An Analysis of the Determinants of Consumer Purchase Behavior towards Green FMCG Products

IntroductionWith the growing awareness of the devastating effects of environmental degradation caused by obliteration of natural resources, green marketing has made its way into the minds of consumers and corporates the world over. Even though, green marketing is not a completely new phenomenon, the emergence of green consumerism and socially-conscious consumers are strong indicators of the green movement (Sivadas, 1997; and Menon et al., 1999). Likewise, companies are slowly introducing green marketing into their business practices by reducing the impact of production, manufacture and energy usage on the environment (Grant, 2008).Green Marketing: DefinitionAccording to the American Marketing Association (AMA), green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Thus, green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging, as well as modified advertising. Green marketing may be called environmental marketing and ecological marketing. Thus, 'green marketing' refers to a holistic marketing concept wherein the production, marketing consumption and disposal of products and services happen in a manner that is less detrimental to the environment with growing awareness about the implications of global warming, non-biodegradable solid waste, harmful impact of pollutants, etc. Both marketers and consumers are becoming increasingly sensitive to the need for switching over to green products and services. While the shift to 'green' may appear to be expensive in the short term, it will definitely prove to be indispensable and advantageous, cost-wise too, in the long run.Green marketing is a part of the new marketing approaches which not only re-focus, adjust or enhance existing marketing thinking and practices, but seek to challenge those practices and provide a substantially different perspective. Green marketing belongs to the group of approaches that seek to address the lack of fit between marketing as it is currently practiced and the ecological and social realities of the wider marketing environment. The term 'green marketing' came into prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It began in Europe when specific products were identified as being harmful to the earth's atmosphere. As a result, new 'green' products were introduced that were less damaging to the environment. The first wave of green marketing occurred in the 1980s.The AMA held the first workshop on Ecological Marketing in 1975. Two tangible milestones for the first wave of green marketing came in the form of published books, both of which were called Green Marketing-one was by Peattie (1995) in the United Kingdom and the other by Ottman (1992) in the US.Green marketing, as might be expected, lacks a proper definition. It is generally thought to refer to the product, service or lifestyle which it is promoting, rather than to the method of marketing itself. 'Green', in this case, would probably be understood to mean 'good', or at least better than other products/services, in relation to some measurable attribute. These attributes relate to environment mostly, so environmental marketing or ecological marketing are also used interchangeably for green marketing (Peter, 1992). Green marketing refers to the process of selling products and/or services based on their environmental benefits. Such a product or service may be environment-friendly in itself or produced and/or packaged in an environment-friendly way (Manaktola and Jauhari, 2007).The definition has been refined and segmented into three main categories:Retailing: The marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe.Social Marketing: The development and marketing of products designed to minimize the negative effects on the physical environment or to improve its qualityEnvironmental: The efforts by organizations to produce, promote, package and reclaim products in a manner that is sensitive or responsive to ecological concerns. …