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"Green" marketing is a business practice that takes into account consumer concerns about promoting preservation and conservation of the natural environment. Green marketing campaigns highlight the superior environmental protection, characteristics of a company's products and services, whether those benefits take the form of reduced waste in packaging, increased energy efficiency in product use, or decreased releases of toxic emissions and other pollutants in production. Most observers agree that while some businesses engage in green marketing solely because such an emphasis will enable them tomake a profit, other businesses conduct their operations in an environmentally-sensitive fashion because their owners and managers feel a responsibility to preserve the integrity of the natural environment even as they satisfy consumer needs and desires. Indeed, true green marketing emphasizes environmental stewardship.
Environmental Marketing author Walter Codington, for example, defined environmental marketing as "marketing activities that recognize environmental stewardship as a business development responsibility and business growth responsibility.
GREEN PROMOTION
Perhaps no area of green marketing has received as much attention as promotion. In fact, green advertising claims grew so rapidly during the late 1980s that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US issued guidelines to help reduce consumer confusion and prevent the false or misleading use of terms such as "recyclable," "degradable," and "environmentally friendly" in environmental advertising. Since that time, the FTC has continued to offer general guidelines for companies wishing to make environmental claims as part of their promotional efforts:
* Qualifications and disclosures should be sufficiently clear and prominent to prevent deception.
* Environmental claims should make clear whether they apply to the product, the package, or a component either. Claims need to be qualified with regard to minor, incidental components of the product or package.
* Environmental claims should not overstate the environmental attribute or benefit. Marketers should avoid implying a significant environmental benefit where the benefit is, in fact, negligible.
* A claim comparing the environmental attributes of one product with those of another product should make the basis for the comparison sufficiently clear and should be substantiated.
The FTC regulations apply to all aspects and forms of marketing, including labeling, advertising, and promotional materials. In addition to delineating marketing claims that might be regarded as false or misleading, the FTC also provides...