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Journal of Business Research 67 (2014) 1885–1893

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Business Research

Consumers' green involvement and the persuasive effects of emotional

versus functional ads
Jörg Matthes ⁎, Anke Wonneberger 1, Desirée Schmuck 1
Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Währingerstr. 29, 1090 Vienna, Austria

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study compares the effects of four types of ads: a functional green ad promoting the environmental advan-
Received 7 April 2013 tages of a product, an emotional green ad using a visual representation of pleasant natural scenery, a mixed type
Received in revised form 11 September 2013 green ad using functional and emotional strategies, and a control group. Findings of an experimental study using
Accepted 29 November 2013
a representative sample of U.S. consumers suggest that both the emotional and the mixed-type ads significantly
Available online 26 December 2013
affect brand attitude, mediated by attitude toward the ad. These effects do not depend on consumers' green
Keywords:
involvement. Functional ads, in contrast, only impact brand attitudes when involvement, measured as green
Green advertising purchase behavior or green product attitudes, is high.
Green involvement © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Environmental concern
Brand attitude
Attitude toward the ad

1. Introduction a functional appeal, an emotional appeal, and a combination of the

A growing number of consumers are becoming concerned about
environmental degradation, waning natural resources, or threats associ-
ated with climate change over the last decades (Dunlap & Scarce, 1991;
Eurobarometer, 2011). Parallel to this trend, the use of environmental
appeals in advertising is very popular among practitioners and mar-
keters (Easterling, Kenworthy, & Nemzoff, 1996; Schmidt & Donsbach,
2012). Especially in the early days of green marketing, companies
were quick to adopt green claims, sometimes using delusive or exag-
gerated environmental appeals resulting in “greenwashing” (Gaski &
Etzel, 1986; Kangun, Carlson, & Grove, 1991). In recent years, however,
green claims have become more substantial and less ambiguous,
which “expresses a more responsible approach to green advertising”
(Leonidou, Leonidou, Palihawadana, & Hultman, 2011, p. 24). None-
theless, critics on green marketing are still cautious about various
forms of greenwashing and their impact on growing confusion and
cynicism among consumers (Dahl, 2010; Peattie & Crane, 2005).
Given this ambivalent nature of green advertising, it is crucial to
understand how consumers respond to it. In today's green advertising,
Hartmann, Ibáñez, and Sainz (2005) distinguish three major appeals:
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +43 1 4277 49307; fax: +43 1 4277 49316.
E-mail addresses: joerg.matthes@univie.ac.at (J. Matthes),
anke.wonneberger@univie.ac.at (A. Wonneberger), desiree.schmuck@univie.ac.at
(D. Schmuck).
URL's: http://advertisingresearch.univie.ac.at (J. Matthes),
http://advertisingresearch.univie.ac.at (A. Wonneberger),
http://advertisingresearch.univie.ac.at (D. Schmuck).
1
Tel.: +43 1 4277 49308; fax: +43 1 4277 49316.
two. Functional appeals use arguments about environmental friendly
product attributes or production processes. Emotional appeals, in
contrast, merely rely on visual representations of pleasant natural scen-
ery. Combined appeals use both functional and emotional strategies in
one ad.
Despite the practical relevance and widespread occurrence of func-
tional, emotional and combined green ads, knowledge about their
distinct effects remains scarce. The literature displays three research
gaps. First, although the currently available body of knowledge suggests
that all three types of green ads exert a significant impact on brand and
advertising evaluations (Hartmann & Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2009; Hartmann
et al., 2005), no single study sufficiently tests their independent effects.
Studies either compare a control group with an emotional (or functional)
appeal (e.g., Davis, 1994; Grimmer & Woolley, 2012; Newman, Howlett,
Burton, Kozup, & Heintz, 2012; Schuhwerk & Lefkoff-Hagius, 1995;
Searles, 2010; Spack, Board, Crighton, Kostka, & Ivory, 2012), or they
use a mix of emotional and functional appeals and check whether such
an ad is more persuasive than a non-green ad (Hartmann & Apaolaza-
Ibáñez, 2009; Hartmann et al., 2005). Second, based on dual-process
models such as the Elaboration-Likelihood Model (ELM, Petty &
Cacioppo, 1990), the effectiveness of emotional versus functional
appeals should depend on consumers' green involvement. However,
previous research ignores the moderating role of green involvement.
Third, a lion's share of prior research relies on student or convenience
samples (e.g., Grimmer & Woolley, 2012; Newman et al., 2012;
Hartmann et al., 2005; Searles, 2010; Schuhwerk & Lefkoff-Hagius,
1995; Spack et al., 2012; but see Grimmer & Bingham, 2013; Hartmann
& Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2009). Since green consumerism significantly varies

0148-2963/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.11.054
 Author's personal copy
1886 J. Matthes et al. / Journal of Business Research 67 (2014) 1885–1893
by age, education, and gender (Roberts, 1996), student samples lack pop-
ulation validity.
The present study attempts to fill these research gaps by investigat-
ing the distinct and combined effects of emotional versus functional
green advertising appeals. Furthermore, this study systematically tests
the moderating roles of several interrelated green involvement dimen-
sions. These dimensions are environmental concern, green purchase
intentions, and attitudes toward green products. The analysis also con-
trols for the impact of key demographic characteristics by using a
quota sample of U.S. consumers.
2. Functional versus emotional green ads
Although scholars and marketers agree that green positioning is an
essential factor in the market success of products and services, still re-
search devotes minimal attention to the question of how the design of
green claims affects the processing of the message and its effectiveness
(Hartmann & Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2009). Positioning a brand as a “green
brand” entails an active communication of its environmentally sound
attributes (Hartmann et al., 2005). According to classification schemes
of generic positioning strategies (Aaker, 1996), brand positioning uses
functional attributes and/or by emotional benefits. A green positioning
strategy based on functional attributes should communicate the rele-
vant environmental advantages of the product compared to competing
conventional products. Such advantages may include, for example,
environmentally friendly production processes, product use, or product
elimination. The aim of this positioning strategy is to build brand asso-
ciations by delivering information on environmentally relevant utilitar-
ian product attributes (Hartmann et al., 2005). Studies confirm that
environmentally sound product arguments can affect purchase inten-
tions (Hartmann & Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2009; see also Roberts, 1996).
Emotional brand advertising, in contrast, aims to transfer affective
responses to the brand (Edell & Burke, 1987). Searles (2010) finds
that verbal cues based on enthusiasm appeals reinforce an individual's
positive attitude toward efforts to protect the environment and posi-
tively influence participants' pro-environmental views. Anxiety appeals
induce anti-environmental attitudes. However, verbal cues are not the
only way to evoke emotional responses. Chowdhury, Olsen, and
Pracejus (2008) show that a single dominant positive image might be
sufficient to engender significantly positive affective responses. In the
case of green advertising, visual representation of pleasant nature scen-
ery may have this effect, based on the principle that both contact with
nature itself and exposure to nature images generate positive emotions
(Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989; Stokols, 1990).
However, only a few studies deal with the question of whether
functional attributes or emotional appeals exert a stronger effect
on brand attitudes. Among the most notable of these studies is a se-
ries of experiments by Hartmann and colleagues. Hartmann et al.
(2005) address this question in an experimental field study with
160 university students. The authors design a functional positioning
strategy, an emotional positioning strategy, and a combined strategy
for a hypothetical car brand. In the functional experimental condition,
the ad gives detailed information on how emissions are reduced. The
image is identical to the one of the control group and has no emotional
connotations. The emotional positioning ad uses pleasant nature imag-
ery without cues about functional product attributes. The third condi-
tion combines both strategies. This ad includes the same image as the
second condition, but mentions only a reduced number of environmen-
tally utilitarian attributes. A conventional ad serves as control condition.
The findings of this study suggest that “a combined strategy, which ap-
peals to both environmental consciousness and emotional benefits,
will yield a stronger attitudinal effect than either functional or emotional
positioning strategies on their own” (p. 21).
In a later study, Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez (2009) find that na-
ture imagery may also enhance the positive influence of informational
appeals on consumers' attitude towards a brand. A national survey
with a representative sample of 360 participants employs three experi-
mental conditions: a non-environmental ad, an environmental ad pro-
viding information on the environmental features of the brand, and a
nature ad which combines the environmental features with a visual
design to evoke nature experiences. Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez
(2009) find that the association of a green brand with pleasant nature
imagery in addition to the presentation of information on specific envi-
ronmental product features leads to more positive brand attitudes, as
compared to the effect of informational claims alone. According to the
authors, pleasant nature imagery leads to the association of specific
emotional experiences with the brand that are to some extent compara-
ble to those consumers' experience through contact with nature. Inter-
estingly, depictions of landscapes with lush green vegetation and clear
water elicit more favorable emotional responses than other landscapes
or urban scenes, regardless of the natural environment in which indi-
vidual live (Hartmann & Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2012).
The evidence from these studies suggests that all three positioning
strategies exert positive overall influences on brand attitude. So far
however, no study compares the three positioning strategies simulta-
neously. In Hartmann et al.'s (2005) first study, the combined condition
contains only a reduced number of informational appeals. As a conse-
quence, the design does not allow to accurately separate the three
appeals. Strictly speaking, the combined condition is not the sum of
the functional and the emotional conditions. Also, the student sample
warrants replication with a broader sample. Hartmann and Apaolaza-
Ibáñez (2009), in contrast, do not use a student sample. In this study,
one condition combines the information about the environmental
features of the brand with pleasant nature scenery. However, the
study does not include a condition to test the sole effect of pleasant na-
ture scenery on brand attitude. Therefore, a study that simultaneously
examines the impact of all three positioning strategies seems warrant-
ed. Furthermore, since the ads employ (functional) arguments versus
(emotional) heuristic cues, environmental involvement may moderate
the effect of these positioning strategies.
3. Environmental involvement
A wealth of research suggests that consumers differ in how they re-
spond to persuasive appeals. One key variable to explain this response is
consumers' level of involvement. Involvement refers to the degree to
which a person perceives an attitude object as personally relevant
(Petty & Cacioppo, 1990). As the Elaboration-Likelihood Model (ELM,
Petty & Cacioppo, 1990) suggests, highly involved individuals are moti-
vated to process information that leads to message elaboration. For
these people, arguments about the attitude object should exert more
influence on their opinions than emotional appeals. In contrast, less
involved consumers may rely on heuristic cues such as emotions or feel-
ings to form their opinions.
In the context of environmental advertising, high involvement con-
sumers process the arguments displayed in an advertisement. The
evaluation of a brand thus depends on the functional green arguments.
Low involvement consumers are not motivated to process those argu-
ments. For these people, emotional appeals such as beautiful nature
scenery should serve as a heuristic cue guiding attitude formation. How-
ever, involvement is a rather fuzzy concept with a myriad of different
conceptualizations and operationalizations, not only in advertising
research but also in the more general persuasion literature. Regarding
green involvement, there are at least three relevant conceptualizations,
(1) environmental concern, (2) attitudes toward green products, and
(3) green purchase behavior. While these facets of environmental
involvement are related, they can have different antecedents and out-
comes. Therefore, research on the moderating effect of involvement
on green advertising effectiveness should take all three facets into
account.
A lion's share of studies defines involved green consumers as those
who are highly concerned about the environment (D'Souza & Taghian,
 Author's personal copy
J. Matthes et al. / Journal of Business Research 67 (2014) 1885–1893
2005; Mohr, Eroğlu, & Ellen, 1998; Schuhwerk & Lefkoff-Hagius, 1995).
The concept of environmental concern involves an awareness of environ-
mental problems combined with the perceived necessity of protecting
the environment. Environmental concern plays an important role in
green buying decisions (Schwartz & Miller, 1991). Furthermore,
scholars treat consumers who maintain positive attitudes toward green
products as highly involved (Chan, 2001; Roberts, 1996). Attitudes
toward green products relate to the advantages, favorability, or the
quality of green products (Chang, 2011). Finally, actual green purchase
behavior is an indicator of environmental involvement (Chang, 2011;
Mohr et al., 1998; Schlegelmilch, Bohlen, & Diamantopoulos, 1996).
This can be actual behavior or behavioral intentions (Schwepker &
Cornwell, 1991; Stone, Barnes, & Montgomery, 1995).
Knowledge about the moderating roles of several green involvement
dimensions in the context of advertising effectiveness is scarce. Most
studies reveal that environmental claims exert stronger effects for
consumers high as opposed to low in environmental involvement.
Grimmer and Bingham (2013), for instance, observe a relationship be-
tween the environmental performance of a company and consumers
purchase intensions, especially for consumers high in environmental
concern. Similarly, Grimmer and Woolley (2012) compare the effects
of a personal benefit green ad with those of an environmental benefit
green ad, and a control group. Unlike prior research, the authors also
operationalize environmental affect as an indicator of environmental
involvement. As a result, “participants with low environmental affect
showed higher purchase intentions for the personal benefit message
over the pure environmental benefit message” (p. 13). Conversely, the
effects of a pure environmental benefit message compared to the
personal benefit message are stronger for consumers with high com-
pared to low environmental affect. In contrast to these studies, findings
by Schuhwerk and Lefkoff-Hagius (1995) suggest that less involved
consumers react more positively to environmental claims compared to
highly involved consumers.
Taken together, the available findings on the moderating role of
environmental involvement are compatible with the ELM (see
Grimmer and Woolley (2012) for an explanation of Schuhwerk and
Lefkoff-Hagius' findings). When effects of green ads are stronger
for high involvement individuals, scholars apply environmental
claims that contain some kind of argument (e.g., an environmental
benefit). However, these designs do not include emotional appeals.
It follows that previous research is not sensitive to the possible vari-
ety of green advertising appeals and green involvement dimensions.
No research systematically compares the effects of functional versus
emotional green claims depending on the distinct dimensions of
consumers' environmental involvement. Based on the ELM, the pres-
ent study theorizes that all three types of green ads—functional,
emotional, and combined appeals—may yield significant effects on
brand attitudes. However, the pattern of effects may be completely
different depending on the type of the green appeal and consumers'
green involvement.
To test these assumptions, this study further distinguishes two
outcome variables, attitude toward the ad and attitude toward the
brand. More specifically, attitude toward the ad may mediate the ef-
fects of ad claims on brand attitudes (see for this reasoning, Mitchell
& Olson, 1981; for green ads, Schuhwerk & Lefkoff-Hagius, 1995).
Rephrased, green appeals impact brand attitudes because they
shape ad liking. Since previous studies find functional and emotional
green appeals as well as combined forms to be effective generally
(Hartmann & Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2009; Hartmann et al., 2005), this
mechanism may apply for all three types of green appeals. Also, all
three types of green ads use green elements that should generally
make them more persuasive compared to a control group. This leads
to the following hypotheses:
H1. Functional ads have a positive impact on brand attitudes by
shaping ad attitudes.
1887
H2. Emotional ads have a positive impact on brand attitudes by shaping
ad attitudes.
H3. Ads that combine functional and emotional appeals have a positive
impact on brand attitudes by shaping ad attitudes.
Moreover, environmental involvement may moderate the effects of
functional, emotional, and combined ads. According to the ELM, emotion-
al appeals should yield the strongest effects for individuals low in involve-
ment. Low involved consumers may simply base their opinions on the
impression of the typical green nature scenery without asking for more
substantial information such as functional arguments. People high in
green involvement may find such an unmeaning ad deceptive which
should hamper positive attitudinal effects. Functional appeals—that is,
appeals that are based on substantive arguments rather than emotion-
eliciting images—should have a stronger impact for people high in in-
volvement, because low involvement individuals will not be motivated
to process the functional arguments, rendering the arguments ineffective.
Since both substantive arguments and heuristic cues are present,
consumers may use both of them, or only one of them, in forming
their impressions. Therefore, a first research question asks whether
the effects of combined ads are stronger for individuals with low or
high green involvement. In addition, this study aims to examine the
above assumptions for several distinct dimensions of green involve-
ment. Since the correlation between these dimensions is usually high,
a second research question asks which of these dimensions will yield
the strongest moderating impact.
H4. The effects of functional green ads will be stronger for consumers
high in green involvement.
H5. The effects of emotional green ads will be stronger for consumers
low in green involvement.
RQ1. Are the effects of combined functional and emotional appeals
stronger for individuals with low or high green involvement?
RQ2. Which dimension of green involvement—environmental concern,
attitudes toward green products, or green purchase behavior—is the
strongest moderator of green ad effects?
4. Method
4.1. Design, sample, and procedure
U.S. citizens (n = 484) participated in a 1 × 4 (green appeal: emo-
tional, functional, combined, none) between subjects experiment in
August/September 2012. The online experiment was part of a larger
survey (n = 1015) that also included a second experimental study.
The company Survey Sampling International (SSI) recruited respon-
dents from an online access panel. The company provided incentives
for successful participation. The response rate for online data collection
was RR1 = .62. Quota sampling yielded a high agreement with the
general U.S. population in terms of age (M = 43.9, SD = 16.3), gender
(57% female), and education (6.0% completed some high school, 69.2%
high school graduate, 24.8% college degree). The completion time of
the survey took is 10 min on average (median = 8 min).
This study employs four versions of a print ad for an ecological laun-
dry detergent (see Appendix B). The experimental conditions vary
in their visual and textual layout. The emotional appeal condition
(n = 133) depicts the product, brand name, and a slogan together
with a scenic nature image in the background. Following the studies
by Hartmann et al. (2005), the image shows a lake surrounded by
mountains, forests, and a waterfall. Austrian students rated this picture
as significantly positive in a pretest (n = 28). According to this pretest,
the picture evokes positive emotions such as happiness and satisfaction.
The functional condition (n = 116) shows product, brand, and slogan
 Author's personal copy
1888 J. Matthes et al. / Journal of Business Research 67 (2014) 1885–1893
along with a list of six brief ecological advantages of the detergent in
front of a neutral background. The arguments are arguments used in
real ads for laundry detergents (see Appendix B). A second pretest of
n = 256 Austrian students suggests that these arguments are signifi-
cantly perceived as “convincing”. The combined condition (n = 128)
unites the nature image and the arguments. The ad of the control condi-
tion presents a picture of the product and the slogan in front of a neutral
background (n = 107).
Before presentation of the stimulus, the experimenter asked partici-
pant to carefully examine the following ad. They could freely choose to
end exposure and continue with the survey via a mouse click. Plausibly,
exposure time in seconds varies significantly between the conditions;
F (3, 480) = 7.103, p b .001, with M = 30.96, SD = 28.03 for the
functional group, M = 32.95, SD = 49.62 for the combined group,
M = 19.10, SD = 21.03 for the emotional group, and M = 18.21,
SD = 16.10 for the control group. Exposure time is controlled in all sta-
tistical analyses.
4.2. Measures
Five seven-point semantic differential scales measure the two
dependent variables (see Appendix A, attitude toward the ad:
Cronbach's α = .92; M = 5.28, SD = 1.31; attitude toward the
brand: Cronbach's α = .96; M = 5.24, SD = 1.35). As for the inde-
pendent variables (1—“strongly disagree” and 7—“strongly
agree”), the study employs three forms of green involvement
prior to the experimental stimulus. Environmental concern consists
of four items based on Schuhwerk and Lefkoff-Hagius (1995),
(Cronbach's α = .85; M = 5.24, SD = 1.19). Attitude toward
green products entails four items based on Chang (2011)
(Cronbach's α = .82; M = 4.96, SD = 1.13). Four items measure
green purchase behavior (Kim & Choi, 2005; Cronbach's α = .89;
M = 4.43, SD = 1.41). The study adds two additional controls.
First, perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) is as a key variable in
green advertising (Ellen, Wiener, & Cobb-Walgren, 1991; Kim &
Choi, 2005). PCE consists of two items (Ellen et al., 1991). These
are reverse coded to express consumer effectiveness (Cronbach's
α = .61; M = 4.51, SD = 1.48). Second, consumer sentiment
Functional Appeal
Emotional Appeal
Combined Appeal
Environmental Concern Attitude toward Green
Products
Fig. 1. Theoretical structural equation model.
Note. Control variables (age, gender, education, view time, perceived consumer effectiveness and negative sentiment), measurement errors, and correlations between all exogenous var-
iables were omitted from depiction for clarity reasons.
toward marketing is a key predictor of advertising effectiveness
(Mohr et al., 1998). Negative sentiment toward marketing consists
of two items (Mohr et al., 1998), (Cronbach's α = .67; M = 3.67,
SD = 1.40). Fig. 1 shows the full model.
4.3. Data analysis
The analysis employs the Full Information Maximum Likeli-
hood (FIML) method (Enders & Bandalos, 2001). Comparative Fit
Index (CFI), Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA),
and PCLOSE serve as the criteria to evaluate model fit. The experi-
mental groups are dummy coded and control group serves as the
reference group (see Fig. 1). The model treats ad evaluation and
brand evaluation as latent variables, and the other variables as
manifest. The model includes the interactive effects as multiplica-
tive terms of condition and moderator in moderated path regres-
sion analysis. This study uses continuous variable interactions as
opposed to multiple group analyses (see Irwin & McClelland,
2002).
5. Results
The first three hypotheses aim at the main effects of functional,
emotional and combined appeals. The corresponding model is a
structural equation model without the interactive effects as
depicted in Fig. 1. All standardized factor loadings on the latent
variables are above λ = .80. The fit is very good (Chi-square =
290.97, df = 130, CFI = .98, RMSEA = .05, PCLOSE = .44). The
emotional green ad (b = .58; p b .001) and the combined green
ad (b = .63; p b .001) significantly affect attitude toward the ad
(see Table 1). The functional ad exerts a marginally significant
effect on ad attitudes (b = .28; p = .07). Following expectations,
the attitude toward the ad has a highly significant impact on the
attitude toward the brand (b = .73; p b .001). This finding sug-
gests that the emotional and the combined green ads have an
influence on brand attitudes through their effects on ad evalua-
tions. This reasoning is supported by a mediation analysis.
The indirect effects of emotional (b = .43; p b .001) as well as
Item 1
Item 2
Attitude toward
Item 3
the Ad
Item 4
Item 5
Item 6
Item 7
Attitude toward
Item 8
the Brand
Item 9
Item 10
Green Purchase Behavior
 Author's personal copy

J. Matthes et al. / Journal of Business Research 67 (2014) 1885–1893 1889

Table 1
Structural equation modeling unstandardized path coefficients.

Independent variables Dependent variables

Attitude toward the ad Attitude toward the brand

b SE b SE

Age .00 .00 .00 .00

Sex −.09 .11 −.14+++ .08
Education −.07 .10 .05 .07
View time .00 .00 .00 .00
PCE .02 .04 .01 .03
NSM .08 .05 −.03 .04
Environmental concern .04 .06 −.05 .04
Attitudes toward green products .41⁎⁎⁎ .07 .21⁎⁎⁎ .05
Green purchase behavior .05 .06 −.01 .04
Functional green ad .28++ .15 .03 .11
Emotional green ad .58⁎⁎⁎ .15 .14 .11
Combined green ad .63⁎⁎⁎ .15 .24⁎ .11
Attitude toward the ad .73⁎⁎⁎ .04
Functional green ad ∗ environmental concern .15 .11 −.08 .08
Functional green ad ∗ attitudes toward green products .17+++ .10 −.01 .07
Functional green ad ∗ green purchase behavior .15+ .08 .01 .06
Emotional green ad ∗ environmental concern −.09 .10 .02 .07
Emotional green ad ∗ attitudes toward green products −.01 .09 .01⁎⁎ .07
Emotional green ad ∗ green purchase behavior −.03 .08 .00 .06
Combined green ad ∗ environmental concern .14 .09 −.02 .07
Combined green ad ∗ attitudes toward green products .07 .10 −.11 .07
Combined green ad ∗ green purchase behavior .11 .09 −.06 .06

Note. PCE = perceived consumer effectiveness. NSM = negative sentiment toward marketing.
⁎⁎⁎ p b .001.
⁎⁎ p b .01.
⁎ p b .05.
+++
p = .06.
++
p = .07.
+
p = .08.

combined (b = .46; p b .01) green ads on brand attitudes, medi-
ated by ad attitudes, are significant. The indirect effect of func-
tional ads is also significant (b = .20; p b .05). These findings
clearly support Hypotheses 2 and 3, and lend some support for
Hypothesis 1.
The next step is to check whether the size of the effects differs
between conditions by a nested model comparison: This analysis
compares a model without any constraints to a model that restricts
the effects of the experimental groups to be equal. The effect of
the argument condition on ad evaluation is significantly different
(i.e., lower) from the effects of the emotional (Δχ 2 = 4.52,
p b .05) and the combined (Δχ 2 = 5.83, p b .05) conditions. The
latter two, however, do not significantly differ (Δχ 2 = .09, n.s.).
This finding suggests that the emotional and the combined
conditions yield stronger persuasive effects. However, only the
combined condition shows a direct effect on brand attitudes (b =
.24; p b .05).
Regarding the three dimensions of green consumer involve-
ment, only attitudes toward green products (b = .41; p b .001)
significantly relate to the attitude toward the ad. Attitudes toward
green products also have a direct effect on brand attitudes (b =.21;
p b .01), and male respondents are marginally more negative in
their brand evaluations than females (b = − .09; p = .06). In
total, the independent variables explain 31% of the variance of atti-
tude toward the ad and 71% of the variance of attitude toward the
brand.
Hypotheses 4 and 5 assume that the effects of functional versus
emotional green ads would depend on consumers' green involve-
ment. Separate path analyses test the moderating roles of environ-
mental concern, attitudes toward green products, and green
purchase behavior. Contrary to expectations, neither emotional
ads nor combined ads exhibit moderated effects (see Table 1). In
other words, the effects of emotional and combined ads are
completely independent from environmental concern, attitudes
toward green products, and green purchase behavior. This also
answers research question 1.
However, the analysis reveals a marginally significant interac-
tion between functional ad exposure and green purchase behavior
(b = .15; p = .06). The positive sign of this interaction signals that
the effect of functional ad exposure increases with rising levels
of green purchase behavior. To interpret this interaction, an addi-
tional analysis probes the effect of functional appeals at low (one
SD below the mean), moderate (at the mean) and high (one SD
above the mean) levels of green purchase behavior using manifest
variables (i.e., not by splitting the sample, see Hayes & Matthes,
2009). Fig. 2 visualizes the results. Functional green ads (compared
to the control group) have a significant effect for moderate
(b = .25; p b .05) and high (b = .39; p b .01) levels of green pur-
chase behavior. However, individuals who score low on green pur-
chase behavior do not react with more favorable ad evaluations in
response to the functional ad. A similar interaction pattern appears
for attitudes toward green products. The interaction effect is below
the conventional level of statistical significance (b = .17; p = .08)
but the pattern is precisely the same. When probed at low, moder-
ate, and high levels of green attitudes, the effects of functional ad
exposure are significant for respondents who report moderately
positive (b = .25; p b .05) or highly positive (b = .41; p b .01)
green product attitudes. The overall indirect effect of functional
ad exposure on brand liking, moderated by purchase behavior (or
product attitudes) and mediated by ad liking, is also significant
(purchase behavior: b = .11; p b .05; product attitude: b = .21;
p b .05).
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1890 J. Matthes et al. / Journal of Business Research 67 (2014) 1885–1893
Fig. 2. Attitude toward the ad (z-standardized) as a function of experimental group and
green involvement (upper part: green purchase behavior; lower part: attitude toward
green products).
Environmental concern does not significantly interact with function-
al ad exposure, although the effect points in the expected direction
(b = .15; p = .18). These findings lend some support to Hypothesis 4.
Hypothesis 5, however, can be falsified.
The conclusion regarding research question 2 is that green pur-
chase behavior and green product attitudes exert the strongest
moderating effects on the outcome variables. Those effects are
non-existent for environmental concern. However, this conclusion
only refers to the impact of functional green ads. For the other two
types of green ads, involvement does not matter at all. An addi-
tional analysis checks whether the effects of (functional) green
ads on the attitude toward the ad increase with rising viewing
time. The idea is that effects may grow stronger with exposure
time to an advertisement. The test finds no evidence for such an
interaction (functional ads ∗ viewing time: b = .01, n.s.; emotion-
al ads ∗ viewing time: b = .00, n.s.; combined ads ∗ viewing time:
b = .00, n.s.). The same is true for the outcome variable attitude
toward the brand (functional ads ∗ viewing time: b = .01, n.s.; emo-
tional ads ∗ viewing time: b = .00, n.s.; combined ads ∗ viewing time:
b = .00, n.s.).
6. Discussion
This article advances the literature by focusing on the interac-
tion of three types of green ads with several dimensions of green
consumer involvement. Findings suggest that emotional appeals
play a key role in shaping consumers' brand attitudes. An experi-
ment reveals significant main effects of the emotional green ad
and the combined green ad. However, only a barely significant
main effect appears for the functional ad. According to the ELM,
combining emotional and functional cues should appeal to a
greater range of consumers—the ones low as well as high in in-
volvement. Yet somehow surprisingly, concerning the effects on
ad evaluation, the combined green ad is not superior compared
to the emotional green ad. However, the combined green ad also
exerts a direct effect on brand attitudes, not mediated by ad evalu-
ation. So in total, the combined ad has the greatest impact on brand
attitudes.
Although future studies on green advertising should further test
the differential effects of various forms of green appeals, the findings
provide evidence for the universality and strength of emotional
appeals (either alone or combined with attributes). As Hartmann
and Apaolaza-Ibáñez (2009) state, most advertising scholars recom-
mend cognitive persuasion strategies in green advertising, “assum-
ing the consumer's high involvement regarding environmental
issues” (p. 719). Our findings as well as the evidence presented by
Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez (2009) suggest that emotional
green ads are more powerful than functional ones. The emotional
experience based on an exposure to a green ad comes close to the
emotions experienced in contact with real nature (Hartmann &
Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2009). Based on evolutionary processes, beautiful
nature sceneries have a positive marker in the human information
processing system. Due to such overall affinity toward nature, ad
exposures may automatically activate virtual nature experiences.
These positively marked virtual nature experiences then associate
with the green ad. The main point is that, whether you are a green
consumer or not, emotional green ads seem to automatically
activate virtual nature experiences, which transfer to the green
ad. As a consequence, the attitude toward the brand becomes
positive.
But why does green involvement not matter in this process? An ELM
account would suggest that emotional images are especially powerful
for individuals that are low in green involvement (Petty & Cacioppo,
1990). In pondering this paradox, one should reconsider how the
present study conceptualizes and measures green involvement.
As in almost all prior research, the constructs build on explicit
statements about green consumerism. Such explicit statements,
however, do not tap the positive affect that is automatically
activated when people are confronted with nature images. In fact,
psychological research suggests that there are two types of atti-
tudes, explicit and implicit attitudes. Explicit attitudes are those
that people are consciously aware of, they are deliberative, and
people can control them. Implicit attitudes, in contrast, are “auto-
matic affective reactions resulting from the particular associations
that are activated automatically when one encounters a relevant
stimulus” (Gawronski & Bodenhausen, 2006, p. 693). Translated
to green advertising, people may vary in their implicit positive
attitudes toward nature. However, measures of explicit attitudes—
such as environmental concern, attitudes toward green products, or
green purchase behavior—do not take these implicit gut reactions
into account. Consequently, (explicit) green involvement fails to
qualify the effects of emotional green ads. By contrast, one could
speculate that implicit measures may moderate the effects of emo-
tional appeals.
Functional green appeals do not equally affect all consumers. More
specifically, the results seem to suggest that green ads using functional
arguments are more powerful when consumers score high on green
purchase behavior or green product attitudes. The ELM may explain
this finding. People that like or frequently buy green products are
more motivated to process the arguments that are displayed in the ad.
A careful processing of ad arguments, in turn, increases the liking of
the ad, which in turn, influences brand attitudes. Surprisingly however,
environmental concern is not relevant in explaining how consumers
react to functional green ads. Environmental concern is a more general
type of green involvement that does not necessarily translate to the
appreciation of green products and green buying behavior. Attitudes
toward green products and green purchase behavior signal a higher
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J. Matthes et al. / Journal of Business Research 67 (2014) 1885–1893
degree of green involvement compared to environmental concern. Iron-
ically, while a large segment of the public claims to be sympathetic to
the environment, the market success of green products remains at a
comparatively low level in many Western countries. Scholars often
refer to the attitude–behavior gap of green consumerism (Kalafatis,
Pollard, East, & Tsogas, 1999; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006). Expressing en-
vironmental concern is one thing; buying green is another (Kalafatis
et al., 1999; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006). Thus, it makes sense that envi-
ronmental concern cannot explain consumers' susceptibility to green
ad appeals.
6.1. Alternative explanations
One might argue that functional ads yield no strong main effect
because respondents do not read the arguments that are conveyed
in the ad. This explanation does not hold because viewing time is
significantly higher in the argument conditions compared to the
two conditions in which no arguments are present. Importantly,
this also concerns the combined condition. Because the ads only
differ in the presence of arguments, and the argument conditions
have a longer viewing time than the non-argument conditions,
people must have read those arguments. Alternatively, critics
might say that the functional arguments are too weak. However,
the study employs existing arguments for laundry detergents
drawn from real green campaigns. The development of strong
arguments is based on content analytical research on green ads.
In fact, the ads do not contain vague or ambiguous claims but pre-
cise, causal statements (Leonidou et al., 2011). Pretesting also sug-
gests that these arguments are strong. Another related criticism
might be that ad evaluation serves as a mediator. In line with
Mitchell and Olson (1981) and many others, this is a theoretically
sound way of modeling advertising effects. That is, consumers
form judgments about a brand based on their evaluation of the
ad. In fact, without the mediator in the model, the basic effects of
emotional (b = .57, p b .001) and combined appeals (b = .68,
p b .001) remain constant. Furthermore, the model explains a
total of 71% of the variance of brand evaluations and is, thus, supe-
rior to a model that explains less variance.
6.2. Practical implications
Our findings have considerable practical implications. As Hartmann
and Apaolaza-Ibáñez (2009) argue, time is ripe to go beyond the classic
dictum to approach green consumers with substantive arguments only.
In fact, emotional ads can be a powerful marketing weapon to reach out
to both, green and non-green consumers. Especially the marketers often
neglect non-green consumers in their hunt for green advertising effec-
tiveness. Our study shows that emotional appeals can serve to target
people with no explicit attachment to environmental issues. This may
help to sustain and foster environmentally friendly consumption habits.
Of course, a risk remains that some consumers may react with skep-
ticism when they are confronted with emotional, non-functional ap-
peals. Previous research has yielded ambiguous results about the
role of consumer skepticism for green advertising (Mohr et al.,
1998; Shrum, McCarty, & Lowrey, 1995). In the present study, highly
involved green consumers do not devalue emotional green ads. In
fact, the opposite is the case: those consumers are equally persuad-
ed by green ads than their less involved counterparts. Still, to be on
the safe side, a combined strategy using both functional and emo-
tional appeals may be recommendable because, according to the
present findings, combined appeals are at least equally effective
than emotional appeals.
A downside of the effectiveness of emotional appeals is its potential
to serve greenwashing campaigns. Findings of this study imply that the
use of emotions for greenwashing may appeal to low as well as highly
involved consumers. As a consequence, emotional appeals may create
1891
“greenwashed” consumers who believe they buy green and feel good
about it when, in fact, their consumption behavior is not environmen-
tally friendly. The misuse of functional positioning strategies, in con-
trast, might be less effective. Since mainly highly involved consumers
are reached, these might also be more likely to recognize vague or
false claims that are made.
6.3. Limitations and future research
Several notable research limitations qualify these practical implica-
tions. This study compares the effects of emotional and functional
claims by contrasting a visual representation of nature and the presen-
tation of elaborated product attributes. Generalizability of the findings
should be tested by including variations of these claim types, such as
verbal emotional claims or lower levels of information. In particular, fu-
ture research needs to test whether the moderated effects of green con-
sumer involvement are still present for smaller amounts of green
product information. Also the validity of green appeals should be con-
sidered. The specific effectiveness of functional and emotional claims
and underlying processes for greenwashing campaigns still remain
understudied. Related to this, scholars often regard consumer skepti-
cism as an obstacle for green advertising and green consumption. Future
research should examine more closely how and for whom emotional
and functional claims may trigger or prevent skeptical reactions to
green ads. Although this study observes the effects of emotional ads, it
does not measure emotional reactions such as virtual nature experi-
ences (as do Hartmann & Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2009). As a consequence,
this study cannot model the processes behind the observed effects, it
can only infer them. Looking at short-term effects does not enable to de-
termine the longevity or ultimate power of green ads. Future work
should therefore expand this research design by including measures of
emotional reactions and implicit green attitudes. Finally, research de-
signs should incorporate intended and actual purchase behavior to as-
sess to what extent emotional claims can help to overcome the
attitude–behavior gap. Such a research program could help to corrobo-
rate the claim that emotional green appeals are universal and powerful
tools to shape brand attitudes.
Appendix A. Items
Attitude toward the ad: bad–good; unpleasant–pleasant; unfavorable–
favorable; unconvincing–convincing; incredible–credible.
Attitude toward the brand: bad–good; unattractive–attractive;
negative–positive; not likable–likable; not recommendable–
recommendable.
Environmental concern: I am concerned about the environment; The
condition of the environment affects the quality of my life; I am willing
to make sacrifices to protect the environment; My actions impact the
environment.
Attitudes toward green products: I like green products; I feel positive
toward green products; Green products are good for the environment; I
feel proud when I buy/use green products.
Green purchase behavior: I make a special effort to buy products in
biodegradable packages; I would switch from my usual brands and
buy environmentally safe cleaning products, even if I have to give up
some cleaning effectiveness; I have switched products for ecological
reasons; When I have a choice between two equal products, I purchase
the one less harmful to the environment.
Perceived consumer effectiveness: There is not much that any one in-
dividual can do about the environment (revers.); The conservation ef-
forts of one person are useless as long as other people refuse to
conserve (revers.)
Negative sentiment toward marketing: Most products I buy are
overpriced; Most products I buy wear out too quickly.
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Appendix B. Stimuli
The stimuli can be obtained from the first author upon request.
Control Group
Emotional Ad
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