According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe.

[1] Thus green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. Green, environmental and eco-marketing are part of the new marketing approaches which do not just refocus, adjust or enhance existing marketing thinking and practice, but seek to challenge those approaches and provide a substantially different perspective. In more detail green, environmental and eco-marketing belong to the group of approaches which seek to address the lack of fit between marketing as it is currently practiced and the ecological and social realities of the wider marketing environment WHAT IS GREEN MARKETING? Green marketing can be defined as, "All activities designed to generate and facilitate anyexchange intended to satisfy human needs or wants such that satisfying of these needs and wantsoccur with minimal detrimental input on the national environment."Green marketing involves developing and promoting products and services that satisfycustomer's want and need for Quality, Performance, Affordable Pricing and Conveniencewithout having a detrimental input on the environment. Evolution of Green Marketing The green marketing has evolved over a period of time. The evolution of green marketing hasthree phases. First phase was termed as "Ecological" green marketing, and during this period allmarketing activities were concerned to help environment problems and provide remedies for environmental problems. Second phase was "Environmental" green marketing and the focusshifted on clean technology that involved designing of innovative new products, which take careof pollution and waste issues. Third phase was "Sustainable" green marketing. It came into prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000. Why Green Marketing? As resources are limited and human wants are unlimited, it is important for the marketers toutilize the resources efficiently without waste as well as to achieve the organization's objective.So green marketing is inevitable.There is growing interest among the consumers all over the world regarding protection of environment. Worldwide evidence indicates people are concerned about the environment and arechanging their behavior. As a result of this, green marketing has emerged which speaks for growing market for sustainable and socially responsible products and services.

Benefits of Green Marketing Companies that develop new and improved products and services with environment inputs inmind give themselves access to new markets, increase their profit sustainability, and enjoy acompetitive advantage over the companies which are not concerned for the environment. Adoption of Green Marketing There are basically five reasons for which a marketer should go for the adoption of greenmarketing. They are -Opportunities or competitive advantageCorporate social responsibilities (CSR)Government pressureCompetitive pressureCost or profit issues EXAMPLES OF GREEN MARKETING INDIAN CONTEXT 1. TATA GROUP OF COMPANIES: y

Tata motors ltd. is setting up an eco-friendly showroom using natural material for itsflooring and energy efficient lights. y

The taj chain, is in the process of creating eco-rooms which have energy efficient mini bars, organic bed linen and napkins made up of recycled papers. The rooms will haveCFLs or Leds. y

Launched a low cost water purifier made up of natural ingredients. y Developing indica EV, an electric car that would run on polymer lithium ion batteries.2. Recently launched Samsung solar mobile guru.3. Battery operated L.G TV.4. Introduction of C.N.G in

Delhi. 5. Badarpur Thermal Power station of NTPC in Delhi is devising ways to utilize coalash that has been a major source of air and water pollution. 6. Barauni refinery of IOC is taken steps for restricting air and water pollutants.

GLOBAL SCENARIO:

Philips Light's "Marathon" Philips Lighting's first shot at marketing a standalone compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb wasEarth Light, at $15 each versus 75 cents for incandescent bulbs. The product had difficultyclimbing out of its deep green niche. The company re-launched the product as "Marathon,"underscoring its new "super long life" positioning and promise of saving $26 in energy costsover its five-year lifetime. Finally, with the U.S. EPA's Energy Star label to add credibility aswell as new sensitivity to rising utility costs and electricity shortages, sales climbed 12 percent inan otherwise flat market. Car sharing services Car-sharing services address the longer-term solutions to consumer needs for better fuel savingsand fewer traffic tie-ups and parking nightmares, to complement the environmental benefit of more open space and reduction of greenhouse gases. They may be thought of as a "time-sharing"system for cars. Consumers who drive less than 7,500 miles a year and do not need a car for work can save thousands of dollars annually by joining one of the many services springing up,including Zip Car (East Coast), I-GO Car (Chicago), Flex Car (Washington State), and Hour Car (Twin Cities). Electronics sector The consumer electronics sector provides room for using green marketing to attract newcustomers. One example of this is HPs promise to cut its global energy use 20 percent by theyear 2010. To accomplish this reduction below 2005 levels, The Hewlett-Packard Companyannounced plans to deliver energy-efficient products and services and institute energy-efficientoperating practices in its facilities worldwide.