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Examining Linkages Between Brand Image and Purchase Intention of Green Products The Moderating Role of Perceived Benefits
Examining Linkages Between Brand Image and Purchase Intention of Green Products The Moderating Role of Perceived Benefits
Introduction
The past several years have witnessed an explosion in commercial and research activities related to environment,
with focus changing from local problems to more global questions due to an imbalance in the ecological system caused by
excessive human consumption and behavior (Bonini & Oppenheim, 2008). Over a period of time, companies have changed
their attitudes towards environment and consideration for it has gained importance in recent years, leading companies to
carry out their business according to environmental principles.
The changed attitude has motivated enterprises to adapt their business strategies and environmental policies
according to the growing demands from consumers for responsible environmental behavior thereby creating value for
customers in a long-term perspective. Effective marketing techniques provide the information that consumers want and
need to make informed purchase decisions, through messages that communicate benefits of products or services to the
consumer. In recent times, more and more companies have started adopting green marketing practice to minimize wastage
by integrating their activities with the environment. The trend has spread to several countries including India where Indian
companies have become serious about building environmental sustainability into their business practices (Jamge, 2012).
Green marketing initiatives are continuing to grow in popularity, in large part due to the fact that consumers are increasingly
integrating concern for environmental values into their purchase decisions by preferring to buy products which do not have
a detrimental impact on the environment.
In this context, corporations have been pitching green advertising to promote integrated sustainability as opposed
to marketing green products only for green consumer segments. Thus, companies have shown interest in using green
advertisement as a tool to develop a favorable corporate “hardening” customer demands (Grant 2008), or
identity, focusing particularly on green products undertaking a complete corporate philosophical change
(Killbourne, 1998). (Polonsky & Rosenberger 2001). Among the different
Although it is important to foresee the reaction marketing activities, most visible in the corporate has
of consumers to green communication, it is also been the explosion in green advertising, both in print and
important to find means that would enable to affect their television media, aiming at positioning itself as a “green”
attitudes towards such green communications more brand (Kangun et. al., 1991). Unfortunately, this
positively. With the help of the green communication explosion in green advertising has not been accompanied
initiatives, companies hope to positively affect the brand by a corresponding growth in the number of scholarly
associations (Del Rio, Vazquez & Iglesias, 2001), i.e. the studies on the subject (Kangun et. al., 1991), perhaps due
perception of brand benefits in the consumers' mind to the absence of a framework to clarify what green
(Keller, 1998; Grace & O'Cass, 2002) so as to influence the advertising specifically signifies.
total meaning of a brand for the consumer. Furthermore, The role of advertising in informing consumers,
Dressler & Duhm (2005) state that brand image is a either directly (Grossman & Shapiro, 1984) or indirectly
construct of attitudes that consumers develop over time (Milgrom & Roberts, 1986) about brand attributes
toward products. These attitudes are subjective and/or prices, now includes terms such as recyclable,
perception images and all images together form a holistic environmentally friendly, ozone safe, biodegradable etc.
and complex brand image. popularizing it as green advertisements and often
This indicates that the concept of image is closely exposing consumers to such messages. As a result,
related to the concept of attitudes, i.e. positive or negative consumers develop feelings and judgments towards such
reactions of individuals aroused by a learned or constant advertisement claims, which affects their attitude
disposition to a specific stimulus (Schlagentweith, 2008). towards the ad and beliefs about the brand (Batra and
An essential feature in an image is that it is always Ray, 1986) and hence their intention to purchase.
subjective and personal. It is always based on a person's
attitudes and personal values and requirement and it is Perceived Benefits
not based on any objective truth. It is always a matter of a According to Cronin & Taylor (1992), consumers
personal opinion, in other words, what an individual are value driven and organizations need to understand
person thinks of a particular subject. The image can be, perceived value to achieve market place advantage.
for example, a country image, a corporate image, or a Creation and transmission of value to the consumer is a
brand image, to name a few (Rope & Mether, 2001). Based significant factor useful for sustained competitive
on this understanding, one can infer that attitudes are advantage in a given hyper competitive environment
always directed towards something (e.g. a product or a (Ekrem & Fazil, 2007). Since perceived value significantly
brand) and they can only emerge, if the person has had influences satisfaction, trust and behavioral intentions,
any information, experience or interaction with this exploring its dimensions can provide insights to
object. providers in understanding their consumers.
In this paper, we therefore propose to expand on A more detailed analysis of the consumer value
the existing framework and present a new scheme by of many environmentally friendly products reveals that
analyzing consumer's perception of green print consumers do not generally experience immediate
advertisements and how green advertising impacts individual benefit from the fact that a product has a
consumer's image of a brand and their purchase reduced impact on the environment. In most cases,
intention towards the same. consumers will experience an improvement of
environmental quality only when major sectors of the
Review of Literature global population pursue generalized green consumer
To target green consumers, marketers have behaviour. Thus, the perceived individual customer
adopted different ways, including designing of new benefit might not be a sufficiently powerful motivation to
products (Hinds, 1989), repositioning existing products green purchasing (Belz & Dyllik, 1996).
(Bremner, 1989), creating new corporate image (Iyer & Several studies have shown that consumers do
Banerjee, 1992) etc. The number of companies reacting take notice of the environmental performance of their
to the pro-environmental/green market is increasing for energy provider. For green power customers, their
reasons such as countering competitive green offerings, objective might either be to make sure that their money
preempting against potential regulations and does not support unsustainable energy sources or to
contribute to climate protection and growth of renewable purchase a product (Phelps & Hoy, 1996). The likelihood
energy in their personal choice (Wustenhagen & Bilharz, that a consumer will buy a particular product results
2006). However, other empirical research have found from the interaction of his or her need for it, attitude
that people accept mark-ups on the price of green energy towards it and perceptions of it and that of the company
brands because they want to feel better about which produces it (Bradmore, 2004).
themselves, and are not primarily interested in the A report by the Massachusetts Department of
objective environmental impact of their decision. Environmental Protection (2002) studied that one of the
barriers in the purchase of green products is the lack of
Brand Image (BI) proper green communication, rendering it difficult to
Brand image is a brand's style and integral brand identify and locate green products in the market. One way
reputation, including characters, products, and concept to overcome this issue is the application of eco-labelling
and how consumers feel about the brand i.e associated (or green labelling) in the product's communication
brand-related feelings reflected for a brand within the strategy i.e. advertisement programs, so as to provide the
consumer's memory (Keller, 1993). Keller (1993) consumers with information while at the same time
proposed that brand image could arouse consumer's addressing environmental issues.
association of brand and can influence consumer's Although consumers, in general, are concerned
attitude towards it in a positive way (Dodds, Monroe & about the environment, the previous literature found that
Grewal, 1991). While brand benefits are the “personal consumers are extremely price sensitive towards green
value” (i.e., what the consumer perceives the product products (Massachusetts Department of Environmental
attribute will do for them) that consumers associate to a Protection, 2002) and might be unwilling to pay higher
brand, brand benefits can be classified into functional, prices for green products (Ottman, 1992), especially with
experiential, and symbolic, that motivates the needs that the risk of deceptive claims (green washing). Wahid &
drive consumption behavior (Park et al., 1986a; Keller, Ahmed (2011) proposed a research to determine the
1993). effect of green marketing tools on consumer's actual
Functional brand image, which most likely lead purchase behavior and revealed that customer's trust in
to purchase intention as such products serve to satisfy eco-label and eco-brand and their perception of eco-
consumer's external consumption demand. It is based on brand show positive and significant impact on their
functional needs, that is, a desire for problem removal actual purchase behavior. Also, studies have suggested
and relate to a product's performance in satisfying this that consumers would purchase and are willing to pay
need, leading to a more positive brand attitude. even more for green labeled products (Bigsby & Ozanne,
Symbolic brand image, brand that emphasizes 2002). However, green labeled products also contain
satisfying consumer's internal need, for example, symbol potential dangers and drawbacks, especially when
of social status, promotion of self-worth, role definition, producers over-claim ecological responsibility or
group fitting in, and self identification etc. thus when such performance (Cary, Bhaskaran & Polonsky, 2004). Few
product associations symbolizes associations with researchers have studied and brought to light the
certain groups or individuals or derive a sense of inaccuracy and deceiving communications ensuring that
superiority, self worth and high social status, the attitude consumers do not rely on these labels to make purchase
towards such products turns positive. decisions toward green products (D'Souza et al., 2006).
Experiential brand benefits are based on the
satisfaction of sensory needs (i.e., what it feels like to use Hypotheses Formulation
a product), satisfying consumers' internal desire to go Killbourne (1998) studied the corporate
after excitement and diversity and provides consumers intentions behind going green and proposed that
with positive feelings, such as feeling pleasant, companies embody in themselves the green marketing
comfortable, or amiable, and consumers' inner demand is context with the prime intention of developing a positive
satisfied, leading consumers' attitude towards the brand Corporate Visual Identity (or Brand Image). Such
to be more positive. intentions have brought a flood of image enhancing green
adverts, thereby stealing the spotlight from the main
Purchase Intention (PI) issue of manufacturing green products (Killbourne,
Purchase Intention (PI) refers to the 1998). Banerjee et al. (1995) proposed in their research
predisposition to buy a certain brand or product (Belch & that majority of advertisers in the market are in the race
Belch, 2004) or how likely it is that the individual would of promoting their Green Brand Image rather than
focusing on the actual environmental benefits of their have lower perceived risk, and lower the perceived risk,
product or service. higher is the sense of trust consumers have. Hence, more
positive the brand attitude towards products greater is
the purchase intention (Mitchell & Olson, 1981;
Perceived
Goldsmith, Lafferty & Newell, 2000). Therefore, when a
Benefits consumer feels that the image of a product/service is
better, the perceived risk of its failure reduces and lead to
have a positive brand attitude, which when combined
with brand recognition, enhances the purchase intention
Attitude of the consumers.
Brand
towards the
Image
Green Ad
Perceived
Benefits
Figure 1 : Graphical presentation of
Hypothesis 1
Also, brand image being a subjective perception
Brand Image
and mental representation of functional and non- Purchase
functional information regarding the product or service of the
Intention
(Patterson, 1999), it comes into prominence where it Green Ad
seems difficult to differentiate among competitive
products or services based on tangible quality features in Figure 2 : Graphical presentation of
the market (Mudambi et al., 1997). Hence, the novel Hypothesis 2
construct, ''Green Brand Image”, is defined as ''a set of
perceptions of a brand in a consumer's mind that is linked Numerous studies in the past have attempted to
to environmental commitments and environmental model the advertising effects that are assumed to happen
concerns.'' through the flow of casual relationship between (Aad-
Such set of consumer perceptions of a brand are Ab), (Aad-PI), and (Ab-PI) (Goldsmith et al., 2000). Also,
product of brand associations, which are the result of Goldsmith et al (2000) proposed that when consumers
product attributes and perceived benefits, relating to possess a positive perception toward a company, it helps
underlying motivations (i.e., needs) that drive to form his/her positive purchase intention (PI) towards
Consumption Behavior or Consumer Purchase Intention. it because consumer perceptions of the trustworthiness
Wessells et al. (1999) suggested that since environmental and expertise of a company are part of the information
attributes of a product are more difficult for a consumer they use to judge the quality of the company's products.
to assess compared to other easily observable product
attributes, the difficulty in identifying and locating green H2: Perceived benefits moderate the impact of Brand
products is one of the roughest barriers to green product Image on Purchase Intention.
purchases. Therefore, it is required to provide the
customers with adequate information while at the same Research Design and Methodology
time addressing environmental issues by apt portrayal of
green advertisements in terms of consumer awareness or Advertisement Stimulus
eco-labelling (or green labelling) programs. To achieve the objective of the study, a real
product advertisement was selected from a list of
H1: Perceived benefits moderate the effect of ad attitude on products that appeared in print advertisements in Indian
Brand Image newspapers and magazines. A well known brand Sony, a
manufacturer of world class electronics was chosen for
Keller (1993) believed that brand image can help the experiment. Two different advertisements launched
create consumer's inclination towards the brand, and by Sony Bravia LED Television were selected to represent
such attitude towards the brand could enable consumers different levels of positioning aimed by the company. The
to have positive attitude towards it too. Doyle (1994) also ads represent the environment friendly attributes. The
pointed out that for products with better brand image, advertisements were used in the original print form as
launched by Sony, ensuring that the respondents dimensions are : experiential, symbolic, social, functional
familiarity with the product, brand and the and appearance enhances. The items used for measuring
advertisements. the emotional and social benefits were adapted from
Sweeney & Soutar's (2001) scales, whereas symbolic
Subjects benefit measurement was taken from Tsai (2005). For
A total of 150 postgraduate university students functional benefits measurements, questions were
in business administration, from North India, adopted from Del Rio, Vazquez, & Iglesias (2001) and
volunteered to participate in the study. The sample shows were adjusted in order to fit with the context of green
strong internal validity, which is prioritized over external product. To accommodate the special nature of green
validity in testing theory (Calder et al. 1982; 1983). Also, products, one functional benefits statement was self
respondents belonged to only one region, thereby developed in order to suit the definition described by
enhancing homogeneity among sample. The post Park et al. (1986b). A total of 15 questions on perceived
graduation students, with age demographics ranging 22- benefits were asked and the respondents responded on a
25 were chosen because the product's consumption is scale from 1 (completely disagree) to 7 (completely
drastically affected by the opinion of the young agree).
consumers. Youngsters make an explicit effort to select
such products, and even if they lack financial soundness Brand Image
to buy that product, they are the major decision Brand image has been conceptualized and
influencers in this product category. operationalized in several ways (Reynolds & Gutman,
1984; Faircloth et al., 2001). This study referred to
Procedure Padgett & Allen (1997), and Cretu & Brodie (2007), and
This study uses an experimental design as this defined “green brand image” as “a set of perceptions of a
design lends itself to establishing causal relationships brand in a consumer's mind that is linked to
(Hoyle, Harris & Judd, 2002; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001). environmental commitments and environmental
All the subjects were first exposed to the green visual concerns”. The measurement of the green brand image
print stimuli and were told that this was a research to includes five items, measured on seven-point likert scale.
measure attitude of students toward advertising in
general. Next they were given 90 seconds to read the Purchase Intention
stimulus ad. Further, they were asked to provide feedback Finally, purchase intention was measured
regarding the stimuli by checking what they thought was specifically in the context of green products rather than
a valid response to each item on the questionnaire. The adopting a general scale to measure intention to
questionnaire contained items related to attitude toward purchase. Green purchase intention was measured using
ad, perceived benefits, brand image and intention to a 3- item scale adapted from Li (1997) and utilized by
purchase. Chan (2001).
Demographic items were also included and the Before the finalization of the questionnaire, pre-
respondents were allowed to complete the questionnaire testing of the questionnaire was carried out for
at their own pace. The entire task took approximately 1 qualitative investigation. Ten percent of the total sample
hour. The response sheets from each respondent was was administered the questionnaire for this purpose.
compared and analyzed to identify the respondent's Subsequently, the language of some of the questions was
attitude and perception of the advertising appeal. simplified.
H1(d): Appearance enhancer perceived benefits H2(b): Symbolic and Social perceived benefits
from Green Advertisement positively moderate positively moderate the impact of Brand Image
the impact of attitude on Brand Image. on Purchase Intention.
Table 5 : Model Summary: Appearance Enhancer Table 7 : Model Summary: Symbolic and Social
Perceived Benefits as the Moderator Perceived Benefits as the Moderator
Adju- Std. Error Change Statistics Adju- Std. Error Change Statistics
Model R R2 sted of the R2
f Sig. F Model R R2 sted of the R2
f Sig. F
R2 Estimate Change change df1 df2 Change R2 Estimate Change change df1 df2 Change
1 .578a .334 .325 .80239 .334 36.831 2 147 .000 1 .617a .381 .373 1.00686 .381 45.268 2 147 .000
2 .595 b
.355 .342 .79220 .021 4.807 1 146 .030 2 .618 b
.381 .369 1.01010 .000 .057 1 146 .812
Examining Model Summary shown in SPSS Again, under the changed statistics, we can see
Output, under Change Statistics, we see that R2 Change is that the R2 change is 0.00 when the interaction variable is
0.021 when the interaction variable is added to the added in model to the predictor and moderator variables.
predictor and moderator variables. The significant This change is completely insignificant, p = 0.812. The
interaction i.e. F(1,146)= 4.8, p = 0.030, which is less than interaction tells us that our presumed moderator
0.05, tells us that our presumed moderator (functional (symbolic and social perceived benefits) insignificantly
perceived benefits), predictor (attitude) and the outcome moderates the effects of the predictor (brand image) on
variable (brand image) share a linear relationship. This the outcome variable (purchase intention).
Statistical significance at a .05 level means there is a 95
percent chance that the relationship among the variables H2(c): Functional perceived benefits positively
is not due to chance. moderate the impact of Brand Image on
Purchase Intention.
Testing H2: Perceived benefits moderate
the impact of Brand Image on Purchase Table 8 : Model Summary: Functional Perceived
Intention. Benefits as the Moderator
Change Statistics
H2(a): Experiential perceived benefits positively Adju- Std. Error
Model R R2 sted of the R2
f Sig. F
moderate the impact of Brand Image on R2 Estimate Change change df1 df2 Change
Purchase Intention. 1 .614a .377 .368 1.01053 .377 44.405 2 147 .000
2 .614b .377 .364 1.01378 .000 .060 1 146 .806
Table 6 : Model Summary- Experiential Benefits
as the Moderator Again, under the changed statistics, we can see
Change Statistics
Adju- Std. Error that the R2 change is 0.00 when the interaction variable is
Model R R2 sted of the R2
f Sig. F
R2 Estimate Change change df1 df2 Change added in model to the predictor and moderator variables.
This change is completely insignificant, p = 0.806. The
1 .621a .386 .377 1.00324 .386 46.125 2 147 .000 interaction tells us that our presumed moderator
2 .621b .386 .373 1.00667 .000 .001 1 146 .970 (functional benefits) insignificantly moderates the
effects of the predictor (brand image) on the outcome
We focus on the Model Summary shown in SPSS variable (purchase intention).
Output. Under Change Statistics, we see that R2 Change is
0.00 when the interaction variable is added to the H2(d): Appearance enhancer perceived benefits
predictor and moderator variables. This change is
insignificant, F(1,146)= .001, p = 0.970. The significant
positively moderate the impact of Brand Image
interaction tells us that our presumed moderator on Purchase Intention.
(experiential perceived benefits) does not moderate the
effects of the predictor (brand image) on the outcome
variable (purchase intention).
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Author Profile
Dr. Komal Nagar is an Assistant Professor of Marketing in The Business School, University of Jammu, Jammu. Her major research interests are in the
area of advertising and marketing communications. Her research work has appeared in Vikalpa (IIM-Ahmedabad), Management Review (IIM-
Bangalore), Vision (MDI-Gurgaon), NICE Journal of Business and Journal of Services Research. She has presented research papers in various national
and international conferences within and outside the country. She can be reached at komalnagar@rediffmail.com
Ms. Shivani Rana, is a Senior Research Fellow in The Business School, University of Jammu, Jammu. She is currently pursuing her doctorate on Green
Marketing. Her research interests include advertising and consumer behavior. Her research work has been published in International Journal of
Management and Development Studies and she has presented research papers at several conferences. She can be reached at 2701shivani@gmail.com