engleski

Standardization of eco-labels as part of responsible marketing

The increasing environmental awareness of consumers has resulted in the emergence of the new market segment - the so called, green consumers. They can be identified as consumers who demand products with minimum negative environmental effect. They expect to be fairly informed about the product and the packaging of the product, and reed the instructions and labels on the product. This results from the need to establish control and to take action in belief of doing the common good. At the same time they do not want to give up their lifestyle and standard of living they are accustomed to, so the conclusion is clear: Companies must take both, high quality and environmental friendliness of the products as top priorities. The increasing number of marketing theoreticians, as well as marketing practitioners is compliant with the thesis that, for many consumer goods, the acceptable price and proven quality are no longer sufficient precondition to find their way to consumers. Producers are confronted with the mission to offer products that meet high quality standards as well as high ecological standards. “ Environmental friendly” has become the added quality of the product. Consumers make the environmental choice when choosing between the two otherwise similar products and deciding on the one with the eco-label. On the contemporary market we can recognize a significant boost of different labels, claims and additions to the name of the product like: “ eco” , “ bio” , “ natural” etc. This kind of claims are usually used arbitrarily and it is often unknown on which criteria they are based. Therefore the standardization of eco-labels has become the essential part of responsible marketing. The assignation of standardized labels must be based on established and known criteria which a specific product must meet to earn this ratification of environmental friendliness. The International organization for standardization has offered the basis for standardization of eco-labels and claims in the ecological standard ISO 14000.

Eco-labels; Responsible marketing; Standardization; ISO 14000; Green consumers.

nije evidentirano