MKTG 3600 MW

Prof: R. Taylor

Environmental or green marketing aims to protect the environment through promoting sustainability and eco-related product innovation. It is a two part process requiring environmental marketers to educate the public and to lobby the government to take appropriate actions to protect the environment. The United Nations Program Working Group on Sustainable Product Development is one institution that deals with the environment on a daily basis. More information can be found on the United Nations program at http://unep.frw.uva.nl .

Green marketing started back in the 1960's when Rachel Carson wrote The Silent Spring about how fragile our environment really is. There was a new found need to protect our valuable resources such as clean water, clean air, unspoiled earth, and a self-renewing ecosystem (Schiffman, Kanuk, 1997). The 1990's have boomed with environmental activism, almost like people expect every product to be safe on the environment. Demand on companies to protect the environment has lessened in the past couple of years possibly because consumers are satisfied with their ongoing efforts. Marketers and companies redesigned products and packaging both voluntarily and because they felt the pressure of their consumers. Many companies have made the environment an integral part of their corporate values. Check out http://www.greenmarketing.com for more than 80 case studies on companies that have done the latter. For an annual survey of green consumers behavior toward environmental issues go to http://www.roper.com/research/syndicated/green.htm . This research shows where environmentalism fits on Americans' agenda and how industries and companies are perceived in this area. One very interesting website I found was http://www.biothinking.com where the key to product sustainability relies on the product being "cyclic, solar, and safe". This website was created by Edwin Datschefski to reach more than one million people and train them on the techniques of sustainable product development. It offers a free on-line course, a free e-mail newsletter, product examples, and lists the benefits to all levels of the organizational culture.

Marketers have realized that environmental protection is an important area because of widespread consumer support. There are still many problems with "so called green marketers" who are deceptive and misleading in their efforts to conserve the environment. However I believe most consumers have an idea of what products are not marketed and manufactured with care toward the environment. I believe most marketers and companies have responded and will continue to respond to the consumer with products and promotions focused on the environment. For more tips and tricks to successful green marketing go to http://www.cutter.com/bate/ for a monthly newsletter on business and the environment.