With global warming reaching to an alarming high and deteriorating environmental condition more and more companies are leaning towards green marketing.Fuel price hike also accentuated the process of environmental awareness through green marketing and advertising.Here we need to mention that the ads that actually focus on the green products or speak about the company’s future intention to launch environ friendly products are actually fall in the category of green advertising.

Despite increasing numberof green marketing ads and campaigns green marketing has not lived up to the hopes and demands of environmentalists.The hope that was initially generated with green marketing advertisements has been hurt by the notion that sustainable products do not really carry on their environmental promises.Green marketing still has a long way to go.But there is no denying that the situation is improving.

People are waking up to green.From organic food to hybrid cars to energy saving appliances to reclaimed furniture growing number of consumers are ready to buy sustainable products these days than ever before.

Sincere initiatives from the side of the government of a country help to spread green awareness among its people to a great extent.Since more and more advertisers are seeking to promote their eco-friendly credentials the responsibility lies on the government that they should set a standard for sustainable products in order to prevent deception and degradation of product quality.Take the example of Canadian Competition Bureau of the Canadian Standards Association.The bureau has released Green Marketing Guidelines to help green business communities.

The guideline speaks about deceptive environmental claims by companies.According to the guideline generalized environmental claims are vague and insufficient hence should be avoided.It further emphasizes that environmental claims need to be specific,accurate and clearly understandable.

Green marketing gets tougher with people being skeptical on quality of such products.It is also the responsibility of the company that they should keep in mind that customers are unlikely to compromise on product features such as quality,price, availability that come with traditionally manufactured products.Therefore it is good to for the companies to realize that there is no single marketing strategy for a company to sell green products.

As manufacturers tend to believe in the business of sustainability there is increasing number of organizations coming up with environmentally sustainable products.The pioneer in green-technology Hewlett-Packard company has recycled 1 billion pounds of electronics goods within six months and raised its target to 2 billion pounds and set a deadline of three years that is about to end by 2010.

Grocery chains also began patronizing sustainable eating with organic food that is actually recycled from the leftover food available in the hotels. Dozens of companies are finding values in practicing food conservation.Whole Food,with its commitment to sustainability is a leader in the arena of organic food production.

With soaring fuel prices car companies are turning towards green.While famous car brands like Lexus,Cadillac,GMC,Toyota, and Ford are designing fuel efficient hybrid cars Honda has already moved on to emission-free cars with FCX Clarity hydrogen-fuel-cell.Chevrolet is also going to unveil its Chevy Volt,a fully electric car in 2010.

However,one needs to understand that green marketing is not just green advertising that manifests environmental awarenessand concerns of a company while promoting its products.It is all about using the communication channels and media topersuade consumers to pick up more sustainable products and in turn,help companies realize the market need for theireco-friendly products.