King’s 1985 Four Marketing Failures
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3 Green Harvesting
“Green harvesting is associated with a corporate culture that fosters short-term profitability and a financial orientation to green issues instead of radical change”
Simula et al., 2009. Firms take advantage with this approach by charging premium price for niche markets. A quite different from green selling, of which the firms turn
attention into sales orientation without improving green aspects on product and production aspects, green harvesting brings environmental improvements and short-
term profit orientation together. Furthermore, economies in terms of energy and material input efficiencies,
packaging reductions, and logistics rationalisation provided strong incentives for firms to develop their environmental programmes Peattie and Crane, 2005: 362.
Nonetheless, even though this notion may enable firms to gain incremental cost savings, firms lacking development of cheaper greener products, leading to hampered
market penetration. People may consider green harvesting firms direct themselves to conservatism,
which is indicated by orientation of cost reduction, short-term profitability, shareholder value, and other financial gains. This makes them reluctant to invest in
green marketing agenda.
4 Enviropreneur Marketing
Enviropreneur marketing was coined two decades ago, indicated by seminal research of Menon and Menon 1997. It holds that start-ups and big firms begin to
increase the number of green products as market research suggests doing so. Since there were ample market research studies revealing that consumers began to aware of
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and were able to buy green products, enviropreneurial marketers responded the demands quickly to bring the intended products to the market.
Nevertheless, Peattie and Crane identify this approach misses the point in three important ways. First, much of the research was weak due to much scope for
respondents to give unrealistic and socially desirable answers. Second, much of the research emphasized general environmental issues, while in practice it addresses
specific environmental concerns which will finally lead to specific green products for the market. Third, few companies take the considerable product-specific market
research into account for ensuring their products success in the market. Many of the enviropreneur firms focused on production orientation, of which
the goal was to produce the most environmentally friendly products against the products that consumers really demanded. Therefore, they failed to market products
that are economically unsuccessful, as indicated by perceived products as under- performing, high price tag, and bad for business.
Finally, Peattie and Crane 2005: 363 concluded the enviropreneur marketers may have meant well, but whilst they had the right environmental goals,
they were always destined to have problems establishing a significant market presence in the long-term because they failed to successfully research, understand or
educate their customers”
5 Compliance Marketing
The last point, compliance marketing is highly related with firms’ retention not to comply what legislation necessitates minimum requirements or standards. This
is often called reactive or end-of-pipe marketing. Peattie and Crane 2005: 365
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describe this approach as a green marketing in a very conservative guise, of which the firm seeks to travel the path of least change and will only go beyond compliance
when there is a very real expectation of imminent legislation. Moreover, there are a number of firms adopting two-handed approach in
which they simultaneously respond proactively to the pressures for change, and also reactively shore up their barricades against any further legislation Peattie and Crane,
2005: 364. For example, apparel makers in one hand keep producing benign products, which in turn they lobbying legislators to enact laws that enforce other firms
in the industry to fit their operational standard into a new legislation. “Whichever approach the compliance marketers have taken though, they have
never had much hope of appealing to the environmental concerns of increasingly savvy customers, or of making any significant advances towards sustainability”
Peattie and Crane, 2005: 364. Thus, firms should carefully formulate appropriate strategy that segregates greenwashing and actual green marketing practices.