PERSPECTIVES OF GREEN MARKETING STRATEGIES IN ROMANIA, CHANGES

AND CHALLENGES

Maria-Roxana COSMA
Ph.D. student, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania,

Maria-Loredana POPESCU
Assistant professor / Ph.D., Spiru Haret University, Bucharest, Romania, popesculrdn@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
The green marketing concept emerged as a result of organizations' interest of environment. In Romania, concern for environment
developed mainly after the year 2000, when Romanian companies realized that their survival lies in coordination between interest of
the organization and benefit of consumer and society just because large foreign companies arrived in Romania, where they extended
their businesses. Thus Romanian companies came to comprehend the importance of applying green marketing that helps them to
survive and continue on the long run.
In spite of increasing interest of green marketing concept and its implication in western countries and researches interest and
thoughts that serve this fields, this concept did not find sufficient concern in eastern countries, where some organizations did not play
a serious role to solve environmental problems properly.
KEY WORDS: green marketing, strategy, marketing mix, green consumer

INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, we witness an increasing interest in environment issues, especially in environment protection. Things
such as preventing environment pollution, or consuming goods both innocuous to the environment and to one’s health –
and children’s health – are ‘basic package’, to put it this way, for the mind of (almost) every man and woman.
In this perspective, the concept of green marketing appeared as a reaction of companies’ management; in effect,
according to Kotler (2002), “a societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want
through creating, offering, and freely exchanging products and services value with others”. Thus, concept of green
marketing was adopted by many a manager as to suit existing companies, and also by environmentalists – quite willing
to use such a concept in their ‘battles’.
The evolution of this concept comprises three stages:
1) First stage – in which green marketing was being included in strategies of (almost) all companies, so that they
might be able to address environment ‘mishaps’, and of course to be able to ‘cure’ those ‘mishaps’;
2) Second stage, which involved changes in technologies, in order to turn them into ‘clean’ technologies, on one
hand, and, finaly, to produce ‘clean’ products, on the other hand.
3) Third stage, which is the stage of sustainable green marketing – coming into existence around year 2000.
All three stages used to change the mentalities of the average consumer, and as a result each companies had to alter
its (marketing) strategy so as to make it ‘green’/‘clean’. Therefore, according to many studies (e.g. Ginsberg and
Bloom, 2004), “some consumers have been willing to pay an up-front premium for energy-efficient, water-conserving
washer and healthier food”.
Ottman (1998), too, noticed that consumers tend to appreciate the fact consuming organic/‘green’ food, for example,
and using energy-saving appliances in one’s home will be benefic for their budgets, having to pay less on food and
energy bills. This goes only as long as consumers are concerned.
On the other side, managers have to change their practice and their planning, if green strategies are ever going to be
applied by them. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) (cf. http://ec.europa.eu) is, in this respect, the nucleus of this
new mentality, of wanting to operate within a ‘green’ framework.
Green marketing has to be, at any rate – and in every second of its application –, (at least) as effective as
‘simple’/‘basic’ marketing. This means, first and firmost, green marketing must underline in the mind of the beholder
(e.g. of the consumer) the basic features of the product (be it good or service), in order to persuade consumers – into
buying that product, of course.
In order to achieve this aim, Ottman (2006) proposes three main strategies:
(A) Consumer value positioning – whose main focus is to make the company focus on (re)designing a product so
as to be different – and better – than all the others (on the market);
(B) Calibration of consumer knowledge – designed so as to ‘equate’ the expectations and desires of the consumer
to the features and ‘best parts’ of the product company intents to sell;
(C) Credibility of product clame – this is an ‘old’ marketing strategy, in other words a classic marketing strategy,
or rather a classic strategy re-run in today’s conditions, through which the company is expected to promote the
product it hopes to sell by pressing on specific good parts of the product.
But, this is by no means all one must know, in order to be able to design – e.g. for his own firm – a successful green
strategy. In today’s (world) economy, the stakeholder issue is one of the most important – anyway, at least as important
as financial markets themselves.
Green marketing is, from this perspective, a rather fruitful construct. That is, on one hand, as any company has to
work out currently the complex ‘equation’ of reducing expenses, this green marketing offers (some) potentially valuable

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solutions. For, as cost of materials, and even more so of energy, is on the rise, firms that will apply (succesfully) green
marketing strategies may have a pleasant surprise – as, and if, their (total) costs will dwindle, or, at least, decrease with
a sensible increment.
On the other hand, financial markets are, nowadays, more volatile than ever. Because of this, a company faces,
among others, the very prospect of having to keep/maintain its present stakeholders, and definitely does not afoort to
lose them. Or, in this vegan/green/eco-friendly/Greenpeace’s world of today, some stakeholders, having, at least in
theory, the possibility of ‘migrating’ – as stakeholders, of course – to other companies mut be convinced by the firm it is
worthwhile to remain its stakeholder.
Thus, if a company is able at least to convince its stakeholders it is a green company, through the development of
(new and) green products, it is likely this will act as a (positive) signal emitted towards stakeholders for their
maintaining as stakeholders. But, there is the possibility that in which stakeholders do not know, for sure, whatever is
that they want (e.g. to receive from the firm); if so, such stakeholders, whose expectations – and even their plan for the
future – is, even for them, a big unknown, will be reassured (or so the theory goes), when they find out marketing
strategy of their company is indeed green.
CHANGES OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
From marketing point of view we have in Romania two important stages of developing green marketing strategy.
All this is general theory of green marketing, apliable anywhere and applied – for sure – in developed economies,
also in our country is developed at the influence of consumer changes. In Romania, concept of green marketing
developed later than in Western Europe, because after 1989 many changes took place in mentality of consumers: these
consumers went by from being consumers almost not at all interested in environment issues to the consumers of year
2015, preoccupied by protection of environment and ecosystem(s) – the so called green consumer – and also by the
impact ‘non-green’/‘dirty’ goods and services have on his/hers existence.
First of all, we must start our inquiry from whatever green consumer we can find today in Romania and abroad –
given this type of business strategy is not much to the taste of Romanian clients, whilst being much more favored by
Western European and American customers or tourists.
In other words, the problem is it is open to doubt whether a company, be it Romanian or non-Romanian, engaging
its resourses into ‘green’ expansion, is endeed able to make a profit, in Romania. A fact is, to begin with, undenably
clear: Romania is a poor country, in realistic (economic) terms, and, as a consequence, Romanian ‘green’ sector is very
modest – not to mention the fact Romanian would-be ‘green’ clients of such a company are – really – nowhere near a
‘green’ state of mind.
A typical Romanian tourist is rather marginally attracted to greenness: he or she is in want of urban, ‘industrial’ type
of entertainment – as a tourist – or homely installations – as a customer –, and not of gazing at bears – for example –
roaming freely in the bushes, or of using solar heating system in his/her home, instead of anyting else.
A chrystal-clear fact is ‘green’ products – especially ‘green’ goods – are expensive: eco cars are very expensive,
‘green’ equipment – e.g. a solar heating system – are not very efficient as pieces of machinery; so, education, in this
respect, is of the outmost importance. In other words, people must be educated, respectively talked into accepting, as
starring point, and after this demanding such products.
In Romania, however, this could prove a very daunting task, to put it midly. For, Romanians, and especially older
Romanians (30 year-olds and up) lived for at least some of their years in communist Romania, a country in which, at
times, hot water and heating were as scarce as gold, if not more so. Telling to a customer like this one he or she should
consume less water – and less heated water –, for example, and that he – or she – sould be even happy to do so, is
bound to end in a marketing disaster.
A brand or company can indeed be diferentiated on the green dimension, but only as far and as effective as the size
of green market it thrives upon to begin with. If its aggregate offer is a sizeable ‘slice’ of whole market, that company
(or brand) is, at least, more or less financially sound (e.g. recording ‘good’ profit rates sqq.), and so is able in principle
to expand – even to expand its green dimension. This expansion, technically speaking, is green differentiation.
Developing a green strategy requires, firstly, the resources needed to turn at least part of output into green products,
and then – but not in the least at all – the internal commitment of all management levels, and especially of the highest
management levels. This is because, if being green in an industry is more or less a manageable process in long term,
turning green is anything but a cost-free, stress-free process (not to mention the financial component of this scheme).
It may not turn well, and even if it does, it will, most likely, drain the company of large amounts of resources
(money being just a part of these resources, but by no means the only one), so that in the end the profit for achieving all
this could be, at least for some time ahead, meager indeed.
From the societal marketing point of view, during the past two decades, in Romania an increasing green
consumption has been recorded – in sense of redirecting consumption for products manufactured using green
technology.
CHANGES OF MARKETING MIX
Second stage of adapting green marketing strategy at company level in Romania is building green marketing mix
constituted by green products, green pricing, green logistics and green promotion. From this point of view adapting
green marketing strategy to organizational areas of the company is more related with the issue of sustenability.
Companies’ philosophy about adoption a green marketing strategy represents for a lot of businesses an opportunity but
also a big challenge for them, because they saw business in the frame of sustainable development.

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 As we know from the classical theory of marketing, the changes to the level of marketing mix strategy is related to
the four P, so as we underlined before changes of strategy will alter all components of the green marketing mix.
Green products’ strategies are based on potential represented by this kind of products and could bring the
competitive advantage for the company because of features like durability, produced with green technologies that also
involve recycled materials or, eco-friendly packaging. In this case, if the strategy aims (only) at turning green its
products, this will not be able to much help greening the image of company; so, from this perspective, we have
companies that preffer to green their product only, and not too focused on greening image of the company (Prakash,
2002).
In this case, it is better to analyse whether to mix in green marketing product strategy certain classic marketing
tools: repair, recondition, reuse, recyclable packaging, sustainable raw materials – such a strategy was used in Romania,
by Coca Coca Company (http://www.coca-colahellenic.ro), by selling water which was bottled in recyclable material.
This is a proof how ‘ecological’ marketing strategies work – main benefit of planning creation of new product on the
basis of relying on ‘ecological’ management objectives is, on one hand, to diminish consumption of (scarce) resources
and, on the other hand, to allow future generations to use the same (scarce) resources.
Green pricing strategy is difficult to implement, because, in the framework of all four elements that compose the
green marketing mix, price of a green product is augmented, if one compares it with the price of a similar, but
conventional, product.
On the other side, ‘good-looking’ products are exactly what – at least in Romania – average consumer want to buy,
being not exactly too interested in intrinsic value. So, green products, being, at least in part (if not overwhelmingly)
relatively expensive, companies which produce such products will be perceived by customer in a (far) better light, on
one hand, and, on the other hand, sustainable long term strategy of those companies can be build on a firm footing.
Goals of a green logistics strategy are related with the place where the customer is able to find green products; it is
even more related to both reverse channel and post-consumer behaviour. From this point of view, this strategy – greatly
used by great retailers – is one who puts the consumer, consecutively, in two contradictory positions, namely first as a
buyer and afterwards as a seller (e.g. one can buy a bottle of beer if he/she brings an empty bottle of the same type of
beer). The reason for this is – at least in Romania – few people want to buy specifically green products, so they must be
kindly ‘coerced’ into doing this.
Green promotion strategy must reveal the fact a promoted green product is quite individualized, as compared to
similar – but conventional – products, due to its implicit trait of now harming the environment, be it social, natural, or
both. This implies, naturally, such a promotion is addressed mainly to people whose lifestyle is openly green, for whom
presenting a corporate image of dedicated environmental responsibility is definitely the thing to do (Singh and Pandey,
2012), but it also implies green company must emphasize explicitely inclusively how their green products are produced
so as to help protecting environment.
As consequence, Ottman (1997) conceived a number of green promotion strategies that should be applied by any
(would-be) green company – inclusively in Romania:
1. Educate consumers on the environmental problems that a green product solves.
2. Empower consumers with solutions by demonstrating to consumers how environmentally sound products and
services can help consumers protect health, preserve the environment for future generations.
3. Provide performance reassurance of green-based products, as many consumers perceive them to be inferior to
conventional products.
4. Consider a suitable mix of media. For instance environmental consumers are more receptive to messages
conveyed through direct marketing, community programs, public relations, and packaging and
5. Appeal to consumer self-interest by bringing out the benefits of green products to both actual consumers and
potential consumers.
CHALLENGES FOR ROMANIAN COMPANIES IN TERMS OF GREEN MARKETING STRATEGIES
As concerns green marketing strategies, Romanian companies face, at least in short term, or especially in short term,
the following challenges:
1. Need of Certification and Standardisation: in Romania are settled rules for green products and authorities
providing the certifications but is not a stable frame that all the cycle, including verifing products. A lot of
companies use labels like eco, bio but this is not always certified.
2. Customer Education: urban Romanian consumer should become friendlier with green products, so Romanian
consumer must to be educated in sense to appreciate green products and to be aware with the benefits. Mostly
are not willing to pay more for an eco-friendly product.
3. Stakeholders long-term commitment to the green marketing strategies must be, at all costs, strenghened, in other
words treated as long-term investment at the level of the company. Manufactoring this kind of products requires
investments in green technologies.
4. Costs and profits: an undeniable fact is most Romanian investors are not aware of the oportunity
guaranteed only by patience, e.g. to invest money now and to enjoy the benefits in a long term scenario. Of
course – in our case –, green products require raw materials wich are renewable and recyclable and (of
course) more expensive, so large costs, and also larger risks, are involved.

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 CONCLUSIONS
The main argument of our paper is that changes in the green education of consumers have unavoidable effects on
marketing practice. Effects generated by those changes cause consumption of green products and services. The good
thing in Romania is an increasing number of consumers which are concerned about climatic changes, compared to the
number of ‘environment savvy’ consumers that did exist in Comunist era.
From this perspective, a very important conclusion we reached is consumers want that the companies which produce
their favourite brand are sensible to the factors that, in the future, their activities will change the climate and their life.
For Romania, that impact was significant by the entering on market of foreign companies which helped ‘generate’ a
new generation of consumers.
Based on this example of foreign companies, such a change in mentality of population has generated the concept of
“green consumer”. Good news seems to bring, a new attitude, from the economic and financial point of view, in the
perception of companies, which become more responsible about the manner in which that are making business, willing
to be more concerned about environment issues. Not all companies are equally aware of these problems, however,
because they give to the consumer environment friendly products for a higher price.
In addition, the structure of goods and services dedicated to green consumers is going to changes in Romania, as in
the others countries from EU, because of the increase in the proportion of green consumers in the total population.
On the other hand, our work is focused mostly on Romania’s state of affairs, which is also compared with that of the
other states, where also marketing turns, gradually, but not necessarily with a slow pace, from traditional marketing to
green marketing. The problem is consumption of green products in Western EU countries – and, of course, U.S.A. –,
were consumers earn higher incomes (e.g. than in Romania), is related to education and, above all, mentality, whereas
in Romania, where low(er) incomes prevail, consumer is more interested in price,
This does not mean, however, Romania is not fit – at least for now – for green marketing: Romanian economy has
recorded an increasing number of consumers which are willing to pay more for environmental friendly products.
Adopting green marketing strategies by Romanians companies is related with:
a) attaining competitive advantage by assuming Corporate Social Responsibility and getting a green orporate
Image;
b) Government pressure related to the concern for a sustainable development of Romanian economy (cases like
Roşia Montană and Exxon in Romania);
c) balance between costs and profits in long term, because investing in green products will bring profits in future,
but not immediately.
In Romania there is an increase interest amoung consumers regarding environment issues and green products, but
also is to be found a growing number of people living at the limit of subsistence, people which, as one can only expect,
does not afford to live even a decent life, let alone a green one.
From this perspective, one of the most important conclusions of our paper is that adopting green marketing
strategies by Romanian companies is positive and could be one of the key factors that, in future, will change Romania
for the better, being backed by a significant positive impact, as it can only be expected to constitute an essential tool for
achieving sustainable development – of Romanian economy, but also of Romanian society.

REFERENCES
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