Greenwashing - the dark side of eco-friendly marketing. A case study from Slovakia

Greenwashing - ciemna strona marketingu ekologicznego. Studium przypadku ze Słowacji

Andrea Seberíni, Katarína Izáková, Miroslava Tokovská

Seberíni Andrea 1983- (50%) UMBEF02 - Katedra ekonómie

Izáková Katarína 1967- (40%) UMBEF04 - Katedra financií a účtovníctva
Tokovská Miroslava 1974- (10%)

Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae. Vol. 22, no. 1 (2024), pp. 83-95. - Warszawa : Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego, 2024

greenwashing

 

ekologický marketing - organic marketing

 

vývoj sociálno-ekologický

 

správanie sa zákazníkov

 

články - journal articles

English

Poland

Greenwashing is the practice of making false or misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a product or service. The purpose of this study is to examine consumers’ perceptions and experiences in relation to the greenwashing tactics used by Slovak businesses within the framework of environmental health policy. In the present study, we used data obtained through an inductive qualitative research design according to consolidated criteria. From 14 participants aged 20-45, using reflexive thematic analysis, we analysed three semi-structured focus group interviews. Four descriptive themes were created: (1) Individual and interpersonal determinants of consumers; (2) Marketing and organisational determinants of brands; (3)Public policy of the environment and health of the Slovak Republic; and (4) Environmental sustainability and ecological protection. The findings of our study confirmed that greenwashing often relies on buzzwords to reel in consumers, making them believe that the products they purchase are biodegradable or ethically sourced. The observed deterioration of consumer trust in product brands as a reaction to greenwashing threatens the potential of green marketing and contributes to damaging the reputation of the producers. One solution could be disseminating information on how customers can verify the authenticity of organic products through public and social media

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