Green Marketing: Is It Eco-Friendly or Eco-Fraud?

The ecological crisis affects what people choose to buy, with marketing firms promoting products at a hefty price. But do you know eco-fraud products?

As each day passed by, people are growing more conscious of environmental issues. They start to notice that the world's climate is changing. Sadly, the change makes the world becoming worse than in the past.

The shift that you can feel is the extreme weather, the increasing Earth temperature, and waste problems.It makes people worry about the worse. Hence, it leads to an increase in people's awareness about ways to keep the Earth clean and green. People start to use recyclable produce bags and buying products that promote sustainable materials and environmentally friendly.

The companies see the change in people's behavior as opportunities to develop and sell their products. It leads to an increase in 'eco-friendly' products, hence followed by green marketing strategies. As the competition is getting tougher, some companies label their product as 'eco-friendly' while actually, it is not. Thus, the term 'eco-fraud' is emerging.

Through this article, you will learn about the opportunities for green marketing. And, you will also learn about the seven sins of greenwashing.

The Opportunities for Green Marketing

The growth in people's awareness about sustainable environment opened a new opportunity for the marketing firm. Research shows that seven of ten customers are willing to pay 20% more for an eco-friendly product. It proves the high demand for sustainable products, and a company can reach that market through green marketing.

Through green marketing, a company can achieve more than just reaching the market. It can increase people's awareness of environmental issues in general. Usually, the words for green marketing strategies are: sustainable, eco-friendly, organic, recyclable, renewable, reusable, etc.Companies' race in fulfilling eco-friendly products will lead to a green economy, which will decrease the environmental risk in the future.

But producing an eco-friendly product is more expensive than others. Thus, the company that seeks benefits more than supporting the green economy will seek a cheaper way to ride the wave.It is resulting in emerging eco-fraud cases.

The Seven Sins of Greenwashing

Eco-fraud is also known as greenwashing. According to Greenpeace, itmisleads consumers about a company's ecological practices or the green benefits of a product or service.

It has been happening since the last decade when there's a spike in people's awareness of eco-friendly products.While creating an eco-friendly product can be expensive (thus, offers a less competitive price), the companies prefer toclaimthat they are eco-friendly. They promote their claim through their green-marketing strategies.

Rather than creating an eco-friendly product, it is more beneficial to make a claim (which is cheaper) and sell their products at a hefty price. That is why most companies are applying green marketing strategies to their products.

But nowadays, consumers are smarter. To know whether a company is greenwashing, the green activists develop the seven sins of greenwashing that is still relevant until this moment.

The seven sins include:

The sad truth is greenwashing keeps on rising, especially in the fashion industry. The consequences of greenwashing are getting filed for a lawsuit in accusation of eco-fraud.

The increase in people's awareness of the importance of environmental issues leads to marketing strategy changes. It is because of the increased demand for eco-friendly products. Thus, marketing strategists are creating green marketing and target 'green' customers.Sadly, some of the green marketings are promoting an eco-fraud product. They deceive their customers, and it can lead to a lawsuit.

Therefore, it is necessary to create authorized green marketing with a confirmed eco-friendly product. This marketing strategy will be even more relevant in the future as our environment is getting worse.

If your goal is to keep the Earth clean and green, let your customers know from your green marketing strategies.