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Environmentalists

barrelica | Aug 14, 2009 |

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Environmentalists are concerned with strip mining, forest depletion, and factory smoke. They are more critical of marketing than consumerists. They complain too much wasteful packaging, whereas consumerists like the convenience of modern packaging. Environmentalists feel that advertising leads people to buy more than they need, whereas consumerists worry more about deception in advertising. Environmentalists dislike shopping centers, whereas consumerists welcome more stores.

Environmentalism has hit certain industries hard. Steel companies and public utilities have had to invest billions of dollars in pollution-control equipment and costlier fuels. The auto industry has had to introduce expensive emission-controls in cars. The soap industry has had to formulate new low-lead and no-lead gasoline. These industries resent environmental regulations, especially when imposed too rapidly to allow the companies to make the proper adjustments. These companies have absorbed large costs and have passed them on to buyers.

Marketers' lives have become more complicated. Marketers have to check into the environmental consequences of the product, its packaging, and its production process. They have to raise prices to cover environmental costs, knowing the product will be harder to sell.

At the same time, many managers recognize the validity of respecting the environment and have introduced environmental criteria in their decision-making on products ingredients, design, and packaging. Some companies direct their research and development toward finding ecologically superior products, as the major selling point of the product. For example, Pepsi-Cola developed a one-way, plastic soft-drink bottle that is biodegradable in solid-waste treatment, and American Oil pioneered no-lead and low-lead gasoline.