“Green Consumers” : How students as consumers take environmental issues into consideration as they buy and look for products? A comparison between Belgium and Sweden

Although green marketing and “green” consumption behaviour are topical issues in the field of marketing, these issues still need to be explored, analyzed and understood by marketers and researchers. This was the main motivation for writing the thesis. The purpose is to identify how students, in Belgium and in Sweden, respond to green marketing practices and “green” products. A further aim is to explore how they take environmental issues into consideration as they buy and look for products. Furthermore, the idea of a comparison of the two countries also comes to mind. The existing literature helps to clarify the theoretical background. A quantitative study, through a same and unique online survey designed for both countries, was conducted in order to gather appropriated data. A sample of 587 students was collected. Thereby, the point of views of these students about the green issues relating to the value-action gap, trust and scrutiny in companies’ claims, price sensitiveness and finally the gender difference of the consumer, are analyzed. The findings point out that consumers confirmed this value-action gap, were in general confident in the green claims, showed a different price sensitiveness and reasserted the fact that green consumers tend to be rather female than male. Moreover, the situation is quite similar in both countries. The implications of green marketing and its related issues are from great relevance for companies in order to sustain on the market in the future. The companies and marketers should focus on students, which represent a young emerging part of our society