The Impact of Green Marketing on Customers’

Buying Decision

LAB University of Applied Sciences

Bachelor of Business Administration, International Business
2021
Anh Duong Nguyen
 Abstract

Author(s) Publication type Completion year

Nguyen Anh Duong Thesis, UAS 2021
Number of pages
69
Title of the thesis
The Impact of Green Marketing on Customers’ Buying Decision
Degree
International Business
Abstract
The increasing significance of environmental issues makes companies emphasize on
the implementation of green marketing. The thesis focuses on two primary objectives.
First, it identifies how green marketing influences consumers’ buying decision. Second,
the research investigates the buying behavior of consumers in a certain market towards
eco-friendly products.
The theoretical framework used literature review method to explain the theoretical
concepts related to green marketing and green purchase behavior. Secondary data
was collected for this section through scientific articles, scholarly journals, e-books and
credible Internet sources. The empirical part utilized quantitative research method in
which primary data was acquired by an online questionnaire to test the relationship
between demographic and psychographic and green consumer behavior as well as the
influence degree of green marketing mix 4P’s on customers’ purchase decision. After
a total of 447 respondents had participated in the survey, the data was inserted and
addressed by SPSS and Excel.
The result of the study indicated which demographic and psychological characteristics
correlated with green buying behavior and which did not. Additionally, the research
outcome explored the effect grade of each factors of green marketing mix on the
audience’s buying determination. Besides, the participation of green marketing aspects
in the public’s life was found out specifically.
The key findings imply a firm relationship between green marketing and people’s buying
behavior. Further studies are recommended to emphasize on one target group, a
particular aspect of green marketing or its influence on a specific industry.
Keywords
Green marketing, green marketing mix, buying decision, green buying behavior
Contents

1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Background ........................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Objectives ........................................................................................................... 3
1.3 Delimitations ....................................................................................................... 3
1.4 Research question .............................................................................................. 3
1.5 Research methodology and data collection ........................................................ 4
1.6 Thesis structure .................................................................................................. 5
2 Theoretical framework ............................................................................................... 6
2.1 Green marketing ................................................................................................. 6
2.1.1 Greenwashing .............................................................................................. 8
2.1.2 Cause marketing ........................................................................................ 11
2.1.3 Eco-labels ................................................................................................... 13
2.2 Green marketing mix 4P’s..................................................................................16
2.2.1 Green product............................................................................................. 16
2.2.2 Green price ................................................................................................. 18
2.2.3 Green place ................................................................................................ 20
2.2.4 Green promotion......................................................................................... 21
2.3 Green buying behavior ......................................................................................24
2.3.1 Green consumer and green consumerism .................................................. 25
2.3.2 Green buying behavior ............................................................................... 27
3 Empirical research and data analysis........................................................................30
3.1 Questionnaire design .........................................................................................30
3.2 Data collection ...................................................................................................31
3.3 Data analysis .....................................................................................................31
3.3.1 Demographic background ........................................................................... 32
3.3.2 Psychographic background......................................................................... 35
3.3.3 Green buying behavior ............................................................................... 37
3.3.4 Correlation between demographic characterization and green buying
behavior 39
3.3.5 Correlation between psychographic characterization and green buying
behavior 45
3.3.6 The effect level of green marketing mix 4P’s on the participants’ buying
decision 48
3.3.7 The embedding of green marketing aspects in the respondents’ life ........... 52
4 Discussion ................................................................................................................58
4.1 Answer to the research question........................................................................58
4.2 Reliability, validity and limitation.........................................................................61
4.3 Recommendations for future research ...............................................................62
5 Summary ..................................................................................................................62
References ......................................................................................................................64

Appendix

Appendix 1. Questionnaire
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1 Introduction

1.1 Background

In the current world, the process of industrialization and modernization is being

implemented strongly. Admittedly, a significant pressure is put on the environment.
Specifically, the waste from industrial and domestic activities such as poisonous chemicals,
plastics, gas emissions and wastewater has been becoming out of control in several
countries. As a result, they cause numerous negative impacts on the nature including ozone
layer destruction, greenhouse effect, climate change and global warming. In terms of the
human beings, health is one of the most serious problems when mentioning the
consequences of environmental pollution. Therefore, it makes the public concern more
about ecological issues in the daily life, especially when buying any products. Accordingly,
the necessity of eco-friendly merchandises, packaging and delivery is growing remarkably.
In other words, it could be said that instead of regarding environmental problems as a
challenge to deal with, many companies utilize them as a probable tendency for innovation
and development (Iannuzzi 2011, 3).

Sustainable development is a common term that human beings usually use to envision
ecological practices. In such a circumstance, the concept of sustainability contains three
fundamental dimensions such as economy, society and environment.

Figure 1. Model of sustainability (Amitrano 2009)

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As shown in the left side of Figure 1, the traditional visualization of sustainability is the
equalized status of three elements. However, it is considered as inefficient in the recent
today’s world. Accordingly, a more beneficial model called “fried egg” was developed as
presented in the right side of Figure 1. Particularly, the sustainability of the community is
defined in which the economy is developed under the boundary of its society, and the
society grows with considerations about the environment. (Kane 2010, 5-6.)

On behalf of green businesses, along with the increased demand in sustainable supply
chain process, a substantial transformation is conducted in the perspective of marketing.
Subsequently, the procedure of green marketing not only represents the corporate social
responsibility (CSR) but also has an educational purpose for people to rise their attitudes in
environmental protection (Charter & Polonsky 1999, 11). The research could identify at
which level the consumers pay attention to this issue; thus, firms can launch proper green
marketing projects with the goal to educate and enhance the public’s perceptions towards
eco-centric lifestyle.

The primary purpose of green marketing is to ensure the sustainability of the business. Due
to the increasing attention of the market in ecosystem and its related issues, firms should
plan and conduct green campaigns to spread their messages and philosophy to the
audience. Correspondingly, corporates are the main objects that significantly consider the
influences of environmentally responsible marketing on consumers’ buying decision. By
doing research on this topic, they are supported enormously in studying the market in detail.
Hence, based on these analyses, worthwhile values are created for the clients through the
innovated sustainable supply chain management and marketing management (Danciu
2013).

On the other hand, green marketing not just orients towards a more long-lasting positive
business world but also assists enterprises receive acknowledgement and reliability from
customers who care about ecological concerns. As mentioned above, firms could present
their corporate social responsibility through the application of green marketing into the
strategic management and community campaigns. As a result, they might generate a set of
competitive advantage thanks to eco-friendly marketing which dedicates undoubtably to the
establishment of trust on customers’ minds.
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1.2 Objectives

The thesis is going to be implemented in order to accomplish two fundamental objectives.

First, it identifies the relationship between green marketing and consumers’ buying decision.
Likewise, the study aims at discovering how eco-marketing affects the purchase
determination of the audience. To achieve this purpose, an in-depth investigation is
conducted through an online questionnaire as primary data collection. Additionally,
secondary data is gathered by previous literature review. After the survey, the result is going
to be interpreted to understand whether sustainable brand marketing has impact on
customers’ buying decisions and at which level it is. Second, the thesis is also going to
clarify the purchase behavior of consumers in the certain market that whether they are
willing to buy and consume eco-friendly commodities. Simultaneously, with those who have
not been aware of green practices, it is also necessary to discover their willingness to
change the buying manner towards a greener lifestyle. Owing to the significance of
ecological concerns in the modern society, besides the effort of companies to protect the
living habitat, it is also crucial to study the viewpoint of clients. Subsequently, a suitable
green marketing approach could be designed so as to communicate with them.

1.3 Delimitations

Indeed, the thesis cannot cover all issues related to marketing, it is going to concentrate
only on green aspects of marketing and their influences on consumers’ purchase decisions.
The buying behaviors affected by other components such as logistics management and
shopping methods (in-store or online shopping) are not taken into consideration. In addition,
there are two delimitations consisting of theoretical and empirical ones. The former refers
to theoretical concepts that will be explained in Chapter 2 of the study. In this case, they are
green marketing, green marketing mix 4P’s and green buying behavior. Meanwhile, the
latter means the data collection method which will be declared in Section 1.5 Research
methodology and data collection. One more important point is that the survey is going to
collect primary data with the population targeting at Vietnamese consumers who are living,
studying and working in two biggest cities of Vietnam: Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

1.4 Research question

Generally, the research question of this thesis is “What is the relationship between green
marketing and consumers’ buying behavior?”. To better answer the main research question,
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two sub-questions are developed based on the model of green marketing mix 4P’s and the
characterization of buying behavior. These sub-questions comprise:

• Sub-question 1: At which level do the elements of green marketing mix 4P’s have
impact on consumers’ buying decision?
• Sub-question 2: Do demographic and psychographic characteristics affect
consumers’ green buying behavior?

1.5 Research methodology and data collection

Research methodology

With the research objectives in mind, this thesis is going to utilize literature review and
quantitative research method. Following this, literature review is going to be used in
theoretical framework in order to explain the theoretical concepts that relate to the thesis
topic consisting of green marketing, green marketing mix 4P’s and green buying behavior.
In such a circumstance, several books, scientific articles such as working papers, scholarly
journals, previous publications and theses as well as reliable Internet sources are found.
Further, due to the diversity of sources, the surrounding issues of green marketing, green
consumers and green purchase behavior will be revised and analyzed comprehensively in
a multi-dimensional vision.

Moving onto the empirical study, quantitative research method is chosen to gather the
empirical data. Based on the main research question and two sub-questions, the research
result is going to be displayed under statistical form, graphs and tables. The reason is that
the author want to first, explore at which level the components of green marketing mix 4P’s
affect the citizens’ buying decision; second, examine the correlation between demographic
and psychological factors and green buyer behavior. Moreover, owing to the thesis topic on
The Impact of Green Marketing on Customers’ Buying Decision, it is essential to investigate
the pragmatic opinions of the public in a holistic and broad scale; hence, self-administered
survey method is applied. Afterwards, as mentioned above, the population of this survey is
Vietnamese consumers who are living, studying and working in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City;
however, due to the geographical distance, self-administered survey under the type of
online questionnaire will be utilized to acquire data from the respondents.

There are numerous reasons why the author chose online survey as the way of primary
data collection. First of all, it is effortless to conduct and inexpensive. Specially, a list of
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close-ended questions will be designed for the questionnaire and it applies for all
respondents. Moreover, the platform of survey is available on the Internet; hence, the author
does not need to pay for the investigation process. Second, it could save time since the
respondents can answer the questionnaire whenever they are free. Besides, the responses
might be as objective as possible because they do not suffer any pressure from the
interviewer.

Data collection

Overall, data is categorized into two fundamental types including primary data and
secondary data. In particular, primary data means data that is acquired or produced directly
by researchers of the research whilst secondary data refers to data or information that is
generated by the others for another objectives (Clark 2005, according to Bradford & Cullen
2012, 141). Moreover, it is stated that secondary data could be gathered from documentary
research and secondary data illustration. In detail, documentary research is originally
produced without the goal of researching such as organizational annual reports, conference
notes or policies whereas secondary data illustration represents the re-explanation of data
from other studies. (Bradford & Cullen 2012, 141.)

This thesis is going to use both types of data for analysis. Subsequently, primary data will
be collected through an online survey aiming at Vietnamese customers in order to clarify
the relationship between green marketing and their purchase behavior. Meanwhile,
secondary data will be acquired for the use of theoretical framework illustration. The
materials of secondary data include eBooks, books, scientific articles and Internet sources.
In term of Internet information, the sources must come from trustworthy origins.

1.6 Thesis structure

In general, the thesis structure is divided as following:

• Introduction
• Theoretical framework
• Empirical research and data analysis
• Discussion
• Summary.

In the first place, Chapter 1 Introduction briefly describes the background, main objectives,
delimitations, research question, research methodology as well as the thesis structure. This
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chapter provides a comprehensive vision about the importance of the thesis topic and
essential techniques to implement the research.

Afterwards, in Chapter 2, through the method literature review, several theoretical concepts
related to green marketing and green buying behavior are explained in detail. Further, the
models clarified in this chapter are vital preliminaries to develop the questionnaire in the
empirical study.

Additionally, Chapter 3 Empirical research and data analysis concentrates on handling with
empirical data gathered from an online survey. Particularly, it presents the overall design of
the questionnaire, data collection process and data analysis.

Subsequently, Chapter 4 discusses primary findings from the empirical research by

answering the research question and two sub-questions. Moreover, the reliability, validity,
limitation and suggestions for future research are also illustrated.

The thesis ends with Chapter 5 in which the main ideas of all the above chapters are
summarized.

2 Theoretical framework

2.1 Green marketing

Previously, there are numerous literatures studying the concept of green marketing.
Originally, during the progress of practices, traditional marketing does not regard ecological
issues as consideration range (Charter & Polonsky 1999, 18). Subsequently, in comparison
with this concept, green marketing refers to marketing strategies involving the consideration
of environmentally friendly practices (Khandelwal & Yadav 2014). Otherwise, Dacko (2008,
242) defined green marketing, which is also known as eco-marketing, eco-centric marketing,
environmental marketing, environmentally responsible marketing and responsible
marketing, as activities that give priority to the influence on the ecosystem. In another study,
green marketing is a more extensive marketing model thanks to which the environmental
perceptions and manners of consumers are improved and maintained (Jain & Kaur 2004,
according to Chang & Chen 2014). In addition, the primary characteristic of sustainable
brand marketing is to guarantee the sustainable standard of the ecology through a number
of techniques. Further, green marketing is not just narrowed in terms of consumers but also
related to the organizational performance (Khandelwal & Yadav 2014). The application of
green marketing into business operations therefore makes marketers realize the values that
 7

it generates for the business. To be more specific, eco-marketing could devote to the
creation of a set of competitive advantage that helps the brands position better in the market.
Besides, the benefits about reputation and finance are undoubtable. (Dacko 2008, 242.)

In the modern world, with the emergence of green marketing, various reasons have been
provided in order to justify why corporations use it. The first point is that recently, more
organizations have perceived their social responsibilities. In other words, firms take into
account both monetary objectives and environmental goals. For instance, Coca Cola
exhibited its corporate social responsibility by joining a variety of recycling projects and
changing the way of packaging. The second cause is that along with the rise in business
institutions’ awareness, the public’s attitude towards ecosystem has also grown
considerably. As a result, their desire towards companies with green practices increases.
Third, the transformation to green marketing of firms may be caused by the influence from
the government. To demonstrate, currently, many governments enforce laws and
regulations to restrict the manufacture of environmentally harmful products and encourage
the greener production. Moreover, in some nations, green guidelines are released to assist
enterprises. The fourth point is related to the stress from the competition. Actually, diverse
business agencies have built their brand images based on green marketing drives such as
The Body Shop. As a consequence, it could create a competitive advantage and help them
stand out in the marketplace. Last but not least, more firms choose to move to green
marketing because of the decrease in expenses. To be more specific, companies make use
of green marketing as an efficient tool to decline the amount of waste into the nature, which
therefore could save much money for the businesses. Otherwise, it is beneficial that
manufacturers create a synergetic system in which a company could take advantage of the
waste from another to become raw materials of its production. (Ghoshal 2011; Saini 2013.)

According to Schaltegger et al. (2003, 208-209), the central goal of green marketing is to
change the habit of consumers. Particularly, eco-centric marketing could play an
educational role, then reform customers’ consumption conditioning. Thus, they might take
more responsible for the ecology in decision-making process. Additionally, green marketing
targets to bring crucial information about product quality, usage, maintenance and removal
to the customers. Therefore, they will have a more appropriate vision with their purchase
decisions. Moreover, a successful green marketing project is when corporates could build
sustainable and closed relationship with customers. Further, by launching this kind of
environmentally safe campaign, the shortcomings of eco-unfriendly practices are leveraged;
 8

thus, consumers could better recognize these concerns and adapt to change their buying
behaviors.

In order to conduct a prosperous green marketing strategy into the market, there are three
fundamental components that should be determined. First, marketers are accountable for
telling a greener product story. Second, they must research and clarify the needs of the
target audience so as to meet their expectations. Last, an appropriate communication
strategy should be built to introduce the greener item’s features with the public. In addition
to these key steps of an effective green marketing, Boston College Center for Corporate
Citizenship suggested five key instructions for eco-marketing:

• Accuracy: It must provide detailed and statistical information.

• Association: It shows an observable and direct connection between green products
and services and the ecology.
• Resource: It brings beneficial knowledge to consumers at the right time and in the
right place.
• Coherence: All images and language used for marketing must be united.
• Authenticity: Eco-centric marketing has to be honest with the current attributes of
the products, strive to make them greener, not just green. (Hollender et al. 2010,
according to Iannuzzi 2011, 151-152.)

On the other hand, Iannuzzi (2011) also claimed three radical aspects of green marketing
which are greenwashing, cause marketing and eco-labels.

2.1.1 Greenwashing

To begin with, greenwashing means the procedure of a company misguiding the market
about the more environmentally friendly attributes of its product while it is not true in reality
(Kenton 2020). Correspondingly, Kent et al. (2007) provided another definition that
greenwash is to persuade people that a company is ecological-oriented by joining various
green projects of the community as a way of obscuring its environmentally harmful practices.
Actually, a large number of organizations is untruthful with their green marketing
demonstration. For instance, they could make misunderstandings on goods packaging or
wrong advertising about the CSR. All these actions are conducted with a purpose of gaining
green prestige from the public. Nevertheless, firms might not realize that these activities
result in numerous negative consequences, along with making consumers confused which
businesses are truly accountable for the nature and which are not. (Paetzold 2010, 44.)
 9

Described by Paetzold (2010, 50), greenwashing could cause several prejudicial impacts
on the environment, consumers and corporations as well. First, it might misinform the
buyers about the environmentally friendly attributes of the products. For this reason, people
will think that purchasing those items is a beneficial contribution to the ecological protection.
However, in reality, those who buy and consume these items are unconsciously making
damage to the environment. Second, greenwashing leads to a disrespect with customers
who literally want to devote to the sustainability. Moreover, it could be said that the clients’
trust is imposed for an unfavorable purpose. Third, the repercussions on businesses
themselves are also remarkable. As an evidence, the eco-friendly engagement of firms is
overstated due to their desires of promoting themselves more broadly. Thence, the brands’
images and names are injured, which may result in a decline in sales with for-profit
organizations. (Tsui 2020.)

With the concerns about the adverse impacts of greenwashing, in 2007, TerraChoice, which
is currently obtained by UL, developed a concept about Seven Sins of Greenwashing. This
may be a beneficial illustration for consumers to make a more comprehensive and precise
assessment about the sustainability of commodities in the market. Accordingly, the Seven
Sins consist of:

• Sin of the hidden trade-off: This declaration supports that an item is regarded as
green relied on a limited feature set without the strict consideration about ecological
issues. For instance, the manufacturing process of paper is not seen as totally eco-
friendly since it is made from gathered forest. Moreover, the production and delivery
journey cause air pollution as well.
• Sin of no proof: This sin is found when a firm declares an eco-friendly message to
the market; however, it is not justified by any available supplementary information
or a reliable verification. An example is that several tissue products and toilet paper
products which are claimed as high recyclable proportion are usually provided with
no confirmation.
• Sin of vagueness: This sin is shown when a product is claimed environmentally
friendly; nevertheless, such claim is so general and ambiguous that could lead to
the misinterpretations of consumers. To be more specific, an item is announced as
all-natural, but there are many all-natural substances that cause harm to the human
health such as mercury and uranium. For another example, products could be
 10

labelled as chemical-free, but actually, there are no chemical-free products, even

water is also a chemical (Paetzold 2010, 47).
• Sin of worshiping false labels: A product that is endorsed and labelled by a third
party, even by words or images, which is not truly existed in reality.
• Sin of irrelevance: This sin refers to a green claim that is unnecessary or unbeneficial
for the citizens because that claim is already illegal following the regulations of the
government. In particular, an irrelevant environmental declaration could be an item
without ozone-layer harmful ingredients (Paetzold 2010, 47).
• Sin of lesser of two evils: The sin defines that although a certain product is called
green, in practice, it is still harmful to the environment. In addition, this green claim
could lead to a diversion in people’s attention on the actual disadvantageous effects
of the commodity on the ecology. Specifically, organic cigarettes and eco-friendly
pesticides could be evidences for this sin (Paetzold 2010, 47).
• Sin of fibbing: This kind of sin is plainly a dishonest ecological assertion of goods.
An illustration for this sin is that a merchandise is defined as ENERGY STAR
registration, even though there is no certification supporting it. (UL 2020.)

Under this circumstance, the US’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released Green
Guides, which were first published in 1992, to assure that businesses will not bring
ambiguous and inaccurate product features in the environmental context. In other words,
these instructions are published to avoid greenwashing. Additionally, the guidance also has
a wide range of noteworthy advantages. First, it recommends marketers to avoid deceptive
and uncertain declarations about the decomposition of solid waste goods unless they have
enough evidence explaining that they can entirely disintegrate after a year of removal. The
second benefit is that it forewarns firms not to make ineligible claims about the items
because they should not be deteriorated within a year, applying for those which are in the
way to be recycled or destroyed. Finally, the instruction provides distinct directions for
environmental-related practices. (FTC 2012.)

In fact, the Guides were reexamined in 1996 and 1998 respectively. Further, in the autumn
of 2010, FTC suggested more modifications in order to be acceptable with the recent
transformations of the market. Specifically, Green Guides cover:

• general principles that apply to all environmental marketing claims;

• how consumers are likely to interpret particular claims, and how marketers can
substantiate these claims; and
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• how marketers can qualify their claims to avoid deceiving consumers. (FTC 2012.)

2.1.2 Cause marketing

Cause marketing, or so-called cause related marketing or social cause marketing, referring
to Dacko (2008, 80), is a marketing model in which an enterprise collaborates with a non-
profit organization for a particular purpose. The partnership could be in form of charity of
time or assets. Actually, the first definition of cause-related marketing is defined as the
process of formulating and implementing marketing activities that are characterized by an
offer from the firm to contribute a specified amount to a designated cause when customers
engage in revenue-providing exchanges that satisfy organizational and individual objectives
(Varadarajan & Menon 1988, 60, according to Sunitha & Edward 2015). The origin of this
definition is when American Express called for funding for the purpose of the Statue of
Liberty’s renovation in 1983 (Adkins 1999, Vanhamme et al. 2012, according to Sunitha &
Edward 2015).

Otherwise, cause marketing represents the accountability of brands towards the sustainable
development of the community. Certainly, the co-operations between the two entities are
mutually beneficial relationship. Specially, the businesses assist the charity agencies by
investing a proportion of their sales. Meanwhile, they are also benefited due to the increase
in reputation and sustainable vision. (Kahn 2013, 102.) In terms of for-profit organizations,
another scientific literature demonstrated that cause marketing could be seen as the most
productive and economical marketing approach for companies since it contributes
significantly to the enhancement of financial concerns (Smith & Alcron 1991, 20, according
to Polonsky & Wood 1999). Similarly, in the perspective of non-profit organizations, cause
marketing also benefits them remarkably. To be more specific, through this kind of
marketing, the target audience can be reached more effortlessly without the tiredness of the
benefactors. (Murphy 1997, according to Polonsky & Wood 1999.) Further, the involved
agencies are able to acquire more respective encouragement from people who just need to
make inconsiderable changes in their buying behavior for the dedication (Polonsky & Speed
1998, according to Polonsky & Wood 1999).

Based on a research of Edelman public relations company in 2010, 72 percent of American

believed that they appreciate to partner with a firm that provides proper prices and
strengthens a suitable cause instead of a company that offers strong promotional programs
but does not advance appropriate causes. In another aspect, three fourths of American
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consumers stated that marketing campaigns which devote to the sustainability of the
environment play an extraordinary role in the economic growth. (Iannuzzi 2011, 176.)

An example of a meaningful cause marketing campaign is from Monterey Bay Aquarium in

California, USA. In particular, in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization had
to close for months without the income from ticket sales; however, marine animals still
needed frequent care. As a result, it led to a difficulty in business operation of the aquarium.
In order to resolve this problem and raise the public’s attitude towards aquatic protection,
the institution launched a cause marketing project in which it posted numerous videos about
oceanic life and animal cares to YouTube. There are two famous series from Monterey Bay
Aquarium including Fast Ocean Facts and Act for the Ocean which are extremely beneficial
to teach the audience about the effects of climate change on the sea life and potential ways
to reduce them. Overall, the aquarium not only expands its popularity on the social media
but also earns more thanks to virtual business on YouTube. (Carmicheal 2020.)

Another case is from The Body Shop with its cause marketing campaign related to
protecting the animals. Typically, its brand core is to sell products against animal testing;
hence, the brand cooperated with social media influencers to widespread the project by
generating a hashtag #ForeverAgainstAnimalTesting. The result was that 8 million
signatures were collected to propose the United Nations about the prohibition of animal
testing. (Dopson 2019.)

Likewise, Allbirds, a footwear brand, launched a purposeful cause marketing program in

2019. To illustrate, the company manufactured five shoes with the designs inspired from
endangered North American bird species. Further, the shoes were produced in Limited
Edition version with the goal to save imperiled birds and their living habitat. Allbirds made
the cause marketing more efficient by conspiring with The New York Times to write a
bilateral article that emphasized on the significance of these bird species, the serious issues
around them and the possible solutions to protect them. (Don’t Panic 2019.)

For the purpose of taking place a successful cause marketing campaign, Kurt Aschermann,
the President of Charity Partners Foundation, brought out ten precepts for non-profit
organizations to find their appropriate counterparts. Particularly, these commandments
emphasize on relationship rather than cause marketing. They are listed as following:
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• First precept: Have in-depth knowledge about the products and worth. It is essential
that they understand their competitive advantages and perform to the prospective
partners.
• Second precept: Understand the fundamental business operation process. The aim
of this percept is that they must show the business partners the distinguished
characteristics from other institutions in the similar field.
• Third precept: Have a separate management person/team to handle with each
partner’s account. For instance, this staff acts as a representative of the partner
company who is responsible for maintaining the connection and communication with
them.
• Fourth precept: In the first meeting, leave out the written documents. Instead, it is
more appreciated to outline a plan directly with the counterpart in the conference.
• Fifth precept: Listen to the corporate partner.
• Seventh precept: Cause-related marketing contains the exertion of the whole
organization.
• Eighth precept: Cause-related marketing enhances relationships.
• Nineth precept: Cause-related marketing is about honesty. If the nonprofits are
unable to deliver a certain promise to the corporate partner, they will be encouraged
to tell them the truth.
• Tenth precept: Cause-related marketing relates to the embedding in a business
strategy.

2.1.3 Eco-labels

Together with the acceleration in green marketing, eco-label is used widely as a marketing
engine to promote the consumption of green products in the market (Iannuzzi 2011, 179;
Atanasoaie 2013). As said by Bruce and Laroiya (2007), if consumers realize and
understand the meanings and worth of such eco-labels, the market for green products will
be stimulated considerably, regardless of premium prices. According to Ecolabel Index
(2020), the biggest global catalogue of eco-labels, recently, there are 456 eco-labels existed
in 199 nations and 25 industry sectors. Actually, a certain number of eco-labels are highly
recognized and creditable whereas some result in distraction and greenwashing (Delmas
et al. 2013). Specifically, in spite of being guaranteed by third parties, the assessment
process of eco-labels is suspected. For instance, people can hesitate whether the
verification procedure is relied on an official and united standard (Golden et al. 2010) or
 14

under the administration of the government. To assist the citizens in eco-label recognition,
a large number of service websites has been created containing ecolabelindex.com by Big
Room Inc., the International Trade Center with standardsmap.org and greenerchoices.org
by ConsumerReports. (Castka & Corbett 2016.) Generally, it could be summarized that the
choices of eco-labels take risk and need a carefully consideration from business executives
(Delmas et al. 2013).

Indeed, there are numerous types of eco-labels existing in the marketplace, especially the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has categorized into three primary
types of eco-labelling. As an illustration, ISO Type I refers to those labels which occur in
products acknowledged by an unprejudiced third party that they meet the ecological
standards. Moreover, this type of eco-labels is normally based on alternative benchmarks
and areas. These eco-labels concentrate on eco-centric priority of a commodity within its
category based on the life cycle evaluations. Some examples of Type I are Nordic Swan,
Japanese Eco-Mark and Canadian Environmental Choice. In addition, ISO Type I-like is
defined in the similar way as Type I; nonetheless, they seem to centralize on a detailed
function and be utilized in a particular field. Additionally, ISO Type II labels are self-certified
eco-labels. Conventionally, they are generated internally by an entity. For instance, both
recyclable content and biodegradable belong to Type II. Last but not least, ISO Type III
focuses on supplying quantitative message of goods to the audience. To put it differently, it
sometimes might be regarded as the nutritional table of the merchandises. There are
several examples of Type III eco-labels such as Eco-leaf and Korean Environmental
Declaration of Products. (UN environment programme; OECD 2016.)

Apart from that, there is a wide range of eco-labels certified by the governments including
EU Ecolabel, EU Organic Label, Blue Angel of Germany, China Environmental United
Certification Centre, Korea Eco-label, Energy Star and Good Environmental Choice
Australia (GECA) (European Commission). Besides, there are also eco-labels which are
issued by companies such as Eco Options of Home Depot, EcoEasy of Staples as well as
Future Friendly of P&G. Moreover, some independent entities issue their own eco-labels
comprising UL, Green Seal and GreenGuard. (Iannuzzi 2011, 179.)

In 2009, the Natural Marketing Institute implemented a survey with US consumers to point
out what are the most recognizable eco-labels to them. As a result, the order of the response
are presented as following, together with the proportion of recognition:

• The recycling logo: 93 percent

 15

• Energy Star: 93 percent

• USDA Organic: 75 percent
• Fair Trade Certified: 44 percent
• Rainforest Alliance Certified: 35 percent
• Carbon Trust: 24 percent
• LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certified: 24 percent
• Green-e: 19 percent
• Marine Stewardship Council: 18 percent
• Sustainable Forestry Initiative: 16 percent. (Iannuzzi 2011, 179.)

It is observable in the list that only the first three eco-labels witnessed a consumer
identification exceeding 50 percent (Ottman 2011, according to Iannuzzi 2011, 179). That
makes the businesses concern more about how to optimize the advantages of eco-labels
in order to provoke the consumption of greener products and avoid greenwashing.

In such a circumstance, Delmas et al. (2013) provided a framework for eco-label

assessment following the growth in consumer purchase process such as consumer
perception and understanding, consumer confidence and payment readiness. During the
first stage, marketers need to consider and determine transparent and understandable eco-
labels. Afterwards, it is necessary to select eco-labels which can communicate well with the
consumers. To rephrase, the clients might comprehend the environmentally friendly
characteristics of goods through the use of those labels. One more vital point is that
corporations should prioritize multi-criteria and multi-sectoral labels. The reason for that is
those eco-labels have better identifiable function than those just utilized in one detailed
product category. The last element regards choosing labels that are endorsed by the
government and sizable organizations.

Moving onto the second dimension of consumer confidence, Delmas et al. (2013)
illuminated that businesses need to consider eco-label entities having several partners. The
attendance of various counterparts assists enormously to equalize the multi-source visions
related to ecological concerns. Second, the authors demonstrated that it is important to also
examine the reliability of those partners because a believable organization can ensure the
trustworthiness of their eco-labels. The next crucial aspect is to prevent the dispute
associated with interest during the progress of verification. The fourth point is about the
selection of an obvious eco-label agency. Specifically, marketers need to assure that their
eco-label partners are willing to publish relevant information about the endorsement
 16

procedure in order not to make consumers suspect the credibility of the labels. Fifth, the
companies should internally implement the examination of their commodities’ eco-friendly
attributes. To be more specific, although a company collaborates with an environmental-
oriented supplier, it is still essential to conduct its own material assessment to ensure that
both parties have the consistent result, or else, even a small fault could lose purchaser
belief. Last, enterprises are accountable for making secure the supply chain continuity with
the goal to stably meet the demands of customers.

Regarding the last dimension, first, marketers should focus on quality improvement. To
exemplify, they need to choose eco-labels that accentuate the value of goods, so that the
audience can easily see and be willing to pay a premium price for them. Additionally, it
should be noted that the elect eco-labels affirm advantages to the human health. Finally,
organizations should optimize the utilization of eco-labels in the market; therefore, the public
can effortlessly recognize their green actions by buying and consuming those eco-labelled
products and services. (Delmas et al. 2013.)

2.2 Green marketing mix 4P’s

Similar to the traditional marketing mix, green marketing mix 4P’s also include four factors,
but it has “green” before each one that are green product, green price, green place and
green promotion. If the original marketing mix primarily concentrates mainly on improving
the profitability of the companies, green marketing mix will emphasize on how to maintain
the sustainability of both the society and the business. (Hayat et al. 2019.) To put it
differently, the proposition, implementation and supervision of manufacturing, pricing,
promoting and distributing goods concurrently handle with meeting the consumer
expectations, accomplishing the business objectives and associating these procedures with
the ecology. Thence, a more comprehensive marketing interpretation is built. (Dangelico &
Vocalelli 2017, according to Moravcikova et al. 2017.)

2.2.1 Green product

The evolvement of green product is an important preliminary of a green business orientation.

In particular, the production is called green when its progress is eco-friendly and less
disadvantageous to the environment (Hayat et al. 2019). It means that manufacturers focus
on ecological characteristics of their products when they are produced, consumed and
discarded (Sarkar et al. 2015, 21k). Apart from this, green products are developed with the
 17

association of schemes about recycling and decreased packaging or less harmful

packaging materials for the purpose of environmental protection (Donikini 2013). Compared
to the core and augmented dimensions of conventional products, environmentally
conscious customers concentrate on the externalities of the manufacturing progress of
green commodities. It means that eco-centric clients might refuse an item if they recognize
any eco-harmful characteristics resulted from the manufacture or removal or disagree with
the practices of any stakeholders involved in the production. (Charter & Polonsky 1999, 61.)
Specifically, Hayat et al. (2019) clarified four popular types of green goods including those
are manufactured from recycled materials, those can be recyclable, those cause minimal
negative impacts on the ecology as well as those have eco-friendly packaging.

Basically, there are several ways to develop green products, either by innovating the
previous normal merchandises or by designing a wholly new one. Particularly, the former
means that marketers innovate the ordinary merchandises into greener items through the
process of re-design and incorporation of green characteristics. This progress could be
implemented by replacing some normal components with the environmentally friendly
ingredients. (Sarkar et al. 2015, 21l.) In detail, Recover Brands manufactures apparel totally
made from recycled fabric; moreover, the brand also applies a sustainable production
process including the removal of dyes and the reduction of water, chemicals and energy.
For another case, the brand Onya releases coffee cups which are made of entire food
protected silicone as well as stainless steel bottles with BPA-free. (Onya.) Besides, there
are also diverse green innovated commodities like those with CFCs disposal (Mishra &
Sharma 2010, according to Sarkar et al. 2015, 21l) or biodegradable or recyclable
packaging materials. In the meantime, the latter represents those goods which are initiated
based on a thorough new ecological model and method. When creating an original eco-
friendly product, the following factors should be taken into consideration consisting of the
framework of the design, the used resources, together with how it is used in practice.
(Sarkar et al. 2015, 21l-21m.) To enumerate, there is a software in which users are able to
calculate the carbon footprint (Polonsky & Taghian 2010, according to Sarkar et al. 2015,
21m). Briefly, no matter which methods are utilized, green goods are expected to be
manufactured by facilitating the use of renewable resources with the goal to bring
advantages to the nature whilst their functional values still should be completely brought to
the users (Sarkar et al. 2015, 21l).

Typically, whether an item is seen as green is also reflected through the choice of packaging.
Actually, some studies stated that packaging is a crucial element of the core product (Kotler
 18

& Bliemel 1999, 711ff, according to Schaltegger et al. 2003, 236). To be more specific,
packaging not only informs customers about the product features but also has barcodes for
machine read-only in order to be more convenient in the investigation progress. As a result,
when it comes to the management of sustainable packaging, it could be a challenge for
marketers to maintain the function of packaging whereas take responsible for environmental
problems. (Schaltegger et al. 2003, 235-236.)

On the other hand, Pujari et al. (2003) pointed out four enormous differences between
conventional and green product evolvement containing a larger concentration on
environmental issues, life cycle assessment, post-consumption practices and the supply
chain management (Chen & Chang 2013). The businesses’ mission in the green product
administration process is to ensure the trendy designs according to the market demands
and the audience’s expectations towards greener features such as resource saving, organic
and toxic chemicals-free as well. To show an example, Nike is recognized as the first shoes
brand responding the green project. In particular, the company produced the Air Jordan
product line with the decline in the use of detrimental glue. The generation of Air Jordan
shoes has proved that the firm has been striving to diminish manufacturing waste and utilize
sustainable materials. (Singh et al. 2016.)

2.2.2 Green price

In comparison with the other factors in green marketing mix, green price is considered as
the most indispensable and decisive element because even a slight change in price can
influence the purchase decision of customers (Singh et al. 2016). Subsequently, green price
refers to the pricing strategies of enterprises that take into account ecological manufacturing
and marketing costs, product values as well as the profitability of the companies (Martin &
Schouten 2012, according to Leonidou et al. 2013). Typically, Singh et al. (2016) claimed
that sometimes the price for green products might be higher than the figure for ordinary
ones. As a result, the premium price of these goods is the fundamental component which
makes the clients do not determine to purchase them (Bukkhari 2011, according to
Govender & Govender 2016). Nevertheless, if consumers perceive the significance and
worth of ecological products, they will be willing to pay more for them (Singh et al. 2016).
To illustrate, according to a study of Anvar and Venter (2014), those people, especially the
young generation, who desire eco-friendly commodities and have larger spending ability,
are more active to buy (Govender & Govender 2016).
 19

Referring to Sarkar et al. (2015, 21n), it is essential to consider the external expenses, such
as the amount of carbon released to the nature during the manufacturing procedure. In
other words, currently, the price of products might also involve the cost of pollution. In the
long-term strategy of corporations, they could enhance modern technologies to decline the
pollution and hence diminish the related expenses. Simultaneously, the development of new
technologies also strengthen the product traits as well as prolong the product life cycle. In
addition to the enterprises’ attempt in harmful emission reduction, the necessity of reducing
purchasers’ demand for environmentally unfriendly goods through the pricing schemes is
remarkable. In reality, there are many firms offering a pricing strategy in which consumers
can voluntarily contribute to the carbon emission decrement by paying supplementary fees
when purchasing a product. Afterwards, these costs will be used in carbon emission
decrease campaigns of organizations. (MacKerron et al. 2009, according to Sarkar et al.
2015, 21n.)

When marketers set price for green products, there are numerous ways enclosing premium,
skimming, penetration, economy and psychology. Indeed, each pricing strategy may give
advantages to the companies, either low or high pricing plans. Therefore, the choice of
marketers is relied on the demands of their target markets. (Andrew 2008, according to Wei
et al. 2014.) If the product is a new one, companies have two classic methods to set price
including skimming pricing (premium price, high profits and low sales) and penetration
pricing (low price, low profits and high sales). The choice for pricing strategy of firms
depends on the eco-friendly product features and technical issues in the production. To
exemplify, if the characteristics of the new environmental goods are unique and competitive
in comparison with the competitors as well as the potential of market needs is enormous, it
will be appreciated for skimming pricing strategy. Thence, business entities could have high
profitability and the green product establishment is excessively valuable. Otherwise, if the
green products are innovated from the previous normal ones, there will be additional
attributes. However, it is quite difficult to set the price since the clients will compare the
features and benefits of these two kinds of items. Indeed, numerous consumers believe that
the functions of green merchandises sometimes do not dominate the figures for
conventional ones but their prices are higher. The accountability of corporations is to settle
competing prices, along with launching proper communication strategies for the
commodities’ ecological advantages. (Sarkar et al. 2015, 21n-21o.)
 20

2.2.3 Green place

According to Govender and Govender (2016), green place plays a crucial role in green
marketing mix strategy. The reason is that the suitable distribution of items helps companies
spread their messages to the consumers and encourage them to purchase. For instance,
Kontic (2010) expressed that the approachability of green items in the marketplace
substantially stimulates consumers to purchase them because they prefer those products
which can be found easily and conveniently. In another paper, Gittell et al. (2015) pointed
out that supermarkets are among the best choices to distribute eco-friendly commodities.
(Govender & Govender 2016.)

Generally, green distribution involves the management of the business demand chain
through a set of actions connected with its ecological performance supervision and
advancement (Godfrey 1998, Martin & Schouten 2012, according to Leonidou et al. 2013).
Specifically, green place includes the decision of delivery channels, the management of
product flow from the suppliers to the end customers and the places to locate goods.
Moreover, firms are accountable for large distribution of green products, the continuous
availability of them in the market, along with remaining environmentally friendly purpose.
(Hayat et al. 2019.) In addition, it is possible that companies could collaborate with the
stakeholders to build an eco-commission in which they can enhance their logistics efficiency.
As an illustration, there is a wide range of international leading corporations such as Nestle
and L’Oreal cooperating with Tesco, one of the global largest retailers, to constitute the
Supply Chain Leadership Coalition. The aim of this alliance is to ensure an environmentally
sustainable distribution process. (Spencer 2007, according to Leonidou et al. 2013.) Overall,
the distribution of firms demonstrates how they optimize ecological concerns by processing
a green journey (Sarkar et al. 2015, 21s).

In order to insure an environmentally friendly physical distribution and logistics, one of the
most crucial duties of businesses is to save the resources involved in logistics progress
(Schaltegger et al. 2003, 240). In particular, ecological issues regarding warehouse and
delivery need to be considered and assessed carefully. For instance, these concerns could
be gas emission and product waste which lead to the pollution and several harmful effects
on the human well-being. (Sarkar et al. 2015, 21r.) Certainly, an inappropriate distribution
might cause a substantial damage to the environment; thus, enterprises should take into
consideration the suitable selection of the products’ transportation (Arseculeratne &
Yazdanifard 2014, according to Eneizan et al. 2019). As a result, there are various solutions
 21

for firms to manage an effective logistics comprising the choice of packaging for delivery,
methods used for carrying goods turnback and the application of scattered locations to
decrease the long-distance shipment (Schaltegger et al. 2003, 240).

Another vital element of logistics is the emergence of reverse logistics in the recent years.
In particular, it is the progress when unused or post-consumed merchandises and waste
are turned back from the consumers to the manufacturers (Pokharel & Mutha 2009,
according to Sarkar et al. 2015, 21r). The principal objective of reverse logistics is to
lengthen the product life cycle, either by recycling or re-production; hence, it also presents
the environmental accountabilities of the enterprises. As a result, reverse logistics may be
a beneficial solution for producers to reduce the amount of waste into the landfills as well
as have a more economical way for production. (Sarkar et al. 2015; 21s.)

As mentioned above, it is obvious that supplier is also an important factor in green place.
Especially, suppliers are those who provide raw materials, services and finished products
for the business entities as well as the end customers. Thus, the responsibility of a green
supplier is to manage actions towards a greener procedure, reduce the use of non-
renewable energy, optimize the utilized resources and the operation. Further, there is an
opinion that besides concentrating on the environmental impacts, green suppliers also
should scrutinize economic and social effects as well because if suppliers do not focus on
social and economic aspect, they will not be seen as green (Miles & Munila 2004, according
to Sarkar et al. 2015). To illustrate, the former refers to the deliberation of environmental
expenses and the equal adjustment of these costs comparing to the others. In the same
token, the latter is applied to the proper policies in labor rights, well-being and security.
(Sarkar et al. 2015, 21q.)

2.2.4 Green promotion

Green promotion, referring to Belz and Peattie (2009) and Dahlstrom (2011), is the effort of
companies to communicate their business items, engagement and accomplishment with
the public (Leonidou et al. 2013). The fundamental goal of green promotion is to educate
and inspire the citizens about the advantages and functions of green items. As a result, an
opportune green promotion plan may contribute extraordinarily to the success of the
business (Hayat et al. 2018, according to Hayat et al. 2019). Importantly, green promotion
is not only advertising like many people will think about when mentioning green marketing
but also an incorporated communication tool towards the community. Especially, green
 22

promotion covers various ways, for example through advertising, sales promotion, social
media, personal selling and public relations (PR). (Sarkar et al. 2015, 21s.) Under these
circumstances, Schaltegger et al. (2003, 244) supposed that marketing and communication
have the similar meaning. As a consequence, marketing promotion just shows one section
of the whole marketing communication system.

To make it more specific, each factor in green promotion is going to be explained.

Apparently, green advertising is described as promotional messages that may appeal to the
needs and desires of environmentally concerned consumers (Zinkhan & Calson 1995,
according to Ankit & Mayur 2013). Moreover, thanks to green advertising, the relationship
between a commodity and the ecosystem could be resolved and clarified. Besides, green
advertising publicizes the goods, services and business notices which represent the
capability of companies to assist and preserve the living habitat. On one hand, green
advertising could play an educational role in the market that guides the audience towards
an eco-friendlier buying behavior. On the other hand, it also plays a money-making role that
supports the sales, profits as well as brand images of firms. (Ankit & Mayur 2013.)
Notwithstanding, unless marketers take into consideration the theory and implementation
of green advertising projects thoughtfully and responsibly, it will lead to misleading claims
which are regarded as greenwashing (Sarkar et al. 2015; 21u).

Second, sales promotion is identified as a set of marketing techniques targeting at

provoking the need of the audience in a specific commodity and rise brand awareness. In
the practical situation, a variety of sales promotion’s advantages has been discovered.
Particularly, it could assist brands to generate new drive in the market. In addition, through
sales promotion, companies might build sustainable relationship with customers. For
instance, if a customer allow receiving promotion emails from a firm, he is able to be
announced information about new products and campaigns regularly; thus, he may
advocate to the brand. Moreover, it can soar the sales revenue as well as brand awareness.
Apart from this, sales promotion contains several types, namely price discount, loyalty
reward program, bonus deal, giveaway and coupon. (SendPulse 2021.) In the perspective
of green marketing, cause marketing is a typical example. To exemplify, Apple gained much
appreciation from the public with its red iPhone which is designed to encourage HIV/AIDS
projects in Africa. On the whole, thanks to sales promotion, business agencies could be
committed by customers since they tend to acknowledge those brands which create values
in association with them. (Gyant 2021.)
 23

Third, social media, which is increasingly becoming popular and favorable in the recent
promotion strategies, contains modern technological-based platforms that encourage the
virtual content development, connection and transaction between users (Cohen 2011, 1,
according to Williams et al. 2014). Notably, according to a research conducted by
Minneapolis-based Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law in 2009 with a number of
marketing and human resource senior managers in USA, the most well-known social media
websites consist of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Blogs which take 80 percent,
66 percent, 55 percent, 49 percent and 43 percent respectively (Matthews 2011, according
to Williams et al. 2014). In addition, social media might be a very effective way of green
promotion because it could help marketers categorize consumer groups that are more
sustainable-oriented through the segmentation function of social media channels. Rather
than advertising, social media allows the bilateral communication between firms and the
public. As a result, enterprises could better understand the consumers’ expectations and
responses such as recycling or other ecological-related topics. (Minton et al. 2012.) On the
contrary, the wide spread of social media also has several shortcomings. For instance, in
the current world, various social media channels are developed by the citizens which can
give feedback, either positive or negative, and open discussion topics about the
corporations’ green practices. Thereupon, social media sometimes could be unmanageable
because if the arguments are unfavorable, the crowd effect will lead to numerous
pessimistic impacts on the brand images and reputation. With this in mind, it is essential for
business institutions to organize and arrange appropriately both human resources and
technical resources in order to have a powerful social media system. (Sarkar et al. 2015,
21x.)

The fourth perspective in green promotion is personal selling. Chiefly, it refers to the
interpersonal interaction of a seller and a client in which the seller tries to persuade and
meet the customer’s demand in order to make him buy the informed products. Besides,
rather than commercial purpose, personal selling focuses mainly on building the long-term
and stable relationship between the salesperson, or the firm, and the buyer. (Rajput &
Vasishth 2008, 126.) Particularly, personal selling is an extremely efficient promotional tool
of companies since the salespeople can directly communicate with the customers and
explain them the complicated knowledge of the goods, especially their benefits and
innovative functions and features. In terms of personal selling for green merchandises, the
salespeople are responsible for demonstrating the ecological as well as nonecological
advantages to the audience. Owing to some difficult in financial evaluation of green goods,
 24

the sellers should be brought sufficient information and engines to manage information of
both consumers and business agencies. Thus, it could be said that the salespeople need
to be incorporated in the whole environmentally sustainable promotional program. (Sarkar
et al. 2015, 21w-21x.)

Last but not least, public relations (PR), as defined by American Marketing Association
(2008), is a concept of communication that utilizes the power of the community and various
unpaid promotional practices in order to introduce and widespread the attitudes, ideas and
values of the businesses, along with their goods and services, to the audience and
stakeholders (Zavattaro 2013, 33). Due to be unpaid activities, PR might result in either
useful or useless effects in the marketplace. On the positive side, companies can partner
with non-profit eco-friendly organizations to advertise themselves and grab the mass
attention. In this case, firms also could easily attract the audience by new developed green
product features. On the negative side, even a minimal accidental mistake of enterprises
related to environmental concerns may cause an enormous critical wave from the
community. (Sarkar et al. 2015, 21x.)

In addition to the green promotion methods illustrated above, to emphasize on the green
communication between businesses and the stakeholders (not only target customers but
also the personnel, the prospective employees, shareholders and local authorities), Kane
(2010, 65) also provided some possible tools which are

• annual sustainable reports

• social media such as social networking and online platforms
• mass media such as television, newspapers, magazines and radio
• intramural communication system of the organizations
• presentation themes at regular seminars
• commodity documentation
• transactional evidence namely bills and invoices.

2.3 Green buying behavior

In this theoretical concept, green consumer, green consumerism and green purchase
behavior are going to be explained in advance.
 25

2.3.1 Green consumer and green consumerism

Prior to reviewing the model of green buying behavior, it is essential to generalize the
concept of green consumer. Subsequently, green consumer is someone who tends to buy
products that cause the least influence on the ecology (Roberts 1996, according to Akehurst
et al. 2012). Another study showed that green consumers intend to purchase an item
instead of the others for ecological causes, especially goods with environmentally
sustainable attributes, packaging and advertising (McIntosh 1991, 208, according to Smith
1998, 89). Further, green consumers not just demand for green goods but also expect firms
to participate in green activities (Montague & Mukherjee 2010, according to Lu et al. 2013).
Specially, in order to become a truly green consumer, Ha (2008, 8) suggested three primary
characteristics enclosing maintaining a balanced life with the nature, keeping a balanced
purchase behavior with the environment as well as inspiring the neighbors to live similarly.

Equally important, as said by Irvine (1989, 2), green consumerism is the priority of a
particular consumer to support less ecological harmful goods and services (Smith 1998, 89).
To put it differently, green consumerism refers to the situation in which the clients expect
merchandises and services produced by an environmentally responsible procedure or those
can be recycled as well as preserve the natural resources (Rinkesh). Additionally, another
opinion assumed the meaning of green consumerism as something more than product
transformation which will take into consideration both the ecosystem and sales volume.
Further, green consumerism implies the re-evaluation of the responsibility of each individual
buyer in augmenting or altering the elemental inequalities of the current global economy.
Otherwise, it also signifies a challenge for legislators to generate a proper policy model with
the goal to encourage more people to have a greener living habit. (Button 1989, 9, according
to Smith 1998, 93.) Indeed, it is declared that the definition of green consumerism is broad
because different experts access it in distinctive aspects. For instance, politicians might
approach it under political viewpoint whereas marketers may see it as an opportunity for
business. (Smith 1989, 94.) Additionally, green consumerism could create an unpolarized
situation between green buying behavior and business profit. The reason is that it
represents the recent societal awareness towards a more sustainable manufacturing
process and more ecological friendly commodities and services, which leads to a green
consumerism structure based on economic, cultural and civil power. (Rinkesh.)

It is observable that there are an enormous number of advantages of being a green

consumer for the public, business institutions and the natural surroundings. On the human
 26

side, first, by purchasing greener commodities, making more appreciated decisions and
living more healthily, people might spare a lot of money which is usually used for water,
electricity and gas. Second, green products are normally manufactured with less harmful
chemicals for both the nature and the human well-being; hence, they can ensure a more
sustainable life with an improved standard of living. Moving onto the perspective of business,
the first significant benefit is that the green buying of consumers dedicates substantially to
the finance of for-profit organizations. Particularly, the monetary earnings are utilized for the
purpose of further sustainable product research and development (R&D) activities. In
addition, when purchasing environmentally useful items, consumers may also devote to the
donation for non-profit organizations that are operated voluntarily for the ecological
conservation. Finally, on the ecosystem side, the greener consumers are, the more
demands are created for eco-friendly merchandises which can lead to the reduction in the
production of environmentally harmful products. With this in mind, the use of non-renewable
energy can decrease enormously; as a result, the available resources can be spent more
for the following generations. Simultaneously, the decline in the use of non-renewable
energy leads to a decrement in emissions since more energy-productive appliances support
the sustainability of the nature since they need less energy to run. Moreover, green
consumers with the considerable concerns about animals could choose items that are non-
animal tested or made of vegan materials; thence, they can assist to preserve the animals.
(Ha 2008, 11-15.)

It should be noted that the environmentally responsible level of the clients not only reflects
their perception and buying behaviors but also divides the green market into diverse
segmentations (Schuhwerk & Lefkoff-Hagius 1995, according to Lu et al. 2013). In that case,
in the US, five eco-centric consumer segments are classified by the Roper Organization.
The first and also the most environmentally conscious type of consumers is called true-blue
green consumers. In particular, they are strongly willing to purchase green items from
reliable and absolute green firms as well as actively participate in environmental-oriented
campaigns. As a result, their impacts on the ecology could be extremely undoubtable.
Additionally, the second type is known as greenback green consumers. In contrast to the
previous true-blue green consumers, this kind of green consumers is just joined those
environmental activities which are financial based. However, they still desire to buy eco-
friendly commodities, especially the costly ones. The third sort of green consumers is
named sprouts. As an illustration, although they support the principles towards
environmental sustainability, the potential of spending much money on trading eco-centric
 27

items is not very high. Fourth, grousers are not aware of the importance of ecological
preservation; hence, they will choose the conventional products instead of those with green
attributes. Finally, basic brown consumers are those who assume that the environmental
problems might not be addressed by all the attempts of people. (Suplico 2009, according to
Lu et al. 2013.)

On the other hand, the environmental level of the public also depends on to which
generations they belong. In detail, Millennials, who are at the age of 26 to 40, and Gen Z,
who are between 10 and 25 years old, witness the most serious period of environmental
problems and their consequences. Besides, their access to social media accounts for the
majority of the society. For these reasons, Millennials and Gen Z apparently have a much
higher attitude and demand towards green goods. (Dasha 2020.) As an evidence, according
to a survey of Cone on CSR in 2017 with 1000 American respondents, the result presented
that the percentage of Millennials who purchased at least one eco product within the last 12
months was 68 percent (Butler 2018). In contrast, Baby Boomers, who are from 56 to 76
years, and the older age groups experienced a less possibility towards ecological
accountable shopping. To exemplify, in another study, only 33 percent of Baby Boomer
respondents are willing to change their buying manners to save the ecosystem, which is
approximately twice less than the figure for the Millennials. (Dasha 2020.)

2.3.2 Green buying behavior

Traditionally, Solomon et al. (2016, 5) defined that consumer behavior is the process when
a person or a group of people buys, consumes and disposes of goods or services in order
to meet the expectations. In the aspect of green, Joshi and Rahman (2015) declared that
green buying behavior seems to be a more complicated concept of moral decision-making
process and it takes accountable for the society. To put it differently, green purchase
behavior refers to the expenditure of goods that are friendly to the environment, recyclable
and answerable for the ecological problems (Mostafa 2007, 221, according to Chan et al.
2019). Additionally, a research pointed out four radical signals of green buying behavior as
following:

• always pay attention to the ingredients of the products whether they contain
environmentally harmful components
• prioritize green items than conventional items
• prioritize ecological goods regardless of the higher quality of common commodities
 28

• willing to pay premium price for environmentally responsible products (Andrew &
Slamet 2013, according to Chan et al. 2019).

In the past, several studies have been conducted to explore the relationship between socio-
demographic elements and green buying behavior (Sharma & Trivedi 2016). According to
Kollnuss and Agyeman (2002), socio-demographic characterization such as age, gender,
educational level and wage is one of the most vital elements impacting green purchase
behavior of customers (Sharma & Trivedi 2016). In detail, the first component of
demographics which is going to be analyzed is age. Subsequently, a study showed that the
young are more adaptable with green changes than the elderly (Ottman et al. 2006,
according to Sharma & Trivedi 2016). Nonetheless, during the last some decades, the age
of green consumers have been risen over than average (Sandahl & Robertson 1989,
Roberts 1996, D’Souza et al. 2007, according to Akehurst et al. 2012). Second, gender is
also a demographic variable that has been researched deeply by several experts. For
example, much research pointed out that women’s attitude towards green buying behavior
is more significant than that for men (Stern et al. 1993, Tikka et al. 2000, Zelezny et al. 2000,
according to Sharma & Trivedi 2016), but Akehurst et al. (2012) assumed that those results
could not be decisive. Additionally, a lot of studies classified that there is a positive
correlation between education and green purchase behavior, which means people with
higher literacy level are more adaptive with ecological concerns (McEvoy 1972, Van Liere
& Dunlap 1981, Aaker & Bagozzi 1982, Schwartz & Miller 1991, Zimmer et al. 1994, Roberts
1996, according to Akehurst et al. 2012). Alternatively, referring to the observation of
Sandahl and Robertson (1989) and Straughan and Roberts (1999), there is no positive
correlation between proficiency level and green consumer behavior (Akehurst et al. 2012).
Last, after implementing an investigation with Indian buyers, Jain and Kaur (2006) revealed
that higher income groups are more probable to purchase eco-friendly products (Khare
2015). In reality, this assumption has been brought out in diverse study papers, even so the
outcomes are not persuadable (Kassarjian 1971, Anderson & Cunningham 1972, McEvoy
1972, Kinnear et al. 1974, Van Liere & Dunlap 1981, Sandahl & Robertson 1989, Zimmer
et al. 1994, Roberts 1995, Roberts 1996, Roberts & Bacon 1997, according to Akehurst et
al. 2012).

On the other hand, Chen and Chai (2010) discovered that socio-demographic factors are
less influential on green consumers’ buying behavior than psychological variables (Sharma
& Trivedi 2016). By the same token, a study of Arkehurst et al. (2012) illustrated that socio-
demographic components are not appropriate when analyzing the ecologically conscious
 29

consumer behavior (ECCB). Meanwhile, psychographic elements such as environmental

concern and perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) are more relevant to demonstrate
the ECCB. Accordingly, environmental concern represents a forceful philosophy of the
public towards ecological conservation (Crosby et al. 1981, according to Sharma & Bansal
2013). Correspondingly, another definition by Zimmer et al. (1994) reflects environmental
concern as a common model that regards the sensitivity about eco-friendly issues (Sharma
& Bansal 2013). Moreover, it shows how consumers are inclined to participate in
environmental problem-solving progress (Chan & Lau 2000, Dunlap & Jones 2002,
according to Akehurst et al. 2012). Formerly, numerous studies investigated that
environmental concern and green buying behavior have a significant correlation (Kinnear
et al. 1974, Van Liere & Dunlap 1981, Roberts & Bacon 1997, Straughan & Roberts 1999,
according to Akehurst et al. 2012). In other words, people with a stronger concern about the
ecosystem are more enthusiastic to buy green goods than those with less worry (Bang et
al. 2000, Kim & Choi 2005, according to Akehurst et al. 2012). In addition, PCE is stated as
a self-perception of the clients that their actions could have remarkable influences on the
natural conservation (Antil 1984, according to Verma 2017). Similarly, consumers will be
more active to make green purchase decisions if they recognize that these determinations
are beneficial for the environment (Moisander 2007, according to Akehurst et al. 2012).
Further, Kabadayi et al. (2015) assumed that PCE is not just a preliminary to shape green
consumer behavior but also an intermediary towards a more sustainable life (Verma 2017).

In a research on green buying behavior in India, Khare (2015) found that it is not influenced
by individual environmental benchmarks and social benchmarks. On the other hand, it is
affected mutually in the society, through ecological self-awareness and eco-friendly buying
behavior from the past. In particular, Khare (2015) supposed that through the previous
environmental responsible purchase behavior experience such as knowledge about green
products and green brands, the consumers’ attitudes towards eco-friendly items can be
carved. As a consequence, the audience are used to green commodity purchase, ecological
responsibility and green practice engagement. In the same token, former eco-centric buyer
behavior experience provokes the citizens to make more green buying decisions. Besides,
it can be said that green buying behavior represents the personal faiths and promise of
each consumer towards the nature. Additionally, the author also pointed out that
demographic variables do not play as mediators in the relationship between personal
environmental benchmarks, social benchmarks, ecological self-awareness, previous
purchase behavior and green buying behavior. Further, the survey result claimed that
 30

compared to the other studies, socio-demographic elements do not make difference

between separate consumer segments due to the sampling from urban areas in which the
public have high awareness of green issues.

In another study, when conducting a survey about the effects of green marketing on South
African purchase behavior, Govender and Govender (2016) clarified that gender and the
attitudes towards green goods have no correlation. In reality, it means that both men and
women have the similar perception in earth-friendly product recognition. Nevertheless,
under the influences of green marketing, females are more likely to change their buying
behavior than men (Wang 2014, according to Govender & Govender 2016). Simultaneously,
there is no significant relationship between the age of the respondents and the
encouragement to change their consumer behavior as well as the age of interviewees and
the price of sustainable items influencing their buying decision. To illustrate, the former
means that the age of the customers does not play a remarkable role in determining whether
they are affected by green marketing to modify their consumption manner. Meanwhile, the
latter indicates that different age groups have a comparable opinion towards the green price
impacting their buyer behavior. Therefore, it is supposed that marketers might equally
attract the audience who are at disparate ages. (Govender & Govender 2016.)

Moving onto a research on the consumer behavior of employees in public universities in

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, Hayat et al. (2019) declared that green product, green price
and green promotion have remarkable effects on green buying behavior whereas green
distribution has no substantial impact on it. Specially, in the perspective of green marketing,
green place plays a crucial role which has considerable influences on assessing a
corporate’s performance. However, it is obvious in the survey of Hayat et al. (2019) that
green place and green purchase behavior has no pivotal relationship.

3 Empirical research and data analysis

3.1 Questionnaire design

Basically, self-administered survey under online questionnaire form was utilized in this
research. In particular, there were totally 16 close-ended questions which took
approximately 5 minutes to complete. Specifically, there was a wide range of question types
covering Likert scale (1-5) questions, multiple choice questions, checkboxes questions and
dichotomous questions. The questionnaire was performed in Vietnamese since several
respondents might not understand English. At the beginning of the survey, a general
 31

introduction about the research topic and objectives was given. Subsequently, because the
survey contained some scientific green marketing terms which could be strange and
unintelligible to the ordinary respondents, a note was provided to explain those concepts.

Accordingly, the detailed structure of the survey is illustrated as following. First of all,
question 1 to 4 gathered background information of the respondents. To be more specific,
they asked general demographic information such as age, gender, literacy level and salary.
Second, question 5 and 6 identified the exposure of the respondents towards environmental
issues. In other words, the psychographic characteristics of the respondents were showed
in these questions. Then, question 7 to 9 required the participants to confess if they had
ever purchased green items; if not, whether they were willing to buy in the future; if yes,
chose the frequency of their green product buying consideration during the last six months.
Fourth, question 10 asked directly at which grade the respondents were influenced by four
fundamental factors of green marketing mix 4P’s when they made buying decision. Finally,
the rest questions from 11 to 16 went in more details to clarify aspects in 4P’s involving
green product, green price, green place and green promotion.

3.2 Data collection

As stated previously, the primary data were collected by an online questionnaire. Specially,
the survey were created and conducted anonymously via Google Forms. Afterwards, the
survey link was sent to the respondents who are Vietnamese people living, studying and
working in two biggest cities: Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City through popular social media
platforms in Vietnam comprising Facebook and Zalo. Further, during the two-day period
from 27 January 2021 to 29 January 2021, the author gathered altogether 450 documents
filled. The duplicate answers then were filtered out; thus, a total of 447 valid respondents
was acquired for empirical data analysis.

3.3 Data analysis

After finishing the primary data gathering procedure, the data analysis was implemented.
Especially, the author used Excel and SPSS for the purpose of entering, handling,
illustrating as well as visualizing the data.
 32

3.3.1 Demographic background

To begin with, question 1 to 4 in the survey asked the demographic information of the
respondents. Accordingly, Figure 2 presents the result of question 1. In particular, among
447 participants, people who are at the age of 15 to 30 account for the largest proportion,
77,4%, which is comparable to 346 individuals. Following this, people from 31 to 45 years
old and 46 to 60 years old make up 18,79% (84 respondents) and 3,8% (17 respondents)
respectively. Besides, there are no respondents whose age groups are younger than 15 or
older than 60.

Figure 2. Age group of the respondents

Second, according to Figure 3 which is question 2 in the questionnaire, it is obvious that

roughly three quarters of the respondents are women whereas the remaining 25,06% are
men. Regarding the answer “Others”, none of the respondents exposed to be in this group.
 33

Figure 3. Gender

Moving onto the literacy level of the participants, the pie chart in Figure 4 illustrates a
majority of people revealed that they were joining or had completed bachelor’s degree, at
61.97%. Subsequently, the second largest percentage 24,16% belongs to those who are
studying or have finished high school. Moreover, the figures for master’s degree and
doctor’s degree respondents are 11,41% and 2,46% each to each. Apart from this, in the
questionnaire, there was a choice of secondary school, but the final result exhibits that none
of the respondents are at this education level.
 34

Figure 4. Highest education level

The last aspect in human population study is related to monthly income of the respondents.
To be more specific, 241 out of 447 people, which means 53,91%, earn less than 5 million
VND per month. Simultaneously, people whose earnings range from 5 million VND to 15
million VND comprise of 36,91% of the whole chart that is four times as much as the figure
for those with monthly salary more than 15 million VND (Figure 5).
 35

Figure 5. Monthly income of the respondents

3.3.2 Psychographic background

In order to study the psychological traits of the participants, question 5 was about whether
they concerned about ecological issues. Consequently, as shown in Figure 6, a majority of
people answered that they had environmental concern, which equals to 415 respondents.
Meanwhile, the participants with no ecological worry make up the smallest portion, at 1,34%
(6 individuals). Last, the figure for those who do not really care about the ecosystem
problems comprises of 5,82% being equivalent to 26 people.
 36

Figure 6. Environmental concern

On the other hand, the next question inquired if the respondents thought that their buying
behavior would have impact on the environmental protection. To put it differently, this
question defines the perceived consumer effectiveness. As a result, nearly 85% of them
believe that it is influential. Further, the number of people supposing that their purchase
behavior will not affect the environmental preservation are 45, which is similar to 10,07%.
Notably, the fraction of participants answering “No” just accounts for approximately one in
twenty (Figure 7).
 37

Figure 7. Perceived consumer effectiveness

3.3.3 Green buying behavior

To better discover the green consumer behavior, in the first place, the author finds out if the
participants have ever bought green commodities. Accordingly, the data shows that just
under three quarters of the respondents (323 individuals) have green product purchase
experience. In contrast, the remaining 27,74% that is equivalent to 124 individuals belong
to those who have never bought eco-friendly items (Figure 8).
 38

Figure 8. Green product buying experience

Among 124 respondents who have not purchased environmentally friendly goods yet, they
were asked about their readiness to buy them in the prospect in question 8. Based on the
statistics in Figure 9, it should be noted that 119 gave the answer whilst 5 were missing.
Afterwards, the quantities of people who are willing to buy, not willing to buy and difficult to
say are 103, 3 and 13 respectively. If only valid percent is illustrated, which means the
percentage relied on the number of respondents who answered, the proportion of the reply
“Yes” makes up 86,6% of the total, while 2,5% are those who are not prone to buy eco-
centric merchandises and the figure for people who are not sure with their decision is 10,9%.

Figure 9. The willingness to buy green products in the future

 39

In addition, Figure 10 demonstrates the frequency of purchasing green items during the last
half year in a pie chart. Apparently, it is observable that the largest portion is 36,69% (164
people) that corresponds to the respondents sometimes purchasing eco-friendly
commodities, whereas the smallest slice taking only 1,12% (5 people) refers to those who
always buy green goods. Following this, the participants who never purchase ecological
merchandises comprise of 27,74% of the whole that are also people who revealed to have
no previous purchase experience with green products in Figure 8. Besides, the fractions of
individuals rarely and usually buying environmentally friendly goods are roughly a quarter
(115 people) and almost one in ten (39 people) respectively.

Figure 10. The frequency of buying green products in the last 6 months

3.3.4 Correlation between demographic characterization and green buying

behavior

In the first place, the correlation between age and the frequency of buying eco-centric items
during the last six months is investigated by Chi-square test. As illustrated in Figure 11, the
significance (sig.) is 0,001 which is smaller than the selected risk level 0,05; thus, the
variables are interdependent. In other words, there is a correlation between age group and
the frequency of buying eco-friendly products. However, the note under the test table points
out that the minimum expected count is 0,19 and there are 40% of the cells have expected
 40

count less than 5; as a consequence, the test is not credible. The reason is that if it is reliable,
the expected count in each cell should not be less than 1 and the expected values can be
under 5 only in 20% of the cells.

Figure 11. Correlation test between age group and the frequency of green product purchase
during the last six months

In order to observe the relationship between these two factors visibly, Figure 12 displays
the analysis of the regularity of buying green merchandises of three age groups. Particularly,
in age group from 15 to 30, the percentages of “Never”, “Rarely” and “Sometimes” prevail
against the others, at 31,5%, 27,7% and 32,1% individually. Meanwhile, with respondents
who are 31 to 45 years old, the proportions of “Rarely” and “Sometimes” are 21,4% and
48,8% that are much higher than the figures for the other frequencies. Further, those who
age from 46 to 60 have a tendency of sometimes and usually purchasing ecological
merchandises. To exemplify, the fraction for “Sometimes” is 70,6% and for “Usually”, it is
17,6%. From the above evidence, it could be said that age group and green buying manner
have a slight positive correlation. To put it another way, the older the respondents are, the
more frequent they buy ecological goods. On the whole, the output sees an opposition with
the study of Ottman et al. 2006 released formerly in Section 2.3.2 which supposes that
youngsters are more likely to buy environmentally friendly merchandises (Sharma & Trivedi
2016).
 41

Figure 12. Age groups and the frequency of buying green products in the last six months

In addition, Chi-Square test is also utilized in order to examine the correlation between
gender and the frequency of buying eco-friendly items. In this case, sig. = 0,234 > 0,05;
thence, there is no correlation between gender and consumers’ buying behavior. Besides,
the remark under the table in Figure 13 shows that the lowest expected count is 1,25 and
only 20% of the cells have expected count less than 5; thereby, the test result is reliable.
Actually, it is contrast to the statement made by Stern et al. 1993, Tikka et al. 2000 and
Zelezny et al. 2000 earlier that females are more eco-friendly than males (Sharma & Trivedi
2016).
 42

Figure 13. Correlation test between gender and the frequency of green product purchase
during the last six months

Third, referring to Figure 14, when examining the relationship between educational level of
the respondents and the frequency of purchasing environmentally responsible goods in the
last half year, sig. = 0,000 < 0,05; ergo, two variables are dependent on each other.
Nevertheless, 45% of the cells have expected count less than 5 as well as the lowest
expected value is 0,12. As a result, the test is not creditable.

Figure 14. Correlation test between education level and the frequency of green product
purchase during the last six months

To be more specific, with high school students, the percentage of “Never” is much higher
than the other education degrees, at nearly 40%. At the same time, with bachelor’s degree
respondents, the figures for “Rarely” and “Sometimes” are dominant, which comprise of 30%
and 34,3% respectively. Markedly, the fraction of “Sometimes” of master’s degree
 43

participants witnesses a remarkable value, at 60,8%. Finally, with doctor’s degree

individuals, they tend to buy in a heavier density. As an evidence, the ratios of “Sometimes”
and “Usually” are both 36,4%. It can be generalized that education degree and the
frequency of buying ecological items during the last two quarters have a weak positive
correlation. Likewise, the higher the literacy level is, the more periodic they purchase (Figure
15). In comparison, this result is similar to the literature by McEvoy 1972, Van Liere and
Dunlap 1981, Aaker and Bagozzi 1982, Schwartz and Miller 1991, Zimmer et al. 1994,
Roberts 1996 and Akehurst et al. 2012 found in the theoretical part.

Figure 15. Education level and the frequency of buying green products in the last six months

The fourth inspection is between monthly income and the frequency of buying eco-friendly
goods during the last half year. Accordingly, there is a correlation between these two
elements because of sig. = 0,005 < 0,05. Nonetheless, the test outcome could not be
 44

reliable. The reason is that more than 20% of the cells have expected value smaller than 5
and the minimal expected count is less than 1 (Figure 16).

Figure 16. Correlation test between monthly income and the frequency of green product
purchase during the last six months

To emphasize, with people whose salary is less than 5 million VND per month, the
proportion of “Never” is 32,4% that takes the highest value among the others. Apart from
this, the group with monthly income from 5 million to 15 million VND tends to buy more
regularly. For instance, the percentage of “Sometimes” makes up 44,2%. Last, with those
who earn more than 15 million VND per month, the fraction of “Sometimes” is also high, at
43,9%. Besides, the ratio of usually is superior to the resting two income groups, at 19,5%.
As a rule, there is a weak positive relationship between monthly earnings and the frequency
of buying green during the last six months. Another way of saying is that the audience
making more money is more likely to purchase environmentally responsible commodities
(Figure 17). Basically, this output agrees with the declaration of Jain and Kaur (2006) and
Khare (2015) provided formerly in the theoretical framework.
 45

Figure 17. Monthly income and the frequency of buying green products in the last six months

3.3.5 Correlation between psychographic characterization and green buying

behavior

Apparently, the author explores the relationship between environmental concern and the
density of purchasing ecological items in the past two quarters. Subsequently, the statistics
exhibits that these two variables are interdependent due to sig. = 0,002 < 0,05. However,
there are more than half of the cells have expected count lower than 5 and the minimum
expected value is 0,07. Therefore, the test result might not be credible (Figure 18).
 46

Figure 18. Correlation test between environmental concern and the frequency of green
product purchase during the last six months

With the goal to interpret the data in more details, Figure 19 demonstrates the
crosstabulation of two variables. To be sure, people who have environmental concern
incline to sometimes purchase green products since its percentage leads the others, at
38,3%. Afterwards, with those who do not care about the ecosystem, the proportion
concentrates on “Never” which takes a half of the total. Besides, the respondents not really
concerning about the ecological issues have a tendency of rarely buying eco-centric goods,
at 46,2%. Therefore, it could be said that the empirical examination is consistent with the
proclamation made in Section 2.3.2 heretofore.
 47

Figure 19. Environmental concern and the frequency of buying green products in the last
six months

As importantly, regarding Figure 20 which performs the correlation between perceived

consumer effectiveness (PCE) and the regularity of green product buying during the last six
months, it can be seen clearly that sig. = 0,078 > 0,05. For this reason, these two variables
are independent. Notwithstanding, the note under the table specifies that 33,3% have
expected value less than 5, together with the minimum expected count is less than 1; thus,
the test result could not be reliable. Generally speaking, it witnesses a discrepancy with the
assertion in the theoretical part that people with high PCE are more likely to purchase green
than the others (Moisander 2007, according to Akehurst et al. 2012).
 48

Figure 20. Correlation test between PCE and the frequency of green product purchase
during the last six months

3.3.6 The effect level of green marketing mix 4P’s on the participants’ buying
decision

Question 10 in the survey explores at which degree the elements of green marketing mix
4P’s affect consumers’ buying decision by Likert scale. First of all, Figure 21 presents the
result whether a product is environmentally friendly has impact on the respondents’
purchase determination. Subsequently, the ratio of five scales is allocated quite evenly. In
particular, the number of people who completely disagreed and almost disagreed are 68
(15,2%) and 78 (17,1%) respectively. Moreover, the percentage of the neutral idea accounts
for nearly a quarter (115 people). After that, it comes to the figures for “Almost agree” and
“Totally agree”, which make up 21% (94 respondents) and 20,6% (92 respondents)
severally.
 49

Figure 21. The influence level of green product and the respondents' buying decision

Second, the author asked the respondents to evaluate the influence of green price by a
statement The price of green product affects my buying decision. Dissimilar to the former
statement, the percentages of “Totally disagree” and “Almost disagree” just comprise of a
minority, at 6,3% (28 individuals) and 14,5% (65 individuals) each to each. Then, the figure
for neutral opinions takes the largest fraction, at 30,9%, which equals to 138 participants.
Further, the quantities of those who almost concurred and absolutely concurred are 119
(26,6%) and 97 (21,7%) sequentially (Figure 22).
 50

Figure 22. The influence level of green price and the respondents' buying decision

The third assertion refers to The distribution place of green products affects my buying
decision. From Figure 23, it is clear that the sum percentage of “Totally disagree” and
“Almost disagree” is approximately 25% that is about 20% less than the figure for “Almost
agree” and “Totally agree”. Apart from this, the amount of unbiased idea is 29,5% (132
respondents), which is also the highest one among 5 choices.
 51

Figure 23. The influence level of green distribution and the respondents' buying decision

As a final point, the respondents were required to assess Green promotion affects my
buying decision. Accordingly, relied on Figure 24, the number of people who absolutely
disagreed are only 40 making up the greatest minority proportion, at 8,9%. Additionally, the
figure for those who almost disagreed are 62 (13,9%). Next, the fraction for “Neutral” is just
under 36% (160 people), which comprises of the highest value, followed by the percentage
of “Almost agree” accounting for approximately a quarter. Moreover, 16,1% (72 participants)
is the amount of the answer “Totally agree”.
 52

Figure 24. The influence level of green promotion and the respondents' buying decision

3.3.7 The embedding of green marketing aspects in the respondents’ life

Actually, Figure 25 displays the result of question 11 in the survey which inquired the
respondents if they were willing to pay a premium price for green products compared to the
conventional ones in the similar categories. Subsequently, a majority of them (352
respondents) was prone to pay more for eco-friendly goods. In contrast, the fraction of those
who are not willing to pay more accounts for the smallest portion, at 3,8% (17 people).
Further, the figure for the participants who hesitate based on the quality, brand and benefits
of green products is 17,45%, which is equivalent to 78 individuals.
 53

Figure 25. The willingness to pay more for green products

With the goal to discover pointedly the usual distribution places of eco-centric goods,
question 12 requested the participants to select from where they often bought them.
Particularly, the respondents could choose one or more options in association with their
own experience. As previously explained in Figure 8, 323 respondents who have already
bought ecological goods answered this question. Consequently, conforming to Figure 26,
supermarket is the most common place to purchase environmentally friendly products
according to the participants’ selection. In detail, it accounts for 43%, which refers to 192
votes. Following this, mall and convenience store are the second and third popular locations
to obtain eco-friendly commodities, which take 29,1% (130 votes) and 26,6% (119 votes)
individually. Alternatively, the percentage of local market is not that much significant, at 15,4%
equaling to 69 choices. Further, although it is at the era of modern technology and online
trading, Internet seems not to be a very prevalent option for consumers to acquire green
merchandises. In particular, only a minority, 14,3% (64 people), elected it. Moreover, one
participant chose the answer “Others” to describe his choice. In this case, he said that he
could buy environmentally responsible items from wherever they were sold.
 54

15.4%
Local market
69

26.6%
Convenience store
119

43.0%
Supermarket
192

29.1%
Mall
130

14.3%
Internet
64

0.2%
Others
1

0 50 100 150 200 250

Figure 26. Where the respondents often buy green products

Moving onto the following question, the respondents were asked whether they were ready
to change their purchase decision after they were informed or advertised about green
aspects of an item or a brand. Eventually, 271 out of 447 people, which is comparable to
above 60%, reported that they were willing to change their buying determination. On the
contrary, the fraction for those who are not agreeable to adjust comprises of the smallest
slice, just under one in twenty (23 individuals). Besides, 34,23%, which is equivalent to 153
respondents, is the percentage of those who are difficult to say in such a circumstance
(Figure 27).
 55

Figure 27. The willingness to change buying decision

For the purpose of conducting extensive scrutiny into the effects of green promotion on
consumers, question 14 in the questionnaire called for picking one or more promotional
tools that the respondents have witnessed. Thereupon, the data demonstrates that social
media and advertising experience the highest selecting rates, at 67,1% (300 people) and
46,8% (209 people) each to each. Thereafter, sales promotion is the third well-known
technique chosen by 101 participants, which is similar to just over a fifth. Finally, personal
selling and PR are the two least popular tools chosen by only 50 and 47 participants
respectively, at roughly 10%. The statistics is performed explicitly in Figure 28.
 56

46.8%
Advertising
209

22.6%
Sales promotion
101

67.1%
Social media
300

11.2%
Personal selling
50

10.5%
Public relations (PR)
47

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Figure 28. Promotion tools for green products

Another key point in finding out the influences of green marketing on the audience’s buying
decision is to clarify through which channels they often gain knowledge about
environmentally friendly goods. Subsequently, the statistics indicates that Internet is the
most prominent platform for consumers to obtain information about green products. To be
sure, there are exactly 349 respondents electing it that is equivalent to 78,1%. Further,
neighbors and TV are separately the second and third famous channels that make up 34,5%
(154 votes) and 31,5% (141 votes), followed by the figure for “Staff at the store” with 114
choices (roughly a quarter). Otherwise, printed magazines/newspapers only takes a
minimal number of polls which are 76 or 17%. Likewise, the proportion of
workshops/conferences is also unremarkable, at approximately 5% that corresponds to 23
individuals. Besides, there are two people (0,4%) acknowledging that they did not get
information about ecological commodities from any of the above channels; hence, they
exhibited their answer by picking “Others” (Figure 29).
 57

31.5%
TV
141

78.1%
Internet
349

17.0%
Printed magazines/newspapers
76

34.5%
Neighbors (friends, relatives, colleagues…)
154

25.5%
Staff at the store
114

5.1%
Workshops/Conferences
23

0.4%
Others
2

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400

Figure 29. Popular channels to obtain information about green products

Last but not least, in question 16, the participants chose which element in green marketing
mix was the most vital one that affected considerably their purchase determination. Thereby,
Figure 30 points out that more than half of the respondents recognized product as the most
crucial component among 4P’s of marketing mix. Another significant determinant is price,
which comprises of 30,43% of the total equaling to 136 individuals. Conversely, the
remaining two factors including place and promotion do not take that many percentages,
which are 8,28% (37 votes) and 5,59% (25 votes) sequentially. Notably, there are nearly 5%
of the participants realizing that none of the above elements were influential in their buying
decision.
 58

Figure 30. The importance of marketing mix factors in the respondents' opinion

4 Discussion

4.1 Answer to the research question

All things considered, from the primary data analysis, several aspects have been illustrated
specifically; hence, two sub-questions and the main research question, or so-called key
findings, could be clarified in detail.

Sub-question 1: At which level do the elements of green marketing mix 4P’s have
impact on consumers’ buying decision?

In the first place, the influence of green product is going to be reflected. As shown in Figure
21 in section 3.3.6, green product seems not to have remarkable effect on customers’
buying decision. As an evidence, the allocation of five opinions in the Likert scale is quite
balanced in which one choice does not dominate the others so clearly. Thence, it could be
said that human beings might not concentrate on whether the products are green or not. To
put it another way, if an environmentally friendly item and a conventional one are put on the
store’s shelf simultaneously, buyers may not spend much time to find out information about
them. Instead, they could choose which one they feel more convenient.
 59

Second, in contrast to green product, green price implies more connection with the
consumers’ buying determination. Indeed, the survey output implies that although people
who reported neutral opinion take the largest number, it still has a certain impact on the
public’s purchase decision. To exemplify, the total quantity of those who agreed is over
twice as many as the figure for those who disagreed. To explain, it means that customers
might pay much attention on the selling price of commodities, whether it is low or high.
Otherwise, the author also discovers that very few consumers reject to pay a premium price
for green goods in comparison with the conventional ones in the same category. Instead,
they seems to consider more specifically based on numerous factors such as branding,
quality and advantages. Probably, if an eco-friendly product has more persuasive and
predominant functions than the normal one in the similar classification, customers may be
eager to buy it.

Third, in terms of green place, it has been clarified that it also influences consumers’ buying
decision remarkably, but at a lower grade compared to green price. It can be understood
that people need an approachable and reliable distribution place of environmentally friendly
products. Moreover, the accessibility of ecological goods might have a strong impact on the
purchasers’ decision. As detected in section 3.3.7, supermarket, mall and convenience
store are three most common locations from where consumers often buy eco-centric
merchandises. The high selection rate of these places proves that human beings prefer
purchasing from wherever near them and easy to reach.

Last but not least, green promotion affects green buyer behavior at a lower degree than
green price and green distribution, but higher than green product. According to the
questionnaire’s result, obviously, the distinction between those who disagreed with the
statement and those who agreed is substantial. Thus, it could be stated that partially, green
promotion has impact on the audience’s buying determination. Subsequently, the solidified
presence of green promotion in the market will assist brands attract more target customers
and make them consider, or even purchase their green items. Besides, for the purpose of
gaining more information about the effect of green promotion, the author explores that social
media, advertising and sales promotion are three most recognizable promotional
techniques that could be beneficial for companies to launch green marketing projects.
Further, TV, neighbors, Internet and staff at the store are four most famous channels from
which people can obtain news about environmentally responsible items.
 60

Sub-question 2: Do demographic and psychographic characteristics affect

consumers’ green buying behavior?

To start with, among four demographic components taken into consideration in this thesis,
age group, education level, along with monthly income, have weak positive relationships
with consumers’ green buying behavior while gender and green purchase behavior are
independent. Accordingly, the older the audience is, the more possible they buy ecological
items. By the same token, consumers with higher literacy degree are more probable to
purchase environmentally friendly commodities. Similarly, the human beings earning more
money buy green merchandises more frequently than those who earn less. On the other
hand, regarding the study’s result, there is no correlation between gender and the frequency
of buying green products during the last six months which implies that males and females
have the same perception towards green consumer behavior.

Moving onto the second point, in terms of psychology, the research finds that environmental
concern affects customers’ green buying behavior while PCE witnesses no connection with
it. In other words, people with environmental concern will have different awareness towards
green purchase manner in comparison with those who do not concern or those who do not
really concern about the ecosystem. Thereby, the frequency of buying green products
varies across their psychographic status. Additionally, owing to no relationship between
PCE and green buyer behavior, it can be concluded that people who self-perceive that their
actions will have effects on the nature are not likely to make more environmentally
responsible buying decisions than those who do not have self-recognition.

Main research question: What is the relationship between green marketing and
consumers’ buying behavior?

All in all, it could be answered that green marketing has a considerable impact on
consumers’ buying decision universally. The densified distribution of green items in the
market such as supermarket, convenience store, mall, local market as well as Internet
makes the public easier and flexible to access them; therefore, the possibility of acquiring
eco-friendly commodities increases. In addition to this, when the consumers were asked if
they were willing to change their buying decision after being introduced about green
attributes of a product, a majority of respondents agreed, as declared in Figure 27 in section
3.3.7. Further, knowledge about environmentally friendly goods is publicized widely to the
audience via Internet, TV, consultants as well as word-of-mouth marketing. Given these
 61

points, the steady association between green marketing and buying behavior of people has
been justified principally after this thesis work.

4.2 Reliability, validity and limitation

Briefly, reliability and validity are two elementary criteria to measure the quality of a research.
Following this, the former is about the coherence of the study’s methodology whilst the latter
symbolizes its precision. It is very vital to take into account the reliability and validity of the
thesis, especially in quantitative research method. (Middleton 2020.)

Initially, the reliability is going to be valued. Doubtlessly, both primary data and secondary
data were used in the thesis. To be more specific, secondary data was collected from
creditable and up-to-date sources such as scientific articles, scholarly journals, e-books and
Internet sources. Apart from this, primary data was acquired based on an online survey
conducted to discover perspectives of green marketing and consumers’ buying decision. In
particular, a list of close-ended questions was designed for the respondents to fill in.
Afterwards, the data gathered was managed and handled carefully by the author thanks to
the use of SPSS and Excel; henceforth, the correlation tests and data descriptions could be
similar across different times. Nonetheless, that is to say if the same questionnaire is
brought to the participants weeks or months after that, the answers might not be ensured
to be consistent with the present outcome of the research.

Additionally, the validity of the study is going to be estimated. Specifically, the online survey
was designed to ask respondents about their demographic and psychographic traits, their
green buying manner as well as the impact grade of green marketing mix 4P’s on their
purchase determination. All the issues occurred in the questionnaire assist the author to
accomplish the goals of the thesis and answer the research question. As a consequence,
the output can be considered as high validity.

Finally, there is a typical limitation existed after the thesis. Indeed, it is related to the
sampling of the empirical research and its representation. To illustrate, Vietnam is a
populous country in general, and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are two biggest cities with
millions of citizens; thereupon, 447 respondents of the questionnaire could be seen as just
a small number and cannot represent the attitude towards green marketing and green
buying behavior of the whole population.
 62

4.3 Recommendations for future research

The thesis focuses only on the impact of green marketing on consumers’ buying decision
among the citizens of two large cities in Vietnam. Moreover, as previously said, the sampling
of the research is small that might not symbolize the buying behavior of the whole population.
Therefore, the author has some suggestions for future studies. First of all, prospective
research should examine one specific target audience group, for example, the millennials
or Gen Z. As a result, it will have better reference purpose. Another advice is that other
researchers could pay attention on one aspect of green marketing to make more in-depth
investigation. To illustrate, the awareness of Vietnamese consumers towards greenwashing,
meaningful cause marketing campaigns in Vietnam or a study related to eco-labels used in
Vietnam could be appropriate topics. Additionally, researchers can study the influence of
green marketing in a particular major, namely fashion, technology and manufacturing. As a
rule, all the above research directions may become very beneficial for the evolvement and
perfection of green marketing in the marketplace.

5 Summary

To summarize, in the first place, the thesis aims at two principal goals. To demonstrate, it
discovers the connection between green marketing and customers buying decision.
Additionally, it is implemented to interpret the consumers’ purchase behavior in the certain
market towards environmentally friendly products. In order to accomplish these purposes,
literature review and quantitative research method are used in theoretical study and
empirical study respectively.

In addition, Chapter 2 plays a crucial role in explaining the theoretical concepts related to
the thesis topic. Specifically, green marketing definition and its elementary aspects, namely
greenwashing, cause marketing and eco-labels, are reviewed comprehensively from the
previous documents, followed by the detailed analysis of four factors of green marketing
mix consisting of green product, green price, green distribution and green promotion. The
theoretical part finishes with a revision about green consumer and green buying behavior.

Additionally, the clarification of theoretical models assists the development of the

questionnaire and empirical study in Chapter 3 substantially. Based on several concepts
demonstrated in Chapter 2, the author designs the survey and obtains data from
Vietnamese respondents through online form. The data collection concentrates on probing
the participants’ demographics and psychographics towards green purchase manner, along
 63

with surrounding issues about green marketing. Afterwards, data is organized and analyzed
statistically via SPSS and Excel.

Following this, in Chapter 4, key findings from the study are described expressly by the
answers of two sub-questions and the main research question. Generally, with sub-question
1, the answer points out that among four elements of green marketing mix, green price,
green place and green promotion see a notable distance between the agreement and
disagreement of the statements about their impact on consumers’ buying decision.
Meanwhile, green product does not experience such a large difference between two sides
of opinion. Regarding the sub-question 2, in terms of demographics, the result displays that
age, literacy level and income affect green buyer behavior, but gender does not. In terms
of psychographics, environmental concern and green purchase behavior have relationship
whereas PCE and green buying behavior are independent. Eventually, it leads to the
resolution of the primary question that green marketing and consumers’ buying
determination have a firm association.
 64

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 1

Appendix 1. Questionnaire

Tiếp thị xanh và quyết định mua hàng của người tiêu dùng

Xin chào!

Tôi đang viết một luận án về sự ảnh hưởng của tiếp thị xanh đến quyết định mua hàng của
người tiêu dùng ở Việt Nam. Vì thế, cuộc khảo sát này nhằm mục đích làm rõ sự ảnh hưởng
đó và mức độ ảnh hưởng của nó. Thêm vào đó, cuộc khảo sát này còn tìm hiểu thói quen
mua hàng của người tiêu dùng Việt Nam rằng họ có sẵn sàng mua sắm các sản phẩm thân
thiện với môi trường không.

Bài khảo sát bao gồm 16 câu hỏi và mất tầm 5 phút. Các thông tin được cung cấp trong bài
khảo sát sẽ được bảo mật và sử dụng với mục đích nghiên cứu thực nghiệm.

Nếu có bất kỳ thắc mắc gì, hãy liên lạc với tôi qua email duong.nguyen@student.lab.fi.

Ghi chú: Một vài cụm từ có liên quan đến chủ đề của bài khảo sát:

1. Tiếp thị xanh: bao gồm các hoạt động ưu tiên cân nhắc đến những ảnh hưởng lên
môi trường.
2. Sản phẩm xanh: là sản phẩm thân thiện và ít gây thiệt hại đến môi trường bất kể
khi nó được sản xuất, sử dụng hay loại bỏ.
3. Nơi phân phối sản phẩm xanh: là nơi mà sản phẩm xanh được trưng bày cho mục
đích bán hàng.
4. Quảng bá xanh: là truyền thông tiếp thị của một công ty với người tiêu dùng về sự
tham gia của công ty đó trong các hoạt động xanh, cũng như những ưu điểm và
tính năng của sản phẩm xanh.

_______________________________________________________________________

1. Tuổi của bạn là

• Nhỏ hơn 15 tuổi
• 15-30 tuổi
• 31-45 tuổi
• 46-60 tuổi
• Lớn hơn 60 tuổi
2. Giới tính của bạn
• Nam
 2

• Nữ
• Khác
3. Trình độ học vấn của bạn
• THCS
• THPT
• Cử nhân
• Thạc sĩ
• Tiến sĩ
4. Thu nhập hàng tháng
• Ít hơn 5 triệu đồng
• 5 triệu – 15 triệu đồng
• Lớn hơn 15 triệu đồng
5. Bạn có quan tâm đến các vấn đề về môi trường không?
• Có
• Không
• Không hẳn
6. Bạn có nghĩ thói quen mua hàng của mình sẽ có ảnh hưởng đến bảo vệ môi trường
không?
• Có
• Không
• Không hẳn
7. Bạn đã mua sản phẩm xanh bao giờ chưa?
• Rồi
• Chưa

Nếu rồi, đến câu số 9

8. Nếu bạn chưa bao giờ mua sản phẩm xanh, bạn có sẵn sàng mua nó trong tương
lai không?
• Có
• Không
• Khó nói
9. Tần suất bạn mua sản phẩm xanh trong vòng 6 tháng vừa qua
• Luôn luôn (100%)
• Thường xuyên (70-80%)
 3

• Thỉnh thoảng (40-50%)

• Hiếm khi (20-30%)
• Không bao giờ (0%)
10. Câu hỏi thang 1-5. Chọn mức độ tương ứng với đáp án của bạn

1 – Hoàn toàn 2 3 4 5 – Hoàn toàn

không đồng ý đồng ý

Một sản phẩm có

thân thiện với
môi trường
không ảnh
hưởng đến quyết
định mua hàng
của tôi

Giá thành của

sản phẩm xanh
ảnh hưởng đến
quyết định mua
hàng của tôi

Nơi phân phối

sản phẩm xanh
ảnh hưởng đến
quyết định mua
hàng của tôi

Quảng bá xanh
ảnh hưởng đến
quyết định mua
hàng của tôi

11. Bạn có sẵn sàng trả mức giá cao hơn để mua một sản phẩm xanh so với sản phẩm
thông thường cùng loại không?
• Có
• Không
 4

• Tùy thuộc vào thương hiệu, chất lượng và lợi ích của sản phẩm
12. Bạn thường mua sản phẩm xanh ở đâu? (Chọn 1 hoặc nhiều hơn)
• Chợ địa phương
• Cửa hàng tiện lợi
• Siêu thị
• Trung tâm thương mai
• Internet
• Mục khác: __________________________________________________
13. Ban đầu, bạn quyết định không mua một mặt hàng. Tuy nhiên, sau khi được giới
thiệu/quảng cáo về các khía cạnh xanh của mặt hàng/thương hiệu đó, bạn có sẵn
sàng thay đổi quyết định mua hàng của mình không?
• Có
• Không
• Khó nói
14. Bạn đã từng gặp công cụ quảng bá nào cho sản phẩm xanh? (Chọn 1 hoặc nhiều
hơn)
• Quảng cáo
• Khuyến mãi
• Phương tiện truyền thông mạng xã hội (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, báo
điện tử...)
• Bán hàng cá nhân (personal selling)
• Quan hệ công chúng (PR)
15. Bạn thường tiếp nhận thông tin về sản phẩm xanh thông qua các kênh nào? (Chọn
1 hoặc nhiều hơn)
• TV
• Internet
• Tạp chí/Báo in
• Người xung quanh (Bạn bè, người thân, đồng nghiệp...)
• Nhân viên tư vấn tại cửa hàng
• Buổi thảo luận/Hội nghị
• Mục khác: __________________________________________________
16. Theo quan điểm của bạn, nhân tố nào trong tiếp thị là quan trọng nhất ảnh hưởng
lớn đến quyết định mua hàng xanh của bạn?
• Sản phẩm
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• Giá thành
• Nơi phân phối
• Quảng bá
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