1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background Over the recent years the threat of global warming due to environment pollution has become so real. Consumers businesses are known to be the biggest contributors to environmental degradation which has result to global warming. This has lead to an increased call for organizations to engage in sustainable business practices where their operation will have very limited negative impacts on the environment (Cherian and Jacob 2012). Today, companies are not only complying with legislation regard environment, but are also going extra mile to invest in production of green products (i.e. environment friendly product), label, promote and distribute their product in an eco-friendly environment in order to gain competitive advantage( Cherain and Jacob 2012). Unfortunately, there is insufficient empirical studies to shows whether green marketing does influences consumer attitude and hence the decision to purchase the products. As a result, there is confusion in the corporate world in regard to whether green marketing can give a company a competitive advantage or not. Based on the context above, the proposed study will investigate consumers’ attitude toward the eco-friendly products in order to understand whether green marketing can really give companies competitive advantage.2.0 Literature Review
2.1 Introduction In this section, the available literature relating to the topic of interest will be critically analyzed in order to understand their finding. Specifically, only literature relating to green marketing and consumers attitude will be analyzed 2.2 Green marketing According to the Cherian and Jacob (2012), Green marketing refers to marketing a product as environmentally friendly and safe. A more comprehensive definition is given by Polonsky (2011) who describe green marketing as the efforts by a company to design, price, promote and distributes products in a manner that will have minimal detrimental impacts on the natural environment. For the purpose of this paper, green marketing will cover all marketing activities including designing, promoting, distributing and pricing which are undertaken by companies in a way that is environmentally safe and friendly. The evolution of green marketing can be trace back to the increased pressure from media, governments, lobby group and environmentalist for companies to exhibit eco-friendly behaviour for the sake of the environment .As result, companies started packing and presenting their products in an environmentally friendly manner (Cherian and Jacob 2012). However, over the recent years, Companies has shifted from practicing environmental marketing practices as compliances to legislation, to a genuine effort to sustainable marketing practice that are eco-friendly with the hope of gaining competitive advantage (Polonsky 2011). Some of the most common green marketing techniques used by company to gain competitive advantages are eco labelling, eco-branding and environmental advertising Eco-labelling Eco labelling is one of the most common green marketing tools used by marketer. It refers to practice of using label to show or create a perception that a product is environment friendly (Rex and Baumann). Eco branding According to the Kolter et al (20080, a brand is a name, symbol, logo or sign or combination of two or more of them which is intended to identify a products of company and to differentiate it from those of competitors. in the context of this definition, eco-branding is describe as the process of choosing a name, sign, symbol logo with the intention of displaying and create perception that a products is environmental friendly (Delafrooz et al 2013) Environmental advertising Environmental adavertsing has been described as the practice of promoting a product as environmental friendly. The difference between environment advertising and the normal advertising is that in the later, the main aims is to shows or display the products as an eco-friendly (Delafrooz et al 2013) 2.3 Consumer behaviours Consumers’ behaviour is defined as psychological process in which a person identifies the need of the products and as well as make decision about the products they purchase (Engel et al 1993). According to Kolters (2008) consumers behaviour refer to the mental process that consumers goes through when purchasing a products. Consumers behaviours is not static, it is determined and influenced by a number of factors including how the products is marketed to them by the producer (kolters 2008) 2.4 Links between green marketing and consumer behaviour 2.4.1 Eco-labelling and consumers’ behaviour There are few empirical studies that have investigated the links between eco-labelling and consumer’s intention to purchase the products (Rashid 2009, Rahbar and Wahid 2011). According to the study conducted by Rashid (2009), eco-labelling were found to be play a greater role in helping consumers identify eco-friendly products and also influence their purchase decision of those products. Rahbar and Wahid (2011) also reached similar finding in their study where a significant relationship was found between eco-labelling and consumers’ intention to purchase. 2.4.2 Eco-branding and consumers’ behaviour Several studies have also investigated the links between eco-branding and consumers’ behaviour. Most of these studies include one by Rahbar and Wahid (2011) has shown eco-branding to be very effective in influencing customer intention to purchase products branded as eco-friendly. 2.4.3 Environmental advertising and consumers’ behaviour There is also few studies that have investigated the relationship been environmental advertisement and consumers behaviour. According to one study by Chase and Smith (1992), 70 percent s of their respondent expressed intention to purchase a product that was advertised as eco-friendly. Different finding was recorded by a study conducted by Rahbar and Wahid (2011) where environmental advertisement was found to have very little influence on consumers’ intention to purchase the advertised products. Although there are few studies that have investigated the links between green marketing and consumers behaviour, all of them focused on consumers’ intention to purchase rather that the actual purchase. Intention to purchase and turning the intention to actual purchase is two different things Cherain and Jacob 2012). 2.5 Conceptual framework a Based on the above literature analysis and the research gap that exist the following conceptual frame work will be used to guide this research 3.0 Research Hypothesis and Question Based on the conceptual framework developed above, the following hypothesis and questions will guide the current study. 3.1 Hypothesis H1: eco-labelling do influence consumers’ purchase decision H2: Eco-branding do influence consumers’ purchase decision H3: environmental Advertising do influence Consumers’ purchase decision 3.2 Research questions Does eco-labelling influence customers to purchase the product labelled as such? Does eco-branding influence customers to purchase the product branded as such? Does environmental advertisement influence customer to purchase the product? Operational definition Eco-labelling- using label to identify and display a product as eco-friendly (Delafrooz et al 2013) Eco-branding-Using a name, sign, symbol, logo or combination of two or more with the intention of displaying a products as environmental friendly (Delafrooz et al 2013, Rabhar and Wahid 2011). Environmental advertising- promoting product as eco-friendly (Delafrooz et al 2013). 4.0 Research methodology This section will explain the main methodology to be used in the proposed study. Specifically, the section will explain research method, sampling, data gathering and analysis. 4.1 Research design This study will use the quantitative approach to understand the topic under investigation. According to Saunder et al (2007) quantitative approach is a research strategy that is systematically design to gather and analyze quantifiable data to understand the phenomena in a more scientific way. Quantitative approach was deemed suitable for this research due to the fact that it is objective in nature (Saunder et al 2007) and it is the most suitable strategy to understand the relationship between variables or to test hypothesis (Kumar 2011) 4.2 Sampling As stated earlier, this research aims to investigation consumers’ attitude toward environmentally friendly products. This therefore clearly shows that the target population in this research are the consumers. However, since consumers are a very large population, a sample will be used in the study. 30 consumers will be randomly selected to participate in the research. 4.3 Data collection techniques In order to conduct a comprehensive study, primary data will be gathered. Primary data is defined by Kumar (2011) as original data that is collected through first-hand investigation i.e. data that never existed before. In order to gather the primary data needed, self-administered questionnaire will be used. Self administered questionnaire is a type of questionnaire whereby the respondents complete it on their own (Kumar 2011). This type of questionnaire was deemed fit for the study due to the fact that they are convenient and more importantly the researcher are not able to influence respondents’ feedback hence providing unbiased information (Saunder et al 2007). 4.4 Data analysis and presentation As stated earlier, this study will use quantitative approach. This therefore means that the data gathered must be analyzed statistically. The data will be analysed using a statistical method know as regression. Regression is a method that investigates the existence or non-existence of relationship between two or more variables (Gray 2009). It will therefore help determine whether there is relationship between the variables under investigation in the study. Once the data are gathered, they will be coded and entered into MS excel which will later be used to conduct the regression analysis. 5.0 Research process The research processes and their duration are as follow.| 12/2016 | 1/2017 | 2/2017 | 3/2017 | 4/2017 | |
| Preparing research proposal | . | ||||
| Pilot testing | |||||
| Recruiting the respondents | |||||
| Data gathering | |||||
| Data coding and entry | |||||
| Data analysis | |||||
| Preparing draft report | |||||
| Proof reading | |||||
| complete the research |