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INTERNATIONAL GREEN MARKETING INTRODUCTION This is a summary on a journal of international green marketing by Gurau and Ranchhod (2005), which addresses issues that influence marketing of ecological products. Following this is a critique of the article, intending to identify if any of these claims made by Gurau and Ranchhod are valid and significant. SUMMARY Gurau and Ranchhod (2005) argue that, unlike the British, Romanian firms export ecological products using foreign agents.
A major trend in modern business is ‘Green marketing’ (Kassaye, 2001), where customer awareness of the environment leads to high demand of ecological products (also known as ‘green’ products). It defines ecological products as that manufactured “using toxic-free ingredients…. “. Green marketing experience challenges such as customer complaints regarding the high costs and unglamorous images of the products. Green products are mainly marketed in developed countries, for instance, Australia and Western Europe.
Internationalisation theories are discussed; it’s mainly based on the Uppsala (Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975), and management innovation (Bilkey and Tesar, 1977) models. Ranchhod and Gurau (2005) state that competition within the country will manipulate the internationalisation process of eco-firms. It also shows how qualitative data, such as face-to-face interviews, were used to analyse and answer research objectives.
In the analysis, the country-of-origin of these firms was seen as important, in terms of their differences (due to the country’s standard of environmental regulations). The Romanian public hardly express any awareness concerning ‘green’ issues due to the extinction of certified green products there, whereas, in the UK customer awareness of such issues are high. Ecological products in the UK are represented by strong brand names; their exportations of ecological products are small. However, in Romania, exportation of green products is high due to the cheapness.
This paper declares that the main reasons for initiating marketing processes are dissimilar in Romania and in UK. For Romania, adjusting their methods to suit ecological standards will lead to their products being ecologically certified allowing way for sales globally. UK firms have a mature domestic market ecologically; these firms continue to enhance their profits (through their positively known brands in various overseas markets), avoiding big competition in the UK market by introducing international operations. Table I. n this paper shows the difference between challenges experienced in the UK and Romania markets suggesting that British firms experience more challenges than Romanian firms, however, British firms have an advantage because it’s more developed than Romania. Shortly after, it discusses the target market selection – Borregaard et al. (2003) identifying two variables, as strong predictors of foreign eco-market attractiveness, which are represented in ‘figure 1’ on a bi-dimensional graph, with four types of market: Unfavourable, developed, underdeveloped and emergent eco-market.
Following this is another bi-dimensional graph considering the competitive conditions of foreign eco-markets, which is explained in detail in Table III. Overall, this paper has analysed and identified challenges for international green marketing ??? the commercialisation of ecological products both in UK and Romania. The Romanian eco-markets have developed progressively and now have a stronger position. The findings suggest that British firms have different marketing strategies from Romanian firms.
These references to Gurau and Ranchhod’s work (2005) are well segmented, and easy to find. CRITIQUE Gurau, C and Ranchhod, A wrote ‘International green marketing: A comparative study of British and Romanian firms’. It addresses issues influencing the marketing of ecological products. Gurau, C. is a marketing specialist he owns a PhD in Marketing, and Ranchhod, A. is a factulty professor in marketing, both of them have produced many marketing articles.
They believe international green marketing is an issue that has to be raised in order to raise customer awareness and for international businesses to learn marketing strategies to help their firms. Therefore this paper is significant because it talks about marketing segmentation (Jobber, 2007) and the benefits (target market selection, differentiation and opportunities and threats). It’s almost similar to a SWOT analysis of international green marketing based on Britain and Romania.
This is based in the ecological markets of these two countries however two different sectors (agri-food and cosmetics). This journal influenced my views to green marketing, as it was unknown to me that it was a major trend in modern business, as it is stated in the journal, I believe now that it is important to the economy of any country. This journal is valid because it was written in 2005 by two prestigious characters in marketing, however there were inconsistencies.
Having read through the journal noticing that most of the points made by Gurau and Ranchhod (2005) were backed up by analysts (Kassaye, 2001; Strong, 1995.. etc. ), I began to suspect that some of the points made by them were not facts but based on their own opinions: “At the present, the foreign markets are considered as the only centres of profits…” ??? 552 (who considers this statement so? ). As two well-educated individuals its only right that they use grammar properly: “Because of this, Romanian firms…” ??? 553, according to the oxford dictionary, its improper to start a sentence with a conjunction.
Apparently, the research methodology section of this article is quite long and extremely detailed compared to the research methodology section of the article by Andrea Prothero: ‘Environmental decision making: research issues in the cosmetics and toiletries industry’, which was short and concise (easier to understand). This article is similar to the green marketing article because they both talk about marketing, however different because Prothero’s journal is based on within the society and Gurau and Ranchhod’s journal is based on two countries. CONCLUSION
Overall, it is apparent that this journal has been very educational because it mentions marketing theories (Market segments) relevant to Business and Management in general. It was very well constructed and easy to understand because of the use of subheadings. The diagrams were relevant as it made the concepts being mentioned comprehensible. Obviously, the objective of Gurau and Ranchhod were achieved because they addressed issues which affect the international ecological market and gained greater insight as to why the British and Romanian eco-firms have strong differences.