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The purpose of this paper is to explore intents of green advertisements.

Using NVivo, a convenient sample of 237 green print advertisements published between August 2010 and July 2015 in leading Indian newspapers and magazines were content analysed.

Four types of intents of green advertisements were identified: intent to communicate corporate environmental approaches; intent to develop believability towards environmental claims; intent to inform consumers; and intent to engage consumers.

This study explored intents of green advertisements and elaborated upon strategic importance of content in green advertising.

The intent-based exploration of green advertisements indicates marketing managers of green products the importance of: expanding their advertising framework that incorporates sharing environmental vision and mission of their companies with consumers, and relating them with consumers’ needs and demands; inculcating functional, emotional and experiential elements in green advertisements that facilitate green product experience to the consumers; and active interactions between marketing managers and consumers for effectively capturing market-related information, and accordingly shaping their short- and long-term marketing and advertising decisions.

This study is unique to determine intents of green advertisements.

To identify and analyse the beliefs of value‐chain intermediaries regarding the production and marketing of food products conforming to environmentally sustainable standards.

The methodology was in‐depth, semi‐structured, face‐to‐face interviews with senior managers of food companies across the value chain.

In Australia, the demand for foods that are produced under environmentally sustainable standards has been slow to take‐off because customers do not perceive these products as offering any special benefits; customers distrust the claims made by organisations; these products are much more expensive than traditional products, and the implementation of environmental standards is expensive. Customers claim that the use of different terminologies such as organic, green and environmentally friendly in promoting food products is confusing.

Findings are not generalisable because the study is based on a small sample.

Value‐chain intermediaries are unlikely to voluntarily adopt environmental standards because of low demand for such foods and the high costs of adopting and monitoring environmentally sustainable production and marketing regimes.

The story supports previous research findings from the USA and EU.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how consumers respond to environmental claims of three types contained in promotional messages attributed to one respected “green” brand and one mainstream leisure clothing.

A mall‐intercept questionnaire‐based survey in one city in Australia collected responses from 380 respondents, who rated environmental claims contained in promotional messages delivered via garment tags attached to T‐shirts.

Shoppers responded more positively to product‐related messages than cause‐related messages. They found environmental claims to be more credible if attributed to the green brands than to the neutral brand.

Future research might focus on the “green” market segment rather than interacting with the general population, and devise niche marketing strategies to clothes retailers. There is also room for more vivid pro‐green statements as test stimuli, perhaps generated by in‐depth qualitative research.

Though consumers are becoming increasingly green‐minded, the result is not necessarily more consumption of green products, but “better” consumption behaviour in general. Retailers should build a store image that clearly transmits their green credentials, as a proxy for the quality and nature of merchandise they carry.

Relatively little is known about green brands and environmental message appeals in clothes marketing, and no study has yet focused on Australia.

Manufacturers of consumer goods face various problems when they attempt to integrate environmental attributes into their marketing mix. In many cases the inclusion of environmental issues in the marketing mix is largely motivated by the organization′s desire to address consumers′ increasing level of environmental awareness. However, producers face three problems when they attempt to utilize environmental marketing: a lack of credibility; consumer cynicism; consumer confusion over claims. Strategic alliances with environmental groups can assist manufacturers of consumer goods to overcome these problems, as well as provide other advantages. These other advantages are: increased consumer reliability in green products and their claims; increased access to environmental information; increased access to new markets; publicity and reduced public criticism; and education of consumers about key environmental issues relating to a firm′s product. To achieve these benefits, producers need to follow a careful selection process when choosing an environmental strategic alliance partner. This selection process includes: determine alliance objectives; specify outcomes desired; and determine the fit between the organization, environmental group, and target market.

This study aims to examine the effects of three green information quality dimensions – persuasiveness, completeness and credibility – on green brand evaluation and whether this is mediated by green brand credibility. It also examines the moderating effects of eco-label credibility and consumer knowledge on green information quality dimensions and green brand credibility relationships.

Using a structured questionnaire on environmentally-friendly electrical goods/electronics, cosmetic and apparel product advertisements, involving an elaboration task, this study collected usable data from 1,282 Indian consumers across 50 cities. It also undertook an assessment for three different product groups using structural equation modelling to examine proposed hypotheses and assessed moderated mediation using the Hays process model.

The study indicates that: green brand credibility mediates the effects of green information quality dimensions on green brand evaluation; consumer knowledge moderates the effects of persuasiveness and completeness on green brand credibility and eco-label credibility moderates the effects of persuasiveness and credibility on green brand credibility.

In green information processing, this study supports the relevance of the elaboration likelihood model and the mediation effect of green brand credibility. It also presents evidence that credible eco-labels enhance green information processing. While the results are broadly consistent across the three product categories, the results may only generalizable to the environmentally-aware urban populations.

Help brand managers to design advertisements that add brand credibility in environmentally-aware urban markets.

It helps to define green information quality and the interacting effects of eco-label credibility and consumer knowledge in green information processing.

Using Keller's brand equity framework, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the firm's environmental communication on brand equity, and specifically its impact on brand image, through the strength and favourability of brand environmental associations.

A between‐subjects experimental design tests the hypotheses with a generalisable sample of 165 French consumers.

Environmental communication positively influences the strength and favourability of brand environmental associations, therefore improving brand equity. Two moderators reinforce the impact of environmental communication on brand equity through the strength of brand environmental associations: the perceived congruence between the brand and the cause, and the perceived credibility of the claim.

In the context of greater consumer pressure regarding business ethics, managers should favour environmental arguments in their corporate communication to improve brand image through societal associations. Doing so, they should focus their communication on causes that are congruent with their brands to facilitate brand equity building, and ensure they are credible when proclaiming these arguments.

Despite existing research on corporate social responsibility (CSR), no studies focus on the specific impact of CSR communication on brand equity. The paper provides initial empirical evidence about the positive effect of environmental claims on customer‐based brand equity.

We examine the role of communication in stimulating consumer attitudes and buying behavior regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR).

We review the literature on communicating CSR to consumers through (1) messages constructed and verified by the company (such as product claims and corporate advertising), (2) messages constructed by the company, but verified by a third party (such as disclosures), and (3) messages constructed and verified by a third party (such as independent consumer guides and publicity).

Communication messages constructed and verified by the company can be quite effective in persuading consumers, if they are communicated in a credible way. The latter can, for example, be done by including specific behaviors and/or outcomes in the message. Messages constructed by the firm, but verified by a third party tend to have a higher credibility, but risk containing either too little information or too much. Finally, messages constructed and verified by a third party can be seen as highly credible, but can sometimes be seen as merely PR. In addition, both messages focusing on deontological responsibility (the firm’s motives and behavior), and messages focusing on consequentialist responsibility (the outcomes of the firm’s behavior) seem important to consumers.

The results offer suggestions on how to communicate about CSR to consumers.

The chapter provides the first comprehensive overview of the literature on communication about CSR to consumers.

This paper aims to examines whether firms’ eco-friendly advertising claims are supported by environmentally friendly behavior.

The paper develops a game theory model to determine the circumstances under which firms’ environmental claims will be supported by the adoption of best environmental practice. Least squares regression is used to test major theoretical implications.

The theoretical model suggests that the credence good nature of un-monitored environmental claims prohibits consumer validation; firms have an incentive to advertise green but no incentive to adopt best environmental practice. Third-party monitoring transforms the game, making eco-friendly outcomes possible. Empirical models based on North American data suggest that firm profit rates are related to verifiable environmental claims and to easily accessible external ratings of environmental performance.

Unlike previous game theoretical models for similar goods, the eco-friendly outcome does not require a repeated game. The importance of the single period game is that continued patronage is not required for the firm to produce goods containing the desired attributes.

This quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate, drawing upon influential discounting behavior theory and cognition – affect – behavior (C-A-B) paradigm, consumers’ reactions to the phenomenon of “greenwashing” in the lodging industry. More specifically, this paper proposed and tested a theoretical model that examined whether recognizing the ulterior motive caused consumer skepticism about hotels’ environmental claims, which in turn influenced consumers’ intention to participate in linen reuse program and intention to revisit the hotel. Additionally, the moderating effects of ecological concern on the relationship between skepticism and intention to participate and between skepticism and intention to revisit were examined.

A quasi-experimental design was used with two conditions (control vs ulterior motive) employing staff members of a US public university as study participants. In total, 638 useful responses were received.

The results of this study revealed that an ulterior motive of hotels’ environmental claims evoked consumer skepticism, which, in turn, negatively influenced consumers’ intention to participate in the linen reuse program and intention to revisit the hotel. Skepticism was found to partially mediate the relationships between ulterior motive and intention to participate and between ulterior motive and intention to revisit. Consumers’ ecological concern was not found to moderate the relationship between skepticism and intention to participate in the linen reuse program and skepticism and intention to revisit the hotel. In addition, a significant positive direct effect between ecological concern and intention to participate and a non-significant effect between ecological concern and revisit intention were revealed.

Focus on consumers’ response to the ulterior motive of environmental claims advances an understanding of consumers’ attitudes and perceptions about hotels’ green practices.

Findings suggest that hotels need to be watchful so that consumers do not become skeptical. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that managers do everything possible to give customers no room for doubt. Hoteliers need to spend more effort in installing comprehensive green programs and make true green claims by keeping the potential consequences of greenwashing in mind. Hoteliers also need to seek out third-party certifications that require the hotel to meet certain standards, which will help ensure credibility in the eyes of consumers.

Hospitality literature has seldom explored this gray area of green marketing, and, in this regard, this study serves as a guide to hoteliers and researchers alike. The authors thereby anticipate that this study would encourage more research in this often overlooked but highly important area.

The study examined how consumers responded to apparel advertisements with varying environmental claims. Respondents were 274 undergraduate students at a US university. Three attitudinal perceiver variables (environmental knowledge, concern and commitment) were analysed in relation to perceptions of credibility of environmental messages. Although significant differences in perceptions of credibility among certain types of environmental ad claims were found, results suggest that the sample of consumers did not respond more positively to advertisements with environmental messages. Environmental advertisement claims were not effective in generating more positive consumer response to apparel advertisements.