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A STUDY ON BUYER BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS THE CUSTOMER OF GREEN

PRODUCTS IN CHENNAI CITY

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 Kanpur Philosophers
ISSN 2348-8301
International Journal of humanities, Law and Social Sciences
Published biannually by New Archaeological & Genological Society
Kanpur India

Vol. VIII, Issue VI : 2021

A STUDY ON BUYER BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS THE CUSTOMER OF GREEN PRODUCTS
IN CHENNAI CITY

Dr. [Link] Simha Netaji, Assistant Professor and Head, PG Department of Commerce,
Arulmigu Palaniandavar College of Arts & Culture, Palani.

Dr. [Link], Associate Professor and Head, [Link] Corporate Secretaryship Gurunanak College
(Autonomous) Chennai

Abstract
The study ‘Buyer behaviour” in green marketing aims to examine the impact of green products on product
choice and how green initiatives influence purchase intention of consumers. The study aims to examine the
relationship between gender, age, education, and marital status with consumer satisfaction with regard to green
purchase. The study is descriptive in nature and focuses on hypothesis testing using structured questionnaire
and interview. Structure questionnaire is used to collect primary data from a sample size of 171 respondents.
The customers of green products in Chennai city, Tamilnadu, India become the respondents for the study.
Likert scale questions with five-scaling were used to do the hypothesis testing. The research revealed that green
marketing tools played a significant role in inducing a positive purchase intention and customer satisfaction
towards green products.
Keywords: Buyer behaviour, Green marketing, Green products

INTROUDCTION
The concept Green marketing is not only the latest and popular trending marketing but also an important
ethical marketing as the major climatic changes has threatening the normal life of human beings and other
living things on the earth. The major reason for this climate change and global warming is our consumption
which leads to the natural resources depletion, deforestation, and eradication of life of other living features
on the earth. Knowingly or unknowingly this type of production and consumption continues for decades, but
after getting a proper warning and alert, the producer and consumers have started to changing for eco-friendly
products as these products more concerned on environment and save human lives. The climate change and
the global warming become pushup factors and thus the concept ‘Green Market’ emerges. In 2012, Rajesh
Kumar stated that the green marketing is the most popular trend market which facilitates the environment
friendly in Individual, animal and plants. Business Firms have started the green marketing practices in all of
their products as and it shows their social concerns (Nagarajan, 2014). Now a days, the organizations uses

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different kind of green products, green packages and green practices for its promotion. Though the non green
product market had shorter periods of market, the influence of non-green marketing had a greater impact
in the performance of the business organizations. Hence, it is tough for the marketers and a challenge to
the consumers to switch over from non green marketing to green marketing. On the other side, due to more
awareness, consumers are more health conscious and environment concerned, thus they ready to buy green
product which is harmless to environment otherwise called eco-friendly products even if it cost more. Hence,
it is important for the organizations to understand the buyer behvaiour on purchase of green products and their
awareness towards environment, understand the advantages of green marketing to survive in the market and
to compete in the business world. But today consumers are more health conscious and they are environment
concerned, thus they ready to buy green product which is harmless to environment, otherwise called eco-
friendly products even if it cost more. Hence, it is important for the firms to understand the buyer behavior
on purchase of green products and the awareness towards environment, understand the advantages of green
marketing and to compete in the business world.

GREEN MARKETING
According to Yazdanifard, Green Marketing is marketing of products considering environment safety and
producing products, packaging, labeling, advertising along with creating awareness to the consumers. The
marketing concept is fulfilling consumer needs, hence the concept of green marketing is meeting the needs
of the present without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs. Here, the
sustainable consumption and sustainable development can guaranteed for economic development, ecological
advancement and environmental conservation. The sustainable consumption should apply the 6R principles to
attain the 3C concept. The consumption should apply these 6R principles namely recyle, reuse, repair, reduce,
refuse and rethink so as to prove that it is an economical, ethical and environmental consumption. On the other
hand the marketers should guaranteed for sustainable development through providing the goods and services
that have the facility of 6R principles. The concept sustainable consumption and sustainable development is
more important in green marketing.
The idea and services which helps the consumers to use eco-friendly products to know about the
importance of being eco-friendly and to get full knowledge about it will become green marketing practices.
For example eco-label, eco brand and the advertisement that implies consumers for environment are become
green marketing practices. These practices will help the consumers to have perception about the eco-friendly
products and to get awareness about the products that considers environment conservation.

BUYER BEHVAIOUR
Consumer purchasing behavior is defined as: final consumer behavior during the purchase. Consumer
behavior perception and “knowing customers” is not so simple. Sometimes customers express their needs and
desires, but do so in different ways. They may be unaware of their inner motivations or react to the affecting
factors and at the last moment will change their opinion. Nevertheless, members of marketing should survey
their customer needs, their receiving subjective, their buying and purchasing behavior. Comprehending this
point is of high significance, that consumers can affect the environment as the environment itself can influence
consumers. Therefore, changes in the cost of pattern/model or the saving of consumers can affect the economy.
All the buyers are not final consumers all the time, however the influence of final consumers will be there in
buyer behaviour.

GREEN MARKETING TOOLS

The idea and services which helps the consumers to use eco-friendly products to know about the importance
of being eco friendly and to get full knowledge about it will become green marketing tools. For example eco-
label, eco-brand and the advertisement that implies care for environment are become green marketing tools.

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These tools will help the consumers to have positive perception about the eco-friendly products and to get
awareness about the products that considers environment conservation.
Eco-Label
Labeling is the description of the product from which the consumer can understand how the product is
manufactured and packed. Eco labeling is one of the important tool in green marketing that facilitates the
consumers to understand the green practices followed in the manufacturing process. More over these eco
lable practices plays a vital role in the buyer behavior towards green products and makes the buyer bring
green buyers. Labels made up of a series of small pieces of paper that include merely the brand productions
of services of mixed information. Sometimes the law obliges the seller to reveal more information on the
label, especially the product that becomes remedy for environmental issues, so as to educate the consumers.
Environmental labels facilities consumers to easily distinguish the products and services that safeguard the
environment to others.
Eco-packaging
It is not only important to produce green products but also to packaging the same. Sometimes the product
may be a green product, but the material used for packing is dangerous to environment. The manufacturers of
packing material should also be environment cautious. The consumers who decide for green products should
have complete concentration over the products, labeling, packaging, promotion strategy and its branding, so
as to turn into green consumers.
Eco-branding
Eco brand is a name, symbol or image of products that are harmless to the environment. Practicing eco
branding can help consumers to indentify the eco friendly products and to become loyal customers for the
green products. The eco brand remind the consumers every time to pursue to purchase green products that
produced high level of environmental impact. The eco branding helps the consumers to identify the eco
friendly products out of many choices, especially in FMCG that consumers will react positively to products
with environmental aspects known as eco branded products. Eco brand plays a vital role in buyer behavior
while they purchase and consume the eco friendly products.
Environmental Advertisement
To grab the public attention towards green products and to create awareness against environmental issues,
many industries prefer environmental advertisement through media or newspapers as green techniques for
introducing promoting goods and services to their consumers who are much responsible towards environmental
issues. The major elements of environmental advertisement are promoting green products, advertisement that
ensures ecological balance and the environment action that guarantees for environmental safeguards, etc. The
advertisement should guaranteed for environment conservation and presentation of environment action that
taken by the organization should be there in the advertisement.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
In the study taken by Chatterjee (2009), the brand extension evaluation, purchase intent, and parent brand
evaluation were measured. The study concluded that consumers are more likely to purchase green extensions
of products with high perceived environmental impact and that current consumers prefer green line extensions
to green category extensions.
Saleem&Abideen (2011), revealed that positive relationship between emotional response, attitudinal
response and consumer buying behavior resulted in the purchase of those products that the consumers are
emotionally attached to.
Mourad & Ahmed (2012) researched to study the main factors affecting the green brand reference in the
telecom industry in Egypt. A four-dimension construct of green brand preference was developed: green brand
image, green satisfaction, green trust, and green awareness. It was found that consumers tend to disagree that

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they are aware of environmental promotions or that they recognize the meaning of environmental slogans and
labels for their preferred brand.
Richards (2013) The results showed that there is evidence linking environmental enthusiasm with consumer
scepticism of both general and green advertising. It indicated that environmental enthusiasts are often more
sceptical of both forms of advertising, with non-enthusiasts remaining more neutral. Consumers value green
products and brands that are trustworthy, affordable, healthy and environmentally beneficial and identified the
impact of green advertising through evaluating consumer’s connection to the environment and the factors that
indicate the trust in advertising and willingness to purchase green products.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Objectives of the study

The purpose of this research work is to identify the perception and satisfaction of the customers who
are buying green products. The research work made an attempts to find how the customers are identifying
the green products and how age is influencing in identification of green products. Further the study wants to
identify whether marital status is an influencing factor in customer satisfaction.
B. Research Hypothesis
H1: There is a significant difference in customer satisfaction of green products and green marketing among
the male and female customers
H2: There is a significant difference in customer satisfaction of green products and green marketing among
the different age group of customers
H3: There is a significant difference in customer satisfaction of green products and green marketing among
customers with different education qualification
H4: There is a significant difference in customer satisfaction of green products and green marketing among
customers in different marital status
C. Sample and Questionnaire design
The population in the research work comprises of the customers who are buying green products in the
Chennai region. The sample size of the study is 171. The customers of the green products becomes the
respondents. The data were collected through structured questionnaire comprising of three parts, the first is
of personal details, second part is consisiting of the statement to find out the ways of identifying the green
products, third part is consisting the statement to measure the customer satisfaction. The responses were
fetched on a five-point Likert scale ranging from ‘1-strongly disagree’ to ‘5-strongly agree’.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

The data accumulated from the primary source was subject to various statistical tools for verification and
interpretations. SPSS was primarily used for data analysis. The Chi Square, t-test and ANOVA were carried
out to draw the inferences from the collected responses. Correlation was used to understand the relationship
amongst variables representing green marketing elements.
A. General Profile of Respondents
The respondents represent people who are employed, pursuing higher education and homemakers as they
represent the largest demographics in Kathmandu. The general profile of respondents is mentioned in the table
below:

Table 1: Summary of Demographic variables

Demographic variables Frequency Percentage (%)

Kanpur Philosophers ISSN 2348-8301, Volume-8, Issue-6, 2021 Page | 50

 Gender Male 86 50.3
Female 85 49.7
Total 171 100.0
Age Below 20 years 35 20.5
Between 20-40 years 78 45.6
Above 40 years 58 33.9
Total 171 100.0
Qualification Upto 12th standard 22 12.9
One degree 103 60.2
More than one degree 46 26.9
Total 171 100.0
Marital Status Single 78 45.6
Married 93 54.4
Total 171 100.0

Source: Primary Data

The customers who are showing their interest towards green products have observed and requested to
be the respondents. Out of total sample 171 respondents, male and female are almost equally distributed.
Majority around 46% of the respondents are aged between 20 and 40 years. With regard to qualification of the
respondents, around 60% of them are with one degree. Around 54% of the respondents are married.
B. Anova test is applied to analyse how the green products is being identified by consumers. The results
are as follows:
ANOVA: AGE OF THE RESPONDENTS AND ITS IMPACT ON IDENTIFICATION OF GREEN
PRODUCTS

Table 2: Age and identification of Green products

Sum of Mean
Squares df Square F Sig.
STANDARIZATION Between Groups 9.084 2 4.542 5.078 .007
Within Groups 150.261 168 .894
Total 159.345 170
PROOF OF MEDICAL TEST Between Groups 107.666 2 53.833 35.311 .000
Within Groups 256.124 168 1.525
Total 363.789 170
REFERED BY AUTHENTIC Between Groups 7.748 2 3.874 3.638 .028
AGENCY Within Groups 178.884 168 1.065
Total 186.632 170
INGREDIENTS Between Groups 31.327 2 15.664 13.650 .000
Within Groups 192.778 168 1.147
Total 224.105 170
OWN/OTHERS EXPERIENCE Between Groups 24.178 2 12.089 24.663 .000
Within Groups 82.348 168 .490
Total 106.526 170

Source: Primary data

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 There is a statistically significant difference between the means of the different age group of the respondents
and the green product identification.
ANOVA: MARITAL STATUS OF THE RESPONDENTS AND ITS IMPACT ON CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION

Table 3: Marital Status and customer satisfaction

Sum of Mean
Squares df Square F Sig.
FEELING PROUD TO BE A Between Groups .020 1 .020 .029 .866
PART OF ENVIRONMENTAL Within Groups 119.991 169 .710
CARE Total 120.012 170
IT TOOK CARES OF MY Between Groups .057 1 .057 .066 .798
HEALTH Within Groups 148.024 169 .876
Total 148.082 170
GIVES PLEASURE OF Between Groups 4.114 1 4.114 5.432 .021
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE Within Groups 127.991 169 .757
PERSON Total 132.105 170
I AM SAVING EARTH Between Groups .529 1 .529 .393 .531
Within Groups 227.261 169 1.345
Total 227.789 170
I AM SAVING MY NEXT Between Groups .205 1 .205 .261 .610
GENERATION FROM Within Groups 132.427 169 .784
ENVIRONMENT Total 132.632 170
ENJOYING THE PLEASURE Between Groups
OF MY GRAND PARENTS 3.930 1 3.930 3.377 .068
LIFE STYLE
Within Groups 196.713 169 1.164
Total 200.643 170

There is no statistically significant difference between the single and married in satisfaction of buying and
using green products.
C. HYPOTHESIS TESTING
CHI SQUARE TEST & CORRELATION: IMPACT OF DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF CUSTOMERS
ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF GREEN PRODUCTS AND GREEN MARKETING

TABLE 4: Demographic factor and customer satisfaction

Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

GENDER * CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Pearson Chi-Square 15.124a 4 .004
Pearson’s R .018   .692c
AGE * CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Pearson Chi-Square 7.154a 4 .128
Pearson’s R -.081   .068c
EDUCATION QUALIFICATION * CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Kanpur Philosophers ISSN 2348-8301, Volume-8, Issue-6, 2021 Page | 52

 Pearson Chi-Square 3.502a 4 .478
Pearson’s R -.060   .174c
MARITAL STATUS * CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Pearson Chi-Square 31.092a 4 .000
Pearson’s R -.184   .000c

The above table shows the results of Chi-square test for whether there is any association between the
demographic profile of the respondents and the satisfaction towards green products.
The chi square value is 15.124 and the significant value is 0.004 which is less than 0.05 and hence the
gender is significant to customer satisfaction of green products and green marketing. Hence the alternate
hypothesis is accepted and null hypothesis is rejected. It can be concluded that there is association between
gender and customer satisfaction of green products and green marketing. The correlation value (R) is 0.018
shows that there is a positive correlation between gender and customer satisfaction towards green products.
While testing the marital status and customer satisfaction, the table shows that the chi square value is
15.124 and the significant value is 0.000 which is less than 0.05 and hence the marital status is significant to
customer satisfaction of green products and green marketing. Hence the alternate hypothesis is accepted and
null hypothesis is rejected. It can be concluded that there is association between marital status and customer
satisfaction of green products and green marketing.

FINDINGS

●● From this study, it is identified both male and female are equally contributing for green marketing.
●● From the one-way Anova test, it is identified that age is an influencing factor in the green product
identification.
●● It is also found that marital status is an influencing factor in the customer satisfaction towards green
products and green marketing.
●● From the correlation test, it is understood that there is a positive correlation between age, gender,
education qualification and marital status & the customer satisfaction of green products

SUGGESTIONS

●● T he general profile such as age, marital status, education qualification and the age of the customers are
an influencing factor in customers’ satisfaction of green products in Chennai city hence it is advised
the marketer of the green products to select the mode of communication that improves the customers’
understanding and perception considering the heterogeneous group.
●● The availability of green products must be ensured by the marketers
●● The price of green products is to reduced as it is costlier compared to non green products
●● The innovation is to be applied in green products
●● Environment care among customer is the primary factor which influence buyer behaviour towards
green products and hence it is the duty of the marketers to create awareness.
●● There is a correlation between satisfaction and demographic factors hence the changing needs and
requirements of all the customers are to be analysed often.

CONCLUSION
While environmental issues continue to affect human activities, they are now regarded with great concern by
society. Most companies have started using the environmentally friendly sustainable development framework

Kanpur Philosophers ISSN 2348-8301, Volume-8, Issue-6, 2021 Page | 53

known as green marketing and most organizations have recognized green products. Marketing managers will
benefit from green marketing. Consequently, green marketing is a tool that many companies are now using to
increase their competitive advantage as people who are currently very concerned about environmental issues.
In the time that green marketing is applied, the companies must meet the needs and desires of the consumers.
Consumers want to consider themselves as green-compliant businesses and are willing to pay more for a
greener way of life

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