Green Marketing: Opportunities and Limitations of Targeting the Green Segment - Case study of IBM

Thèmes abordés

IBM GREEN MARKETING SEGMENTATION GREEN IT Sustainability, Profile-Value

Résumé du document

Abstract

Purpose - Intend to improve the knowledge base concerning the growing green market population.

Objectives - Assess the potentiality of targeting the green consumers in France and in India, by understanding their behaviors and expectations. We also tried to analyze the attitudes of customers towards advertising and Internet. Finally we analyzed the relevance of using segmentation relying on profile value.

Methodology - In order to meet properly to our objectives, we used both quantitative and qualitative methods, focusing on the first one as we needed to make correlations between different variables (attitudes, opinions...).The data were collected thru chiefly an online survey carried out mainly among French and Indian persons. The qualitative analysis was conducted thru two interviews conducted to collect comments, ideas and recommendations concerning the topic and the realization of the survey.

Results - The survey showed that consumer population is "greening": more than three out of four people are claiming to be part of the two first greener segments, and 85% of them consider that environmental friendly products or services are partially solutions to climate change issues. Most (98%) of the 458 respondents are concerned by environmental issues, independently of age, country location or sex. And 83% agreed to pay premium for green products or services but need to maintain their lifestyle with no compromise on either performance or quality. Three out of three tells that "green" advertising does not meet their expectations: 65% thinking that ads should propose solutions to protect environment and 44% thinks that it should inform them. Finally Internet and relatives are the mostly used additional source of information prior a potential buy of a regular product or service. Differences in buying and consuming behaviors, depending on profile-value segmentation, were analysed to help market targeting by corporate brands.

Research limitations/implications - A greater sample and the use of more sophisticated software analytical tool would have improved the accuracy of findings. Marketing efforts to answer the individualism and freedom of consumers has to be made taking into account the emergence of new Internet technology.

Originality/value - The study is valuable because it brings new data and information to the base of knowledge concerning this booming green market segment, which marketing had left to the side because of the difficulty to fragment them into significant segments due to their particular values and behaviors.

Keywords - Green, Marketing, s, Segmentation, IBM, IT.

Paper type - Research paper.

Extraits

[...] One other challenge green marketers are likely to face as green products and messages become more common, is confusion of the marketplace. Environmental statement has to be crystal-clear language and must provide complete information said Jacquelyn Ottman (Ottman J 2002). John Grant concluded in writing (Grant, 2007), that we need marketing that does good, rather than marketing that just looks good Strategy A 2007 review of the different typologies of environmental strategies of firms (see appendix 8 page 75) reveals a scarcity of marketing literature despite decades of interest on the part of firms to integrate the general business environment into their strategies (Rivera-Camino, 2007). [...]

[...] "Green marketing is mostly about making green stuff normal and not about making normal stuff seem green." John Grant (2007). Introduction As Collis et al. (2003) stated, research is central to both business and academic activities. Then after five years of academic studies post high school and before few months before entering in my professional carrier, I would like this research to help me in preparing this new step of my life Background Marketing being one of the sectors I would like to apply for and Informations Systems one of the segments of business I am attracted by, and therefore my research proposal has been influenced by these two factors. [...]

[...] To analyze green advertising sensitivity of customers. To try to evaluate the ecology sensitivity of customers. This study will seek to improve the knowledge base concerning the green marketing marketplace. We interviewed two persons who could give us their insight into the matter of green marketing Type of Research Design Creswell (2003) described quantitative analysis as being the best technique to demonstrate the existence of a correlation between different variables which provides a numeric description of trends, attitudes or opinions of a population by studying a sample of it. [...]

[...] age, gender, social grade, income, marital status. Psychographic segmentation, based on lifestyle and personality. Consumers' lifestyles are derived from their activities, interests and opinions, whereas personality is based on self-images and self-concepts. Behavioristic segmentation divides customers into groups based on their knowledge, attitude or behavior towards a product and its attributes. This may involve differentiation by purchase-occasion, by user status (i.e. non-user, ex-user, and first time user), usage rate and benefits sought. Particular importance is now attached to benefit segmentation. [...]

[...] Greening of companies' logo Typology of green marketing strategies Source: Re-evaluating green marketing strategy: a stakeholder perspective (Rivera-Camino, 2007) Gartner consulting: ten 2009 strategic technologies Green IT. Metadata Management. Virtualisation Mashup Web Platform and WOA (Web architecture oriented) Computing Fabric. Real World Web. Social Software. Source: (Lambel, 2007) U.S. Servers and Storage units evolution from 2000 to 2010 IBM: History of accomplishments for climate protection Source: IBM Corporation, (2007), Early action for Climate Protection Demand to answer Green Marketing survey New Delhi January, 20th 2010 Hi everybody, I am presently realizing a study on "green" marketing (study of the environmental friendly market segment, and the related communication strategies), aiming to analyze consumers expectations as to be able to suggest recommendations for professionals. [...]