The Greenwash Effect on Consumer Behavior. Research Proposal

Introduction

As society makes the advances in technology, agriculture, transport and other areas, it is undoubtedly clear that our planet is struggling to keep up with the damage being caused; as supported by NASA 97 percent of scientists agree that humans are responsible for global warming (Magee, "Close-Up: It's time to get real about going green", 2014, Web. 1 October, 2014). Over the years the amount of pollution and lack of resources have rapidly come to the attention of society and proposed an issue which must either be faced head on and resolved or eventually, our planet will no longer be able to sustain our hefty demands. This has created a social pressure upon consumers to become "green" and therefore presented on opportunity for marketers to differentiate themselves and satisfy what is now a niche market but rapidly expanding. The term "green" or "greener" can have many different meanings which entice consumers to purchase these products over "brown" products due to the altruistic branding of the company as well as the lasting impact that is brought on by their purchase powder.

An example is Paul Mitchell's Live Beautifully corporate responsibility which gives back by replanting trees in areas that need it most as a way to "right the wrong" of taking down trees, as many companies do, for packaging. While this is altruistic sounding in theory, it takes many years of an entire ecosystem to repopulate entirely and so the damage cannot be simply undone by planting a few trees ("Reforest'Action - Paul Mitchell"). This is called greenwashing: the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service ("The ‘Six Sins of Greenwashing'"). As consumers hold the purchasing power to either make the change in the world or lead to further damage which can be irreversible, green washing can mislead consumers to believe they are choosing a truly sustainable option when that is not...