GREENWASHING: A Study on the Effects of Greenwashing on Consumer Perception and Trust Build-Up

The growing prominence of green advertising has led to an increased confusion in the minds of the consumers about the green claims used in numerous advertisements. The purpose of the study is to identify the sectors where greenwashing is most rampant from the consumer‘s perspective and to analyze the consumer‘s perception of greenwashing tactics, identify the reasons for greenwashing by brands from the consumer‘s perspective. The convenience sampling was used for data collection. A sample size of 150 was chosen for the study. The respondents comprised of individuals across different age group and professions in Delhi NCR. Research findings showed that the most rampant sectors where greenwashing is prevalent are 'Automobile‘, 'Industrial Manufacturing‘ and 'Beauty products/cosmetics (65.7%). Consumers perceive usage of 'fluffy language‘ such as the use of words like 'eco- friendly‘, 'natural‘ as the most frequently used greenwashing communication tactic. A lack of proper regulatory system and compliance by the companies result in poorly researched products and misleading claims aimed at manipulating consumer.