Courtesy : sciendo.com

Eco-friendly products design

There are reliable indications that global warming has become a reality since the
combined average temperature over global land and ocean surface for the year 2015 is
the highest since recordkeeping began back in the 1880s. According to the National
Climatic Data Center, in October 2015 we have had an average temperature across
global land and ocean surfaces of 0.98°C, above the 20th century average, marking the
sixth consecutive month a monthly global temperature record has been broken
(www.ncdc.noaa.gov). Green marketing can have a significant contribution to the
alleviation of the impact consumerism has on the environment by promoting the ecofriendly variants of regular products. Hence, this study aims at offering insights into the

best way of customising the marketing mix for converting non-consumers of eco friendly products into actual consumers, an imperative change in the present global
warming scenario.
There has always been a degree of ambiguity in the usage of term ‘eco-friendly
product’ because the term is used differently in different contexts. The term ‘organic’ has
been defined rather clearly, but it is used mostly for food products, and it rarely crosses
to other product categories (Jeffries, 2007). In some countries the term ‘green product’
or ‘natural product’ is used for referring to eco-friendly products. Simply put, ecofriendly products contain eco-friendly ingredients whenever possible. We say a product
is eco-friendly and naturally processed meaning it is not synthetic and synthetically
processed. At least 90% of eco-friendly ingredients should be used, but eco-friendly does
not mean ‘organic’ (Darrin and Smith, 2002).
As stated by Jeffries (2007), the ambiguity is amplified by the fact that there is no
common worldwide industry standard for the terms ‘eco-friendly’, ‘natural’ or ‘green’
products. As such, one of the challenges of marketing eco-friendly products is that the
term eco-friendly has never been adequately defined making it impossible for each
industry to draft a common standard and certification process for the purpose of
enforcement and consumer understanding. Producers of eco-friendly and organic
products around the world work under different standards and regulation criteria, but
they should abide by the available standards and logos in order to communicate quality
(Newman, 2006). In India the term ‘eco-friendly product’ means a product with few
chemicals, but not absolutely free of chemicals. So the term ‘eco-friendly product’ used
throughout this research paper refers to a product having few chemicals (below 0.1% of
the total ingredients) when compared to normal products with chemicals. The ‘ecofriendly variant’ term used refers to the eco-friendly alternatives (line extension) of
normal products/brands that are available on the market.
Terms like ‘phosphate free’, ‘recyclable’, ‘refillable’, ‘ozone friendly’, and
‘environmentally friendly’ are some of the concepts consumers most often associate
with green marketing, because these were most frequently used by green marketers in
the 1990s (Polonsky, 1994). However, today, millennial consumers or the young
consumers prefer terms like ‘eco-friendly’, ‘recycled’ and ‘green’, whereas terms like
‘natural’ and ‘unprocessed’ are not effective for communication. Also, millennials take
their information from the possibility to recycle the packaging and the label in order to
decide if a product is eco-friendly or not (Smith, 2010).
The eco-friendly product consumption level is low among consumers worldwide
and it is experiencing a growth stage compared to normal products in all product
categories (Formichelli, 2007). Thus, there arises the need to motivate non-purchasers
to buy eco-friendly products to increase consumption thereby reducing the
environmental impact (D’Souza et al., 2007). There have not been conducted sufficient
studies on the ways in which businesses can develop their marketing strategies to
motivate the non-purchaser segment to choose eco-friendly products in personal care
and home care product category in a particular geographic location. According to
Laroche et al. (2001), there is a large segment of undecided consumers that could be
persuaded to buy eco-friendly products by the green marketers who adopt suitable
marketing strategies. This segment provides market development opportunities for
green marketers. This research paper offers guidelines for the customization of the
marketing mix for converting non-purchasers into purchasers with respect to personal
care and home care products, by measuring and analysing the preferences of non-

purchasers when offered an eco-friendly variant of the normal products that they
regularly use.
The imperative to identify the right marketing mix for non-purchasers
of eco-friendly products
In brief, green marketing is marketing with minimal detrimental impact on the
environment (Uberoi, 2003). To be more exact, green marketing is best regarded as “all
activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchanges intended to satisfy human
needs or wants, such that the satisfaction of these needs and wants occurs with minimal
detrimental impact on the natural environment”(Ottman, 1993; Davis, 1993; Kangun,
1994). By adopting green marketing strategies for personal care and home care
products we can decrease the usage of harmful ingredients in product composition such
as phosphates, fluoride, lead, arsenic, promote a manufacturing process based on
minimal usage of resources, and encourage the usage of bio-degradable packing
materials.
With their self-actualized needs satisfied, consumers are now looking for other
factors of importance when purchasing goods. Rather than purchasing more and more
goods, it has become fashionable to purchase items which are ‘environmentally-friendly’
(Maslow, 1967). According to Prothero (1990), the green movement has passed through
several stages, and the second phase which we are currently experiencing is tougher on
marketers because consumers have moved from light green to dark green. As a result,
marketers should adopt the societal marketing concept (SMC) in such a way that they
take advantage of the opportunities arising from green consumerism while being aware
of the threats of the green movement so as to neutralize them and turn them into
opportunities