Green Consumer: An Initial Study

Marketing philosophy was crystallized in 1950s. But the real business practices remained tar from what marketing proposed. The result was the growth of customer dissatisfaction. This led to the rise of the first ‘ism’ viz., consumerism. During the 1970s the West saw the emergence of another ‘ism’. This time it was the concern and care for the environment. It was environmentalism. Environmentalism is a major force in the developed markets of the world. It has impacted the business through enaction of various laws and the rejection of companies and their products which behaved in ecologically inconsistent fashion. This paper reports the findings of an initial study done to explore some aspects related to the greenness of consumers. The data were collected on the constructs like perception of environmental problems, perceived consumer effectiveness in solving problems, and environmentally-conscious consumer behaviour. The consumers do perceive various listed problems as serious. But their concern level is not much with these problems. The study of the behaviour reveals the consumers do not behave in environmentally conscious manner. At present, only early signs of greening are visible. It would take some more time for the consumers to become green. Once that happens taking cognizance of this development would become a necessity for any business.