Article

Why a Single Pro-Environmental Appeal Works to Promote Behavioral Change: On Social Media, One Tip versus Many Is More Effective for Nongreen Consumers

Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Advertising Research Foundation
Journal of Advertising Research
Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.

ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Article
Full-text available
Environmental awareness is a growing concern for consumers, and effective green messaging strategies are crucial for businesses. This 2 × 2 between-subject experiment investigates the influence of message style and sidedness on consumer participation in green practices and explores the role of message usefulness and skepticism. Our results show that a narrative message style and a two-sided message increase perceived usefulness, reduce skepticism, and lead to greater behavioral intent. Further, the study supports the moderated serial mediation role of message usefulness and skepticism. These findings offer significant implications for businesses seeking to promote sustainable practices and engage consumers in green initiatives.
Article
Full-text available
A growing number of consumers want companies to act sustainably. Companies have responded by advertising their sustainability initiatives, practices, and products. This paper takes a fresh look at sustainability advertising, synthesizing empirical research involving two focal questions: (a) What makes a sustainability ad effective? and (b) What drives some consumers to adopt sustainable behaviors? To answer these questions, this paper is organized into three sections. First, the concept of sustainability is introduced, its dimensions are presented, and sustainability advertising is defined. Second, a framework for the effectiveness of sustainability advertising is introduced. Ad context, source characteristics, and message design influence an ad’s effectiveness, while consumer drivers enhance or attenuate this relationship. Finally, measures of ad effectiveness and the unintended consequences of sustainability advertising are discussed. In each section, empirical research is summarized, and future research opportunities are outlined. This paper provides a holistic view of the effectiveness of sustainability advertising in order to inspire new research in this timely and critical advertising arena.
Article
Full-text available
Mexico is one of the countries most affected by COVID-19. Studies have found that smoking behaviors have been impacted by the pandemic as well; however, results have varied across studies, and it remains unclear what is causing the changes. This study of an open cohort of smokers recruited from a consumer panel (n = 2753) examined changes in cigarettes per day (CPD), daily vs. non-daily smoking, recent quit attempts, perceived stress, depression, and perceived severity of COVID-19 at two points during the pandemic: March and July 2020. Differences in CPD between waves were estimated with Poisson regression using generalized estimating equations (GEE). Differences in perceived stress were estimated with linear regression using GEE, and differences in recent quit attempts, depression, and perceived severity of COVID-19 were estimated using separate logistic regression GEE models. Rates of depression were higher in July compared to March (AOR = 1.55, 95% C.I. 1.31–1.85), and the likelihood of recent quit attempt was lower in July compared to March (AOR = 0.85, 95% C.I. 0.75–0.98). There was no statistically significant change in CPD, daily smoking, or perceived stress. Perceived COVID-19 severity for oneself increased significantly (AOR: 1.24, 95% C.I. 1.02–1.52); however, the perceived COVID-19 severity for smokers remained constant. Our study suggests that as the COVID-19 pandemic expanded in Mexico, smoking frequency remained stable, and quit attempts decreased, even as adult smokers increasingly perceived infection with COVID-19 for themselves as severe. These results can aid in the development of health communication strategies to educate smokers about their risk for COVID-19, potentially capitalizing on concerns that stem from this syndemic of communicable and smoking-related non-communicable disease.
Article
Full-text available
In light of increasing awareness of environmental issues, advertisers around the world have developed numerous campaigns to communicate environmentally friendly attributes. The aim of this article is to review the existing literature to identify research gaps and future directions. It is suggested that content analytical research should be expanded to audiovisual media and comparative research designs. Greater analytical precision is needed for the detection of greenwashing in advertising messages. Effects research is called to use more complex and especially audiovisual stimuli, employ behavioral measures, and examine long-term effects of environmental messages. To push the boundaries of environmental advertising research, this article suggests a novel organizing framework. Based on this framework, it is suggested to focus more on explaining advertising exposure as well as attention allocation. Also, the consideration of implicit attitudes as independent, dependent, and moderating variables marks a particularly pressing and promising avenue for future research.
Article
Full-text available
This study examined whether and when information type (concrete vs. abstract) is an effective advertising strategy for fair trade products. The results of two experimental studies demonstrated that when a fair trade ad features a negative image and message (i.e., visual-written congruency), a concrete message results in greater consumer curiosity and willingness to pay a higher price for fair trade products relative to an abstract message. In contrast, when a negative image with a positive message (i.e., visual-written incongruency) is used, an abstract message increases consumer’s curiosity and willingness to pay a higher price. However, information type effects on consumers’ perceptions were not significant when a positive image appeared in the fair trade ad. Our findings suggest that advertisers who promote fair trade products should consider the combination of information and visual-written (in)congruency, as proper selection is likely to increase a consumer’s curiosity and willingness to pay a premium for fair trade products.
Article
Full-text available
Following Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez’ [(2009). Green advertising revisited. Conditioning virtual nature experiences. International Journal of Advertising, 28(4), 715–739] approach, this experimental study compares the effects of three types of green print ads: a non-green ad, a functional green ad promoting environmental product attributes, and a combined nature ad featuring a pleasant nature image in addition to functional attributes. We extend prior research by simultaneously testing moderating and mediating mechanisms to explain brand attitudes and purchase intention. Using a quota sample of 456 consumers, findings suggest that the functional ad enhances perceptions of environmental brand benefits, which positively affect purchase intention partially mediated by brand attitudes. The combined nature ad, by contrast, activates an additional emotional process of virtually experiencing nature which positively influences brand attitudes and purchase intention beyond perceptions of environmental brand benefits. The effects of the combined nature ad are even stronger for highly involved consumers. © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Article
Full-text available
Research on intergroup emotions has largely focused on the experience of emotions and surprisingly little attention has been given to the expression of emotions. Drawing on the social-functional approach to emotions, we argue that in the context of intergroup conflicts, outgroup members’ expression of disappointment with one’s ingroup induces the complementary emotion of collective guilt and correspondingly a collective action protesting ingroup actions against the outgroup. In Study 1 conducted immediately after the 2014 Gaza war, Jewish-Israeli participants received information about outgroup’s (Palestinians) expression of emotions (disappointment, fear, or none). As predicted, outgroup’s expression of disappointment increased collective guilt and willingness to participate in collective action, but only among those who saw the intergroup situation as illegitimate. Moreover, collective guilt mediated the relationship between disappointment expression and collective action, moderated, again, by legitimacy perception. In Study 2, we replicated these results in the context of racial tension between Black and White Americans in the US. We discuss the theoretical and applied implications of the findings.
Article
Full-text available
More and more companies are developing sustainable packaging. In two studies on detergent and mixed nuts packages, we manipulated their visual appearance and verbal sustainability claims that communicate eco-friendliness, and tested the influence of these elements on consumers' affective attitudes and purchase intention. Drawing on two non-student samples, the results show that consumers' level of environmental concern influenced their responses to the visual appearance and verbal sustainability claims of packages. Low (high) environmental concern consumers were (not) sensitive to incongruence in visual appearance and verbal sustainability claim and showed negative (positive) responses. Next, we demonstrate that brand ethicality mediated the relationship between the interaction of the visual appearance, the verbal sustainability claim and environmental concern and purchase intention.
Article
Full-text available
This paper examines the ‘executional greenwashing’ effect, defined as the use of nature-evoking elements in advertisements to artificially enhance a brand’s ecological image. Using classic models of information processing and persuasion, the research tests whether ‘executional greenwashing’ differs as a function of consumer knowledge about environmental issues in the product category and whether environmental performance information can counterbalance the effect by helping consumers form an accurate evaluation of the brand’s ecological image. Three experiments with French consumers reveal that evoking nature does mislead consumers in their evaluation of a brand’s ecological image, especially if they have low knowledge of environmental issues. Two indicators of environmental performance, based on current international policies, are tested to counteract ‘executional greenwashing’. Whereas a raw figure is not sufficient to help non-expert consumers revise their judgment, accompanying the figure with a traffic-light label eliminates ‘executional greenwashing’ amongst both experts and non-experts. Theoretical and regulatory implications are discussed.
Article
Full-text available
Purpose – This quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate, drawing upon influential discounting behavior theory and cognition – affect – behavior (C-A-B) paradigm, consumers’ reactions to the phenomenon of “greenwashing” in the lodging industry. More specifically, this paper proposed and tested a theoretical model that examined whether recognizing the ulterior motive caused consumer skepticism about hotels’ environmental claims, which in turn influenced consumers’ intention to participate in linen reuse program and intention to revisit the hotel. Additionally, the moderating effects of ecological concern on the relationship between skepticism and intention to participate and between skepticism and intention to revisit were examined. Design/methodology/approach – A quasi-experimental design was used with two conditions (control vs ulterior motive) employing staff members of a US public university as study participants. In total, 638 useful responses were received. Findings – The results of this study revealed that an ulterior motive of hotels’ environmental claims evoked consumer skepticism, which, in turn, negatively influenced consumers’ intention to participate in the linen reuse program and intention to revisit the hotel. Skepticism was found to partially mediate the relationships between ulterior motive and intention to participate and between ulterior motive and intention to revisit. Consumers’ ecological concern was not found to moderate the relationship between skepticism and intention to participate in the linen reuse program and skepticism and intention to revisit the hotel. In addition, a significant positive direct effect between ecological concern and intention to participate and a non-significant effect between ecological concern and revisit intention were revealed. Research limitations/implications – Focus on consumers’ response to the ulterior motive of environmental claims advances an understanding of consumers’ attitudes and perceptions about hotels’ green practices. Practical implications – Findings suggest that hotels need to be watchful so that consumers do not become skeptical. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that managers do everything possible to give customers no room for doubt. Hoteliers need to spend more effort in installing comprehensive green programs and make true green claims by keeping the potential consequences of greenwashing in mind. Hoteliers also need to seek out third-party certifications that require the hotel to meet certain standards, which will help ensure credibility in the eyes of consumers. Originality/value – Hospitality literature has seldom explored this gray area of green marketing, and, in this regard, this study serves as a guide to hoteliers and researchers alike. The authors thereby anticipate that this study would encourage more research in this often overlooked but highly important area.
Article
Full-text available
It is becoming increasingly evident that current patterns of consumption are not sustainable in the long term. Clearly, the need to persuade consumers to adopt more sustainable lifestyles has never been more urgent. The present research contributes to our understanding of the effects of message framing by considering the potential moderating influence of consumer concern about global climate change within the context of sustainable consumption. The results of two experiments demonstrate that the US consumer’s level of concern for the message-specific issues moderates the strength of the framing effect; effects are larger when concern about climate change is low. In addition, when concern is low, more negative framing and a prevention focus have more favorable persuasive effects. The implications of these findings for consumer welfare and public policy are discussed.
Article
Full-text available
Free access: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/mcP3eNhWeuSJ6YfZkMnk/full As private labels are consolidating their gains in national markets, a conventional recommendation to national brand manufacturers would most likely be to invest more in marketing in order to increase the perceived quality gap between national brands and private labels. It is assumed that the quality gap would boost consumer willingness to pay a price premium for national brands over private labels. Differing from this conventional approach, the current study focuses on the perceived authenticity gap between national brands and private labels, to explore whether and how this factor influences the effect of marketing and manufacturing variables on willingness to pay. This relationship is relevant in milieus where consumers might take brand authenticity rather than quality perceptions to guide their brand evaluations. The current study finds that the perceived authenticity gap mediates the effect of only some particular conventional marketing tools on willingness to pay. The study suggests that national brand managers should take the presence of private labels in the national markets as an opportunity to exploit the dynamics of authenticity evaluations, rather than as a threat.
Article
Full-text available
This article revisits the widely believed notion of the skeptical green consumer, in other words, that green consumers tend to distrust green advertising. Study 1, a survey of U.S. consumers, found no positive relationship between green consumerism and general ad skepticism. However, green consumerism was negatively related to green advertising skepticism. Study 2, a survey of Austrian consumers, addressed the underlying mechanism of this negative relationship in a mediation analysis. It was shown that green consumers saw more informational utility in green ads than nongreen consumers did. This, in turn, decreased their green advertising skepticism. The emotional appeal of green ads, however, had no impact on green advertising skepticism. Findings suggest that the “dilemma for marketers who desire to target the green consumer” (Zinkhan and Carlson 1995, p. 5) is far less serious than previously thought.
Article
Full-text available
There are two forms of advertising appeals for environmentally friendly products and policies: those that provide consumer benefit (e.g., cost savings) and those that provide societal benefit (e.g., lower emissions). This research examines the role of decision-making and consumption contexts on the efficacy of each appeal. The results of three studies indicate that in contexts where consumers experience heightened public accountability they are more responsive to other-benefit appeals, and in more private settings they favor self-benefit appeals. We replicate this finding across multiple samples, product categories, and consumption and decision-making contexts. Our findings reconcile previously conflicting research on the efficacy of either appeal type and provide guidance for marketers seeking to promote environmentally friendly consumption. Pieters (1991) defines environmentally friendly consump-tion as "consumption activities that have a less negative or more positive effect on the natural environment than substitutable activities" (p. 59). When consumers engage in environmentally friendly consumption behaviors, they are typically motivated by one of two benefits. Many of these behaviors, such as purchas-ing fuel-efficient vehicles that produce fewer emissions, offer consumers a chance to protect the natural environment. How-ever, they also provide the opportunity for the consumer to save money. Marketers commonly employ communication strategies that emphasize one benefit or the other. For example, when the grocery chain Safeway encourages customers to use their own reusable shopping bags, it highlights the environmental bene-fit (i.e., an other-benefit appeal) of this practice rather than the per-bag discount to consumers (i.e., a self-benefit appeal).
Article
Full-text available
This study compares the effects of four types of ads: a functional green ad promoting the environmental advantages of a product, an emotional green ad using a visual representation of pleasant natural scenery, a mixed type green ad using functional and emotional strategies, and a control group. Findings of an experimental study using a representative sample of U.S. consumers suggest that both the emotional and the mixed-type ads significantly affect brand attitude, mediated by attitude toward the ad. These effects do not depend on consumers' green involvement. Functional ads, in contrast, only impact brand attitudes when involvement, measured as green purchase behavior or green product attitudes, is high.
Article
Full-text available
A survey explores factors that lead to consumers' ambivalent attitudes about green products and buying green products. An experiment further tests the moderating influence of this ambivalence on consumer responses to green advertising that suggests the advertisers exert different levels of green efforts (low, moderate, high). A proposed model predicts that high-effort claims induce greater levels of discomfort among ambivalent participants, which encourage them to engage in motivated processing in which they discount the believability of the ad, as well as that of the green claims. As a result, evaluations of the product become more negative. The experimental findings confirm these predictions.
Article
Full-text available
The author proposes that consumers infer brand quality from the level of advertising repetition for unfamiliar brands. Consumers are posited to associate high product quality with high levels of repetition because they see repetition as costly and think higher costs reflect the manufacturer's commitment to the product. However, at very high levels of repetition, consumers may perceive the expenditures as excessive and begin to doubt the manufacturer's confidence in product quality, which would lead to an inverted-U relationship between advertising repetition and product quality perceptions. The author demonstrates that the relationship between repetition and perceived brand quality is mediated by perceptions of the manufacturer's effort and confidence in quality rather than by irritation or boredom. The hypotheses were tested in an experiment in which the level of repetition and the color of the ad were varied.
Article
Full-text available
It is common for authors discovering a significant interaction of a measured variable X with a manipulated variable Z to examine simple effects of Z at different levels of X. These “spotlight” tests are often misunderstood even in the simplest cases, and it appears that consumer researchers are unsure how to extend them to more complex designs. We explain the general principles of spotlight tests, show that they rely on familiar regression techniques, and provide a tutorial showing how to apply these tests across an array of experimental designs. Rather than following the common practice of reporting spotlight tests at one standard deviation above and below the mean of X, we recommend that when X has focal values, researchers report spotlight tests at those focal values. When X does not have focal values, we recommend researchers report ranges of significance using a version of Johnson and Neyman’s (1936) test we call a “floodlight”.
Article
Full-text available
Sustainable food consumption is an important aspect of sustainable development. When adopting a sustainable food lifestyle, consumers are confronted with complex choices. Today's food consumption is too complex to be explained by socio-demographic factors exclusively. A broader perspective is needed. In order to explain behaviour across different consumer segments better, relatively homogenous segments of food consumers were identified by segmenting food consumers based on a wide range of variables. The current study aims to provide an overview of published studies that have segmented consumers with regard to sustainable food consumption. The literature review has been conducted by searching SciVerse Scopus for all relevant articles available until November 2010. The main criterion for including a specific study was the inclusion of empirical analyses of primary data, resulting in consumer segments with regard to sustainable food consumption. Sixteen articles were incorporated in the final analysis. First, the variables used for segmentation and profiling in the included articles have been categorized into three levels of abstraction: personality characteristics, food-related lifestyles and behaviour. The three levels of abstraction proved to be helpful in categorizing the segmentation studies. The findings indicate that variables on all three levels were efficient in differentiating consumer segments regarding sustainability. In addition, the importance of price and health differed across the segments, although these variables are only indirectly related to sustainability. Second, the three most frequently identified consumer segments with regard to sustainable food consumption were: ‘greens’, ‘potential greens’ and ‘non-greens’. These segments differed from one another on all three levels of abstraction. This implies that future segmentation studies should include variables on all levels of abstraction to get a complete picture of existing sustainable consumer segments. Marketers should be aware that targeting specific segments based on socio-demographic variables exclusively is not sufficient. Personality characteristics, lifestyle and behaviour are all important to take into consideration. Attempts at stimulating sustainable consumption might be most effective when differences across consumer segments are taken into account. Future research is needed to explore the characteristics of different sustainable food consumer segments with respect to their potential contributions in promoting sustainable development
Article
Full-text available
Theorists posit that a public—unlike a mass of individuals—forms opinions through awareness of multiple viewpoints and recognition of opposition in a polity. Whether individuals pursue information on others’ political preferences is another matter. While some are motivated to seek as much information as possible, others seek information that supports their own preference. This differential pattern of awareness has implications for individuals’ assessment of collective preferences. This article extends recent research on motivated reasoning to test whether accuracy goals (i.e., reaching correct conclusions) and directional goals (i.e., reaching preferred conclusions) affect perceptions of majority preferences. Results show that motivated reasoning affects overestimates of support, of both national-level opinion and modal opinion in discussion groups, even after controlling for partisan strength, demographics, news exposure, political knowledge, and interest. Implications for considered public opinion are discussed in the conclusion.
Article
The purpose of this study is to segment US green consumers based on their personal, social, and environmental motivations for purchasing pro-environmental products. By using two-step cluster analysis, this study revealed six green consumer segments, each with a distinct combination of motivations. The different segments display a wide range of demographic characteristics, knowledge of pro-environmental products, pro-environmental product use behavior, skepticism, and attitudes toward pro-environmental advertising. This study found that green consumers, who have strong environmental motivations, have high knowledge about pro-environmental products, use a higher number and more varied selection of such products, tend to have less skepticism toward pro-environmental advertising, and have more positive attitudes toward such advertising. The study expands the motivations used in green consumer segmentation, delivering a more detailed analysis of the drivers of green consumer behavior. It also helps to explain the contradictions in the literature as to whether or not green consumers are open to or skeptical of green advertising.
Article
The Foote, Cone, and Belding (FCB) grid was developed to help advertising practitioners think strategically and situationally about the way consumers make purchase decisions. It was a prominent theoretical perspective for scholars in the 1980s but has been neglected in recent years. Moreover, what little research does exist on the FCB grid seems to misunderstand one of its primary tenets: that its axes of thinking, feeling, and involvement do not label the products themselves but the way consumers think about purchasing these products. This is unfortunate, because the situational thinking that the grid stimulates is ideal for a world where media channels are increasingly digital and social. In this article, we outline the FCB grid’s original propositions as a strategic tool and discuss some of ways it has been misinterpreted along the way. We then explicate its potential for practitioners and scholars in the contemporary media environment, propose our own grid of appropriate channels for each quadrant, and offer some guidance for future scholars to leverage this theory moving forward.
Article
Amidst a rapidly changing marketplace, sharp behavioral changes, and increased social media usage, brand authenticity, already an important attribute, has become an essential asset for brands. Even though marketing researchers have been studying the topic for more than 25 years, our extensive literature review shows that a widely accepted definition and scale is still lacking. Many extant definitions and scales only address specific aspects of brand authenticity, thus only providing partial coverage. This paper proposes a new definition and amalgamated scale that addresses authenticity holistically in a germane/relatable manner. The disjointed, and often dated, extant definitions and scales require a re-conceptualization of brand authenticity to meet the needs of today’s consumer in relevant, meaningful manner.
Article
This research investigates the effects of digital context on perception of green advertising. We challenge the common advertising practice of posting similar content across platforms by showing how the same ad is received differently by consumers on different digital channels. We use social norms theory (SNT) to build our hypotheses and test them with two experiments. We demonstrate that on a news website, brand quality is the mechanism for the persuasive effect of an appeal (product, environmental, or hybrid). However, on Instagram (Study 1) and Facebook (Study 2), brand authenticity is the persuasive mechanism for generating purchase intent and digital engagement. Results provide converging evidence for brand authenticity as a pivotal factor for green brand success on social media.
Article
In a quest to investigate whether perceptions of authenticity can engage consumers with brands, the present study examines the influence of perceived brand authenticity (PBA) on consumer brand engagement (CBE). Furthermore, the study explores the influence of CBE on consumers’ brand usage intention (BUI) and willingness to pay a price premium (WPP). Data were collected online from 380 brand users and examined using the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. The results reveal that PBA’s continuity, credibility, and integrity dimensions positively influence CBE, further influencing BUI and WPP. Moreover, multi-group moderation analysis reveals that statistically significant differences exist in the path estimates for ‘high self-congruence’ and ‘low self-congruence’ consumer groups, thus confirming the moderating role of self-congruence. Finally, the study concludes with an overview of the implications followed by the crucial limitations and directions for future research.
Article
This paper suggests a method for optimizing a dynamic budget allocation policy for an advertising campaign posted through a social network (e.g., Facebook, Instagram). The method, which considers unique features of social network marketing, yields an optimal targeted budget allocation policy over time for a single ad campaign and minimizes the campaign's length, given a specific budget and a desired level of exposure of each marketing segment. The model incorporates a general ‘effectiveness function’ that determines the relationship between the value of an advertising bid at a given time and the number of newly exposed users at that time. We develop closed-form solutions for dynamic budget allocation for several forms of the effectiveness function. We apply the approach to data obtained from a real-life ad campaign and show how a curve fitting regression procedure can estimate the shape and the parameters of the effectiveness function. Numerical simulations show the extent to which the optimal advertising policy is sensitive to the problem parameters.
Article
This study examined the effects of message framing, image valence, and issue involvement on consumers’ advertising attitudes, brand attitudes and purchase intention in the context of green advertising. A 2 (message frame: gain vs. loss) X 2 (image valence: positive vs. negative) between-subjects randomized experimental study was conducted to address the proposed hypotheses. A total of 285 participants of the main study was recruited. This study found congruency between message framing and image valences affected consumers’ advertising and brand attitudes, and purchase intention. Consumers had positive advertising and brand attitudes toward gain-framing with positive image while they had negative advertising and brand attitudes toward loss-framing with negative image. However, for incongruent advertising, the effects of image valence diminished the effects of message framing. Specifically, regardless of message framing, positive images triggered positive advertising and brand attitudes while negative images lead to negative advertising and brand attitudes, and purchase intention. Last, this study found interesting results about issue involvement as a moderator. When consumers with low involvement were exposed to incongruent green advertising, image valence had stronger effects on their advertising and brand attitudes than message framing. Based on the results, theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
Article
How can green advertising get non-green consumers to think more about the environment? Using Elaboration Likelihood Model and Social Judgment Theory, we construct hypotheses and test them across three experiments. Results provide converging evidence that messages placed on social media with low-information and high-fear (emotional) appeals are most effective at generating purchase intent and digital engagement. Moreover, pollution ideation is the mechanism underlying these effects on social media. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in light of the potential for advertising to be a force for good, particularly on social media where campaigns may encourage non-green consumers to think more about the environment.
Article
Brand Authenticity is paramount in contemporary advertising and brands can communicate their authenticity by supporting social and environmental crises. Brands often donate money or products to causes, and while the value of such activities has been documented, the actual nature of the donation relative to authenticity and subsequent outcomes is unclear. How much should brands donate? What type of donation is best? What are the advantages of choosing certain crises over others? This paper explores how a brand’s authenticity might be affected by its response strategy to various crises. Two experimental studies provide converging evidence that with either an acute (a weather-related crisis) or a chronic social (school funding) issue, the right type and size of donation can lead to desirable brand outcomes while assisting those in need. We argue that symbolic consumption is the mechanism through which process occurs. We find that purchase intent can be generated through donating cash or products to a crisis that fits well with brand values, whereas digital engagement is best generated through product donation in support of a crisis which does not.
Article
In this study, we examine how two message appeals—feasibility vs. desirability—and anthropomorphism jointly shape the effectiveness of environmental persuasion. The findings of Study 1 showed that the feasibility appeal was more effective than the desirability appeal in an ad promoting recycling. In Study 2, we found that this effect was moderated by anthropomorphic imagery in the ad. That is, the desirability appeal was more effective than the feasibility appeal when the ad featured a reusable cup with a smiley face and first-person copy, whereas the feasibility appeal was more effective than the desirability appeal when the ad featured a reusable cup with no smiley face and third-person copy. Theoretical and practical implications for sustainability marketing strategies are discussed.
Article
The authors develop and test a theory of how public service advertisements function to induce helping responses. Building on Lazarus's general theory of emotion and adaptation, they hypothesize that public service ads designed to reduce the incidence of child abuse stimulate negative emotions; these, in turn, lead to empathic reactions and end with the decision to help. Two field experiments are conducted to test the theory.
Article
This study examines the role of personalized charity advertising in promoting empathy, attitude change, and helping intentions toward stigmatized social groups. Based on theories of message involvement, empathy, and reactance, we predicted that higher levels of involvement elicited by a personalized charity advertisement would reinforce empathy and prosocial outcomes. An online experiment was conducted using a personalized and a nonpersonalized version of a charity advertisement for a campaign soliciting donations of winter coats for homeless people. As expected, structural equation modeling revealed a positive indirect effect of personalization on prosocial outcomes (attitudes and behavioural intentions toward homeless people, and willingness to donate to the campaign) that was mediated by involvement and empathy. However, in addition to promoting involvement and empathy, personalization also led to heightened reactance, which detracted from the positive effects. Theoretical as well as practical implications of the findings for personalized charity advertising are discussed.
Article
Brands have come under the spotlight for unethical behaviour, resulting in decreased brand trust. Breakdowns in trust occur when the actions of brands differ from the promises and values communicated by them. Brand authenticity is considered to have a positive effect on brand trust. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of brand authenticity in the development of brand trust. The target population for the study was customers of airline brands in South Africa with a sample size of 355 responses. Our results show the brand authenticity dimensions. Brand authenticity does have a direct impact on brand trust, and warmth and competence partially mediate the relationship between brand authenticity and brand trust. These findings have important implications for managers. To succeed, consumers have to trust their brands, and brands that are viewed by them as such are likely to be more successful than those that are not.
Article
uthenticity has emerged over recent decades as a prominent theme in both the press and in political research—and peaked in the 2016 presidential contest that pitted Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz. In this context, we attempted to answer the question: How do voters judge a presidential candidate's authenticity? Here we use motivated reasoning and correspondent inference theory as theoretical frameworks to examine how partisan preference combines with perceptions of unfettered speech and strategic impression management to influence voter judgments of a candidate's authenticity. An online survey of 525 respondents demonstrated that individuals' partisan preferences influenced both judgments of a candidate's authenticity and their perceptions of behaviors signifying authenticity (use of unfettered speech versus strategic impression management). These behavioral signals partially mediated the relation between candidate preferences and authenticity judgments. Moreover, voters, given their partisan preferences, differentially weighted candidates' use of unfettered speech and strategic impression management tactics in their judgments of authenticity. Finally, unfiltered/politically incorrect speech was found to have both positive and negative effects on authenticity judgments. Findings further elucidate the nature of authenticity as perceived in others and identify intermediary variables and boundary conditions that influence those perceptions.
Article
Data collection using Internet-based samples has become increasingly popular in many social science disciplines, including advertising. This research examines whether one popular Internet data source, Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk), is an appropriate substitute for other popular samples utilized in advertising research. Specifically, a five-sample between-subjects experiment was conducted to help researchers who utilize MTurk in advertising experiments understand the strengths and weaknesses of MTurk relative to student samples and professional panels. In comparisons across five samples, results show that the MTurk data outperformed panel data procured from two separate professional marketing research companies across various measures of data quality. The MTurk data were also compared to two different student samples, and results show the data were at least comparable in quality. While researchers may consider MTurk samples as a viable alternative to student samples when testing theory-driven outcomes, precautions should be taken to ensure the quality of data regardless of the source. Best practices for ensuring data quality are offered for advertising researchers who utilize MTurk for data collection.
Article
Building on the literature on green consumption, this study investigates consumers’ perceptions of a brand's green benefits (utilitarian environmental and warm glow) and green transparency on their green perceived value (GPV). In particular, this study tests the mediating role of GPV and self-brand connection on the relationships between green benefits and green transparency and brand loyalty. We used structural equation modeling to test the research model with a sample of 826 Chinese respondents. Our findings suggest that most of the hypotheses were supported. However, comparison between brands of physical goods and services indicate that the approach to develop consumers’ green value perceptions is different and that the influences of GPV and self-brand connection on brand loyalty are significantly different between these two groups of brands. Hence, it would be more effective for organizations to have diverse green branding strategies between these two groups of brands.
Article
This paper examines individuals’ (promotion versus prevention) regulatory focus effects on a variety of environmentally responsible reactions. Results of two studies show that chronic promotion focus is associated with environmental concern, favorable attitudes towards pro-environment advertising recommendations, intentions to do what the ad recommends, and positive affect directed at the self upon adhering to ad recommendations. Conversely, chronic prevention focus while not significantly associated with environmental concern, attitudes, intentions, or positive affect directed at the self upon adhering to ad recommendations. Conversely, chronic prevention focus while not significantly associated with environmental concern, attitudes, intentions, or positive affect - has a marginally positive association with negative affect toward the self and others who do not follow pro-environmental ad recommendations. Furthermore, priming promotion focus strengthens attitudes toward recommended behavior, intentions to follow through, and other-directed positive (and negative) affect. Priming prevention focus also strengthens other-directed negative (and positive) affect. No fit effects between individuals’ regulatory focus and pro-environmental ads framed with recycle, reduce, or recycle and reduce orientations is found. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Article
This study aims to analyze what drives and prevents the purchasing of eco-friendly products across different consumer groups and develops a conceptual model embracing the positive altruistic (care for the environmental consequences of purchasing), positive ego-centric (green self-identity and moral obligation), and negative ego-centric (perceived personal inconvenience of purchasing eco-friendly products) antecedents of eco-friendly product purchase intention and behavior. We empirically validate the conceptual model for green (n = 453) and non-green (n = 473) consumers (i.e., consumers who engage in a set of pro-environmental behaviors for environmental reasons versus consumers who do not engage in these behaviors). Data are analyzed using structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis of the two groups. The results confirm the relevance of the determining factors in the model and show significant differences in eco-friendly product purchasing patterns between green and non-green consumers. Altruistic motives are more important for green than for non-green consumers. Negative ego-centric motives affect the purchase intentions of non-green consumers more than the intentions of green consumers, whereas the impact of negative motives on behavior is stronger for green than for non-green consumers. The first contribution of this paper is the development and testing of a parsimonious model of eco-friendly products purchasing that embraces both positive (altruistic and ego-centric) and negative (ego-centric) antecedents, which have been theoretically suggested in the past but have rarely been empirically tested together. The second contribution of this study is that it develops insight into the specific antecedents of eco-friendly products purchasing for green and non-green consumers to assess potential similarities and differences in eco-friendly products purchasing process, the hypothesized antecedents, their impact on eco-friendly products purchase intention and behavior, and the intention–behavior relation.
Article
Many firms adopt green advertising and put great emphasis on the value of green marketing strategies. However, little research has examined the effectiveness of green appeal in advertisements. Building on message framing and construal level theory, this study examines the moderating role of temporal distance in effects of gain or loss framed messages on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions towards advertised brand. The findings demonstrate that a congruency between loss frame and low level construal, as well as the match between gain frame and high level construal, leads to more positive outcomes in consumers’ attitudes and purchase intention. Furthermore, this research reveals that salience of the congruency effect varies in line with the level of consumer environmental concern, which has important theoretical and practical implications.
Article
This research explores how abstract appeal (i.e., describing the features of green products in a more vague way) and concrete appeal (i.e., describing the features of green products in a more specific way) can encourage consumers to engage in green consumption behavior, such as purchasing green products. Across three experiments, this research tests the prediction that abstract (concrete) appeal is more effective in generating green purchase intentions than concrete (abstract) appeal in situations where the benefit association of green products is other (self). Public self-awareness and identity salience moderate the effect of appeal type and benefit association on green purchase intentions. In particular, when green products associate with the benefit of other, abstract appeal is more effective, whereas both abstract and concrete appeals are less effective when green products associate with the benefit of self. This effect is moderated by public self-awareness and whether a collective level of self or an individual level of self is made salient. The results provide important managerial implications for marketers who seek to promote green consumption by suggesting that rather than merely depending on the types of advertising appeals, marketers should modify their advertising message to match the benefit association of the products and to consider the situations where public self-awareness and identity salience are present.
Article
Brands are one of marketing’s main foci. But while the American Marketing Association’s official marketing definition continues to evolve, its brand definition has remained stagnant for nearly 80 years. This article argues that the AMA’s simplistic trademark conceptualization of brands is increasingly out of touch with marketing theory and practice. Integrating the consumer culture, marketing semiotics, and General Systems Theory literatures, we re-conceptualize brands as semiotic marketing systems. This follows marketing systems being core to macromarketing. It also obeys marketing systems needing to contemplate their meaning infrastructures given today’s progressively symbolic markets. The antecedents, operation and benefits of this new systems approach to brands are discussed. Brands are re-defined as complex multidimensional constructs with varying degrees of meaning, independence, co-creation and scope. Brands are semiotic marketing systems that generate value for direct and indirect participants, society, and the broader environment, through the exchange of co-created meaning.
Article
The authors develop and test a theory of how public service advertisements function to induce helping responses. Building on Lazarus's general theory of emotion and adaptation, they hypothesize that public service ads designed to reduce the incidence of child abuse stimulate negative emotions; these, in turn, lead to empathic reactions and end with the decision to help. Two field experiments are conducted to test the theory.
Article
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the nature of green advertising, thus demonstrating that the concept is far more complex than the extant marketing literature suggests. Green is characterized here as a two dimensional concept with political (reformism to radicalism) and human positional (anthropocentric to ecocentric) dimensions. It is argued here that there are at least five different types of green, including environmentalism, conservationism, human welfare ecology, preservationism, and ecologism. To understand the greenness of an advertisement, it is useful to position it within this framework; and each type suggests a different human position with respect to nature and a different political orientation. The proposed framework is useful for defining terms such as “green,” “environmental,” and “ecological” which are often used interchangeably in the marketing and advertising literature.
Article
Postmodern consumers use brands to create an authentic self and to reconnect to place, time, culture and others. Although previous research has identified that consumers draw on a range of cues in order to attribute authenticity to branded objects, no scales exist to measure the construct of brand authenticity. Building on the existing literature, this paper uses quantitative methods to develop a psychometrically robust measure of brand authenticity from a consumer's perspective. Findings demonstrate convergent, discriminant and predictive validity, whereby 14 items represent three interrelated first order factors labeled quality commitment, sincerity and heritage that correspond with a higher order brand authenticity construct. This study extends our understanding of the consumption of authenticity. Moreover, it provides a tool by which firms can evaluate the effectiveness of strategic decisions designed to deliver an authentic brand offering to consumers. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.
Article
This research examined how consumers responded to different print advertisements for a green laundry detergent. Hypotheses based on the salience literature were developed and tested in a laboratory experiment. One group considered a “green” appeal which emphasized the environmental attributes of the product. Another group considered a “non-green” appeal which emphasized the cost-saving attributes of the product. We measured each subject's involvement with the environment. Our results showed that for those highly involved with the environment, there were no significant differences in purchase intent, attitude toward the ad, and support arguments between appeals. However, for those less involved with the environment, the green appeal was significantly more persuasive than the non-green appeal in terms of the same variables.
Article
The New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale is the most frequently used measure of environmental concern, but it has not been placed in the context of a social-psychological theory of attitude formation or attitude-behavior relationships. Using data from a northern Virginia sample, this study examines NEP in relation to the variables in a theoretical model of environmental concern. We found that the NEP is indistinguishable from a scale of awareness of consequences (AC) of general environmental conditions, both psychometrically and in terms of its relations to behavioral intentions, but somewhat different in its relations to basic value orientations and sociodemographic variables. We conclude that both NEP and AC measure generalized beliefs about the nature of human-environment interactions-or "folk ecology"—a set of beliefs that may be influenced by social structure and values and that influence attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral intentions regarding specific environmental conditions.