GREEN

REFERENCE
CLASSMATE

MARKETING:-WITH
TO
ITCS
BRAND-

ABSTRACT

Green marketing is a phenomenon which has developed

particular important in the modern marketing era. While
company adopting green marketing, at the same time
there are a number of problems that must overcome. One
of the main problems is that firms
using
green
marketing must ensure that their activities are not
misleading to consumers or industry and do not breach
any of the regulations or laws dealing with environmental
marketing.
Various Indian companies are using the green marketing
concept. Now this is the right time to select Green
Marketing globally. It will come with drastic change in
the world of business if all nations will make strict roles
because green marketing is essential to save world from
pollution. Marketers also have to make the consumers
aware about the need for and benefits of green products
as compared to non-green ones. The paper also examines
the present trends of green marketing. It also discusses

on future of green marketing and concludes that green

marketing is something that will continuously grow in
both practice and demand.

INTRODUCTION
GREEN MARKETING
Green marketing is a vital constituent of the holistic
marketing concept. It is based on an assumption that
the customers will view a product or service as
environment friendly and then implement buying choices
accordingly. Green marketing refers to marketing with an
ecological conscience, so as to minimize environmental
pollution, reduce the usage of non-replenish able natural
resources. In recent times, more and more companies are
adopting green marketing practices, thereby minimizing
wastage and integrating their activities with the
environment. Indian companies are also serious about
building environmental sustainability into their business
practices.
Green marketing incorporates a broad range of
activities, including product modification, changes to
the production process, packaging changes as well as
modifying advertising. In fact green marketing is the
process of developing products and services and
promoting them to satisfy the customers who prefer
products of good quality, which of the same time do not
have a detrimental impact on the environment.

According
to
Pride
and
Ferrell (1993),
Green
marketing, also alternatively known as environmental
marketing and sustainable marketing, refers to an
organization's efforts at designing, promoting, pricing
and distributing products that will not harm the
environment.
Clearly green marketing is part and parcel of over all
corporate
strategy;
along
with
manipulating
the traditional marketing mix (product, price, promotion
and place) , it require an understanding of public policy
process. So we can say green marketing covers a broad
range of activities. Different writers has given different
definition about green marketing which tried to cover all
major components of green marketing.
According to Polonsky (1994)- green or environmental
marketing consists of all activities, designed to generate
and facilitate any exchange indented to satisfy human
needs and wants, such that the satisfaction of these
needs and wants occur with minimum detrimental impact
on the natural environment.
Definition also includes the protection of natural
environment by attempting to minimize the detrimental
impact, this exchange has on the environment. This
second point is very important for human consumption by
its very nature is destructive to the natural environment.
To be more accurate products making green claims
should state they are less environmentally harmful

rather than environmental friendly. Thus green

marketing should look at minimizing environmental harm,
not necessarily eliminating it.
The industrial houses has recognised that the entire
system of production and consumption determines
environmental quality. Environmental impacts are a
function of the way services are provided and the way
goods are produced, delivered, used and disposed off.
Production and consumption are considered together
because gains made by controlling, reducing or
minimizing pollution from production can be soon over
shadowed by the impacts from concurrent increases in
the scale of demand for those services and goods from
growing consumer base.
IMPORTANCE OF GREEN MARKETING
Since early 1990s, a major concern on ecological impact
of industrial house on environment has been surfaced on
marketplace. Not only the relation between human,
organization and natural environment being redefined
,but the implication thereof are being interpreted;
because of these, new perceptions are being formed or
re-evaluated on issues like environmental friendly
products, recycle ability, waste-reduction, the cost
associated with pollution and the price value relationship
of environmentalism. Pressure from various stakeholders,
Govt., environmentalists, NGOs, consumers is placed on
businesses, which in turn keeps them under constant and
relentless watch in their daily operations. A direct result
can be seen in developed and developing countries where
Govt. became more strict in imposing regulations to

protect environment; at the same time, the consumers of

these countries are being more and more outspoken
regarding their needs for environmentally friendly
products, even though questions remain on their
willingness to pay a higher premium for such products. A
green marketing approach in the product area promotes the
integration of environmental issues into all aspects of the corporate
activities; from strategy formulation, planning, re-engineering in
production process and dealing with consumers. So to remain
competitive within the challenge thrown by the environment
protectionists ,the companies will have to find answer through their
marketing strategies, product &service redesign, customer handling etc.
in this endeavour the companies may go for new technologies for
handling waste, sewage and air pollution; it can go for product
standardization to ensure environmentally safe products; by providing
truly natural products.
In this regard the companies should be concerned with
what happens to a product during and after its useful life.
Companies may manifest this concern through
experimentation with ways to reassess and redesign the
product life stages. Life cycle reassessment focuses on
environmental consideration in product development and
design, including energy and material inputs and out-puts
in production, consumption and disposal of products. We
would than be able to manage the life stages of a product
in an environmental friendly and eco- efficient manner.
Eco-efficient refers to the proper thinking for the use or
consumption of natural resource so that nature is
afforded an opportunity to renew itself.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM UNDER STUDY:

Today's consumers are becoming more and more

conscious about the environment and are also becoming
socially responsible. Therefore more companies are
responsible to consumer's aspirations for environmentally
less damaging or neutral products. Many companies
want to have an early-mover advantage as they have
to eventually towards becoming green. So, the attempt

has been made in this research article to study the

significant of green marketing for the progress of
corporate sector in India.

QUESTIONS BASED ON RESEARCH:

1. How do companies choose their green marketing
strategy?
2. How do companies choices of green marketing
strategy influence their marketing mix?
3. How do companies obtain a competitive advantage
through their green marketing?

4. How are green products priced in comparison to

equivalent products in the market?
5. Are the company and/or products certified in
accordance with any environmental standards?
6. Being Green Is Fashionable Is That Possible?
7. Do you think that the customers themselves are
knowledgeable and involved in green causes?

Research gap
green marketing has been the latest trend in marketing
and it has been a hot topic for research. There has been
increasing importance for green marketing and firms
being green. However, is that a success formula? Some

researchers have shown that consumers are willing to pay

more for green product; however there are other
researchers who show that people do not behave as they
say. There is clearly a gap in the research, if people do
not buy green products as much as they say they would.
What is the attribute of a green product that will motivate
consumers to make their purchase decision? This
provides us the opportunity to explore the gap in research
and to come up with some quantitative analysis to show
what will change the behavior of the consumers. This
leads us to the objective of this research to find what
consumers value in green products, which will help
management design their promotion accordingly. In order
to make the research easy and clear to the respondent,
coffee mug which are considered as environmental
friendly green product was chosen. In order to find the
difference in attitude, an online experiment survey was
conducted. The online survey was the most flexible and
friendly approach that was appropriate for the research.
Three scenarios were created to measure the difference
in attitude of consumers for each scenario. A convenience
sampling technique was used to collect data from the
sample. The data was analysis using statistical tool
(SPSS), to find pattern and relationship. The data analysis
showed that consumers are willing to pay more for green
products if they get a monetary incentive like cost saving.
The suitable recommendation was provided to managers
to consider cost saving as an important factor in design
promotion of their green products.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The objectives of present study are:
1.To examine the importance of green marketing in
present scenario.
2.To
focus
on
the
green
Limited(classmate notebooks)n

marketing

of

ITC

Literature Review
GREEN MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES &
CHALLENGES
(Miss. P.PIRAKATHEESWARI,L
ecturer )
green marketing is a golden goose. As per Mr. J. Polonsky,
green marketing can be defined as, "All activities
designed to generate and facilitate any exchange
intended to satisfy human needs or wants such that
satisfying of these needs and wants occur with minimal
detrimental input on the national environment."
Green marketing refers to the process of selling products
and/or services based on their environmental benefits.
Such a product or service may be environmentally
friendly in it or produced and/or packaged in an
environmentally friendly way.
The obvious assumption of green marketing is that
potential consumers will view a product or service's
"greenness" as a benefit and base their buying decision
accordingly. The not-so-obvious assumption of green
marketing is that consumers will be willing to pay more
for green products than they would for a less-green
comparable alternative product - an assumption that, in
my opinion, has not been proven conclusively.
While green marketing is growing greatly as increasing
numbers of consumers are willing to back their
environmental consciousnesses with their dollars, it can

be dangerous. The public tends to be skeptical of green

claims to begin with and companies can seriously
damage their brands and their sales if a green claim is
discovered to be false or contradicted by a company's
other products or practices. Presenting a product or
service as green when it's not is called green washing.

Green Marketing-is
Marketing.

Not

Just

Catchphrase:

It

is

(Dr. Nisha
Agarwal)
green marketing is a trendy way of gaining more
business. It can make you a lot of money if done right.
ButThis Brings to question the very nature of green
marketing and going green all together. The goal is to be
environmentally safe and beneficial to both consumers
and producers of green products and services. Green
Marketing success involves ensuring that the marketing
mix and the company also meet four S criteria I.e
Satisfaction of customers needs ,Safety of products
,Social acceptability of the product ,Sustainability of the
product .Consumers are unlikely to compromise on
product attributes such as convenience, availability,
price, quality and performance to buy green products.

TOP
GREEN
INDIAN
COMPANY:LIMITED(CLASSMATE NOTEBOOKS)

ITC

Classmate is an Indian brand of student stationery products. ITC

Limited launched its Classmate brand in 2003 with the notebooks
category. Subsequently, Classmate added new products to its
portfolio which consists of pens, pencils, mechanical pencils and
geometry boxes. Classmate has 900 distributors who make the
products available in over 70,000 outlets in India.
Classmate notebook brand has a product range of more than 300
variants, and is custom made to take care of varying needs in
notebooks, long books, practical books, drawing books and
reminder pads segments. ITC focused on the design elements of
notebooks: each Classmate notebook has a theme on the cover
and related information inside.
For every " Classmate " notebook u buy, ITC contributes Re. 1 to
its rural development initiative that supports, among other
projects, primary education in villages. U can be truly proud that
your
contribution
is
part
of
it.

Only Classmate uses India's first eco-friendly, elemental chlorine

free paper from ITC.
Now with saving trees u can also help in educating the rural
mass.
I mean the notebook " Classmate " is ecofriendly. Its a quality
product marketed by ITC.
ITC Limited.
ITC has strengthened their commitment to green
technologies by introducing 'Ozone-treated elemental
chlorine free' bleaching technology for the first time in
India. It is also manufacturing eco-friendly business use
paper 'paperkrafts. ITC also providing an opportunity to
consumers to be a partner in efforts to mitigate the
adverse impact of climate change and create positive
environmental footprints. It
is selling
'Classmate'
notebooks which are environment friendly.
ITC LAUNCHES ONE OF ITS KIND ECO FRIENDLY PAPER
For the first time in India a new technology has been used by ITC
to launch paper an eco friendly paper for office and home use.
ITC launched "Paperkraft Premium Business Paper", an
environment friendly paper which has been crafted by ITC using
the pioneering 'Ozone Treated Elemental Chlorine Free
Technology', the first of its kind in India. Paperkraft is a superior
and environment friendly, multipurpose paper for office and home
use. This unique product is an integral part of ITC's significant
initiatives to augment scarce natural resources and has been
launched in line with ITC's triple bottom line commitment to
building economic, environmental and social capital for the nation.

Yet another addition in ITC's wide array of differentiated FMGC

products, Paperkraft Premium Business Paper has been created
by ITC to provide consumers an opportunity to partner in efforts to
mitigate the adverse impact of climate change and create positive
environmental footprints. It said development of the ecofriendly paper is an integral part of its initiatives to
augment natural and resources.
The Paperkraft
premium business paper is being
marketed by the education and stationery products
business of ITC, which has a widespread distribution
network across the country, through which it delivers its
student stationery products branded as "Classmate".
Conventional paper production involves the use of elemental chlorine in
the bleaching process during manufacture. The byproducts of this
process include large number of organo-chlorine chemicals, which are
toxic and adversely impact the environment.
ITC's ECF technology virtually eliminates the production of such toxins
by substituting elemental chlorine with chlorine dioxide. This "ozone
treatment", is an advance over ECF, resulting in even lower chemical
usage and reduced water pollution.

CONCLUSION:
The number of Indian companies is setting the trend
with green marketing initiatives and sustainability into
their business practices. In India, around 25% of the
consumers prefer environmental friendly products. Most
of the companies are venturing into green marketing
because of opportunity, social responsibility, Govt.
Pressure, competitive edge and cost reduction. Marketers
also have the responsibility to make the consumers
understand the need for and benefits of green marketing.
Consumers are willing to pay more to maintain a cleaner
and greener environment. Green marketing is still in its
infancy and a lot of research is to be done on green
marketing to fully explore.

REFERENCES:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

www.google.com
www.wikipedia.com
Environment management by N.K. Uberoi
Environment management by Krishnamoorthy
www.investopedia.com