Question

Most companies must comply with government regulations related to the environment. They may also engage voluntarily certain other sustainability business practices. What is a business leader’s motivation to engage in green marketing business practices? Why might a business leader resist implementing voluntary business practices? What are other ways besides regulations that the government or local community encourages businesses to become more focused on green marketing practices?

Answer 1

No matter what type of business you run, to operate legally, you must comply with federal, state, and local statues and regulations administered by legislative bodies and carried out by regulatory agencies. Some regulations impact the ways in which businesses report income and pay taxes; others regulate how they dispose of their excess materials or waste. For just about any kind of industry and transaction within it, there’s a government regulation on business to go alongside it.

The sheer volume of government regulations on business can make your head spin, whether or not you’re just starting out or are a seasoned small business professional. And even finding the locations of these regulations can seem overwhelming. But despite the high volume of government regulations on business, understanding the general rules of the road isn’t actually as scary as it sounds.

The secret to understanding government regulations on business is knowing where to look, and what kind of laws you’re looking for. There are several places for entrepreneurs to go depending on what kind of regulatory information they need. Here’s a breakdown of the common kinds of government relations on business, as well as where you can go to find help understanding them.

Federal business laws and government regulations fall into seven basic categories. Note that each might not impact your business the same way—entire categories might not be a huge concern for your business, depending on your industry. But you’ll want to make sure your company is in compliance with all of them with the same level of importance and attention.

The 7 Major Government Regulations on Business:1. Tax Code ,2. Employment and Labor Law, 3.Antitrust Laws, 4.Advertising, 5.Environmental Regulations, 6.Privacy, 7.State Licensing

There’s a lot for small business owners to digest as far as government regulations are concerned. The good news is that you’re not alone in making sure that your business is compliant and on the right side of the law. The best thing you can do is check in with your local SBA office, and as the need arises, set up legal representation for your business in the event that you need additional counseling.

Marketing is one of the major decisions that management makes. Marketing includes management of customer/market selection, pricing, brands, new products, and product portfolios. Marketing is the method that the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion) is used to react to the needs and wants of customers while achieving business objectives. Green marketing includes the

elements of Porter’s marketing mix consisting of product, price, place, and promotion. Marketing strategies can provide advantages for businesses seeking better understanding of current and potential consumers’ needs. Marketing strategies can help managers in evaluating business needs and influence purchases of consumers. In developing a successful marketing strategy, business leaders should focus on developing knowledge of consumer demands and lifestyles. Green marketing is a way

of satisfying consumer needs under the same marketing mix. The concept of green marketing can show a difference that has altered the traditional marketing and consumer’s thinking. Marketers use strategies to address business goals and concerns by surveying and assessing organizational knowledge, effectiveness, threats, and opportunities.

Green and traditional marketing mixes can be differentiated by expansion of ideals intended at   

satisfying pro-environmental and societal needs considered more heavily in green marketing mixes. Environmental issues impact the global community, so marketers have responded to these issues by addressing them in the concept of consumption. Consumers’ demands are unlimited, while natural resources are unlimited. The key for business leaders is to achieve organizational goals while using resources efficiently and reducing waste (Mishra & Sharma, 2014). As green marketing has become better defined, companies have been finding ways to better be receptive to environmental concerns and ensuring that marketing activities are addressing the need minimize environmental hazards.

Green marketing is increasingly important in the current marketplace. Green marketing has facilitated existing products that meet green guidelines to be re-branded and re-packaged to increase the rate of targeting consumers who are concerned about the environment (Mishra & Sharma, 2014). Green marketing utilizes marketing concepts including: production process changes, product modification, packaging changes, and advertising transformation. Green pricing practices take environmental costs of production along with creating value for customers and leaving a reasonable profit for the company. An advantage of green marketing to a business would be the consumer brand loyalty. Customers attach less importance to brand loyalty to products that carry intrinsic benefits. Because of the contribution to the environment, green products can be held an altered perception, creating a spiritual relationship between customers and the green products. Green products have a high brand loyalty and less price sensitive, so during economic downturns, consumers are still willing to purchase products at a premium.

Green marketing can be used as a differentiation competitive marketing strategy. The purpose of a marketing strategy is to assess the need of businesses by evaluating consumer demands and developing relevant procedures to positively influence consumer purchasing decisions. Differentiation strategies focus on fulfilling consumer demand, product positioning in niche markets, brand development, promotions, and customer satisfaction. Marketers of green products need a better understanding of how consumer demographic factors can impact consumer attitudes to various green advertising appeals. This is based on the increased consciousness of environmental concerns in governments, businesses, and consumers. In understanding what factors impact attitudes to different types of green advertising appeals, business marketers may

better match environmentally-friendly messaging and environmentally-friendly products

to the right consumer. In a consumer driven market, the use of a green marketing strategy can attract consumers demanding eco-friendly products that minimize environmental detriment. Eco-friendly consumers have particular behavior patterns, so there can be a gap in actual buying behavior and the consumer’s attitude for consuming green products.

Business leaders in the green advertising industry need to understand to decrease the gap between a consumer’s attitude and the consumer’s actual use of environmentally friendly products. Successful green marketing could have a positive effect on the environment by increasing environmental awareness by leading to an increased usage of environmentally friendly products. Some characteristics of marketing include public relations, advocacy, and promoting of products and services.

As consumers are exposed to green marketing communication/green packaging, those exposures will generate learning in the consumer; therefore, educating and potentially creating new expectations for products and consumer’s future buying behavior. Increasing knowledge of green concepts in labeling and packaging strategies is a good start in affecting habits and giving consumers’ incentives to make more sustainable preferences.

Sustainability is commonly used within every area of business practices including (a) economic, (b) environmental, (c) social, (d) ecological, (e) corporate, (f) financial, (g) global, (h) human, and (i) organizational. The introduction of sustainable development can be a positive instrument in guiding business practice. A few business practices for sustainable development include: using previous experiences, true environmental sustainable packing practices, and use of social media.

Learning from a company’s previous experiences is valuable because those lessons learned can explain the different decisions made by that firm to be sustainable for future generations. Companies learn from not only the own experiences but also from the manager’s personal experiences at other companies, and accessing other company’s best practices. Obtaining knowledge in the internal and external marketing environment allows decision makers to create the best strategy to position them in the best manner to attract the proper segment of the market for their product offerings. The knowledge grounded in a company’s history can represent the

shared knowledge of the organizational members. Compiling knowledge in a company and access increasing green consumer behaviors can better allow company decision makers to make operational changes that lead to a higher level of sustainable development.

The soft drink industry has moved toward fully recyclable plant-based polyethylene terephthalate bottles. Many U.S. consumer goods companies including Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, General Mills, Proctor & Gamble, and PepsiCo have joined forces to promote more environmentally friendly product packaging. For example, Xerox presented a 100% recycled paper product in 2012 to introduce green marketing of photocopier paper called Revive. Sustainability objectives of Kimberly-Clark focus on the water footprint of the organizations’ manufacturing sites, creating a program called Water for Life, providing 200 million gallons of water per year in regions that have

limited clean water. Companies are taking environmental concerns and increased consumer environment awareness seriously by using more environmentally friendly products and production methods into mainstream products.

Business leaders have paid growing consideration to consumer’s social media generated content because of its significant impact on products sales and obtaining additional information of consumer’s wants and needs. Even though social media activity is largely out of the company’s control, it can be influenced by social media marketing and traditional advertising. Businesses that use traditional marketing techniques and advertising methods has seen a decrease in

revenue. Businesses without a viable marketing strategy embracing the internet witnessed a lack of marketing effectiveness, product sales, and brand awareness. Many companies are had user-generated content metrics to measure effects on various business performance measures including (a) customer engagement , (b) customer acquisition and retention , (c) the firm value in the stock market , or (d) sales.