GREEN MARKETING INCLINATION: A STUDY OF GREEN MARKETING MIX STRATEGIES FOR THE SERVICE SECTOR IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

The concern on environmental degradation has been increasing day by day with the changes of positive thinking of customer segments. Development of business patterns in all business industries is needed based on their customers’ expectations. Initiating strategies for green service industry is a less challenging task than doing so for other industries and inclining towards green marketing mix has brought out benefits on the economy, the society and the environment. Accordingly, this study addressed how the service sector has inclined towards 7P’s green marketing mix in Sri Lanka by identifying the level of inclination and identifying the differences in inclination level of selected service industries towards green marketing mix. The cluster sampling method was employed to select listed companies in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) that belong to the service sector and the primary data was collected through an email survey. Only 115 responses were received out of 172 companies from October to December 2020. The outcomes from descriptive analysis and multivariate analysis of variance revealed that companies in the service sector have achieved a 62 percent level of inclination with high variation among the companies and the inclination level of 7Ps in the green marketing mix differ by their type of business except for green physical evidence. Therefore, the Sri Lankan service sector has to enhance their status of consideration on green marketing in the future unlike in the past and they need to consider the present status to reward the benefits of the green concept. All types of business in the service sector also have to upgrade the level of green marketing inclination to merge as an industry by keeping the consistency between each business type and 7P’s. According to the above findings, the service sector in Sri Lanka has inclined with less conformity towards green marketing mix and relevant parties have to pay attention to greenness applied in the service industry.