Investigating the Effects of Intrinsic Motivation and Emotional Appeals Into the Link Between Organic Appeals Advertisement and Purchase Intention Toward Organic Milk

Abstract

Consumers care about healthy food. Thus, several firms use organic appeals advertising to change consumer attitudes and persuade them to purchase organic food. Organic appeals advertisement often presents content that provides information and knowledge about organic elements of a food product (e.g., health, safety, a lack of chemicals, and rich nutrition). In contrast, non-organic appeals advertisement does not present information about organic elements of a food product. This study aims to clarify the effect of organic appeals advertisement on consumer motivations and behavior. It uses the stimuli-organism-response model and self-determination motivation theory to investigate the relationship between organic appeals advertisement and purchase intention toward organic milk considering the mediating role of intrinsic motivation and the moderating role of emotional appeals. Two experimental designs are used to test the hypotheses. Results show that consumers receiving organic appeals advertisement have a higher intention to purchase organic milk than those receiving non-organic appeals advertisement. Furthermore, intrinsic motivation is found to have a mediating role in the link between organic appeals advertisement and purchase intention. In other words, when consumers receive advertisements of an organic milk product, they have higher intrinsic motivation and hold higher intention to purchase organic milk products. Furthermore, emotional appeals have a moderating effect on the relationship between organic appeals advertisement and intrinsic motivation. The influence of organic appeals advertisement on intrinsic motivation is stronger when emotional appeals are positive and weaker when emotional appeals are negative.

How different advertising appeals (green vs. non-green) impact consumers' willingness to pay a premium for green agricultural products

“…Third, more research on boundary circumstances is still required. Advertising appeals that are matched to customer attributes have been found to affect consumers' purchasing decisions and actions (Wang et al, 2021). Self-construal is regarded as being connected to a consumer's willingness to pay as one of the key consumer traits (Dogan and Ozmen, 2019).…”

Increase consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for organic food in restaurants: Explore the role of comparative advertising

“…Companies often compare organic food with regular food in terms of product details ( Zhang et al, 2018 ). A comparative approach informing consumers of the benefits of organic food may help them decide because them get more useful information ( Wang et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Therefore, consumers need to believe that publicity in green advertising has become particularly important, as lack of trust in the benefits of sustainable products is the main barrier to paying a premium ( Nuttavuthisit and Thøgersen, 2017 ; Britwum et al, 2021 ). The external information of food will affect consumers’ behavior, which will activate a cognitive persuasion mechanism to activate consumers’ willingness to pay ( Teuber et al, 2016 ; Xiang et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2021 ). Information persuasiveness can help us better understand the information that can effectively impress consumers ( Byun and Jang, 2018 ) and is the key to increasing sustainable consumption behavior ( Jäger and Weber, 2020 ).…”

“…Despite the advantages of organic food production, consumer appreciation, and consumer purchase propensity in surveys ( Rana and Paul, 2017 ; Wang et al, 2021 ), its market share is less than 5% in most countries ( Hansmann et al, 2020 ), and only 0.8% in China ( China National Commercial Information Center, 2019 ; FiBL, and IFOAM, 2020 ). A significant gap exists between their willingness to buy and actual consumption ( Carrington et al, 2014 ; Massey et al, 2018 ) because consumers neither realize nor believe in the claimed benefits of organic products ( Van Doorn and Verhoef, 2015 ; Liu et al, 2021 ) or their high prices ( Katt and Meixner, 2020 ).…”

“…Green advertising strategies play an irreplaceable role in promoting consumers’ WTPP for organic food ( Aschemann-Witzel and Zielke, 2017 ; Wang et al, 2021 ). For example, after providing information about the impact of organic apple production on health and the environment, consumers were willing to pay more ( Rousseau and Vranken, 2013 ).…”