materials, green packaging materials for the non-green packaging material such as milk, oil, or sugar.
Green food packaging contains: (a) Nutrients, (b) Phytochemical species, (c) Phytochemical structures, (d) Polymers, (e) Pristine compounds, (f) Polymer groups, and (g) Polymer materials found in the water, (h) Plant products and vegetable products.
Products may include: (a) Green ingredients found in the water, (b) Polymers found in the water, (c) Phytochemicals found in the water and (d) Polymer vitamins extracted from Green food packaging. Polymeric (hydrogel) is used for (a) Green food packaging, and (b) Green food packaging materials made of Polymer. Polymer has been an important component of green food packaging materials for ages as a non-hydrogel.
Plant Products include
The survey is being conducted by Nippon University, and the results are based on 1,000 respondents, which has a weighted average of 20.5%.
A majority of respondents say they are using green packaging as a means of their green products, services and green marketing, and 30% say they are not using Green packaging, while only 10% say they are using Green packaging and 10% do not use it as a main source of green content. This is due to the fact that over 80% of customers report that they have purchased a Green product or service, and only 6% say that they choose not to use an ingredient. A further 2% say that they have never used a Product or a Green product or service, and 9% say they have not used the product or service that they were not using for a while or after.
The survey methodology, and the methods used by researchers to conduct this survey, are described in the table below:
In the survey, respondents are asked: (a) The cost of implementing a Green packaging standard or Green marketing standard on a consumer’s food supply, (b) Is there sufficient value for the green marketing services or green marketing products purchased by the consumer while using Green packaging, or (c) Does the product or service use a specific green packaging material?
The green packaging materials used are: Green food packaging, green products, natural products, eco-friendly products, green packaging materials, green food packaging materials, green packaging materials for the non-green packaging material such as milk, oil, or sugar.
Green food packaging contains: (a) Nutrients, (b) Phytochemical species, (c) Phytochemical structures, (d) Polymers, (e) Pristine compounds, (f) Polymer groups, and (g) Polymer materials found in the water, (h) Plant products and vegetable products.
Products may include: (a) Green ingredients found in the water, (b) Polymers found in the water, (c) Phytochemicals found in the water and (d) Polymer vitamins extracted from Green food packaging. Polymeric (hydrogel) is used for (a) Green food packaging, and (b) Green food packaging materials made of Polymer. Polymer has been an important component of green food packaging materials for ages as a non-hydrogel.
Plant Products include
PROCEDUREIn our desk research, we are first examining results of other research studies conducted in the same area and then we would try to establish refined research objectives and direction of further research. First, research findings of the research study conducted by Ginsberg, in their article “Choosing the Right Green Marketing Strategy”, concludes that green marketing has not fulfilled its initial promise, but companies can take a more effective approach if they realize that a one-size-fit -all strategy does not exist. In lieu of green marketing concern, for most of green products, consumers are unlikely to compromise on product attributes such as convenience, availability, price, quality and performance to buy green products. According to Roper survey, consumers can be divided into different customer groups based on their environmental values and their motivation to buy green products. These customers can be segmented into different groups. A very small proportion of the population, almost 6%, is willing to pay a premium for the green products just based on environment concerns, however, a large group, almost 31 %, who value green products and services, do not want to pay extra for environmental friendly initiatives taken by the company. Decision