Sustainable Marketing Strategies Assignment Sample 2024
Title and Background
Analysing the impact of environmental concerns and sustainable marketing strategies on customer preferences in Dubai
Introduction
The environment has been found to affect the purchasing decisions of customers, with good weather showing an increase in consumer spending on unrelated products including, green tea and newspaper subscriptions due to the extra enhanced mood (Zhang and Dong, 2020). Similarly, Sharma, (2021) has shown that environmental concerns also influence customer buying preferences. According to Human Rights Watch, (2023) the fossil fuel industry of UAE contributes to toxic air pollution, which has a severe impact on health despite the government positioning itself as leaders on health issues and climate.
Figure 1: Daily average PM2.5 concentration in UAE in Sept 2023
(Source: Human Rights Watch, 2023)
Four out of five adults (83%) in the UAE are considerate of their influence on the ecosystem, especially after the pandemic, and also 74% of the adults say that it is important for companies to behave in a more eco-friendly and sustainable way (MasterCard, 2021). Due to this environmental consciousness among consumers in Dubai, businesses are adopting sustainable practices as these practices are more likely to attract and retain customers.
Research Aims and Questions
The study aims to analyse and explore the impact of environmental concerns like air pollution, water scarcity waste management, and sustainable marketing strategies on customer preferences within the customers in Dubai. The report aims to explore two major aspects: First will be the influence of ecological concerns on customer preferences and second the influence of sustainable marketing strategies on customer preferences in Dubai.
Research Questions
- What is the degree of impact of environmental concerns and green marketing strategies on customer preferences in Dubai?
- What perception do the customers of Dubai have regarding environmental concerns and sustainable marketing strategies concerning their preferences?
Literature Review
Around 96% of adults are willing to take action to deal with sustainability issues and environmental concerns as compared to 85% worldwide (MasterCard, 2021). This shows that the Dubai customers are extremely aware of the environmental concerns within the city. As per the Human Rights Watch, (2023) around 1,872 people die from air pollution in UAE, out of which the migrants (88%) of the population and outdoor workers face the highest degrees of risk. As a result, the customers in UAE, and Dubai being a major city in the country have become environmentally conscious. According to a study by Khaleeli and Jawabri, (2021) to degree the impact of consumer consciousness on the customer purchase behaviour of eco-friendly goods and the attitudes of the consumers mediate this connection found that ecological consciousness has a optimistic and important impact on the attitudes of the customers towards purchasing greener and environment-friendly products in the UAE. The attitude of the customers has a positive relationship with the eco-friendly products and the purchase preferences are also found. This shows a clear connection between environmental concerns and customer preferences.
One of the ways environmental concerns of air pollution are dealt with is by adopting electric cars, especially after the launch of Tesla the world’s leading electric car manufacturer (Kim and Hall, 2020). ANJAM et. al. (2020) used this approach to explore the impact of consumer eco-friendly purchase behaviour on UAE customers, and the roles sustainability, personality, and perception play. The study found that the perceived financial benefit and apparent setting on the EFV-purchase aim has a positive benefit, while sustainability had a stronger influence on the EFV buying intention and females being more vocative about caring towards the environment. This also shows a change in customer preferences due to the environmental concerns of pollution.
This shows a significant influence of environmental concerns on the buying behaviour of Dubai customers. Although a gap within the literature can be seen regarding the wider environmental concerns and how they impact the customer preference, most studies are focusing on sustainability and not how different environmental concerns like waste management, and water scarcity can influence the customer preference (Petrescu et. al. 2020).
While on the other hand, these conservational concerns, also have forced businesses to opt for sustainable marketing practices. In a study led by Shabbir et. al. (2020), the green marketing approaches or sustainable marketing methods like eco-labelling, green branding and packaging, environmental concerns and beliefs and GPP (Green pricing, products, and premium) of consumers affect their perceptions regarding the environment. This shows that the key factors of sustainable marketing practices like GPPP and EL have an optimistic influence on the belief of the customers towards the environment. Similarly, ecological concerns and views also influence the opinions towards the environment positively. This presents the significance of sustainable marketing practices, which not only have a positive impact on organisations concerning customer preferences but also influence the perceptions of the customers towards the environment. The Dubai customers are targeted with CSR marketing strategies following the strategies proposed by Kotler and Lee in 2005 and are mostly used by the banks in UAE, who frequently use socially responsible, philanthropy, and cause promotion to promote green sustainable marketing practices (Georgiadou and Nickerson, 2022). These show that the sustainable marketing practices within the country used by organisations have a significant impact on making customers more environmentally conscious (Peterson et. al. 2021). However, this environmental consciousness is also important for organisations to recognise these patterns within customer preferences.
Lastly, the literature review presents that the customers in Dubai are extremely environmentally conscious and are in favour of sustainable marketing practices. Their preferences are related to the products and services and to the organisations that follow sustainable marketing practices. Customers prefer more sustainable products, from renewable energy sources to electric cars (Chou et. al. 2020). However, a literature gap was found concerning the impact of environmental concerns and its impact on customer preferences in Dubai. Because Dubai is a major city in the world, several studies have been done on customer preferences, but only a few of them explored the impact of environmental concerns and sustainable marketing practices.
Methods
The scope of the research will make the study follow two different research methods. Each research question has a different nature of answer to be expected, which requires a different approach to be taken. Below are the methods to be followed to answer each question:
For Question 1
Data to be collected: Quantitative data will be collected to answer this question since although some studies have explored customer preferences in Dubai, there is a absence of experiential evidence on the influence of environmental concerns and green marketing practices on the same (Ali, 2020). Thus, the primary and quantitative data will ensure that empirical evidence is gathered on the topic.
Who/What: The respondents will be the customers of Dubai the questionnaire will be sent to almost 200 participants.
Where: The data collection will be from the customers in Dubai, or the general public who have been in Dubai for the last decade.
How: The probability sampling method will be used to select members from a larger group. The study will follow the simple random sampling techniques which will include selecting a sample from the population, it is the most straightforward and basic form of sampling (Rahman et. al. 2022). A group of 30 respondents will be selected at random to be the participants in the study.
Analysis: For the quantitative data, descriptive analysis will be conducted. This will help to statistically find trends and patterns within the responses of the customers of Dubai.
For Question 2
Data to be collected: Qualitative data will be collected to answer this question since although some studies have explored customer preferences in Dubai, there are a lot of studies done on customer perception towards sustainable marketing practices. Thus, the qualitative data will ensure that different perspectives and ideas can be reviewed and explored (Eakin and Gladstone, 2020).
Who/What: Journals, articles, research papers, and reports will be gathered and published after 2019 to gather the information for the research.
Where: The data will be gathered from databases like Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect.
How: The non-probability sampling method will be used to select the literature to be reviewed (Berndt, 2020). The study will follow the convenience sampling techniques which will include selecting a sample from the database based on the convenience of availability. A total of 30 articles will be selected at convenience to be included in the study.
Analysis: The qualitative data collected with be analysed following the thematic analysis where phrases and sentences each will be given a code, which will be then assigned a theme. These themes will be reviewed to discuss the data and its implications.
Philosophical positioning, strengths, and limitations
Philosophical position: The interpretivism philosophy will be followed in the study, which is a sociological method to analyse an action or event based on the values, norms, and beliefs of the culture of the society (Alharahsheh and Pius, 2020). This viewpoint will allow us to interpret the changes in customer preferences based on the effect of environmental concerns and sustainable marketing practices. This will allow the research to dive deep into the roles, beliefs, and identities of the individuals improving the comprehension of the complex customer preference in the country.
Implications for the methodology: Following the interpretivism philosophy, will mostly impact the qualitative or the second question of research by focusing on the comprehension of the subjective perceptions and experiences of the customers in Dubai. This will benefit the study to understand the individual perception of the customers towards the two aspects to be explored in the research (Junjie and Yingxin, 2022).
Strengths of the approach: The mixed approach in the research will allow to collection of two types of data simultaneously, helping to answer the two distinct questions as highlighted above in the study. The interpretivism philosophy will allow us to explore the wider concept of customer preferences and how environmental concerns and sustainable marketing practices form the perception.
Limitations: One of the limitations of this approach is the potential advantages of collecting both data, which is often lost to the reader since most readers only mostly see one type of data in every paper. It also can be complex and time-consuming to gather both types of data (Curry, 2020). Similarly, following the interpretivism approach can lead to gaining a deeper understanding of customer preferences, rather than generalising the results for other scholars to use in other contexts. Hence may result in lead to a gap in verifying validity.
Research design strategies to be considered to mitigate some limitations: To mitigate the limitations of the approach, an experimental research design will be followed to test the causal relationship between customer preferences environmental concerns, and sustainable marketing practices. This will allow to manipulation of the independent variables environmental concerns and sustainable marketing practices and measuring its impact on the dependent variable customer preference.
Research ethics
To keep the study ethically intact, the participants of the study will be given a consent form prior. This will include all the necessary information, regarding how their data will be collected, analysed, and stored, to ensure their safety. For the qualitative data, the sources will be properly cited, and made sure that the most relevant studies will be included in the analysis. This will include, having only those articles who are published after 2019 and relevant to the topic.
Conclusion
Overall, the research will be done from a interpretivism philosophy, trying to understand the perspectives of the environment concerns and sustainable marketing practices in Dubai. Although there have been studies on the consumer perspectives on sustainability, impact of environmental concerns and sustainable marketing practices have not been explored much. Thus, the study, aims to follow a mixed approach to collect the data and fill this gap.
References
Alharahsheh, H.H. and Pius, A., (2020). A review of key paradigms: Positivism VS interpretivism. Global Academic Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(3), pp.39-43.
Ali, A., (2020). Quantitative Data Analysis. University of Sindh, pp.1-10.
ANJAM, M., KHAN, H., AHMED, S. and THALASSINOS, E.I., (2020). The Antecedents of Consumer Eco-Friendly Vehicles Purchase Behavior in United Arab Emirates: The Roles of Perception, Personality Innovativeness and Sustainability. International Journal of Economics & Management, 14(3).
Berndt, A.E., (2020). Sampling methods. Journal of Human Lactation, 36(2), pp.224-226.
Chou, S.F., Horng, J.S., Liu, C.H.S. and Lin, J.Y., (2020). Identifying the critical factors of customer behavior: An integration perspective of marketing strategy and components of attitudes. Journal of retailing and consumer services, 55, p.102113.
Curry, D.S., (2020). Interpretivism and norms. Philosophical studies, 177(4), pp.905-930.
Eakin, J.M. and Gladstone, B., (2020). “Value-adding” analysis: Doing more with qualitative data. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19, p.1609406920949333.
Georgiadou, E. and Nickerson, C., (2022). Marketing strategies in communicating CSR in the Muslim market of the United Arab Emirates: insights from the banking sector. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 13(7), pp.1417-1435.
Human Rights Watch, (2023). “You Can Smell Petrol in the Air”. [online] Available at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2023/11/uae_ehr1223_web.pdf [Accessed Date: April 17, 2024].
Human Rights Watch, (2023). UAE: Fossil Fuels Poison Air. [online] Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/04/uae-fossil-fuels-poison-air [Accessed Date: April 17, 2024].
Junjie, M. and Yingxin, M., (2022). The Discussions of Positivism and Interpretivism. Online Submission, 4(1), pp.10-14.
Khaleeli, M. and Jawabri, A., (2021). The effect of environmental awareness on consumers’ attitudes and consumers’ intention to purchase environmentally friendly products: Evidence from United Arab Emirates. Management Science Letters, 11(2), pp.555-560.
Kim, M.J. and Hall, C.M., (2020). Can sustainable restaurant practices enhance customer loyalty? The roles of value theory and environmental concerns. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 43, pp.127-138.
MasterCard, (2021). 96% of adults in UAE willing to take personal action on sustainability issues. [online] Available at: https://www.mastercard.com/news/eemea/en/newsroom/press-releases/press-releases/en/2021/april/96-of-adults-in-uae-willing-to-take-personal-action-on-sustainability-issues/ [Accessed Date: April 17, 2024].
Peterson, M., Minton, E.A., Liu, R.L. and Bartholomew, D.E., (2021). Sustainable marketing and consumer support for sustainable businsses. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 27, pp.157-168.
Petrescu, D.C., Vermeir, I. and Petrescu-Mag, R.M., (2020). Consumer understanding of food quality, healthiness, and environmental impact: A cross-national perspective. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(1), p.169.
Rahman, M.M., Tabash, M.I., Salamzadeh, A., Abduli, S. and Rahaman, M.S., (2022). Sampling techniques (probability) for quantitative social science researchers: a conceptual guidelines with examples. Seeu Review, 17(1), pp.42-51.
Shabbir, M.S., Bait Ali Sulaiman, M.A., Hasan Al-Kumaim, N., Mahmood, A. and Abbas, M., (2020). Green marketing approaches and their impact on consumer behavior towards the environment—A study from the UAE. Sustainability, 12(21), p.8977.
Sharma, A.P., (2021). Consumers’ purchase behaviour and green marketing: A synthesis, review and agenda. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 45(6), pp.1217-1238.
Zhang, X. and Dong, F., (2020). Why do consumers make green purchase decisions? Insights from a systematic review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(18), p.6607.
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