Limitations of Green Marketing

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What are the limitations of green marketing in the sustainability context? Prakash (2002) defines green marketing as ‘the strategies to promote products by employing environmental claims either about their attributes or about the systems, policies and processes of the firms that manufacture or sell them’. One would therefore assume that if such marketing is geared towards promoting ‘green’ products then it must be in keeping with sustainability objectives. Some environmentalists have attributed the current state of the planet in ecological terms, to consumerism. Humans have become creatures of excess and it is this consumption over and above necessity or subsistence needs that has led to the depletion of natural resources. The essence of marketing is to fuel or encourage consumption. Therefore reconciling the idea of solving consumerism by encouraging more consumption, though it may be of a different kind, is paradoxical. In order for Green marketing to be in keeping sustainability, it should be promoting as lasting life style change as opposed to specific product choice. Larger corporations tend to adopt green marketing for a limited range of products, and not across the entire product line of the corporation. This incongruence leads to distrust within the social contract between business and the consumer. Even if the claims about the product range are true, there is still often scepticism and doubt on the part of the consumer, who would sooner believe the eco-preneur for example, whose entire organisation is built around greener principles. Furthermore, these larger organisations prefer to make incremental changes as opposed to radically changing their current offerings, so as not to alienate those consumers who do not have an environmental bias. Such incremental changes may include changes in packaging and use of recyclable materials. However if the
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