Assessing the influence of green marketing on consumers’ word-of-mouth through the mediating effect of brand equity dimensions

The reckless pursuit of social, environmental, political and cultural issues and brands may alienate the very customer base, whom they try to impress, especially the millennials. Hence, this study intends to study the perceptions of millennials towards brand activism, so that the findings from the study can help the brand managers to steer their brands into the troubled waters of brand activism. The methodology followed is HTAB (Hypothesize, Test, Action, Business), a popular analysis framework given by Ken Black in his book titled “Business Statistics: Contemporary Decision Making (6th ed.)” A sample comprising of 286 respondents was collected. The final data had 286 observations and 45 features across seven categories.

It was found that millennials prefer to buy a brand if it supports a cause or purpose and they stop buying if brand behaves unethically. It was also observed that there is no gender difference amongst the millennials towards their perceptions concerning brand activism. Moreover, millennials across different income categories have similar perceptions of brand activism. It was also substantiated that the emotional tie of the millennials with the brand existing for a cause goes beyond price shifts and brands taking a political stance, cherry-picking of issues and being disruptive prompts and creates profound backlash for the brands.

Green marketing is becoming a trend, and many companies have implemented it as a strategy for winning the market. However, attention to the importance of green marketing strategies has been relatively limited compared to its importance as a viable strategy, and this happens, particularly, in developing countries. As a result, the green marketing strategies of companies in developing countries are not yet fully recognized. So, this study is intended to explore marketing practices of the selected companies in Indonesia. The research is a case study of three selected companies producing herbal medical drinks, natural spa-related beauty products, and natural coloring fabric. They were selected for several reasons: producing of green products, conducting of green practices, and marketing the products abroad. In-depth interview of the owner or in-charged manager of each company was used to obtain the data about its marketing practices. The data were then classified into four Ps of marketing mix, and interrelationship concepts generated from the data were systematically identified using NVivo to get clear picture of their marketing strategy. The results indicated that the companies undertook only quasi green marketing: dealt with green product and conducted green practices but did not apply green pricing, green distribution, and green promotion. This brings implication for companies marketing a green product to take advantage by differentiating their product based on the green characteristics of the product. This study also contributes to knowledge about green marketing strategy in a developing economy that is still limited.

The aim of this study is to explore the bank customers’ perceptions towards green banking practices. This study uses a convenient sampling method. Pre-tested questionnaires were employed to collect data. The data were collected conveniently from 358 bank customers. However, the final sample includes 304 responses after ignoring null responses (n = 304). The Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied for the analyses. The significant results of the study indicate that green banking practices positively influence green image (p = 0.001) and green trust (p = 0.025), while it does not significantly affect green loyalty (p = 0.642). The mediation analysis reveals that green image mediates the relationship between green banking practices and green loyalty, while green trust does not mediate the relationship between the same. The results have practical implications for banking institutions in India to recognize the importance of environmental initiatives in influencing the decisions of bank customers.