What is Shades of Green

Within the campus of business ethics and social responsibility, green marketing strategy has become a much discussed issue in today's academic world as well as in the profession. Though corporate greening has gained a widespread recognition, different studies have found the concept still facing much confusion especially on norms of ideal green marketing practices. As a consequence, many organizations which are professing green marketing are not profound about it. Among those firms some are partially involved while some are not yet convinced to adopt the green marketing strategy mostly because they do not find it worthwhile regarding revenue and profit. In academia, there are considerable amount of literature providing scattered individual insights from different perspectives. A chapter synthesizing these literatures can be helpful for both academics and marketing practitioners. This chapter attempts to review the literature to understand the origin and evolution of green marketing and green marketing strategy with all its major fundamental dimensions. Based on the existing mainstream literature, the chapter also reveals the green marketing strategy from the strategic consumer behavioral perspective. Furthermore, it summarizes the key success factors behind green marketing, its impact on the organizational performance as well as recommendations for successful implementations. The chapter is a synthesis of the green marketing philosophy and green marketing strategy that might serve as an extensive reference material to both the researchers and marketing practitioners in conducting interesting future research in the field as well as in formulating and adopting appropriate green marketing strategies.