Consumers’ view on the credibility of green marketing

Abstract

Sustainability is an issue gaining more and more relevance. This development and consumer awareness on sustainability issues has forced companies to adapt their marketing strategies. Green Marketing is a part of sustainability marketing and it refers to how companies market their businesses’ relation to the natural environment. Green Marketing is however no straightforward task and due to the prevalence of greenwashing, consumers are skeptical towards green marketing claims of companies. Consumers are increasingly concerned for the environment; however, their concern does not always translate into action. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to shed light on how consumers view different types of green marketing and how companies can conduct their green marketing strategies in a credible way.

This thesis studies how young adult consumers see their green consumption habits and how they perceive companies’ green marketing through images on social media. The study is conducted through two focus group discussions with individuals born between 1991-1998. One of the discussions was held face-to-face and one via Zoom, due to the restrictions involved during COVID-19 pandemic. The interviews included some questions on the individuals’ own views on their green consumption, as well as a portion where they were shown a portfolio of three different companies marketing images on social media. The three different companies had focused on different types of green marketing and the aim was to find how the participants responded to the different types of images. The discussions were recorded and transcribed and afterwards the material was coded and divided into themes.

Through examining the analysis and results of this study, several conclusions were drawn. The central conclusions on how young adult consumers view their own green consumer behavior were that they were finding it difficult to deal with all the information they were exposed to about sustainability and that they were skeptical towards the marketing materials they were shown. Companies might benefit from displaying both emotionally appealing images, however also including some relevant information on their sustainability practices. To enhance their message and avoid consumer skepticism companies should avoid marketing messages that seem out of context for their products, which creates confusion, or give too much information on one aspect while omitting another.