What is Green Marketing

For green marketing or eco-friendly marketing, it refers to the commercialization of products considered environmentally sustainable. This term, now widely used in different sectors, refers to products and/or services that are environmentally friendly and are developed trying to eliminate or at least reduce their polluting impact.

A company that wants to evolve into a green version must undoubtedly embark on a path filled with difficulties.

When implementing green marketing operations, there is a choice to significantly change various aspects from the past, even with major upheavals of products and production of the same product and/or service.
Not just finished products but also packaging, development supply chains, and different advertising are all aspects that need substantial changes if one wants to implement green policies.

Green marketing may also only concern certain aspects of the company, trying to become a bit more eco-sustainable without completely overturning the corporate ecosystem.

It is obvious that the application of more sustainable marketing from an ethical and moral standpoint is not solely an end in itself but can, if developed wisely, bring real financial benefits to the company.

The Economic Advantages of Green Marketing

By undertaking a company policy oriented towards green marketing, one is exposed to increased scrutiny therefore it is essential to actually implement such policies as the phenomenon of Greenwashing is just around the corner.

Greenwashing refers to the deceptive policy of a company that professes to be environmentally conscious but in reality tends to exploit this title only to profit from such activities.

Even Nestlé, for example, has recently come under attack from GreenPeace because, according to the environmental NGO, the multinational's zero-impact product packaging, which should be completely eco-sustainable by 2025, is in reality just a publicity stunt.

In any case, if the green policies adopted by the company are truly well-thought-out and there is a genuine desire to improve one's environmental impact, the benefits—perhaps not immediate—are also seen at a purely economic level:

• The price of green products: this may (not necessarily) be higher compared to traditional competitors. However, caution: the increase in economic value must truly enhance the eco-sustainability of the product and only then can it be introduced and equally appreciated by its market segment.
• Procurement of green products can also save money as some sectors value local producers and wholesalers or those at zero kilometers or at most territorially close (for example, at a regional level).
• Changing polluting policies: just to give an example, abandoning paper flyers that pollute and are quite useless in this historical period, also represents an economic saving since they can be replaced with web promotion at zero cost.

The most striking green marketing case studies

Ikea between The IKEA WAY and long-term plans

Jhon Grant is a guru of green marketing and has been consulting for the famous Swedish furniture company for 12 years.

Already in the early 2000s, ahead of its time, Ikea had set very green strict dictates encapsulated in the so-called code IWAY40 (The Ikea Way) where essential requirements were outlined to ensure that Ikea's products could be truly defined as eco-sustainable.

Ikea does not stop there.

For the future, new global corporate eco-sustainable projects are planned: from the adjustment of forest management (Ikea is obviously a huge consumer of timber) to the adoption of new standards even more respectful of green principles such as the project

People and Planet Positive which will come into effect in 2020.

This new project is aimed at improving the ethical conditions of its customers from the increasingly massive use of LED lamps, to complete energy independence through the use of renewable energies alone from 2020 onwards.

H&M and its completely green campaign for recycling

To conclude, another interesting case study in green marketing. We are talking about the Swedish clothing chain H&M.

With the initiative H&M Conscious, the multinational wanted to raise awareness among its consumers on the topic of recycling used clothes.

With this interesting campaign, 12,000 tonnes of used garments were stored that after being collected in stores, were reused to produce as many as 1.3 million garments made solely with scrap material such as hemp, organic linen, and leather. The resulting collection was named H&M Conscious Experience.

In short, green marketing is obligatory as inhabitants of our planet, but if done well, it can lead to a source of positive recognition and real benefits in the medium to long term.