Green Marketing: The Next Big Thing
IntroductionThe beginning of environmentalism can be referred to the 1960s and early 1970s with increasing concern about the impact of consumption and production patterns on the environment due to debates about health effects and the impact of economic and population growth .But, despite some attention during this time the real idea of green marketing emerged in the late 1980s with an increase in green consumerism. Environmental awareness, increasing interest of consumers in green products and the willingness to pay for green features led to corporate interest in green marketing, initiating major changes and innovations. Green was in during the 1990s and the green market was growing remarkably. Many companies failed to capture the customer imagination by introducing the products which were not actually fit to be called as Green products causing resentment amongst customers which reduced the demand for green products.Most of the MNCs re thought about their product and successfully succeeded in creating an actual green product along with educating the customers about the usefulness of the green product and its good effects on the environment. Companies have to establish a significant market presence in the long term and successfully research, understand and educate their customers in order to build brands, products and services helping green things to find mainstream acceptance. Therefore, companies need to make green alternatives appear normal and acceptable and to innovate in different ways. The importance of customer focus also in green marketing activities becomes crucial.New PerspectivesKeen competition has increasingly eroded the ability of companies to generate sustainable profits from ongoing customer relationships. The large amount of new products and service offerings provide customers with an immense number of options to choose from and the Internet provides consumers the ability to compare value propositions. Furthermore, paradoxical consumer behavior can be observed, as customers do not demonstrate behavior consistent with categories. Nevertheless, the environmental impact of products and practices became an important subject of debate and concern.The combination of public pressure and government intervention, forced the companies to consider environmental impact of their processes. There has been direct impact of regulations on economy and business including product and process re design to utilize environmentally friendly materials and processes, waste management, recycling options. Driven by that and the changing business environments and more knowledgeable consumers, companies have to find new ways to achieve a competitive advantage through customer knowledge and CRM.Thus, new strategic frameworks and cooperation along the whole value chain are needed in order to deal with the changes in shopping patterns of customers and the influence of climate, leading to green marketing activities. In the future, governments, enterprises and individuals play an important role in protecting the environment, developing a green strategy helping an enterprise to make decisions that have a positive impact on the environment. So, the creation of a green culture often involves reinforcing behavior that people already want to adopt but there is need for appropriate tools in order to change.Marketing can help to sell new lifestyle ideas and introduce ecological products and services. But have companies also realized that gaining competitive advantage through customer satisfaction and customer retention is becoming more important today, even when considering the rapidly changing business environments and increasingly demanding consumers as well as the influence of green marketing?So, marketing strategies of enterprises have to be adapted to the requirements in the marketing environment and to the consumer needs. The shift to green marketing might be challenging for companies to emphasize on a relationship focused strategy in order to create value and enhance profitability including customer satisfaction and loyalty.