Green or Ecological Marketing.

The concept of green marketing was born at the beginning of the 90s. Companies worldwide are increasingly interested in increasing green marketing to their communication strategies, which derive in advertising campaigns about products made with environmentally friendly standards and aimed at having responsibility with the care of the planet.

The environmental problems in the world stem from human and business activity. On the one hand, human beings, as consumers of resources such as water and energy and producers of waste such as garbage, threats to plants and animals in extinction. On the other hand, companies, as producers of goods and services for their production and market, require the use of water and energy, and also generate waste in many of their processes. The latter design value propositions through support and services to satisfy consumer needs. So it is in all the processes that companies do and in all the methods that consumers follow to buy and consume, where marketing can play its role in minimizing these confusing environmental circumstances.

It is interesting to first define what a green consumer is: this, also called ecological consumer, is one who is aware of the responsibility with the environment of all and develops an ecological commitment to their community, the society in which they live and actively demonstrates it through purchasing habits. For them, the ecological qualification is a valued attribute in the purchasing decision process. In some cases, this valuation will manifest itself in paying a higher price for products perceived as environmentally friendly and, in other cases, it will manifest itself in the rejection of those products that are more polluting.

Many companies initiate isolated and apparent actions to show that they are making efforts towards green arguments. Companies install recycling points that are abandoned over time because people have no idea why or for what and how these points are used. On the other hand, some companies resort to extreme prohibitions in the processes; for example, they stop printing all their documents. Others call on their employees to plant trees in the office or give plants to their customers. None of these actions will lead to anything concrete, they do not add value to the brand, have no visibility and have no multiplier effect, i.e. they do not obey any notion of marketing, they are just meaningless actions.

Green marketing has the function of educating consumers and external audiences of a company on environmental issues; but it is also directly related to a change of organizational attitude in terms of production, processes, strategy in order to convert the organizational culture of a company into an environmentally responsible culture that is reflected in its image and products. In fact, green marketing is no longer something that is identified exclusively with the marketing of ecological products, but extends to all image strategies of all types of companies that, through branding, promote their image of responsibility with an issue as sensitive as the environment.