The Influence Mechanism Of Environmental Advertising Claims On Consumers’ Green Purchase Intention

The rapid increase of global consumers’ consumption of goods and services leads to excessive depletion of natural resources and serious damage to the environment.Global warming,increasing environmental pollution,animals and plants decreasing diminishing,and the global epidemic suggest that we should pay attention to the harmonious relationship with nature during human development and survival.Various organizations have realized this fact and begin to minimize the adverse impact of their business activities on the environment,leading to the emergence of "sustainable development model",of which the key is enterprises’ green innovation and consumers’ green consumption.On the one hand,enterprises should introduce the practice of environmental sustainability into their creation of goods and services,furthermore,they should pay attention to the effect on environment and fulfill environmental responsibility in each stage of production,in order that they can reduce damage to the environment in their actual operation process.On the other hand,consumers should buy green products to meet their own needs,besides,support enterprises to obtain sufficient financial and market power to fulfill their environmental responsibility to develop green products with higher quality.Only in this way can we build a sustainable cycle.However,due to the high price and less types of green products,and a lack of green attributes,consumers are less willing to buy green products.Therefore,it is still an arduous task for marketing personnel to persuade consumers to change their consumption habits.Enterprises are trying to use a variety of environmental advertising strategies to attract consumers to buy green products,through which they convince consumers that green products or services have better environmental benefits than traditional products.Among all strategies,the most prominent one is to convey all kinds of information about the fulfillment of corporate environmental responsibility and environmental concerns,including development and production of green products,adoption of environmental protection technology,attention to certain environmental issues,as well as their efforts and contributions in environmental undertakings and environmental public welfare,so as to promote consumers’ purchase of green products and establish corporate social responsibility(CSR)image related to sustainable development.In practice,substantive claims and associative claims are the two most frequently used tactics in environmental advertising claims.Substantive claims refer to that firms convey their environmental responsibility information in advertisements,including product orientation(e.g.,energy-saving products,easy degradation,etc.)and process orientation(e.g.,cleaner production,easy recycling of materials,etc.).Associative claims refer to that firms communicate about some environmental problems or current environmental reality in their environmental protection advertisements,including image orientation(e.g.,environmental protection public welfare and undertakings)and environmental fact orientation(e.g.,the current situation of air and soil pollution,etc.).For example,in sportswear industry,Anta uses substantive claims: "in the production process,we are striving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce carbon intensity by 36.7% to lead the green and low-carbon circular development of the industry",which emphasizes the environmental responsibility of enterprises in their production process.While Toread utilizes the associative claims: "Toread pays attention to the ecology of Kekexili and the living environment of Tibetan antelope-its iconic endangered species.We are doing what we can to protect our earth",which highlights their attention to animal protection and environmental public welfare to establish a better green image.Enterprises in the same industry are different in using environmental advertising claims to attract consumers,which puts forward the need to think about the practical problem,that is,whether there are differences in the persuasion effect of different environmental advertising claims,and what is the internal mechanism of the persuasion effect? However,the existing research on this topic is quite few and they cannot answer the above questions.Based on the above,this study first conducts content analysis of environmental advertising claims to provide a realistic basis for variable selection and stimulus materials design of subsequent research.Then by incorporating ARI model(Affect-Reason-Involvement),SOR model(Stimulus-Organism-Response)and ELM(Elaboration Likelihood Model),this study organically combines information content(environmental advertising claims),information features(advertising appeal),consumer characteristics(environmental concerns and environmental knowledge),enterprise characteristics(corporate reputation),information processing process(perceived greenwashing and green warmth),information processing results(green brand image,green purchase intention),to construct a conceptual model of the impact of corporate environmental advertising claims on consumers’ green purchase intention,and put forward related hypotheses which are tested via seven experiments.The results are listed as below.First,in China,the environmental advertising claims are different in their industry,type,appeal,green level,topic,specificity and emphasis.Specifically,firms adopt more substantive claims and moderate green advertising to express issues like avoiding water pollution or waste and air pollution.However,there is no significant difference in the use of rational appeals and emotional appeals,as well as strong claims and weak claims.The analysis of executive elements of advertising claims shows that: the number of deep and moderate green ads in substantive claims is significantly higher than that in shallow green ads,and the number of moderate green ads is significantly higher than deep green ads;substantive claims tend to apply earth protection issues,specific claims and weak claims,while there is no significant difference in the number of rational appeals and emotional appeals.For associative claims,the number of deep green advertising is significantly higher than that of shallow and moderate green advertising;for advertising topics,the frequency of earth protection and animal protection are significantly higher than that of plant protection,however,there is no significant difference between the number of earth protection and animal protection and human welfare,the same as the number of plant protection and human welfare.Furthermore,associative claims pay more attention to specific and strong claims to persuade and influence consumer behavior.Similarly,in terms of advertising appeal,there is no significant difference in the number of rational appeals and emotional appeals.Second,for consumers’ green purchase intention and firms’ green brand image,the persuasive effect of advertising with environmental claims is better than that without environmental claims,and the persuasive effect of substantive claims is better than that of associative claims.This result shows that with the enhancement of consumers’ environmental awareness,the impact of environmental advertising on consumers is becoming more and more significant.Furthermore,substantial environmental claims includes product orientation and process orientation,which represents their actual environmental protection responsibility;while associative claims connects the firm with environmental protection by expounding environmental facts and showing environmental views,so as to establish its green image.Therefore,consumers believe that the substantive environmental claims can better reflect the firm’s environmental responsibility,so under this situation,their green purchase intention and green brand image evaluation will be higher.Third,perceived greenwashing and green warmth mediate the impact of environmental advertising claims on green purchase intention(green brand image).According to the ARI model,emotion and rationality play an important role in the process of attitude change and persuasion,since the receiver will deal with the advertising information in different ways.Therefore,in the face of environmental advertising claims stimulation,consumers will handle the information through two paths,i.e.,rational and emotional paths.Specifically,greenwashing can cause consumers to doubt the firm’s environmental claims so they will make rational judgments in the face of environmental claims.Once consumers’ perception of greenwashing is relatively high,they will refuse to buy the firm’s products,resulting in lower purchase intention(green brand image).Meanwhile,when consumers buy products with moral attributes,they will expect a feeling of warmth,since they know that the money spent on the products can support a good cause,so they are doing something beneficial for the society.Warmth can enhance consumers’ response to advertising,resulting in a higher green purchase intention and a better green brand image.Therefore,in the face of environmental advertising claims,consumers not only judge the authenticity of claims from the rational aspect,but also expect advertising products to bring green warmth to themselves from the emotional aspect.These two factors jointly mediate the impact of environmental advertising claims on consumers’ green purchase intention(green brand image).Fourth,green brand image can positively affect consumers’ green purchase intention and play a chain intermediary role in the mediating process of perceived greenwashing and green warmth.Green brand image is the pre variable of consumers’ purchase intention,which means good green brand image can improve consumers’ purchase intention.In the process of environmental advertising claims,consumers first judge their authenticity to establish greenwashing perception.When consumers believe that the firm conduct greenwashing,they will decrease the evaluation of green image,resulting in a lower purchase intention.Moreover,the expected green warmth will lead consumers to generate a positive emotion towards the brand,thus enhancing their evaluation of the green brand image.Furthermore,a good green brand image further promotes consumers’ purchase intention.Therefore,the empirical results show that green brand image has a positive impact on consumers’ green purchase intention,and it can play a chain intermediary role when perceived greenwashing and green warmth act as mediators.Fifth,advertising appeals,environmental knowledge,environmental concerns and corporate reputation can play a moderating role in the impact of environmental advertising claims on consumers’ green purchase intention(green brand image).First of all,consumers’ green purchase intention and green brand image are evaluated higher when the substantive claims adopt rational appeals compared with emotional appeals,and when the associative claims adopt emotional appeals rather than rational appeals.Furthermore,consumers’ information processing is influenced by two factors: motivation and ability,which are reflected by environmental concern and environmental knowledge respectively from the perspective of personal environmental characteristics.For people with a lower environmental concern(environmental motivation),they will not be interested in any environmental information.Therefore,there is no difference in the persuasive effect of either substantive claims or associative claims on this group.According to ELM,for people with higher motivation and higher ability,they will prefer the central clues,thus the substantive environmental claims work better;for those with higher motivation and lower ability,they will tend to use peripheral clues,thus the relational environmental claims have a better persuasion effect.Finally,corporate reputation can positively moderate the impact of environmental advertising claims on green purchase intention(green brand image),as well as the mediating role of green warmth and perceived greenwashing.If the firm is trustworthy and has a high corporate reputation based on its past behavior,consumers will tend to trust its advertising,resulting in higher persuasive effect than enterprise ’ s advertising.Therefore,a good corporate reputation makes consumers trust the environmental advertising claims,leading to higher perception of green warmth and lower perceived greenwashing,and further enhance consumers’ green purchase intention and green brand image evaluation.In addition,corporate reputation can directly and positively moderate the impact of environmental advertising on green purchase intention and green brand image.This study contributes to the current research in the following:First,this study explores the mechanism of environmental advertising on consumers’ green purchase intention from the perspective of environmental advertising content,which provides a new view for research on environmental advertising.To date,research on environmental advertising mainly focuses on the appeals of environmental advertising,the difference of persuasion effect between environmental advertising and non-environmental advertising,the framework of environmental advertising etc.There is no research on the information content(environmental advertising claims)and communication strategy.Therefore,based on corporate environmental responsibility,this study investigates the mechanism of environmental advertising content(substantive and associative claims)on consumers’ green purchase intention,which provides a new perspective for the research of environmental advertising.Second,on the basis of theories like ARI model,this study integrates various factors,including information,consumers and enterprises,to build a mechanism model of environmental advertising claims on green purchase intention.It comprehensively and deeply explores the process of how consumers deal with environmental advertising and provides an overall framework for environmental advertising research.Although a large number of theoretical studies have examined the influence of consumer characteristics,brand and enterprise factors on advertising persuasion effect,there is a lack of an overall framework to provide a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the interaction of information,consumer characteristics and other factors.This study combines elements like information content(environmental advertising claims),information traits(advertising appeals),consumer characteristics(environmental concern and environmental knowledge),enterprise features(corporate reputation),information processing procedures(perceived greenwashing and green warmth),and information processing results(green brand image and green purchase intention),to reveal how consumers’ process environmental advertising and the influencing factors of the persuasion effect.This study fills the gap mentioned above and provides an overall framework for the research on environmental advertising.Third,this study discovers and tests the mechanism of the dual paths,i.e.,rational and emotional paths,through which consumers handle environmental advertising claims.In the research on consumers’ processing of environmental advertising,most scholars mainly explore how consumers deal with environmental protection advertisements to further develop their decision-making towards products and brands from the rational or cognitive perspective,while only a few studies pay attention to the dual paths in the consumption process,i.e.,rational and emotional paths.This study fills the gap and explores the dual paths mechanism of perceived greenwashing and green warmth in consumers’ handling of environmental advertising claims,which improves the processing theory of environmental advertising.Fourth,it verifies the moderating effects of advertising appeal,environmental concern,environmental knowledge and corporate reputation to clarify the boundary of environmental advertising claims,which deepens research on this topic.The persuasive effect of environmental advertising is not only affected by the content of information,but also closely related to the information form,receivers’ characteristics and features of the firm that release information.Based on this,this study makes an initial attempt to explore the boundary conditions of environmental advertising claims in the following three aspects: first,the study holds that rational appeals and substantive environmental claims have a higher degree of fitness,so do emotional appeals and associative claims.Second,the study finds that corporate reputation,as a conspicuous sign of its consistent performance,quality and trust,can act as a positive moderator when consumers dealing with environmental advertising claims.Finally,the study distinguishes the different roles of environmental knowledge and environmental concern,which can be attributed to ability and motivation,to propose their distinct roles in information processing on the basis of ELM.