Polish Consumers’ Response to Social Media Eco-Marketing Techniques

Abstract

This study attempts to verify whether green-marketing efforts of companies are recognised by the Polish customer in social media—a vital marketing communication channel. For businesses, this awareness carries important implications for the effectiveness and profitability of the eco-marketing campaigns. This study employed survey methodology, which was coupled with participant observation of online ecology-centred communities. It is shown that the economic aspect of green marketing is valued by customers and they are quite observant with respect to such expressions of eco-marketing as eco-organic product packaging or production in the spirit of zero-waste technology. The results indicate that eco-marketing activities should be predominantly targeted at women because they are more likely to take note of the message. The statistical part of the study utilises the Chi-square (χ2) test (significance level α = 0.05) and the gamma distribution. Eco-marketing activities appear to attract notice in social media, but not yet as much as presumably desired. Gender is shown to correlate with respect to questions regarding the noticeability of zero-waste activities and pro-ecological activities in social media. Women display higher awareness of “zero-waste” and pro-ecological social media campaigns. In the aggregate, those who perceive “zero waste” as a lifestyle include women, who are more observant.