Professional Documents
Culture Documents
7(2): 13-23
Abstract Introduction
Green Marketing is not only a new buzz word Green-Marketing:
now-a-days but is a need of prime importance
for the betterment & sustainability of society, The role marketing plays either in the
environment & industries by focussing on design, development and promotion of
the triple-bottom-line and the automobile Eco-designed products or marketing done
industry has a immense impact on it. This in an eco-friendly manner. Green marketing
paper focuses on Indian consumer’s perception incorporates a variety of activities, including
towards green-cars & the need-gap analysis, modifications to products, changes to the
identifies the improvement areas of the green- production and distribution processes,
car makers which needs to be primarily focus packaging changes, and modifications to
on, also includes the best practices adopted marketing communications.
worldwide which can also be implemented Green-Marketing aims at:
in India in order increase the acceptability a) Ways to improve consumer appeal for
level of Green-Cars to achieve a sustainable- environmentally preferable products.
competitive-advantage.
b) Reducing the Impact on the Environment
Key-Terms: Green-Marketing, while Increasing the Impact on your
Sustainability,Green-Washing, Green- Audience.
Ad, Green-Cars, Carbon-Footprint, c) Green marketing must satisfy two
Green-Intelligence objectives: improved environmental
quality and customer satisfaction
Sustainability:
Sustainable development is defined as meeting
“the [human] needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs.” (World Commission
on Environment and Development, 1987)
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Sustainable Developmentthrough Green-Marketing in the Automobile Industry
infrastructure availability and ultimately than price. For them specifications, long-
the ROI. They are aware that if efficiency term benefits, easy servicing etc. are on top
(electric) is clubbed with these petrol/CNG of the cards and for the price, they have
cars, it will not pressurize them to do lot second thoughts.
of compromises, they will remain away of
The second category seems to have some
infrastructure or servicing uncertainty, and
mixed-reactions, reason being, they will
also this will not take away the power &
not prefer a low specification car and also
ruggedness of the normal car and at the same
compromise with features if the prices
time it will provide better fuel efficiency, add
are similar, rather they could prefer a
less maintenance, generate less noise and
general car even if it is not eco-friendly,
will tag them with eco-friendliness label.
but features/specifications & then long-
For some (around 13%), the scenario is term benefits came into picture and also
different. They want a 100% eco-friendly the image consciousness would have come
car even if it is priced higher than the on the cards as well which changed the
general car in the same segment (keeping decision for some.
specifications and features same).
If provided a car of higher price but of similar
Here, car-makers can make a strategic features, higher price will add honor &
move. They can make 100% eco-friendly pride to their image not compromising with
cars and target the niche segment with good the features & strengths of the car, and the
and additional features & specifications and initial investment could be recovered due to
at the same time they can also target middle- the long term benefits of the car, the mindset
to-upper class people with hybrid-cars till Indian mid-upper class people have.
the Indian environment is well adapted to
If provided a car of similar price & of
support electric-cars.
similar specifications/features; the long-
To excavate deep into the mentality of the term benefits, sustainability & also the eco-
potential consumers & the environment friendliness will add chocolate pudding
lovers, three options (each containing 2 over vanilla and hence the confirmation of
sub-options) were provided specifically selection. There are some people who still
from which they need to choose. To find out agree to go for general car. Reason could
the changes in mentality and perception and be the perception and the uncertainty of
hence the final decisions of Indian people infrastructure facility, servicing facility,
towards green-cars when the soft-corners fuelling stations, ROI, spare parts cost etc
like needs, desires, expectation, money, along with the immature knowledge of
features etc. were also given as an option green-cars and the unawareness. Car-makers
along with the choice between a general-car need to re-think about the level of green-
& a green-car. marketing and its related expenditure.
From the above table it is clear that the Now, it seems important for the car-makers
middle-to-upper class consumers are more to convey the message successfully about
features/specifications conscious rather green-cars in order to attract the untouched
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Sustainable Developmentthrough Green-Marketing in the Automobile Industry
car owners which can also be implemented websites for details) and willing to share
in India are as follows: information about their charging habits.
This data will then be studied by DOE to
a) Charge Spots & Smartlet Stations
“optimize future electric vehicle charging
for public spaces:
infrastructure.”
New Deal Design, the San Francisco
c) Mobile Charging Stations for
design shop has teamed up with e-car
Stranded Electric-Cars
venture Better-Place to create the Charge
Spot, an electricity outlet that received the The ‘Angel Car’, by Swiss company
gold medal in 2009’s International Design Nation-E, is heaven-sent for frustrated
Excellence Awards. They call it as “mini- electric-car owners who find themselves
tower of electric power.” stranded with no power. This green-vehicle
is a mobile powerhouse (230V Charger),
Better Place’s goal is to have these electricity
capable of charging up depleted tanks on-
outlets built wherever people might park
site in 15 minutes for 18.6 miles when an
their cars for long stretches—parking lots,
electric station is too far away.
garages, and streets. Within six hours, their
cars would be fully juiced and good to go. d) Remote Emergency Charge by
REVA
b) Free fast-charging stations with
eco-cars REVive remote emergency charge. REVive
is exclusive to REVA and acts like an
GM has announced that early adopters (in
invisible reserve fuel tank and addresses
certain cities) of Chevrolet Volt will be
‘range anxiety’. If a customer runs out of
eligible for one of 4,400 free home charging
charge, they can telephone or SMS REVA’s
stations. The 240-volt fast-charge station
customer support centre. The advanced
deal is tied to a U.S. Department of Energy
telematics feature will assess the car’s
(DOE) program which aims to assess
batteries remotely and activate a reserve
electric vehicle charging infrastructure
amount of energy while protecting the
requirements, meaning those who take up
battery life. Within minutes, a few extra
the offer will be required to share data on
kilometers of range are made available via
charging and use of their vehicle (Green-
the telematics and the driver can continue
Intelligence).
home or to a place where the REVA can be
A 120-volt charge cord will be sold with the charged.
Volt as standard. Using this option the car
The charging/fuelling infrastructure should
can be charged overnight (around 10 hours
be standardized throughout irrespective
for a full charge), but with the 240-volt
of the Car Company or charging/fuelling
charge station charging time is reduced to
station for the customer convenience.
approximately four hours.
2) Easy & Quick Charging
To apply for the 240-volt charge station, Volt
buyers must live within the cities covered Providing Easy charging is easy, but
buy these programs (visit the respective providing quick charging facility is based
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Sustainable Developmentthrough Green-Marketing in the Automobile Industry
in the online & hard disclosures can reduce the cost of producing batteries
mentioning the making of the car opted, by 50% in the next five years.
the energy saved & the potential energy
Some says that the mass production will
saving if you opt one.
reduce price by the factor of 2 in the coming
4) Green-Car-Price: The Controlling 5 years.
Factors The Department of Energy of United States
a) Battery (Costing around 50% of the aims for reducing the costs of car-battery
total green-car cost) by around 70% from the previous year’s
cost, by 2014.
The major problem that these electric cars
are facing these days is the high cost of the To address the price sensitive, value
huge battery packs. Scientists and experts conscious consumer, Reva is coming up
think that this cost reduction will take a with a flexible business model whereby
long time to appear. The reason behind this the price of the battery will be removed
is that the battery packs do not come with from the upfront price of the car, and the
the traditional economies of scale. Also, customer can choose to lease the battery
More than 30% of the cost of the batteries on a monthly basis. That will provide an
used in the packs comes from metals such apples-to-apples comparison in terms of the
as nickel, manganese and cobalt. (Lithium battery cost versus fuel cost.
makes up only a small portion of the metals The Energy-Management-System (EMS)
in the batteries) of REVA extends driving range by 15 %
and battery life by 25%.
The price of the electronic parts used in
battery packs as well as the enclosures that Since the battery cost seems to be very
house the batteries aren’t likely to decline uncertain and also depend on the market
appreciably. conditions. Other parameters need to be
focused on.
Prices for these metals, which are set on
commodities markets, aren’t expected to b) Sustainable Manufacturing
fall with increasing battery production—and Methodology & Infrastructure
may even rise as demand grows, according
The cost reduction is possible through
to a study by the Academies of Science.
capable factory management, reducing the
For e.g: The battery pack in Nissan Leaf waste and some other expenses related to
compact car, the all-electric vehicle costs management.
$15,600 to the Nissan Motor Co which can
Electric Car Company is guided by the “zero
create problems. The company stated that
principle” of the Maini Group (Reva Car
it might reduce the battery price through
Company) i.e. Zero-defects, zero-delays,
its manufacturing scale. The company is
zero-inefficiencies and zero-pollution. This
making a new plant with the capacity of
is achieved through Zero-Wastage and
assembling around 200,000 packs a year.
Zero-Compromises.
Some battery makers are confident that they
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Sustainable Developmentthrough Green-Marketing in the Automobile Industry
REVA requires extremely low maintenance There is major problem in India related to
because of the minimum number of moving the financial benefits & incentives for the
parts and the latest on-board diagnostic green-car makers & the owners due to which
tools that store three years data and enable India is not able to attract much of them &
prompt service. This enhances efficiency, is not considered by the car-companies as
performance and high degree of reliability. a country on the priority to launch their
RECC incorporates the latest in EV expensive green-cars.
technology and cost effective manufacturing
For E.g: Nissan said no to electric cars in
processes making REVA commercially
India
viable at an offer price significantly less
than that of EVs globally. The Nissan Leaf EV is not seeing India for
another few years only because of lack of
The company is building a new ultra
special incentives in India & they do not
low carbon vehicle assembly plant in
want to take risk with their expensive EV’s.
Bangalore India, with a capacity of 30,000
units/annum, to accommodate increased The major steps which are taken in the
production and is planning to introduce other countries, by companies with private
even more measures to ensure that it has the support which can also be implemented in
cleanest and greenest production. India to provide financial benefits to the
green-car makers & owners in order to not
The company has said that the REVA NXG
only increase sales of green-cars but also let
and REVA NXR will be manufactured
them consider green-cars to be a better &
at its new green manufacturing plant in
sustainable option compared to the general
Bangalore, which will be built on LEED’s
conventional cars, are:
(Leadership in Energy & Environmental
Design) guidelines with new capabilities, Federal Plug-in Hybrid Tax Credit:
such as rainwater harvesting, solar charging,
solar heating, and natural ventilation. The American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act 2009 modify the credit for qualified
All these green infrastructural changes plug-in electric drive vehicles. The
towards sustainable development, structured minimum amount of the credit for qualified
methodologies like TRIZ (Theory of plug-in electric drive vehicles is $2,500 and
Inventive Problem Solving), Lean-Factory- goes till $7,500 depending on the battery
Management & Six-Sigma along with the capacity. The full amount of the credit will
Green-Practices helps in drastically cutting be reduced with respect to a manufacturer’s
down the overall cost of production and vehicles after the manufacturer has sold at
helps in making the company sustainable. least 200,000 vehicles.
This can highly compensate the high cost Federal Plug-in Hybrid Conversion Tax
of batteries. Credit :
c) Financial Incentives, tax benefits, The American Recovery and Reinvestment
credits and other support Act of 2009 provides a tax credit for
qualified plug-in electric drive conversion
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Sustainable Developmentthrough Green-Marketing in the Automobile Industry