Green marketing 733
number of products such as ground coconut
husks being launched to act as a peat
substitute for gardeners. In the future a more
radical set of substitutions may emerge, as
markets which were traditionally based around
purchase and ownership of products move
towards greater use of services, hire and
leasing (Cooper and Evans, 2000).
Supplier relationships.Greening is forcing many
companies to reconsider supplier relationships,
since their total environmental impact will be
strongly influenced earlier in the supply chain.
Tools like ‘life cycle analysis’ and environmental
supplier audits are being used by companies to
monitor and often to improve their suppliers’
eco-performance. Some major companies such
as BT have de-listed the ‘greyest’ of their
suppliers; others such as Boots are
collaborating with suppliers to reduce the
number scoring poorly on their Environmental
Management Index. A key feature of the
greening of industries has been the need for
partnership approaches between companies
and their suppliers (Morton, 1996).
Market entry barriers.Strict national
environmental laws can act as an entry barrier
for foreign firms. Recent years have witnessed
friction between the USA and the EU over the
EU’s resistance to genetically modified food.
The EU’s concern about the health and
environmental safety of GM crops was
interpreted by the USA as a disguised market
entry barrier. For some companies, good
environmental performance can act as a key to
gain entry into a new market. Varta batteries
had failed in several attempts to translate their
European market strength into penetration of
the UK market, but this was achieved very
rapidly with the introduction of their
innovative mercury-free battery range.
Competitors
Much has been made of the potential of good
eco-performance to generate competitive
advantage (e.g. Elkington, 1994; Porter and van
der Linde, 1995). In a wide range of markets,
including detergents, retailing, batteries, white
goods, cars, toilet paper and banks, companies
have used eco-performance as a basis on which
to compete. Global competition and continuous
improvement philosophies have narrowed the
differences between products to the extent that
‘softer’ issues such as perceived environmental
impact can act as a ‘tie-breaker’ for the con-
sumer trying to choose brands (Christensen,
1995). The Co-operative Bank, for example,
adopted an explicit ethical policy, which it has
since used to differentiate itself and encourage
customer loyalty, gaining over 200 000 custom-
ers as a result (Hedstrom et al., 2000).
Experience shows that environmental dis-
asters such as the Exxon-Valdez or Braer oil
spills, or spills at major chemicals plants, put all
players in an industry under increased stake-
holder pressure. This suggests that as the green
challenge deepens, it may reduce the intensity
of competitive rivalry, instead of acting as a
new arena for it to be played out in. Many key
environmental problems confront entire indus-
tries and require industry-wide responses. Alli-
ances are emerging between rivals to address
common environmental challenges and to
develop greener technologies. In the USA,
Ford, Chrysler and GM have collaborated in an
effort to develop low-emission vehicles, and
also to pool millions of dollars to lobby against
stricter greenhouse gas restrictions. The Indus-
trial Coalition for Ozone Layer Protection is a
consortium of major US and Japanese electron-
ics companies, collaborating to replace CFCs as
electrical solvents.Customers
The worldwide boycott of CFC-driven aerosols
in the late 1980s demonstrated the potential of
consumers to unite behind an environmental
issue that they understood and could relate to,
in a way that enforced rapid change to an entire
industry back down the supply chain. Recent
UK research by the Co-operative Bank sug-
gested that around one in three Britons make
some purchases on the basis of ethics and