Green marketing in India: emerging opportunities and challenges

Green Marketing is a phenomenon which has developed particular important in the modern market. In the emerging world the concept of pollution free activity is given more importance in all the sectors and in all stages. The environmentalists are targeting the industrial sectors as the major contributors for depleting natural resources and environmental destruction. Hence, both production and marketing divisions of industries are stressed more to take utmost care in these areas along with fulfilling the market demands. To overcome these difficulties a new concept has born in the present globalized world where production, consumption and also marketing of the products can be carried effectively ensuring environmental safety. This concept is named as ‘Green Marketing’. Awareness about the destruction of natural resources has raised the issue of environmental protection which in turn has created eco-friendly consumption called ‘green consumerism’. Smart business houses have accepted green marketing as a part of their strategy.

Many global players in diverse businesses are now successfully implementing green marketing practices. Various studies by environmentalists indicate that people are concerned about the environment and are changing their behavioral pattern. The most of the consumers, both individual and industrial, are becoming more concerned about environment-friendly products. Majority of them feel that environment-friendly products are safe to use. As a result, green marketing has emerged, which aims at marketing sustainable and socially-responsible products and services. Now is the era of recyclable, non-toxic and environment-friendly goods. This has become the new mantra for marketers to satisfy the needs of consumers and earn better profits. The paper examines the present trends of green marketing in India and describes the reason why companies are adopting it and the opportunities and challenges for green marketing and concludes that green marketing is something that will continuously grow in both practice and demand. It also focuses some of the problems with green marketing.