GREEN MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES: AN INTEGRATIVE LITERATURE REVIEW
Mihai Stoica
Marketing Department, Faculty of Marketing, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania
Abstract: Marketing communication for green brands and products should not be seen exclusively as a means to attract and impress consumers with the most beautiful and spectacular green messages. All messages communicated to the public must have a solid foundation, which most of the time can be represented by the attributes of the green product or by its benefits for the environment, community and for the current and future generations of consumers. In this regard, marketing communication, as part of the green marketing strategy, faces several challenges. On the one hand, green communication has the role of educating and informing the public about the specific benefits of green products in order to determine the public to adopt a pro-ecological behavior. On the other hand, the communication approaches must respond to the exigencies of the green field, in order to avoid the social and ecological criticisms, as well as the categorizing of the organization’s actions as part of the greenwashing phenomenon. Therefore, the purpose of this theoretical paper is to identify the typology of green marketing communication strategies. The paper is based on secondary data sources, namely the literature on green marketing communication, focusing on specific communication strategies. This study reviews and synthesizes 39 relevant articles related to the researched subject, which have been identified in academic databases. In literature have been identified five defining criteria for communication strategies, along with specific strategic alternatives. We note the need to continue the research in this field, in order to develop other strategic alternatives that respond to the specific problems of this market and that offer the opportunity for green brands to position themselves effectively.
Keywords: green marketing communication; marketing communication strategies; green marketing; green product; green brand.
