Stakeholders in
Environmental Marketing:
The term ‘stakeholders’ refers to person/s
or group/s or organisation/s, which have positively an influence over the
operational activities of a person/s or group/s or organization/s. Stakeholders
can influence now a days in very different ways and they are playing a very
strong role in shaping the decision of an organisations.Organisations eying for
future growth and to ensure that successfully for the long term need to be
taken care of the concerns of the stakeholders.
The ‘stakeholders’ in marketing usually
refers to the persons such as:
a)
Investors.
b)
Employees.
c)
Customers.
d)
Suppliers.
e)
Retailers.
who are associated directly or indirectly
with different marketing activities like as:
a)
Raw
Material procurement.
b)
Product
Development
c)
Production
and Promotion.
d)
Marketing
of Products etc.
At present, the environment has become an
emerging issue in every aspects and organisation are also not outside the
purview of scope of environmental scrutiny by the different groups. People from
different corner of society now scrutinize the firm’s environmental activities
with an eye on environmental impact. As a result, new stakeholders have emerged.
These new corporate stakeholders also include in addition to the above
mentioned ‘stakeholders’ are:
a)
Community
Activists.
b)
Law
makers/Regulators.
c)
Opinion
leaders (Educators/Church leaders etc)
d)
Children
and future generations.
The stakeholders now monitor the specific
company’s environmental impact by their different marketing activities as mentioned
above. They monitor the activities for the following purposes mainly:
a)
Shutting
down the polluting operations.
b)
Boycotting.
c)
Conducting
negative media campaign.
d)
Lobbying
for stiff new regulatory framework etc.
A growing number of others, however, are actually
looking to contribute positively by engaging individual industries or companies
in collaborative efforts.The marketers can also gain a lot by wining their support.
A growing number of enlightened marketers find that forming a constructive
partnerships or coalitions with willing stakeholder groups provides many positive benefits such as:
a) Positive dialogue
that leads to fulfill the both objectives.
b)
Advance warning of pending changes in regulations.
c)
Access to new markets.
d)
Opportunities to educate the consumers about key environmental issues.
e)
Technical expertise that can help to improve the value of existing products,
lead to new products, or develop ways
to cut costs.
f)
Bolster credibility for green products and communications.
g)
Enhances image and heightened impact.
h)
Positive publicity that can help stretching marketing efforts.
Brief
Analysis regarding the ‘Role of Environment Stakeholders’:
a)
Customers/General
Public Stakeholders:
The lack of basic
awareness of ecological principles and processes, and the emotionalism inherent
in environmental issues coupled with rampant misperceptions, can make consumers
turn their backs to individual companies or industries overnight. These
problems, if not addressed properly and in time, can stand contrary in the way
of industry’s ability to secure favourable sites for manufacturing plants,
recruit the best employees, and ensure continued markets for its products.
To overcome these sorts
of problems, following two courses of actions may be taken:
a) The general public
should be educated on how best to solve environmental problems and establish
favourable perceptions.
b) The need to maintain
regular communication to keep abreast them with the latest changes and updates.
There is a dire
necessity of a well informed public to make rational purchasing and policy
decisions about such things as products, packaging, and manufacturing processes.
Industry has the relevant facts and technical information as well as the
necessary regulatory and consumer incentives to help clarify the issues and get
the public on a legitimately greener track.
We may consider the
example of ‘Recycling’ issue in this regard:
Though recycling is
necessary and desirable consumer behaviour, it is not the complete answer to
reducing landfill disposal problems that many adults and children perceive.
Rather than ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’, the desirable hierarchy is more often
‘recycle, recycle and landfill’. A majority of the consumers engage in
recycling than any other environmental related activity.Besides, consumers are
much more likely to engage in recycling related behaviours, such as buying
products that can be recycled or are made from recycled content, than in trying
to avoid waste in the first place by using refillable containers or buying
fewer disposables.
The implications of
consumer’s blind love for recycling can be significant. Because they were not
recyclable, aseptive packages were banned from the state of Maine of USA in 1990.They
were reinstated later, when pilot recycling programs were setup and knowledge
of their energy and source reduction benefits were established. Even today most
of the Americans favour stricter recycling laws and think that manufacturers
should be required to design products with a certain range of recycled content,
even though such design strategies as durability and reduced packaging may
represent environmentally superior solutions. With declining tons of natural
resources and increasing amount of household solid waste, consumer attention will
need to be refocused on alternative product designs and material use policies
as well as compliments to recycling such as source reduction and composting.
b)
Community Activists:
Environmental groups
refer to different associations or institutions fighting for the cause of
environmentalism. Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, one of the most
pronounced developments among environmental groups is their growing willingness
to join together with industry for mutual gain. They realize that since
businesses control many of the resources and yield much of the power in a
market based economy, joining with them is the best way to clean up the
environment, encourage more responsible consumption, and pave the way for a
sustainable society.
The industry should
develop positive relationships with environmentalists through the groups such
as:
1)
Corporate
Philanthropy
2)
Joint
Industry/Advocacy group alliance
3)
Cause
related marketing campaigns.
4)
New
product alliances.
Brief analysis is
given below:
1) Corporate Philanthropy: Corporate
philanthropy is a fund of donations made through collective foundations. The
Corporate Philanthropy is an effective marketing and public relation tool which
creates more favourable impressions for a company overall. It also helps
companies to create awareness among influential environmentalists and
eco-conscious consumers for their corporate environmental effort. Donations to
Charities and the Arts, for example, help corporations varnish their leadership
images and make friends with societies influential.
2) Joint Industry/Advocacy group alliance: The joint
industry/Advocacy groups are the individuals or group of employees willing to
donate money to environmental groups to achieve certain stated objectives
directly associated with environment.
3) Cause related marketing programs: Cause related
marketing programs are best known as strategic promotional efforts in which
businesses or companies donate a certain percentage of their products sales to
a not-for-profit group or cause.
4) New Product alliances: New product alliances are those who
work for development of new product.
c)
Law
Makers/Regulators:
In past, the
Government’s duty was to enforce the rules and regulations relating to
environmentalism which was passed by the Law Makers in their respective
assembly of the country. The companies which were unable to comply the rules
and regulations were virtually forced out of business or had to scale back
operations and jobs along with them.
In present context,
previously followed ‘Command & Control’ approach by the Government could
not produce any positive outcome rather than create setbacks. The Govt.now realizes
that voluntary approach can solve the problems better. Slowly but surely this
enlightened approach is starting to takeover, creating opportunities for ‘Win-Win’
solutions for both the businesses and the Govt.Partnership businesses enjoy
increased flexibility in meeting existing laws and regulations as well as
access to technical resources that can
lead to competitive advantage, new marketing opportunities, and enhanced
credibility and public recognition for their environmental efforts. People now
believe that market based solutions to environmental problems are more
desirable than the regulation of industry. Law makers now create exciting
voluntary pollution prevention programs for willing industry partners. They
have greater influence over the environmental rules and regulations which can
directly impact the industry’s practices followed regarding environmental
issues.
d)
Opinion Leaders
(Educators/Church Leaders):
Educators, Church
Leaders of different educational and religious institutions are also regarded
as important stakeholders in environmental marketing. The Educators or Church
Leaders are willing stakeholder partners. They welcome educational materials to
help answer student’s environmental questions, and ecology’s tropical nature
helps to lighten up an otherwise dry science, mathmatics or civics lesson.
e)
Employees:
The role of
employees as stakeholders in environmental marketing can never be exaggerated.
They are also active partners in the cause of environment related education.
They rely on corporations for their livelihood and have a personal stake in
preserving their industry’s reputations and markets. As employees, they want to
feel good about where they work. Employees are also likely to be members of a
corporations local community as well as purchasers of it’s products. The
marketers should enlist their support as liaisons to the community and of
course, to their own families and friends.
f)
Retailers:
Another potential
source of stakeholder support in educating the general public about
environmentalism is Retailers. The Retailers have their own environmental
issues to manage even though they belong to the frontline of consumer demand.
Their concerns include source reduction and recycling, energy involved in
lighting, heating, air conditioning, and indoor air quality. Retailers have
direct access to influential Green consumers. Teaming up with Retailers to
educate consumers often results in in-store merchandising support that can
boost sales as well as strengthen marketer’s relationships. Retailers should be
green for variety of reasons like credibility and cost.
g)
Suppliers:
Suppliers are the
producers of the products. They are a logical source to turn for support in
balancing consumer’s environmental demands with primary product benefits. Their
vested interest and closeness to their own products and technologies enable
them to offer creative ways to reduce environmental impact of specific products
and bring new innovations relating to the product. The representatives of the
marketers can call meetings of the suppliers and brief suppliers of
ingredients, packaging and other inputs on the company’s environmental
objectives and progress, and educate them on key developments in the field of
life cycle analysis, product stewardship, and other green product development tools.
Outstanding supplier initiatives may be shared and rewarded.
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