comprehensive study on PCP and ecolabeling. In the paper the term ecolabel is used to denote the information displayed on products about environmental ...
Looking Good and Thinking Green-Can Green Personal Care Products Be Promoted? Gauri Joshi, Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), Pune, India Gurudas Nulkar, Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), Pune, India
Final publication is available from IGI-Global Publications in International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management (IJABIM); Vol 7 No. 4; October 2016;doi:10.4018/IJABIM.2016100104 https://www.igi-global.com/article/looking-good-and-thinking-green-can-green-personal-care-productsbe-promoted/163159
Abstract Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of environmental concern among consumers while purchasing personal care products. We also examine the relevance of product labels in influencing environmentally friendly decisions in the purchase. Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory factor analysis was carried out to develop the conceptual framework and based on which a questionnaire was designed. Primary data was collected from 300 respondents, women working in Information technology sector between the age group 25-45. Findings – The results show that there is high amount of environmental awareness among the consumers. However due to lack of proper and reliable information exchange between the manufacturers and the consumers this awareness does not materialize in green purchase behavior. Consumers seek information while purchasing and are willing to pay greater price for environmentally friendly products. Hence ecolabels can play a big role in influencing consumers. Practical implications – Clearly presented information can make a significant difference in consumer evaluation of products. If green products are rightly labeled they would be favorably perceived over the non-green alternative. Social implications – The paper captures the fact that a large number of consumers will purchase green products if they are presented with correct and reliable product label which would inform them of the environmental impact. Consumer evaluations of green products will improve and, ultimately, a larger percentage of consumers will purchase green products. The findings suggest that policy makers should require manufacturers to disclose key product ingredients and their environmental impact.
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Originality/value – This project adds to the growing body of literature on environmental labeling, and investigates the impact of product labels on an environmentally conscious consumer’s purchase decision. Keywords Personal care products, Eco - labeling, Willingness to pay, environmental awareness, attitude Paper type Research paper
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1. Introduction The personal care products category (PCP) in India is rapidly growing. Over the last a few years, it has witnessed a 12 percent growth (Walkers, 2013). Products which once targeted higher income consumers are increasingly accessible to lower economic segments. C.K.Prahlad’s call for serving the bottom of the pyramid has spawned several innovations; a notable one is the single serve sachet, which helped companies reach out to the poor and create an environmental menace with the lack of proper disposal of the sachets (Nulkar, 2016). The PCP market includes large multinational and domestic players who have since, widened their product ranges to accommodate new market segments. In the euphoria of rapidly growing markets and increasing competitive intensity, the environmental impacts of PCP cannot be ignored. Like other products, they impact the environment in the entire life cycle consuming resources, creating waste and emissions during production, distribution and consumption and increasing the carbon and water footprints. Even as regulation and competitive pressures drive companies to improve their performance within their premises, overuse of resources and waste generated in consumption is not controlled. Urban waste is turning out to be one of India’s biggest problems. Moreover, consumers are often unaware of environmental impacts of the products they buy (Kennedy, Beckley, McFarlane, & Nadeau, 2009) which makes them overlook the environmental costs of their purchases. In this situation, it is imperative to promote green behavior in consumers of PCP category. Product labels can be useful in this quest. Labels are used to convey specific attributes of the product that may be overlooked by consumers (Koos, 2011). Similarly, they can display environmental information about the product. This is increasingly seen in durables, especially those which consume energy during use. Environmental certifications and marking systems have evolved in many countries, which can be placed on product labels. Unfortunately, Indian industry lacks sophisticated labeling norms and has a weak enforcement regime. Unscrupulous sellers can get away with deceitful information. In 1991 the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) introduced ‘Ecomark’ scheme of labeling for environment-friendly products, however, this does not have a wide industry acceptance. The authors conducted an exploratory study to examine factors which can influence green purchase behavior in consumers during purchase of personal care products. The role of ecolabels in this category was also studied. This paper presents the results of the study conducted on 300 women
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and 35 retailers of PCP in Pune, India. This research is intended to assist in development of a more comprehensive study on PCP and ecolabeling. In the paper the term ecolabel is used to denote the information displayed on products about environmental impacts in its life cycle. The word ‘green’ is used to denote the environmental considerations. 2. Literature review Growing awareness of environmental problems and increasing media coverage have prompted many firms to take up greener practices. Studies show increasing consumer awareness and concern of the environmental impacts of the products they buy, and this manifests in growing purchases of environmentally friendly products across markets (AMF do Paco. & Raposo, 2009). Consumer’s environmental concern is not easily translated into pro-environmental behaviour, so individuals holding strong beliefs that their environmental conscious behaviour will result in positive outcome are more likely to engage themselves in such behaviour in support of their concern for the environment (Sharma & Bansal, 2013).
Akwa (2009) suggests that women are significant actors in natural resource management and major contributors to environment rehabilitation and conservation. Studies also show that women are generally more willing to pay a premium for a green-product (Blend & Van Ravenswaay, 1999) (Loureiro & Lotade, Do fair trade and eco-labels in coffee wake up the consumer conscience?, 2005), (Loureiro M., 2003), (Loureiro, Mittelhammer, & McCluskey, 2002), (Brécard, Hlaimi B., Lucas S., Salladarré F., & Y., 2009).However, Lee (2011) argued that the environmental awareness of consumers affects environmental friendly behavior. To differentiate green products from others, it is then important to communicate environmental information of the product to consumers. Moreover, terminology is not clearly defined and “recyclable”, “eco-friendly”, “environmentally safe” could mean different things to different manufacturers (Borin, Cerf, & Krishnan, 2011).
Studies have examined awareness, attitude, cultural background and situational factors to explain green purchase behavior in consumers,. Bray et al (2011) note that despite environmental concerns and positive attitude of consumers towards sustainability and green products, market share of green products remains at about 3 % of the entire market. Green purchase behavior forms a complex form of ethical decision-making behavior (Joshi & Rahman, 2015). Individual values and concerns
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for health, safety and pleasure specifically affected green food purchase behavior (Cerjak, Mesic, Kopic, Kovacic, & Markovina, 2010). Tsarkiridou et al (2008) found habit to be an important obstacle to green purchasing, which makes it difficult to change behavior. Another challenge is posed by the lack of trust consumers have on green claims and confusion among green characteristics (Joshi & Rahman, 2015).
Nelson (1978) suggests that an environmentally conscious consumer may be held back if she lacks sufficient knowledge on intended purchase and environmental labels are gaining importance as a tool for identification of green products (D'Souza, Taghian, & and Lamb, 2006). Ecolabels convey more than just functional properties of products. Scholl (2006) suggests that the symbolic values of a product can be more decisive, and ecolabels play an important role in this. Ecolabels can hold a variety of information and the quality of an eco-label depends on the standards it selects (CSI, 2010). Moisander (2007) discusses the role of eco labels in reducing controversial and dubious ecological information and how they could simplify decision making for consumers (Thøgersen, Jørgensen, & Sandager, 2012). Several studies have been undertaken on ecolabels (Gallastegui, The use of eco-labels: A review of literature, 2002) (D'Souza, Taghian, & Lamb, 2006). Many researchers agree that ecolabels can influence consumers to take an informed purchase decision (Sherman, 2012) and are considered important to improve consumer’s trust in a firm’s environmental claims (Thøgersen, 2002) (Commission of the European Communities, 2007).
One category of ecolabel literature talks on relevance to buyers and sellers while another discusses third party eco-certifications and its market implications. An accepted definition of ecolabel is by Global ecolabeling network (GEN) - ‘A label which identifies overall environmental preference of a product (i.e good or service) within a product category based on life cycle considerations’. Rex (2007) considers it a tool for consumers to facilitate decision making during choice of environmentally friendly products. Horne (2009) discusses the role of appropriate label information in sustainable purchasing. The large number of symbols and marking add to consumer’s difficulty in assessing the comparable advantages of different products. Additionally, labels could be incomplete in terms of comprehensive environmental disclosure. Even as the social cost of purchase is not a high priority for many consumers, they could be persuaded to make an environmentally better choice through ecolabels.
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However, some studies show a lack of trust among consumers on the information provided while some may not understand environmental information on the ecolabels. This leads to confusion or even negative reactions towards ecolabels (Hamilton & Zimmerman, 2006). Few studies show evidence of a variety and sheer number of eco-certifications and labels leading to consumer confusion (Leire, 2005). Moreover, it is often difficult to identify with accuracy the true attributes of product environmental impacts, the credibility of the ecolabeling process is important to facilitate consumer choices of green products (Mason, 2006). Some of the early generations of ecolabeled products were associated with lower quality products and some consumers might still associate ecolabels with lower quality products and be reluctant to purchase them (Gallastegui, The use of eco-labels: A review of literature, 2002) (Peattie & Crane, 2005). Teisl (2008) suggests that the success of an ecolabel depends on its ability to present the information in such a way so that the consumer absorbs it. One paper suggests that consumer’s growing preference to ecolabeled products could give sellers a competitive advantage and an incentive to develop more environmentally friendly products (Grankvist, Dahlstrand, & Biel, 2004).
Third party eco-certifications, often given by non-producing organizations, have been studied in many countries. They suggest that there is growing acceptance of such certifications since they offer an independent validation of the producers’ claims (Ibanez & Grolleau, 2008) (Cason & Gangadharan, 2002). In India Eco-Mark was launched in 1991. However this has not met expected success (Mehta, 2007). Unlike category specific labels, the Eco-mark can be used for wide range of product categories from paper, pulp to leather to detergents to personal care products like soaps. Food and personal care items are low-involvement products which entails minimal effort and consideration before a purchase decision. Hence we need to check for the success of the ecolabeling scheme for such products; especially considering that the personal care products business is nearly $950 billion market and expected to treble by 2020. 3. Materials and methods We first examined empirical research from various countries, to identify factors affecting green behavior among consumers. This was followed by exploratory interviews with consumers and retailers of PCP in Pune. Based on this, a conceptual model was developed which proposed factors
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affecting green purchase behavior and their relationship. A detailed questionnaire was developed with a web based survey application. This was administered online and in paper and pen format to over 450 respondents living in Pashan, Bavdhan, Aundh and Hinjewadi suburbs of Pune city. Respondents were working women between ages 20 to 45 and employed in the information technology sector in Pune. Sampling methods employed were simple random using internet lists, convenient samples and snowballing. 300 valid responses were analyzed. For selection of retailers, random and convenience sampling methods were used. In-depth interviews were conducted with 35 retailers. This comprised of chemists, vanity store owners and grocery store owners but did not include organized retailers like D-Mart, Big Bazar and others. a. Objectives, conceptual framework and hypotheses Although many studies on consumers’ green purchase intentions in the PCP category are published from developed countries, very few from India were available. Most Indian research focuses on organic food or healthcare products. This study was developed with two primary objectives: (i) to examine factors which affect the green purchase behavior of consumers in personal care products and (ii) to study the role of ecolabels on consumers’ purchase behavior. Urban working women are important target segments for PCP. Based on previous studies, we identified factors and studied them within Indian working women. Additionally, the environmental awareness, attitudes and behavior of respondents helped understand the environmental considerations in purchase of PCP. b. Conceptual framework The conceptual framework (Figure 1) depicts the research variables and proposes relationships between them. Figure 1 about here Corresponding to the objectives we propose the following hypotheses: H1: The consumer’s attitude towards the environment is correlated to green purchase behavior. H2: Consumer’s environmental awareness is correlated to green purchase behavior. H3: The green behavior is correlated to the information sought in the buying process.
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The questionnaire opened with relevant demographic questions. The next section had questions on leisure activities, shopping frequency and preferences. The construct ‘Attitude towards environment’ was operationalized by classifying attitudes based on responses to questions on personal care products and the environment, recycling and on willingness to pay for environmentally friendly products. The respondent’s ‘awareness of environmental issues’ was measured through questions on ecolabels, environmental terms and respondents’ understanding of the impact of personal care products on the environment. A set of questions were about the extent of information sought during the purchase, her awareness and perceptions of ecolabeling and factors which might influence respondents to choose eco-labeled PCP. 4. Results and discussions The research focused on the personal care product category. A list of the sub-categories is shown in Table 1. The demographic profile of the respondents is shown in Table 2. Table 1 about here Table 2 about here The responses were clubbed into the two age groups - Age group 1 for respondents from 20 to 35 and Age group 2 for those over 35 years. 79.7% of the respondents fell in Age group 1 and 20% in Age group 2. 64% of all respondents earn up to INR 50,000, which was expected, considering they are in early stages of their careers. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on the respondent’s activities and interests. Reliability test on the questions yielded Cronbach’s alpha of 0.706. The EFA came up with four groups which were named as Multiactive, Self engaged, Relaxed,
TV
addicts.
The respondents’ ‘Awareness of environmental issues’ was measured through a set of questions. The responses were given marks from which an Awareness Score was computed. The Awareness Scores were clubbed into three Levels of Environmental Awareness – high, medium and low. The number of respondents in each Awareness level is shown in Table 3.0. Table 3.0 about here
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Considering the demographic similarities in the respondents, a high environmental awareness was expected. In the same manner, the Attitude Score was computed from the set of questions measuring the respondents’ attitude. The scores were clubbed into negative, indifferent and positive Attitude Type. The frequencies are shown in Table 3.1. Table 3.1 about here The majority of respondents (63%) demonstrated an indifferent attitude, which is surprising, since 58% had high environmental awareness. Our literature review suggested that this could be due to the low trust that consumers have on environmental information, certifications and on the lack of accepted definitions of green products. To test if the Attitude and Awareness levels are independent of each other a Fisher Exact Chi Square test was conducted. The test showed a significant dependence of the two variables (p=0.006). Table 3.2 shows the test results. Table 3.2 about here 74.4% of the respondents with a positive attitude had a high awareness. This suggests a need to improve consumer awareness and one way to do this is displaying environmental information on the product label. Such information is found on some product categories in India, however, not in the PCP category. Green behavior We asked the respondents their shopping preferences in sub-categories. The sub-categories included deodorants, sunscreen lotions, moisturizer and body wash, hair care products, colour cosmetics, oral care products and baby products. From the responses the ‘Green Behavior Score’ was computed for the respondent. These scores ranged from -17 to +20. Based on their z values the scores were clubbed into three ‘Shades of Green Behavior’ - Brown, Grey and Green (Table 3.3). A ‘brown’ consumer would have neither sought nor purchased ecolabeled PCP in any of the categories’; a ‘grey’ consumer may have sometime bought one or more of the ecolabeled PCP category products and a ‘green’ would have bought and searched for ecolabeled products.
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Table3.3 about here In our study, a large number of consumers demonstrated green behavior (55.7%). Considering the earlier finding, it is possible that consumers may have unknowingly chosen greener products. Environment considerations in the PCP can improve the value of the product in some way which is important to consumers. For example, consumers perceive herbal products as more health friendly. For marketers this could be an important connection. Do consumers seek environmental information during purchase of PCP? To answer this we asked questions about the respondent’s search for information in the purchase process. The questions checked how often respondents read the label information and what information they read. The responses were scored into an InfoSeek Score. The scores ranged from -2 to 6. Graph 1.1 about here The skew of the histogram indicates that consumers seek environmental information during these purchases. Retailers told us that many consumers read product labels during purchase. This finding places importance on the role of labels in conveying the information sought. This also emphasizes the fact that retailers should have knowledgeable and trustworthy sales persons at the counters who can interpret the ecolabels. This will increase the chances of sale of ecolabeled products (Pandey & Khare, 2015) Can ecolabels improve green behavior? Environmental awareness was considered as an important indicator and we tested whether the Shade of Green Behavior was independent of Awareness and Attitudes. For this the Fisher Exact test was conducted. The test showed that Shade of Green Behavior and Awareness are independent of each other (p=0.089), however there is a significant dependence between the Shade of Green Behavior and Attitude (p=0.003). Table 1.4 shows the results. Table 3.4 about here
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Of the respondents with a positive attitude, 76.7% displayed a Green behavior and just 4.7% displayed a Brown behavior. The dependence of the two variables supports our earlier recommendation to improve awareness and attitude among consumers. Are consumers willing to pay a premium for ecolabeled PCP? Responses on ‘Willingness to Pay’ more for ecolabeled PCP yielded four categories - Not willing to pay more, unsure if they would pay more, willing to pay up to 10% and willing to pay over 10% for eco-labeled PCP . The study showed a high percent of respondents (58%) were willing to pay up to 10% more and 11.3% were unwilling to pay anything more for eco-labeled PCP . This makes an argument for marketers in favor of improving product ecolabeling. Table 3.5 about here Testing the hypotheses In the conceptual framework we proposed the first hypothesis as - The consumer’s attitude towards the environment is correlated to green purchase behavior. To test this, we performed an ANOVA on the Attitude scores by factoring the Shade of Green behavior. The test showed a highly significant difference between the mean attitude scores between each shade of green. A post-hoc test showed no significant difference in the mean scores of grey and brown, but a highly significant difference between green and brown and green and grey. The test accepts the hypothesis. The second hypothesis proposed is - Consumer’s environmental awareness is positively correlated to green purchase behavior. To test this, we conducted the non parametric ANOVA (Kruskal Wallis) between the Awareness scores of the respondents and the Shade of Green behavior. The test showed a significant difference in the mean Awareness scores between the three Shades of Green. The post-hoc Mann Whitney test was carried out on each pair, yielding the following result – (i)
Between the Brown and Grey Shades of Green Behavior, there is no difference in the mean awareness scores.
(ii)
Between the Brown and Green highly there is a significant difference in the mean awareness scores.
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(iii)
Between the Grey and Green there is a highly significant difference in the mean awareness scores.
These relations suggest the possibility of improving green behavior by conveying more information to buyers. Ecolabels can bridge this gap by informing customers about the environmental aspects of the product. The third hypothesis proposed is ‘The green behavior is correlated to the information sought in the buying process’. To test the hypothesis a parametric ANOVA was conducted to test whether the mean InfoSeek Score was different in the three groups of Shade of Green behavior. The hypothesis was accepted with the ANOVA showing a highly significant difference in the mean scores in Brown, Grey and Green groups. This suggests that consumers who exhibit a green behavior have a higher tendency to seek information on the product In addition to the questionnaire data, qualitative data was also collected from female respondents working in Information technology sector and the chemists and retailers stocking personal care products. The female respondents were questioned on their personal background, the mode of transportation used by them to commute to the place of work, the manner in which they carried food to their workplace, their usage of disposables in the routine life and their inclination towards organic food and on the personal care product they used. It was observed that out of a group of 35 female respondents, 60% preferred to travel by company transport, 20% preferred purchasing organic vegetables and fruits and a majority of them (70%) preferred using disposable items while hosting family functions. This suggests that though on one front the respondents are acting environmentally friendly, they are compensating the impact of the same by indulging in non-eco friendly practices like using disposable items. Most of them preferred the branded personal care products (57%) while 31% preferred to use home-made remedies or herbal products from companies like Patanjali, Lotus Herbal and Himalaya. Apart from female respondents, chemists, retailers and vanity store owners were also interviewed to test their awareness on eco labeled products. Out of 21 chemists interviewed, 80% were unaware of eco labeled products. Though they stocked most of the personal care products, they did not
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recommend a product unless asked by the customer. The recommendations were not on ecofriendliness of a product. 5. Conclusions The 2014 Greendex survey has shown that the top scoring consumers of this survey belong to the developing countries like India and China. Our research corroborate these findings as they show a high percent of consumers displaying green behavior in their routine life. Moreover, respondents had a high awareness of environmental impact of their purchase. A large number of respondents willing to pay extra to purchase ecolabeled personal care products. This aligns to consumers’ correlation of price and quality, where a higher price corresponds to higher quality (Solomon M. R., 2006). The willingness to pay more suggests that PCP consumers perceive a similar relation between price and quality. Correlations between awareness, attitude and green behavior are similar to findings from other countries. PCP consumers seeking green products consciously searched for environment related information on the product labels. This is a key consumer characteristic for marketers. This is a positive change as it will encourage producers, manufacturers and the Government agents involved to increase the standard of environmental products or services (Gallastegui, 2002). Some studies suggest that retailers have a prominent role in promoting green products and influencing consumers (Grunert, 2011). However, our study showed low awareness among various retailers and lack of interest in promoting green products. Most of retailers promoted products based on the margins they received and their popularity in the market. The retailers themselves were not highly educated to understand the gravity of the environmental issues. Moreover, there is confusion between herbal and ecolabeled products. Marketers need to consider this while launching green products. Product training and visual merchandise needs to be developed to improve retailer-consumer communication. Additionally, product labels can convey health benefits. Tversky & Kahnemann (1981) suggest that negative information receives greater attention in consumers. The significant finding favoring ecolabeling in the PCP is that conveying environmental information can help marketers realize better prices, since 63.8% respondents were willing to pay
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more. This can be looked upon as an opportunity to increase awareness through better labeling schemes and thus increasing the demand for environmentally friendly personal care products.
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Tables and Figures Table 1 – List of personal care product categories in this study Soaps Hair care Skin care Oral care Baby and child care Men’s grooming Cosmetics
Table 2 - Demographic profile of respondents Sr. No. 1
Characteristic
Category
Frequency Percent
Age
2
Monthly income
20 to 35 years Over 35 years Upto 50,000
239 60 191
79.7 20 63.7
50 to 100,000 100,000 and above
55 37
18.3 12.3
Table 3.0 – Level of environmental awareness among respondents Level of environmental Awareness Low Medium High Total
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Number of respondents 73 53 174 300
Percent of respondents 24.3 17.7 58.0 100.0
Table 3.1 – Respondent’s attitude towards the environment Attitude Type Negative Indifferent Positive Total
Number of respondents 68 189 43 300
Percent of respondents 22.7 63 14.3 100.0
Table 3.2 – Correlation between the Level of environmental awareness and attitude of respondents Level of environmental Awareness Low Medium High 33.8% 23.5% 42.6% 21.7% 18.5% 59.8% 20.9% 4.7% 74.4% 24.3% 17.7% 58%
Attitude Negative Indifferent Positive
Table 3.3 – Shades of green behaviours among respondents Shade of Green Brown Behavior Number of 44 respondents Percent of 14.7 % respondents
Grey
Green
Total
89
167
300
29.7 %
55.7 %
100 %
Table 3.4 – Correlation between Shade of Green behavior and the attitude of respondents Shade of Green Behaviour Brown
Grey
Green
Total
19.1%
41.2%
39.7%
100%
Indifferent
15.3%
28%
56.6%
100%
Positive
4.7%
18.6%
76.7%
100%
14.7%
29.7%
55.7%
100%
Attitude Negative
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Total 100% 100% 100% 100%
Table 3.5 – Willingness to pay more for green products Number of Percent respondents Not willing to pay more
34
11.4
Not sure
74
24.8
Willing to pay upto 10 % more
173
58.1
Willing to pay upto 20 % more
17
5.7
Total
298
100.0
Figure 1 Conceptual Framework
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Graph 1
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