The effect of green marketing on the Bulgarian consumer

Abstract

Green marketing has become very popular and is more often adopted as part of companies’ strategies. Therefore, the dissertation presents an insight into the topic of green marketing and its effect on the Bulgarian consumers by a conducted empirical research.

First, a review of the academic literature is carried out. It includes an introduction of the concept, its origin, development and an examination of a variety of established impacts on the customers from different researches.

In order to meet the aims and objectives of the study and to test the developed hypotheses, appropriate methodology is employed. The adopted methods consist of a deductive approach combined with a self-administered questionnaire which was either sent by mail or given in person to a sample of 193 people.

After the analysis of the quantitative, qualitative and statistical data, the results are presented in the form of percentages and different charts, and are associated to the secondary data. Some key findings are the 85% of respondents who have positive attitude towards green products, companies and practices, and the 80% of the participants who perceive green marketing as useful, informative and educational. The major indicated motives, barriers and expectations of the consumers are described in detail as well. The dependencies between age, gender and education, and other indices proved as negative, while only the correlation between job positions and frequency of purchases showed a direct relationship.

Finally, the conclusions address the aims and objectives of the research by clear linkages to the main findings. The latter are also used for the suggestion of several ways to overcome the current disadvantages and weaknesses of green marketing and the respective products and companies. The dissertation ends with recommendations for future investigations which would be useful for the topic of green marketing and its impact on customers.