Green marketing: legend, myth, farce or prophesy?

TLDR

The paper offers an alternative viewpoint on the poorly understood area of green marketing, explaining why the anticipated green revolution has not radically changed products and markets. The study reviews the history of green marketing since the early 1990s and critiques theory and practice to assess how marketing can still contribute to sustainability. The authors analyze green marketing over the past 15 years using the 1985 framework “Has marketing failed, or was it never really tried” to identify false marketing practices that hinder progress. The review finds that most so‑called green marketing lacks a genuine marketing or environmental philosophy, identifies five misconceived types—green spinning, green selling, green harvesting, enviropreneur marketing, and compliance marketing—and argues that radical changes in marketing thought and practice are needed to advance sustainability.

Abstract

Purpose To review the history of “green marketing” since the early 1990s and to provide a critique of both theory and practice in order to understand how the marketing discipline may yet contribute to progress towards greater sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The paper examines elements of green marketing theory and practice over the past 15 years by employing the logic of the classic paper from 1985 “Has marketing failed, or was it never really tried” of seeking to identify “false marketings” that have hampered progress. Findings That much of what has been commonly referred to as “green marketing” has been underpinned by neither a marketing, nor an environmental, philosophy. Five types of misconceived green marketing are identified and analysed: green spinning, green selling, green harvesting, enviropreneur marketing and compliance marketing. Practical implications Provides an alternative viewpoint on a much researched, but still poorly understood area of marketing, and explains why the anticipated “green revolution” in marketing prefaced by market research findings, has not more radically changed products and markets in practice. Originality/value Helps readers to understand why progress towards a more sustainable economy has proved so difficult, and outlines some of the more radical changes in thought and practice that marketing will need to adopt before it can make a substantive contribution towards greater sustainability.