Patrick Hartmann

Green branding effects on attitude: functional versus emotional positioning strategies

Purpose – Proposes a set of strategic options for green brand positioning, based either on functional brand attributes or on emotional benefits. The aim of the study is to test the suggested green positioning strategies against one another, assessing their effect on perceived brand positioning and brand attitude.Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical model of the dimensionality and attitudinal effects of green brand positioning was developed. Both suggested alternatives to green brand positioning, along with a combined functional and emotional strategy, were tested in an experimental online setting. The hypothesized model was tested in the scope of exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.Findings – Results indicate an overall positive influence of green brand positioning on brand attitude. Further findings suggest distinct functional and emotional dimensions of green brand positioning with the interaction of both dimensions in the formation of brand attitude. Highest perceptual ...

Green advertising revisited

In green advertising research, images of pleasant nature scenery have been classified as vague, unspecific and possibly ineffective green claims, as opposed to substantive, informational claims. In this study, the concept of virtual nature experiences is introduced to point out a perceptual mechanism through which the association of a brand with nature imagery may indeed lead to significant advertising effects. Consumers’ exposure to specific nature imagery in green brand communications may lead to pleasant feelings analogous to those experienced in ‘real’ nature. If adequately conditioned, these ‘virtual nature experiences’ may enhance the consumer’s attitude towards a given brand. The perceptual and attitudinal effects of substantive green claims and nature imagery are analysed in the scope of an experimental study. The field study consisted of a national survey, allowing for the relative statistical representativeness of the sample. Results of the study confirm significant perceptual and attitudinal effects of both informational claims and virtual nature experiences. The latter are identified as a distinct perceptual dimension of green brand associations, and turn out to wield additional positive influences on the consumer’s attitude towards the brand.

Antecedents of customer loyalty in residential energy markets: Service quality, satisfaction, trust and switching costs

A conceptual framework is proposed that analyses the effect of perceived service quality, customer satisfaction, trust in the energy provider and perceived switching costs on customer loyalty in residential energy markets. Three distinct dimensions of perceived service quality are identified: technical quality of core services, technical quality of peripheral services and service process quality (functional service quality). The proposed model is tested within the scope of a representative survey of Spanish residential energy customers. Regarding the dimensions of service quality, the results indicate significant effects only of service process quality on satisfaction and, indirectly, on customer loyalty. Loyalty effects of further variables in the model are significant.

Virtual Nature Experiences as Emotional Benefits in Green Product Consumption: The Moderating Role of Environmental Attitudes

This article suggests that consumer exposure to natures media representation in green product advertising may lead to emotional experiences during product consumption that are analogue to those experienced in “real” nature. These “virtual nature experiences” may constitute emotional consumption benefits in consumers perception. Two further kinds of emotional consumption experiences related to environmental products are identified: the feeling of well-being from acting in an altruistic way (“warm glow”), and self-expressive benefits. The influences of the proposed consumption experiences on the consumers attitude toward the product are analyzed in the scope of a survey of consumer perceptions of three competing energy brands, one of them positioned as a green energy brand. Results reveal mostly positive influences on product attitude, with the particular pattern of effects being significantly moderated by the environmental attitudes of the respondents. Virtual nature experiences turn out to wield the most significant influences, regardless of the consumers degree of environmental attitudes.

Nature imagery in advertising: attention restoration and memory effects

Environmental psychology postulates that interacting with nature has inherently positive emotional, cognitive and physiological effects. Based on Attention Restoration Theory and related research, this paper presents a theoretical framework hypothesising that nature imagery presented in an advertisement enhances cognitive advertising message elaboration and memory. Three experimental studies, including an eye-tracking experiment, which successively addressed emotional, information processing and memory effects of exposure to nature imagery in advertising, provided evidence supporting postulated effects. Findings confirmed the hypothesis that advertisements featuring visual representations of pleasant nature scenes can evoke very similar emotional responses to those experienced in pleasant natural environments, which constitutes a necessary condition for the suggested cognitive effects. As hypothesised, advertising messages of advertisements featuring pleasant nature imagery achieved higher memory scores in both unaided recall and recognition compared to identical advertisements displaying a variety of other attractive pictures.

Environmental threat appeals in green advertising: The role of fear arousal and coping efficacy

This study addresses the behavioural effects of cognitive threat appraisal, emotional fear response and perceived coping efficacy in threat appeal based green advertising. While most existing theories attribute fear arousal a secondary role as a moderator of cognitive effects, or consider fear detrimental to persuasion, the proposed framework integrates fear response as a principal behavioural antecedent. An experimental online survey of a representative sample of the Australian population reasserted the role of fear arousal, indicating that both cognitive threat level beliefs and fear arousal from exposure to climate change related environmental threat appeals significantly increase pro-environmental intentions. Cognitive threat level beliefs and emotional fear response were highly correlated. Perceived coping efficacy did improve persuasion effects for one of the two studied behaviours, but providing efficacy information also significantly lowered fear responses.

Desert or rain

Purpose – Given the observable increase in images of nature in advertising on a global scale, this study aims to ask whether such creative strategies should adapt imagery to the natural environment of the target audiences or could it be standardised globally.Design/methodology/approach – Two samples of respondents living in different geographic locations with contrasted climates and natural environments were exposed to a set of experimental green advertisements visually featuring different categories of natural scenery and one urban landscape. Attitude towards each advertisement and emotional responses evoked by it were measured and compared across the range of stimuli and the two samples.Findings – Results did not support either the hypothesis that individuals prefer advertisements showing the natural habitat in which they had grown up or the hypothesized universal preference for advertising imagery displaying savannah type landscapes. However, the observed preferences across both samples for advertiseme...

Nature Imagery in Non-Green Advertising: The Effects of Emotion, Autobiographical Memory, and Consumer's Green Traits

Images of pristine nature constitute frequent elements of visual advertising design. Research on the effectiveness of such imagery has been scarce, however. Which psychological processes are involved? Do all individuals react equally to nature advertising imagery? Based on environmental psychology theory, the present research analyzes the effectiveness of the use of nature imagery in non-green advertising and the underlying processes involved. We conduct three experimental studies, two with student samples and one with a representative population sample, to test the effects of visual advertising stimuli featuring nature versus urban and indoor scenery. Findings contribute to research in two ways: First, emotional ad responses that are similar to the feelings experienced in nature as well as the retrieval of positive autobiographical memories are identified as intervening processes by which nature advertising imagery increases attitude toward the ad (Aad) and brand (Abr). Second, results indicate these processes are moderated by consumers’ green traits, with green consumers being more susceptible to the persuasive effects of nature advertising imagery even though advertisements were non-green. The processes are further moderated by the accessibility of memory of past nature experiences. These findings enrich our knowledge on the effects of specific visual appeals and provide practical implications for visual advertising effectiveness.

Who Buys Counterfeit Luxury Brands? A Meta-Analytic Synthesis of Consumers in Developing and Developed Markets

Although numerous previous studies have investigated consumer demographics and psychographics as determinants of counterfeit purchases, their findings are diverse and fragmented. In conceptually referring to the brand signals that help consumers build their identities, the present meta-analysis synthesizes the influence of consumer demographics and psychographics on attitudes, intentions, and behaviors with regard to branded counterfeit luxury products. It empirically summarizes 610 effect sizes from 98 independent studies and shows that whereas demographics have little impact, some psychographics greatly influence counterfeit purchases, with these influences differing between developed and developing countries. In the former, risk propensity and reduced integrity are stronger determinants of counterfeit purchases and are related to brand signals that refer to identities that consumers attempt to avoid. In developing countries, consumers are more influenced by psychographics, such as status seeking, which are related to positive brand signals for consumer identities. The findings lead to a profile of consumers of counterfeit luxury items that provides guidance for future research and for improved consumer targeting with regard to international anticounterfeiting measures.

Effects of green brand communication on brand associations and attitude

This study analyses the communicational implementation of green brand associations. Three distinct types of emotional brand benefits suitable for green branding are identified: the feeling of well-being (“warm glow”) from acting in an altruistic way, self-expressive benefits, and nature-related consumption experiences. Dimensionality of green brand associations and impact on brand attitude are tested in the scope of a survey of consumer perceptions of three established energy brands in the Spanish consumer-energy market, one of them recently positioned as a green energy brand. Results of the study confirm significant perceptual effects of green brand communications, proposed dimensions of green brand benefits, as well as significant positive attitude effects of green brand associations.