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Today, green management and
green marketing are ruling
the corporate parlance. The color `Green' is slowly being
equated to environment protection. Both green management and
green marketing connote an underlying concern for preservation of
the environment and planet on which we all live and is viewed as a tool
for sustainable development. The growing concern about
the environment is creating external and internal pressures
on companies to go green and adopt a non-invasive way of
functioning. The conventional customer is transforming into a `green'
customer by making eco-friendly choices. Companies can transform
these demands for protecting the environment into
business opportunities and new products can be positioned on the basis of
their environmental appeal and by green advertising. Every marketer is
today working to ensure that his brand gains the green credential
and achieves greater relevance for environment conscious consumers.
The word `Green' has been extensively used in
marketing communications by corporates in the form of green marketing,
green consumers, green products, green supply chains, green retailing
and many more. These terms play a vital role in informing the
consumers about the pro-environmental aspects of the products and
services. Also, many companies emphasize their corporate social
responsibility policies by projecting their initiatives towards becoming
more environment-friendly and by communicating their green
claims via corporate marketing. Advertising is mostly perceived as
a subsystem of the marketing practice. Hence, we may
consider green advertising as an interdependent piece of
green marketing.
A green advertisement addresses the relationship between a
product/service and its biophysical environment. These ads promote
a green lifestyle and present an image of a company or its products as
being environment-friendly. The `green' appeals used by a company
range from launching eco-friendly products to corporate
image building campaigns that stress the environment-friendly
credentials of a company to public campaigns that promote
environmentally responsible behaviors. These advertisements intend
to communicate a persuasive green message to the target consumers
so as to create attention, awareness and interest about making
a contribution towards protecting the environment. They aim
to educate and inspire the customer about the importance
of environment protection and inculcate in them a sense of
social responsibility. |
