Green marketing 727
new social zeitgeist which reflects increasing
concern about the socio-environmental impacts
of business. In the longer term, the pursuit of
sustainability will demand fundamental chan-
ges to the management paradigm which under-
pins marketing and the other business functions
(Shrivastava, 1994). This chapter aims to illus-
trate how the ‘green challenge’ is exerting an
influence on current marketing practice and how
its implications will require a more profound
shift in the marketing paradigm, if marketers are
to continue delivering customer satisfaction at a
profit throughout this new millennium.
Green marketing in context
Management theory in general is firmly rooted
in an economic and technical systems per-
spective which concentrates on exchanges,
products, production and profits. Over time it
has evolved to become more ‘human’, with the
emergence of disciplines like organizational
behaviour, human resource management, busi-
ness ethics and societal marketing. The fact that
businesses are physical systems which exist
within a finite and vulnerable physical environ-
ment has, until recently, largely been ignored as
a management and marketing issue. During the
1990s, the marketing discipline began to seri-
ously discuss the physical implications and
sustainability of marketing (e.g. O’Hara, 1995;
van Dam and Apeldoorn, 1996).
The roots of green marketing can be traced
back to the wave of environmental concern of
the 1970s which spawned the ‘ecological mar-
keting’ concept (Hennison and Kinnear, 1976).
This was largely concerned with those indus-
tries with the most severe environmental
impacts, and with developing new technologies
to alleviate particular environmental problems.
The reaction of many marketing academics and
practitioners to the environmental concern
which emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s
was therefore a feeling of d ́ej` a vu. However,
there are some important differences between
the environmental movement of the 1970s and
the green movement of today, which are sum-
marized in Table 28.1.
The integration of environmental concern
into marketing theory and practice is also
viewed by some as simply an extension of the
societal marketing concept. However, it is more
helpful to view the concept of ‘green market-
ing’ which has developed as a response to the
green movement of today, as something which
integrates and expands upon the ideas embed-
ded in the ecological and societal marketing
concepts. We can define it as:The holistic management process responsible
for identifying, anticipating and satisfying the
needs of customers and society, in a profitable
and sustainable way.The key differences between the green market-
ing concept and societal marketing lie in: An emphasis on the physical sustainability of
the marketing process, as well as its social
acceptability.
A more holistic and interdependent view of
the relationship between the economy, society
and the environment.
An open-ended rather than a long-term
perspective.
A treatment of the environment as something
with intrinsic value over and above its
usefulness to society.
A focus on global concerns, rather than those
of particular societies.In both the ecological and societal marketing
concepts, the emphasis on socio-environmental
issues for marketers has mostly been framed
in terms of costs and constraints. Another
important new dimension that green marketing
introduced was an emphasis on socio-environ-
mental issues as a potential source of innova-
tion and opportunity for marketers.
Combining environmental concern (which
traditionally involves encouraging conserva-
tion), with the discipline of marketing (which
aims to stimulate and facilitate consumption)