In recent years, the surge in sustainability awareness has transformed consumer preferences, leading to heightened demand for eco-friendly products. Recognizing these evolving consumer behaviors, startups have adapted their production processes, prioritizing recycled packaging and clean ingredients. This shift has prompted a corresponding evolution in marketing strategies, with an emphasis on green marketing, effectively communicating the environmental benefits of their products. For startups, this advocacy has fostered stronger consumer relationships, as customers increasingly engage with them based on shared values and a shared commitment to sustainability.
Top1. Introduction
Consumerism and environmental degradation are intrinsically related, resulting in resource depletion throughout the production and manufacturing processes, waste disposal, gas emissions, to name a few. For the United Nations Environment Programme (2017), “One of the greatest global challenges is to integrate environmental sustainability with economic growth. Resource decoupling and impact decoupling are needed to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns and to make the transition towards a greener and more socially inclusive global economy.” To reduce its impact, startups must adopt a more sustainable production and consumers can be mindful of their consumption habits leaning towards environmental-friendly products.
As a result of governmental policies and the growing need to commit to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), startups are encouraged to innovate and adopt a series of sustainability compliance mechanisms.
Global startups are often pressurized by consumers, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), and governments, compared to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Yet, they have led the implementation of brand value and brand image that embraces the sustainability thematic, impacting on the importance of green marketing, from the late 1980s to now (Öztürk, 2020).
Green marketing has thus become a strategy to create brand awareness and increase a company´s brand image by highlighting the commitment with the preservation of the natural resources. In addition, business model innovation, particularly through the adoption of green marketing strategies, offers Mexican cosmetics startups an opportunity to differentiate themselves in the market, appealing to environmentally conscious consumers while reducing their ecological footprint. By integrating sustainable practices into their business models, SMEs in this industry can enhance brand image, access new markets, and contribute to an eco-friendlier future for the cosmetics sector in Mexico.
Consumers in Europe are more ecologically oriented in the direct to consumer (D2C) business model. The study on consumer attitudes towards green products consumption, mentioned in the book “Green Marketing Efforts on Behavior of the Consumer: A Study” (Patnaik, A., 2018), concluded that 80% of the Europeans take into account if the product has a positive or negative impact on the environment, whereas in Latin America the green consumers are increasing slowly over the recent years due to the change on the consumer behavior on some of the generations. This argument is because for many years Latin American consumers would focus only on price and quality, whilst nowadays consumers’ awareness, in the need to help make a positive impact against global warming, look for eco-friendly products.
The investigation of the consumer behavior in Mexico is pertinent due to the need to improve green marketing in the country. As a matter of fact, the Mexican natural cosmetic market is expected to grow annually a compound growth rate (CAGR) of 4.57% from 2023 to 2027, with new brands environmentally and socially driven entering the market (Statista, 2022).
To illustrate this study, Natura, Nivea and Lush, some of the main international cosmetic startups on the globe, will be analyzed to understand the main premises of green marketing and their current application.
This dissertation proposes:
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Identify the main factors influencing the consumer´s behaviors towards green cosmetic products in the Mexican market by distributing a survey within 300 people.
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Understand the relation between green marketing and purchasing intention.
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Analyze three of the main international cosmetic startups, Natura, Nivea and Lush, and their application of green marketing to comprehend the connection created within the brand values awareness and the consumer´s satisfaction.
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Provide cosmetic startups with an insight of the new trends in the Mexican green marketing.
The cosmetic industry offers a wide range of products worldwide and has faced difficulties and ‘scandals’ to achieve the place where they are today. But in this fast-paced world, consumer demand changes quickly as climate change awareness grows. This research innovates as it provides with new insights on the evolution of the cosmetics industry with the use of green marketing as a strategy to follow new Mexican consumer´s behaviors.