*4.4. Green Marketing Impact on Customers' Purchasing Behavior*

The researched factors of green marketing compound three main categories based on the levels of green marketing. The first level describes the actions of green marketing exclusively from a strategic perspective. The second level focuses on tactical solutions commonly related to the marketing mix. The third level demonstrates the orientation toward operational actions in green marketing. Scholars chose these levels to research as a solitary focus or combined with the other levels (Table 4).


**Table 4.** The distribution of research across green marketing levels.

Many of the included documents focus on tactical green marketing's impact on customer behavior. The most common standard approach is to reveal tactical green marketing through the product (for example, energy labeling and cleaner production) or promotion (for example, green campaign and media exposure) (Table 5).

**Table 5.** The green marketing factors that have an impact on customer behavior.



**Table 5.** *Cont.*

Twenty-one of the reviewed papers (12.65%) used an entirely strategic approach to green marketing. It means that the development of branding, reputation, green marketing awareness, green design, green positioning, waste marketing, green integration, green management, greenwashing, image, perception, policy, strategic green marketing orientation, and strategies is a common practice to achieve the desired customer purchasing behavior.

By implementing strategic, tactical, and operational green marketing solutions, companies contribute to the desired customer behavior. The studies reviewed presented the relationships between green marketing solutions and key variables of customer behavior. Considering the wide variety of the variables, we have chosen to classify them based on the customer decision process and the theory of planned behavior (Figure 4). Traditionally, the customer decision process starts with need recognition, then passes to the stages of information search and evaluation, and ends in the stages of purchase and post-purchase [91]. Customer behavior metrics employed in the studies fall into the last two phases of the customer decision process. The purchase stage covers behavioral intention and actual behavior.

The studies reviewed confirm the relationships between green marketing and intentions measured as an intention to behave in an environmentally friendly manner, intentions to support a brand or organization, purchasing interest, product preference, green purchase intentions, and intentions to pay a price premium. The studies also register positive impacts of green marketing solutions on customer behavior towards the environment, energy-saving behavior, purchase behavior, and consumption level. Regarding the relationship between green marketing solutions and key variables of post-purchasing behavior, the studies analyzed show the increase in customer loyalty towards the brand, green product, green-oriented store, or green organization.

Based on green marketing research, we could find out the specific impact green marketing factors at different levels have on customer behavior measures (Table 6). It was found that promotion as an element of tactical green marketing has an immense potential to impact customer behavior measures.

**Figure 4.** The researched paths between green marketing and customers' purchasing behavior.


**Table 6.** The researched paths between green marketing at different levels and specific customerbehavior measures.
