An Investigation of the Factors Influencing Consumer Perception towards Green Brands
With the increased environmental concern of the society over the years, various initiatives by individuals, business houses, institutions and governments, are being constantly taken to appear 'Green' These initiatives are known as 'sustainable/environmental friendly/eco friendly efforts' As civilization happens to be more and more apprehensive regarding the natural environment, business organizations have also started adjusting their attitude as an attempt to take care of society's latest distress. With society's rising genuine concern towards the environment, the organizations got an opportunity to differentiate the branding aspect of the product by labeling as Green or environmental friendly. This genuine concern or marketing activity of the organization is termed as Green Marketing. This paper investigates the factors which influence consumer perception towards the green brands with predictors like green marketing initiative, customer involvement, environmental concern and organization's business strategy as the factors which were prominently visible in literature review. The primary data was collected through a questionnaire investigating 79 respondents through convenience sampling method and the responses were interpreted and analyzed using various statistical tools like reliability test, factor analysis and regression analysis with a level of significance of 5% The results from the statistical analysis supports the relationship of customer perception with factors like customer involvement, business strategy and environmental concern while no relationship with green marketing initiatives. Key Words: Green Marketing, Customer Perception, Customer Involvement, Business Strategy, Environmental Concern