What’s in it for the customers successfully marketing green clothes.pdfVIP

Business Strategy and the Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 10, 317–330 (2001) DOI: 10.1002/bse.302 WHAT’S IN IT FOR THE CUSTOMERS? SUCCESSFULLY MARKETING GREEN CLOTHES Arnt Meyer* Institute for Economy and the Environment (IWOe-HSG), University of St Gallen, Switzerland Most green marketing literature is Received 25 May 2000 strongly based on the assumption that a Revised 6 March 2001 consumer’s environmental awareness is a Accepted 14 May 2001 pre-condition for green purchasing. While following such a ‘behaviouristic’ INTRODUCTION green marketing both scholars and companies seem to have neglected that ost green marketing literature is green products are bought only if strongly based on the assumption that a consumer’s environmental M customers perceive the products as superior to competitors’ offerings. This awareness is a pre-condition for actual green paper argues that economic theory can purchasing (Meffert, 1991; Suchard and Polonsky, 1991; Polonsky and Mintu-Wimsatt, give additional valuable input to green 1995; Dembkowski, 1998). Keeping to this, marketing. A first important step for companies for marketing green products usu- marketing according to the economic ally followed a two-step strategy in the past. approach is to identify how consumers In a first step, they clustered the market into perceive the products’ cost and benefits. groups according to the group members’