Eco-Brand And Its Effect On Brand Preference

From "changing the style of economic growth" to "transformation of the mode ofeconomic development," and then to "accelerate transformation of the mode ofeconomic development", it seems that the whole society pays attention to the way ofeconomic development. How to speed up the development and protect the ecologicalenvironment together is a worldwide problem. Developing ecological economic zoneis an effective way to develop ecological economy scientifically and green.Transforming the backward and extensive mode of economic development, formingthe advanced and efficient ecological industry cluster, and constructing eco-placebrand has become an important leading local economic development action.The present economic globalization and regional economic integration are in thetide, regional economy has presented strong development momentum and regional"competition" which the way of the past’s GDP growth and quantity competition, theupgrade of industry competition, competition was transferred to the place image andbrand comprehensive competition. The brand is different from competitors signs. Forexample,"the capital of china Jingdezhen","the capital of China shoes Wenzhou","the capital of China dairy industry Hohhot","the market of China commodity Yiwu",and so on. These famous brands are the comprehensive embodiment area with a placeunique information and the characteristic, and play an important part in developingplace competition. And Poyang lake ecological economy demonstration area waslisted in the National Strategy, that shows China’s place economy into the new orbit ofecological development.However, what is ecological brand? And what dimensions are included by itsconnotation structure? Whether ecological brand will affect brand preference? If so,how to affect it? Researches on these problems all are not solved.This paper developed a conceptual model of Eco-brand of5dimensions of20factors in the Eco-brand using grounded theory research method, and made anempirical test of the model and its dimensions on brand preference. The evidenceshows that the Eco-brand contains the product ecology, industrial ecology,environmental ecology, cultural ecology and political ecology. Among them, theproduct ecology is generated by product organic, product environmental, productgreen technical and product authenticity. Industrial ecology contains industrial low carbon, industrial cyclical, industrial clusters and industrial planning. Environmentalecology is generated by its advantages in resources, resource conservation,environmental friendliness and the development of sustainable. Cultural ecologystems from the ecological shared values, the cognitive of ecological theory, theconventional of ecological concept and the ecological role of conventionality. Politicaland ecological is generated by the consistency of ecological objectives, theprofessionalism of local leadership, the mobilization of ecological resource and thesynergies of interest groups.The results also showed that the dimensions of the Eco-brand is on the influenceof the brand preference, and the prerequisite is brand association. Product ecology,industrial ecology and environmental ecology have a significant positive effect onbrand association, and the most influential dimension is the industrial ecology, thesecond is the environmental, the third is the product ecology. Brand association has asignificant positive effect on brand preference. The impact of cultural ecology on thebrand association is partly supported by statistically significant in this study.Theimpact of political ecology on the brand association is not supported by statisticallysignificant in this study.This paper empirical proved that the dimensions of the Eco-brand is amulti-dimensional structure, and it is constituted by the5dimensions of20factors. Itscientifically reveals the brand’s core meaning and methods of measurement ofEco-place brand, a more systematic understanding of the structure of ecologicalconnotation, and provides the basis for the government to build the Eco-place brandand the guidance of enterprise scientific development. Meanwhile, the paper made aexperimental research on the dimensions of Eco-brand causal relationship betweenbrand association and brand preference. It has proved that the mechanism andfunction effect in the forming process of Eco-brand’s impact on consumer brandpreference.