Communication of Green Marketing Strategies for Creating Consumer Awareness : A study of grocery retail sector in Sweden

Abstract: Abstract Title:  Communication of Green Marketing Strategies for Creating Consumer Awareness: A study of grocery retail sector of Sweden.  Level: Final assignment for Master Degree in Business Administration (MBA) Aim: The aim of the study is to explore the process of green marketing communication (preferred communication channels and messages) to create the customers awareness about eco-friendly products. Method: The study is done on three major grocery stores; Coop, ICA and Willys in Sweden. Triangulation, both qualitative and quantitative research, is used to achieve accurate results. Primary data is collected from interviews with respondents from companies and a customer survey. Results & Conclusions: The main findings are firstly: for grocery stores, point-of-sale and newspaper are preferred communication channels for green marketing communication. Secondly: The most suitable contents of communication messages for green marketing are health issues and environmental protection. Thirdly: Customers want to know about the process of certifying the eco-labels to eco-friendly products. Fourthly: Information function, information of eco-friendly products that is conveyed through green marketing communication to inform persuade and motivate the customers, and sustainability image (green reputation) of companies can create customer awareness. Lastly: Green marketing communication itself brings green reputation for companies. Suggestions for future research: This study is limited to advertising contents of green marketing communication. For further research, green marketing communication through personal relations, visual identification and sponsorships should be studied to create customer awareness. This study could be extended to other industries to seek more generalizable results. The results of current study indicate that ecolabels on eco-friendly products needs to be further explored. Hence, further studies can be done with regard how to make the customers aware about the process of certification of eco-labels to eco-friendly products. Contribution: This study contributes to existing literature by connecting the process of green marketing communication with customer awareness. Keywords: Green marketing communication, communication channels, communication messages, eco-labels.