Green advertising and its impact on environmentally friendly consumption choices: A review

Abstract

Research on various environmental topics, among which is the topic of green advertising, has been growing during last three decades, but it is yet to gain its full potential. Since the topic of green advertising has been gaining rising attention of scholars, the body of knowledge on this topic has been growing as well. Green advertising in general aims to promote products produced in an environmentally-friendly manner, or to promote advertiser's corporate responsibility toward an environment. The evaluation of green advertising effectiveness is necessary in order to stimulate cognitive and affective reactions of consumers to green advertisements, as well as their subsequent environmentally friendly behaviour. This article contains the review of the relevant literature on the topic of green advertising effectiveness. The findings of the literature review indicate that green advertising represents an effective communication means to influence consumers' attitudes and behaviour, even though its effectiveness is often mediated by certain factors, like: consumers' environmental consciousness, consumers' regulatory focus, consumers' scepticism, claim type.

Trust in Green Advertising: Mediating Role of Environmental Involvement

“…It appears that consumers' trust in the green advertisement is much affected by the extent to which green advertising claims, specifically, environmental claims that are perceived to be informative and valuable. The strength of advertising claims; clear and specific environmental claims appear to be the most relevant factor of advertising effectiveness (Krstić et al, 2021;Rooijmans, 2018;Ulusoy & Barretta, 2016). Some researchers found that vague environmental claims are perceived as greenwashing and deteriorate consumers' attitudes toward advertisements and brands (Majláth, 2017;Parguel et al, 2015;Schmuck et al, 2018).…”

“…The terms such as sustainability, recycling, and environmentally friendly have become common appeals in green marketing targeted at households and industries. Most companies use green advertising to promote green products or services by conveying the relationship between the product and the environment and enhancing the corporate image of environmental responsibility (Krstić et al, 2021;Liao et al, 2020;Tee et al, 2014). Kumar (2017) claimed that green advertising aims to inform consumers about a company's environmental practices, build trust in environmental promises, and engage with customers.…”

“…Some studies discovered that due to the inconsistency between green marketing strategies and advertising claims, consumers lack trust and confidence in the environmental claims, which prevents them from purchasing green products (Joshi & Rahman, 2015;Yu, 2020). Krstić et al (2021) conducted an extensive literature review of the effectiveness of green advertising in terms of execution characteristics, environmental claims, and greenwashing. The strength of environmental claims appears to be a relevant factor in advertising effectiveness.…”

“…Many past studies postulated significant empirical support regarding the impact of environmental claims toward green advertising effectiveness (i.e., trust). Indeed, the effectiveness is also mediated by many factors, and one of them was involvement (Krstić et al, 2021;Rahim et al, 2019, Ulusoy & Barretta, 2016. The concept of involvement is often taken into consideration in understanding consumer behaviour.…”

“…The majority of research in environmental studies found that, in general, more environmentally concerned consumers are more sceptical toward green claims presented in advertising (Alamsyah et al, 2020;Do Paço & Reis, 2012;Krstić et al, 2021;Ulusoy & Barretta, 2016). Different responses toward green communication might be generated due to different levels of environmental involvement.…”