Blog 1. What is this blog all about?

Introduction 

Hello and welcome to my second blog post! 

This blog post will focus on green marketing and will explain what is by providing academic descriptions. It will then go on to explain what green marketing is and investigate the concept of Greenwashing and explain what is.

 

What is Green Marketing?  

Environmental issues are one of the main concerns of consumers today as they are more knowledgeable about sustainability and the impact they can cause (Thogersen, 2021). Consumers are also more aware of methods which they can take to play their part in helping combat climate change issues. Due to this new demand and knowledge consumers have, businesses must market their company by implementing green marketing techniques.

 

Green marketing is defined as the environmental concerns and how they act to preserve the environment and minimise their overall impact (Mohr, Webb and Harris, 2001). The American Marketing Association (AMA) also defines green marketing as products where are presumed to be environmentally safe and friendly. By utilising green marketing strategies such as social media, the company can receive multiple benefits, such as achieving positive consumer attitudes, building relationships, and resulting in more sales.

And....Greenwashing 

Greenwashing can be defined as a complex term (Deegan, 2002). Greenwashing can be described as often as a business falsely promoting their organisation's environmental efforts to make them appear ''green'' or ''eco-friendly'' to the buyer. Additionally, companies can market themselves and appear greener than what they are spending to change their practices to make them organic and sustainable (Becker-Olsem and Potucek, 2013). There are many legal consequences attached to greenwashing; if a business does this, it can create negative attitudes. In addition, social media has become a platform where consumers provide environmental tips and share news articles discussing issues regarding global warming and sustainability (Haider, 2012). 

Overall, this blog gives us a brief description of what green marketing and greenwashing. This blog will pay a particular focus on the fashion industry and will look at leading brands in both fast-fashion and sustainability brands. 

 

Kind regards, 

Heather 

B00367909 

References - 

Becker-Olsen, K. and Potucek, S. (2013) Greenwashing [Online]. Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility. Available: https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-642-28036-8_104#:~:text=Definition.

Deegan, C. (2002) The legitimising effect of social and environmental disclosures – a theoretical foundation. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal. Vol.15 (3), pp.282–311.

Haider, J. (2012) Interrupting Practices That Want to matter: The Making, Shaping and Production of the Environmental Information online. Journal of Documentation . Vol.68 (5).

Mohr, L. A., Webb, D. J. and Harris, K. E. (2001) Do Consumers Expect Companies to be Socially Responsible? The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Buying Behavior. Journal of Consumer Affairs. Vol.35 (1), pp.45–72.

Thogersen, J. (2021) Consumer behavior and climate change: consumers need considerable assistance. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. [Online] Vol.42 (42), pp.9–14. Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352154621000309.