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‘100% organic’: Green advertising in

the fashion industry

- Master’s Thesis -

Annika Fredriks (10588566) Dr. B. C. Schouten

Master’s programme Communication Science Graduate School of Communication

June 28th, 2018 Words: 7466

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Abstract

This study investigates the use of green advertising within the fashion field. It examines the effects of green appeals (emotional vs. functional vs. combined) on brand attitude. Moreover, it analyses the possible moderating role of level of involvement and level of scepticism. Two hundred and twenty-three participants (N = 223) completed an online experiment with a 3 (green brand positioning: emotional vs. functional vs. combination) × 2 (level of involvement: low vs. high) between-subjects factorial design. Results show no significant effects of green appeals on brand attitude. Moreover, level of scepticism and level of involvement also show no significant moderation effects. However, brand attitude is found to have a significant positive effect on purchase intention and serves as a significant mediator between green brand positioning and purchase intention. Interestingly, analyses of the complete model show that advertisements with the functional appeal have a significant positive effect on purchase intention. Subgroup analyses show that brand attitude among young and older consumers differs significantly: younger consumers score significantly higher on brand attitude and purchase intention after exposure to green advertising compared to older people. Several limitations of this study are provided and suggestions for future research are given. Implications for marketers are provided, such as the encouragement of using functional appeals within green advertising.

Key words: green brand positioning, green advertising, fashion, green appeals, green washing

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Introduction

Between 2005 and 2016, the climate change impact created by the fashion industry increased with 35%. If the fashion industry does not change its way of doing business, their impact on climate change will rise and result in a projected 49% increase by 2030 (Quantis & ClimateWorks Foundation, 2018). The fast fashion industry has been designated as the biggest cause of this problem (Drew & Yehounme, 2017). The term fast fashion is used for fashion companies that produce large quantities of low-cost clothing, which are sold atlow prices (e.g. H&M) (Fletcher, 2008; Pedersen & Andersen, 2015). As consumers’ attention on sustainability issues increases, the market for eco-friendly fashion products also increased over years (Atkinson & Kim, 2015). As a consequence, a new fashion movement has emerged, namely ‘slow fashion’. Slow fashion can be defined as a movement that is aware of the needs of its stakeholders and of the impact it has on its workers, consumers and the planet (e.g. Patagonia) (Fletcher, 2008).

In order to reach the conscious consumer, marketers use green claims (e.g. ‘sustainable’) on product labels and packages of sustainable products. This is an example of green advertising, which are advertisements that either show the relationship between a product and the environment, or that encourage a green lifestyle, or present a corporate image of environmental responsibility (Banerjee, Gulas, & Iyer, 1995). Unfortunately, some brands have misused green advertising in the past. They made it seem as if they were addressing environmental issues, while in real life they were not taking pro-environmental actions (Delmas & Burbano, 2011). This phenomenon is called green washing and can lead to increased scepticism among consumers, which may result in negative feelings towards the advertised brand (Aji & Sutikno, 2015; Plec & Pettenger, 2012). Since more consumers are sceptical these days about sustainable products (Oeko-tex, 2018), and it is found that scepticism may diminish the positive impact advertisements can have on consumers’ brand attitude (Obermiller, Spangenberg, &

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MacLachlan, 2005), this study will examine whether level of scepticism moderates the effect of green brand positioning on brand attitude.

Alongside scepticism, researchers also looked into other effects green advertising can have on consumers. Green brand positioning, which is the active communication and differentiation of a brand from its competitors by highlighting a brands’ environmentally sound attributes (Hartmann, Apaolaza Ibanez, & Forcada Sainz, 2005), gets lots of attention in the research field (e.g. Amin, Uthamaputhran, & Ali, 2015; Wang, 2017). Hartmann et al. (2005) was the first one that focused on three different types of green brand positioning appeals: functional, emotional and combined. The first one refers to providing facts and information about a sustainable product or production process. Emotional appeals aim to induce feelings of well-being by contributing to the ‘common good’ and the combined appeal uses both appeals. Hartmann et al. (2005) looked into the effect these appeals can have on brand attitude, which is defined as someone’s personal evaluation of an object, which is based on existing beliefs and opinions (Fishbein, & Ajzen, 1975). Results showed that both appeals combined led to the most positive brand attitude (Hartmann et al., 2005), which was confirmed by other studies (e.g. Hartmann & Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2009; Suki, 2016). These earlier studies focused on product categories such as cars and mobile phones, but green brand positioning with clothing as product category has not been examined yet. However, consumers’ general thoughts about a product category can affect their evaluations of a brand belonging to this category (Posavac, Sanbonmatsu, Seo, & Iacobucci, 2014). Therefore, it is important to extend the green brand positioning theory to other product categories in order to improve the generalizability of this theory. Hence, the main purpose of this study is to investigate how green brand positioning in fashion advertisement affects consumers’ brand attitude and their purchase intention.

Solomon (1986) stated that basic and cheap clothes can be seen as low involvement products, while high involvement products give consumers psychological satisfaction and

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symbolic meaning. Therefore, this study uses level of involvement as classification for the fashion industry, in which fast fashion is seen as low involvement and slow fashion as high involvement. Research showed that level of involvement can operate as a moderator on brand attitude (Petty, Cacioppo, & Schumann, 1983). Kong and Zhang (2013) examined the differential effects of green appeals for low and high involved products on brand attitude. However, they solely used green and non-green advertisements as stimulus in their experiment. Therefore, this study attempts to close a relevant gap in research by analysing the moderating effect of level of involvement on the green branding appeals and brand attitude.

The following research question is formulated:

RQ: To what extent does green brand positioning (emotional vs functional vs combined) have an influence on brand attitude, is this effect moderated by consumers’ level of scepticism and products’ level of involvement, and does it eventually influence consumers’ purchase intention?

Over the years, several companies that put sustainable claims on packages have got a fee from the American Federal Trade Commission (FTC, 2015), because they believed these companies misused green claims. This illustrates some companies’ struggle with the question how to promote green products in an effective and truthful way. Hence, this study aims to provide useful information about what kinds of green marketing marketers should use in order to obtain a more positive brand attitude and a higher purchase intention among consumers. Concluding, this study should close a relevant research gap by analysing green brand positioning within the fashion field, should provide more useful in-depth knowledge about several moderators that may influence this effect, and therefore offers knowledge for both marketers and researchers.

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Theoretical Framework Elaboration Likelihood Model and green brand positioning

The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), a dual-process model, attempts to explain why individuals process persuasive messages in different ways and how these messages can change existing attitudes (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Within the ELM there are two routes to attitude change: central and peripheral. In the central route, attitudes are changed based on careful evaluations of information presented in messages, and therefore result in relatively stable attitudes. Contrarily, individuals within the peripheral route do not have the motivation to carefully process the information. They process the message more passively and rely on peripheral cues that are provided, which results in less stable attitudes (Belch & Belch, 2015; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). This study focusses particularly on brand attitude, which describes consumers’ evaluation of a brand (Belch & Belch, 2015).

Green brand positioning differentiates between two types of appeal: functional and emotional. The first one refers to advertisements that provide information about sustainable products or sustainable production processes (Hartmann et al., 2005; Peattie, 1995). Since individuals have to be motivated to evaluate this information, functional positioning is most effective for individuals that process the message through the central route. Contrarily, the emotional appeal triggers feelings of well-being and personal satisfaction by contributing to the improvement of the “common good” (Hartmann et al., 2005; Ritov & Kahnemann, 1997). The emotional appeal mostly contains pleasant imagery of natural environments, which tries to evoke feelings of ‘experiencing nature’ (Hartmann et al., 2005). Using these types of imagery can be seen as peripheral cues. Hence, the emotional positioning can be placed within the peripheral route.

Several researchers have used the ELM as theoretical basis when studying green advertising (e.g. Hartmann et al., 2005; Nagar, 2015). Hartmann et al. (2005) found that

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emotional appeals had a more positive effect on brand attitude compared to functional appeals (Hartmann et al., 2005). Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez (2009) discovered that psychological brand benefits had a positive effect on brand attitude and especially nature experience was found to have a strong effect on brand attitude. Their participants indicated that exposure to advertisements showing natural landscapes evoked similar feeling to ones experienced in real life. Moreover, Matthes and Wonneberger (2014) also found that emotional positioning had a significant effect on brand attitude, and that this effect was mediated by attitude towards the ad.

The following hypothesis is proposed:

H1a. Exposure to fashion advertisements with emotional appeal leads to a more positive brand attitude than exposure to advertisements with functional appeal.

Although emotional appeal is found to be more effective than functional appeal, the combination of both resulted in the strongest brand attitude in previous research (Hartmann et al., 2005). According to Bhat and Reddy (1998), both appeals should be used together, because they reinforce each other. Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez (2009) indeed found that advertisements containing natural experiences (emotional appeal) and information about environmental product features (functional appeal) led to the highest brand attitude among consumers. Lastly, another study that focused on corporate websites also found that combining the two green appeals resulted in the most positive brand attitude (Wang, 2016).

The complementary effect of both green appeals can possibly be explained by Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory (ART). ART predicts that exposure to nature reduces mental fatigue, restores mental resources and improves performance on attention related tasks (Hartmann, Apaolaza, & Alija, 2013; Kaplan, 1995). Hartmann et al. (2013) tested whether this theory also worked within green brand positioning. Results indeed showed that advertisements showing natural scenes evoke very similar emotional responses to those experienced in real

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natural environments; advertisements that featured a nature imagery led to higher memory scores among participants compared to advertisements that showed non-natural pictures and therefore improved message processing (Hartmann et al., 2013).

In sum, it can be expected that the exposure to combined green branding does not only evoke positive emotional responses, but it also improves the ability among the viewer to actively process the information provided in the ad. Therefore, the following hypotheses is formulated:

H1b. Exposure to fashion advertisements with combined green appeals leads to stronger positive effects on brand attitude than advertisements solely using a functional or an emotional appeal.

Scepticism

Scepticism can be described as the disbelief consumers have towards green claims in marketers’ communications, regarding perceived exaggerations, misleading or confusing information, and the perception of truth in advertisements (Mohr, Eroǧlu, & Ellen, 1998). This type of scepticism can diminish the positive effect advertisements may have on consumers (Mohr et al., 1998; Skarmeas & Leonidou, 2013).

The negative effect of scepticism may be explained by Ajzens’ (1991) Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). This model links people’s beliefs with their behaviour and states that people’s attitudes are based on their beliefs and the evaluation of certain beliefs. According to the TPB, it can be argued that when consumers disbelief a green advertisement and they are sceptical about the ad, this will lead to a negative evaluation of the message. Hence, resulting in negative attitudes towards green advertisement. The study by Chang (2011) confirmed this assumption. He looked into the effects green claims have on consumers and found that

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high-effort claims1 decreased the believability of green advertisement and green claims. This disbelief resulted in more negative evaluations of the product and the advertisement, which is in line with the TPB. Another study showed that consumers’ doubts and disbelief about green product labels decreased their brand attitude and eventually also their willingness to buy the green product (Leonidou & Skarmeas, 2017). The study of Obermiller et al. (2005) indicated that scepticism towards an ad indeed negatively influences thoughts and feelings about the advertisement and the advertised product.

The above studies examine the main effect of scepticism on brand attitudes. However, green appeals can be affected differently by scepticism. The Persuasion Knowledge Model by Friestad and Wright (1994) describes how consumers’ knowledge about persuasion strategies influences how they respond to persuasion attempts such as advertisements. They state that consumers have access to three categories of knowledge: knowledge about the product, knowledge of persuasion2 and knowledge of the advertiser. They state that highly sceptical consumers have become this sceptical over time, probably due to many interactions with persuasive messages that have led them to disbelieve claims displayed in advertisements (Friestad & Wright, 1994). This would suggest that highly sceptical consumers perceive a brand more negatively after exposure to a functional appeal compared to low sceptical consumers.

Obermiller et al. (2005) indeed found that ad scepticism moderates responses to green appeals. Regarding functional appeals, the higher the participant’s scepticism, the more negative the attitude towards the advertised products. In contrast, regarding emotional appeals, the higher the participant’s scepticism, the more positive the attitude towards the advertised products. Correspondingly, Mostafa (2009) found that scepticism towards green claims is

1 Green claims vary in their strength. In earlier research, 5%, 15%, and 69% pollution reduction claims were seen as weak-, moderate-, and high-effort claims (Manrai, Manrai, Lascu, & Ryans, 1997).

2 Beliefs about how persuasion occurs and what tactics are used by marketers and whether they are effective (Obermiller et al., 2005).

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negatively related to brand attitude and green consumption. Since green claims are provided in functional advertisement, this finding is in line with the above literature.

The following hypothesis is formed:

H2a. Scepticism will moderate the effectiveness of ad appeals, such that higher scepticism will lead to negative brand attitudes when seeing ads with functional appeals, but will lead to positive brand attitudes when seeing ads with emotional appeals.

No previous research looked into the effect of scepticism on combined appeals and brand attitude. However, since it has been shown that highly sceptical consumers react more negatively towards functional appeals, it is expected that the combined appeal will also lead to less positive brand attitudes than emotional appeals.

H2b. Scepticism will moderate the effectiveness of ad appeals, such that higher scepticism will lead to less positive brand attitudes when seeing advertisements with combined appeals compared to emotional appeals.

Level of involvement

The Vaughn Grid3 was designed in the 80s of the last century and helps marketers understand where a product is positioned in the mind of a consumer (Vaughn, 1980). It differentiates between high and low involvement purchases and whether the purchase requires emotional or intellectual decisions. As stated before, the fashion industry can be divided into two segments: fast fashion and slow fashion. The first one sells clothes in large quantities at low prices, the latter one does not operate within mass production and sells clothes against fair prices (Fletcher, 2010; Pedersen & Andersen, 2015). According to Solomon (1986), basic and cheap everyday clothing are low involvement products. Since fast fashion companies often sell basic and cheap

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clothes, their products can be seen as low involvement products. Contrary, high involvement products give consumers psychological satisfaction and symbolic meaning (Solomon, 1986). Some consumers believe that by purchasing high involvement clothing they can consider themselves as good people (Ha & Lennon, 2010). Slow fashion companies sell clothes that have a symbolic meaning, therefore their products can be seen as high involvement products.

It is found that consumers with high level of involvement are more motivated to process messages in depth and to pay attention to commercials (Montoro-Rios, Luque-Martínez, & Rodríguez-Molina, 2008). This is in line with the ELM theory, which states that people within the peripheral route do not have the motivation to actively process a message, therefore they are low involved and mostly rely on peripheral cues. On the other hand, people in the central route develop their attitudes based on highly involved evaluations of information presented in the message (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Thereby, Petty et al. (1983) showed that level of involvement has a moderating role on brand attitude. Argument quality had a greater impact on attitudes under high involvement, and a peripheral cue was found to be more effective under low involvement conditions.

Since advertisements with functional appeals show arguments and advertisements with emotional appeals show peripheral cues, it is expected that when highly involved products are placed in advertisements with a functional appeal this will increase the brand attitude. In contrast, when low involvement products are placed in advertisements with an emotional appeal this will increase brand attitude. The following hypotheses have been drawn up:

H3a. High involvement products displayed in advertisements with functional appeal generate a more positive brand attitude compared to advertisements with functional appeal displaying low involvement products.

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H3b. Low involvement products displayed in advertisements with emotional appeal generate a more positive brand attitude compared to advertisements with emotional appeal displaying high involvement products.

Consumers’ purchase intention

According to the TPB (Ajzen, 1991), it can be expected that a positive brand attitude will lead to a more positive purchase intention. This effect was indeed found by Paul, Modi and Patel (2016). In their study, they looked at consumers’ green product purchase intention and they found that consumers’ attitude significantly predicted their purchase intention in a positive way. Another study looked at the effects attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control have on purchase intention of green skincare products, and they found that a more positive attitude lead to a higher intention to purchase the product (Hsu, Chang, & Yansritakul, 2017).

Hence, the following hypothesis is formulated:

H4. A more positive brand attitude will lead to a higher intention to purchase the product displayed in the green advertisement.

Figure 1. Conceptual model of concepts and hypotheses.

Method Participants

The present study used an online experiment in a survey format. Participants were gathered through a snowball sampling strategy, since this strategy makes it possible to run surveys

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quickly and cheaply (Bhutta, 2012). Facebook was used for spreading the link to the online survey and this link was shared on the Facebook page of Dutch magazine Margriet4.

Two hundred and thirty-one adult people agreed to participate in the study, from which one participant was excluded because he or she could not recall correctly which brand was shown in the advertisement. Two hundred and twenty-three completed the whole survey, but all participants were included in the analysis5 in order to increase statistical power when answering the hypotheses.

The mean age of the participants (N = 223) was 37 years old (M = 36.83, SD = 14.47), 84.75% was female, 70.4% was Dutch and 55.4% had completed a Bachelor’s degree.

Design

The study is developed with a 3 × 2 between-subjects factorial experimental design (see Table 1). The first factor was green brand positioning with three levels: emotional vs. functional vs. combination. The second factor was level of involvement with two levels: low vs. high.

Table 1

Experimental design

4 On may 3rd 2018, Margriet had 151.727 unique Facebook friends.

5 Per analysis the missing values were deleted listwise.

Level of involvement Green brand positioning Low High

Emotional I II

Functional III IV

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Procedure

People who clicked on the link provided on Facebook6 were directed to the online survey. When entering the survey, participants were informed about the purpose7 of the study, their rights as participants and their anonymity was assured. In order to continue, participants had to give their consent and were thereafter randomly assigned to one of the conditions. These conditions exist of six different advertisements8 that either contained a functional, emotional or combined appeal, and that either showed the logo of H&M or Patagonia. Participants were asked to take a close look at the advertisement9. Thereafter, participants had to indicate how they felt about the displayed brand, whether they remembered which brand they saw and how likely it was they would purchase the advertised clothes. Moreover, statements were provided that measured participants’ level of scepticism, participants were asked to answer manipulation check questions, control variable questions and questions about their demographics.

Before finishing the survey, participants had the opportunity to give their e-mail address which could lead to winning one of two Rituals vouchers (€ 25.-). Afterwards, participants were thanked for their participation and debriefed about the fact that the showed advertisements were fictitious.

Stimulus materials

Green brand positioning. The study by Hartmann et al. (2005) served as a guideline when creating the stimuli. Six advertisements were designed: three advertisements showing a

6 The Margriet post with the link was posted on a Friday since many followers are active on this day, and because this day was not a national festive day, which makes it more likely people would actually participate in the survey (Dillman, Smyth, & Christian, 2014; Margriet, 2018). Thereafter the researcher posted the link on her personal profile and put the link on several ‘survey exchange-Facebook pages’.

7 Participants were told the purpose of the study was ‘advertising in the fashion industry’. 8 See Appendix A.

9 The ‘next-button’ appeared after ten seconds in order to prevent participants to go too quickly to the next question.

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different green appeal (functional, emotional or combined), and all three advertisements were developed intwo different versions. They either displayed the logo of a slow or a fast fashion brand. After conducting two pre-tests the brands Patagonia and H&M were chosen as representatives for the slow and fast fashion industry10. The functional condition showed a picture of a smiling, casually dressed, young woman walking hand in hand with a casually dressed young man, both in their mid-twenties. The background contained a greyish colour. All the advertisements contained the words ‘Basic collection’, but the functional condition also showed the sentence: ‘Made from 100% organic cotton’. This sentence was chosen since it provides the viewer with a fact about the sustainable production process of the clothes, which is in accordance with the definition of functional appeal given by Hartmann et al. (2005). The emotional condition showed the same picture and the words ‘Basic collection’. However, this condition did not show the green claim, but showed a green scenery in the background. The young adults are now walking in a field, filled with green grasses and hills appearing in the distance. These green surroundings are in line with the study of Hartmann et al (2005), in which they state that showing natural environments can evoke feelings of ‘experiencing nature’. The last condition combined elements from the functional and the emotional condition. The combined condition showed the same picture of the young adults, surrounded by nature, and it showed the sentence: ‘Made from 100% organic cotton’.

Level of involvement. As stated above, the advertisements either showed the logo from a slow or a fast fashion brand. The fast fashion brand represents a low level of involvement, and the slow fashion brand represents a high level of involvement. In order to understand which brands consumers perceive as fast or slow, a pre-test was conducted (see Appendix B, Pre-test I). Results showed that Patagonia (n = 8) and People Tree (n = 7) were most frequently mentioned as slow brands. H&M (n = 12) and Zara (n = 10) were most often named as fast

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fashion brands. A second pre-test was needed to study which brands were found most attractive and trustworthy (see Appendix B, Pre-test II). Results showed that H&M was liked most as fast fashion brand, and Patagonia11 was chosenas slow fashion brand since it was liked and trusted most as a slow brand, and most people were familiar with this brand.

Measuring variables

Brand attitude.Brand attitude was measured by means of five items on a seven-point semantic differential scale: unattractive – attractive; not likable – likable; negative – positive; boring – interesting; not recommendable – recommendable. This scale was previously used by Schmuck, Matthes, Naderer and Beaufort (2018) and was found to be highly reliable (Cronbach's α = .94). An exploratory factor analysis indicated that this scale12 was unidimensional13, explaining 67.78% of the variance in the five items and was found to be reliable (Cronbach’s α = .88, M = 5.13, SD = 1.04).

Purchase intention. As developed by Spears and Singh (2004), the intention to purchase clothes from the advertisement was measured by five items on seven-point semantic differential scales: never – definitely; definitely do not intend to buy - definitely intend; very low - high purchase interest; definitely not buy it - definitely buy it; probably not - probably buy it. The scale by Spears and Singh was found to be highly reliable (Cronbach's α = .96). Another exploratory factor analysis indicated that this scale was unidimensional, explained 89.12% of the variance in the five items and was found to be very reliable (Cronbach’s α = .97, M = 4.06, SD = 1.60).

11 See Appendix B, Pre-test II.

12 All items in the scales used in this study were checked on factor loads (above 0.60) and

whether the reliability of the scale could be improved by omitting items.

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In addition, purchase intention was also measured with two questions on a single seven-point Likert scale item (1 = extremely unlikely; 7 = extremely likely): How likely is it that you will purchase clothes from the Basic Collection in the future? (M = 4.32, SD = 1.71) and How likely is it that you will purchase clothes from the brand you just saw? (M = 4.74, SD = 1,76). This measurement is previously used in other studies (e.g. Grimmer & Woolley, 2014; Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001).

Level of scepticism. On seven-point Likert scales, participants indicated their degree of agreement (1 = very strongly disagree; 7 = very strongly agree) with the following statements: Most environmental claims presented in advertising are true; Because environmental claims are exaggerated, consumers would be better off if such claims in advertising were eliminated; Most environmental claims in advertising are intended to mislead rather than inform consumers; I do not believe most environmental claims presented in advertising. This scale was used by do Paço and Reis (2012) and showed to be reliable (Cronbach's α = .71). In this study, the exploratory factor analysis showed that the scale was unidimensional, explained 58.21% of the variance in the four items and was found to be reliable (Cronbach’s α = .75, M = 3.90, SD = 1.07).

Manipulation check. In order to check whether the manipulated stimulus worked, participants were asked to indicate their degree of agreement with two statements14: The advertisement contained information about the production process and The advertisement showed a natural scenery. Both statements were answered on a seven-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree).

14 Items have not been used in previous research but were inspired on the research conducted

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Control variables

Attitude toward the advertisement. This variable served as a control variable, since it is found that the attitude toward an advertisement can influence brand attitude (MacKenzie, Lutz, & Belch, 1986). The scale developed by Matthes, Wonneberger and Schmuck (2014) was used, since this scale showed a high level of reliability (Cronbach's α = .92): bad – good; unpleasant – pleasant; unfavourable – favourable; unconvincing – convincing; incredible – credible. Answers were given through a seven-point semantic differential scale. An exploratory factor analysis showed that the scale was unidimensional, explained 71.93% of the variance in the five items. With a Cronbach’s Alpha of .90 (M = 5.15, SD = 1.12) the scale proved to be very reliable.

Attitude toward green products. Consumers’ attitudes toward green products in general can affect how they evaluate an advertisement (Chang, 2011). Therefore, attitude toward green products is added as an extra control variable. Three product attitude items developed by Miniard, Bhatla, Lord, Dickson and Unnava (1991) on a seven-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree) are used: I like green products, I feel positive toward green products and Green products are favourable. This scale is found to be highly reliable (Cronbach's α = .92; Chang, 2011). Another exploratory factor analysis showed that the scale was unidimensional, explained 84.45% of the variance in the three items, and was very reliable (Cronbach’s α = .92, M = 5.68, SD = 1.09).

Demographics. The last part of the questionnaire asked participants to indicate their age (M = 36.83, SD = 14.47), gender (84.8% female), nationality (70.4% Dutch) and highest level of obtained education (55.4% Bachelor’s degree).

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Results Randomization check

To analyse whether participants were randomly divided between the conditions, several Chi square tests were performed. When analysing the conditions within green brand positioning, gender (χ2(4) = 3.27, p = .513), education (χ2(10) = 9.95, p = .445), and nationality (χ2(66) =

68.50, p = .393), showed no significant differences between the conditions. Chi square tests were also performed for the conditions within level of involvement, and gender (χ2(2) = 1.70, p

= .429), education (χ2(5) = 7.05, p = .217), and nationality (χ2(33) = 33.35, p = .450) showed

no significant differences between conditions. To check whether age, advertisement attitude and green product attitude were successful randomised within the green brand positioning conditions several one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Bonferroni post-hoc tests were run. No significant differences were found for age (F(2, 220) = 1.83, p = .162), advertisement attitude (F(2, 228) = 0.17, p = .847), and green product attitude (F(2, 220) = 0.74, p = .479). The same tests were conducted for the conditions within level of involvement. Again, age (F(1, 221) = 2.45, p = .119), advertisement attitude (F(1, 229) = 0.01, p = .918) and green product attitude (F(1, 221) = 0.01, p = .940) showed no significant differences between conditions. Concluding, all participants were randomly divided between the conditions. No variables had to be added as a covariate in further analysis.

Manipulation check

Two one-way ANOVAs were performed in order to check whether the manipulation worked. The manipulation check items15 served as the dependent variables and green brand positioning as independent variable. For the first item (information), results (see Table 3)

15 Functional check item: ‘The advertisement contained information about the production

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showed that participants in the functional appeal condition and in the combined appeal condition indicated to have seen more information about the production process compared to participants in the emotional appeal condition. Levene’s test was significant (F (2, 220) = 7.22, p = .001). Therefore, the assumption of homogeneity was violated and a Welch’s test and Games-Howell post-hoc tests were used. The ANOVA showed a significant, medium effect among the green brand positioning conditions (Welch’s F(2,220) = 12.60, p < .001, 𝜂2 = .10).

Games-Howell post-hoc tests showed no significant differences between the functional and the combined appeal conditions (Mdifference = 0.47, p = .207). However, significant differences were

found between the functional and the emotional appeal conditions (Mdifference = 1.25, p < .001),

and between the emotional and combined appeal conditions (Mdifference = 0.79, p = .004).

For the second item (natural scenery), descriptive statistics showed (see Table 3) that participants in the emotional and the combined appeal conditions believed more strongly to have seen an advertisement showing a natural scenery compared to participants in the functional appeal condition. Levene’s test was significant, (F (2, 220) = 12.14, p < .001). The assumption of homogeneity was therefore violated and again, a Welch’s test and Games-Howell post-hoc tests were conducted. The ANOVA was found to be significant, with a medium effect among the green brand positioning conditions (Welch’s F(2,220) = 15.07, p < .001, 𝜂2 = .12).

Games-Howell post-hoc tests showed no significant differences between emotional and combined appeal conditions (Mdifference = 0.07, p = .935). Nonetheless, the emotional and functional appeal

conditions (Mdifference = 1.07, p < .001) and the functional and combined appeal conditions

(Mdifference = 1.15, p < .001) showed significant differences.

Table 3

Differences between green brand positioning conditions for information and natural scenery items

Emotional appeal Functional appeal Combined appeal M SD N M SD N M SD N Information 2.30 1.36 77 3.55 1.73 76 3.09 1.58 70

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The exposure check item16 showed that almost all participants correctly remembered which brand they saw (NH&M = 119, NPatagonia = 111). Only one participant17 indicated to have seen an advertisement from the Zara. Therefore, both manipulations across the conditions were adequate.

Analysing the hypotheses

H1a and H1b. To compare the effects of green branding appeal positioning on brand attitude, a one-way ANOVA was conducted. Brand attitude was used as the dependent variable and green brand positioning as independent variable. Levene’s test was not significant (F (2, 228) = 0.36, p = .695). Therefore, homogeneity of variance could be assumed. The ANOVA (see Table 4 for descriptives) showed a non-significant, very small effect of green appeals on brand attitude, F(2, 228) = 0.04, p = .961, 𝜂2 = .03. Therefore, results did not show that

emotional appeals led to more positive brand attitudes compared to functional appeals (H1a), nor did combined appeals led to stronger positive effects on brand attitude compared to solely using functional or emotional appeals (H1b). Concluding, H1a and H1b were rejected.

16 Item: ‘When looking at these ten different fashion brands, do you remember which one you

just saw in the advertisement?’.

17 This participant was excluded from other analysis.

Table 4

Descriptive statistics green brand positioning on brand attitude

Green brand positioning M SD N Emotional appeal 5.11 1.00 79 Functional appeal 5.15 1.05 78 Combined appeal 5.14 1.10 74 Total 5.13 1.04 231

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H2a and H2b. In order to analyse whether highly sceptical consumers exposed to green advertising evaluate the brand more negatively compared to low sceptical consumer, a two-way ANCOVA was performed. Brand attitude was the dependent variable and green brand positioning and scepticism18 were independent variables. Levene’s test was not significant (F(5, 218) = 0.52, p = .765), therefore equal variances in the population were assumed. The ANCOVA (see Table 5 for descriptives) showed a non-significant, very small effect of green brand positioning on participants’ attitudes toward the brand, F(2, 218) = 0.00, p = .996,  𝜂2 =

.00. Another non-significant, very small effect was found for level of scepticism, F(1, 218) = 1.76, p = .186,  𝜂2 = .01. Furthermore, a non-significant, very small interaction effect was found

between level of scepticism and exposure to one of the green brand positioning conditions on brand attitude, F(2, 218) = 1.47, p = .233, 𝜂2 = .01. Since no significant interaction effect was

found, it can be concluded that level of scepticism does not moderate the effects of green appeals on brand attitudes. Therefore, hypotheses 2a and 2b were rejected.

18 A median split divided Scepticism into two groups (0 = low level of scepticism, 1 = high

level of scepticism). Table 5

Descriptive statistics green brand positioning and scepticism on brand attitude

Green brand positioning

Level of scepticism

M SD N

Emotional appeal Low 5.32 0.96 29 High 5.00 1.02 48 Functional appeal Low 5.35 0.91 39 High 4.94 1.16 38 Combined appeal Low 5.07 1.17 33 High 5.23 1.06 37

Total Low 5.25 1.01 101

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H3a and H3b. A two-way ANCOVA was used for analysing H3a and H3b. Brand attitude was used as dependent variable and green brand positioning and level of involvement were used as independent variables. Levene’s test showed no significance (F(5, 225) = 0.86, p = .506), therefore equal variances in the population were assumed. The ANCOVA (see Table 6 for descriptives) again showed a non-significant effect of green brand positioning on brand attitude, F(2, 225) = 0.06, p = .946, 𝜂2 = .00. The effect of level of involvement on participants’

brand attitude was also found to be non-significant, F(1, 225) = 0.09, p = .768, 𝜂2 = .00.

Moreover, the interaction effect between green brand positioning and level of involvement was very small and not significant, F(2, 225) = 2.57, p = .079, 𝜂2 = .02. Hence, H3a and H3b were

rejected. Level of involvement does not moderate the effect of type of green branding appeal on brand attitudes.

Table 6

Descriptive statistics green brand positioning and scepticism on brand attitude Green brand

positioning

Level of involvement

M SD N

Emotional appeal Low 5.23 1.18 39 High 4.99 0.78 40 Functional appeal Low 5.30 1.01 38 High 5.01 1.07 40 Combined appeal Low 4.96 1.18 40 High 5.36 0.96 34

Total Low 5.16 1.13 117

High 5.11 0.95 114

H4. A linear regression analysis was used for analysing whether a higher brand attitude led to a higher intention to purchase the product displayed in the advertisement (H4). Purchase intention was used as dependent variable and brand attitude as independent variable. Results showed a significant regression model19, F(1, 227) = 94.56, p < .001. The regression model can

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be used for predicting purchase intention, but the strength of this prediction is moderate: 30 per cent of the variation in the intention to purchase the clothes can be predicted by brand attitude (R2 = .30). Results showed that brand attitude had a significant, moderately strong association

with purchase intention, b* = 0.54, t = 9,74, p < .001, 95%, CI20 [0.66, 1.00]. For each additional

point on the semantic scale of brand attitude, which runs from 1 to 7, the average level of purchase intention increases by 0.83. Concluding, the more positive the brand attitude, the higher the intention to purchase the clothes displayed in the advertisement. H4 was supported21.

Analysing conceptual model

The entire conceptual model was tested by the PROCESS macro programme22 for SPSS (Hayes, 2012). Green brand positioning as independent variable, brand attitude as mediator, purchase intention as dependent variable, and level of involvement and level of scepticism were both moderators. Results showed two models: model A and model B. Model A looked at the effect of the two moderators on brand attitude, which resulted in a non-significant model, F(8, 215) = 1.25, p = .274, R2 = .04. As shown in Table 7, no interaction effects were found between the moderators and brand attitude.

Model B looked at the influence brand attitude had as a mediator on the effect between green brand positioning and purchase intention, and was found to be significant, F(3, 220) = 33.03, p < 0.001, R2 = .31. Therefore, Model B can be used to predict participants’ purchase intention, although the strength is moderate: 31% of the variation in purchase intention can be predicted on the basis of green brand positioning and brand attitude. Table 7 shows that the functional appeal was the only green appeal that had a significant positive effect on purchase

20 CI = Confidence Interval.

21 In order to investigate whether the hypotheses in this study were influenced by the age of

the participants, several tests were run with age as extra variable (see Appendix C).

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intention, b = .48, t(220) = 2.23, p = .027. Participants in the functional appeal condition scored 0.48 higher on purchase intention compared to the emotional and combined appeal condition. Thereby, Model B showed that brand attitude was found to be a significant mediator, b = .82, t(220) = 9.59, p < .001. For each additional point on the semantic scale of brand attitude, the average level of purchase intention increased by 0.82. Concluding, the relationship between green brand positioning and purchase intention is mediated by brand attitude, in which a higher brand attitude leads to a higher purchase intention.

Table 7

Results of moderation analysis for conceptual model

F df b SE 95% CI Model A1 .04 1.25 (8, 215) [-0.54, 0.65] X1 on M .06 .30 X2 on M -.56 .31 [-1.18, 0.06] W1 on M -.20 .24 [-0.67. 0.27] X1 × W1 -.06 .34 [-0.73, 0.61] X2 × W1 .64 .35 [-0.04, 1.33] Z on M -.31 .25 [-0.79, 0.18] X1 × Z -.07 .34 [-0.75, 0.60] X2 × Z .49 .35 [-0.21, 1.18] Model B .31 33.03*** (3, 220) X1 on Y .48* .22 [0.06, 0.90] X2 on Y -.03 .22 [-0.46, 0.41] M on Y .82*** .09 [0.65, 0.98]

Note.X = Emotional appeal, X1 = Functional appeal, X2 = combined appeal, M = brand attitude, Y = purchase intention, W = level of involvement (dummy variable; 1 = high level of involvement), Z = level of scepticism, *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001. 1 Model A has brand attitude (M) as

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Conclusion and discussion

This study tried to answer the following research question: ‘To what extent does green brand positioning (emotional vs functional vs combined) have an influence on brand attitude, is this effect moderated by consumers’ level of scepticism and products’ level of involvement, and does it eventually influence consumers’ purchase intention?’

Results showed that emotional appeals did not significantly lead to a more positive brand attitude compared to functional appeals. This is not in line with H1a nor with previous research which stated that exposure to the emotional appeal would lead to a more positive brand attitude compared to exposure to the functional appeal (Hartmann et al., 2005; Hartmann & Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2009; Matthes and Wonneberger, 2014). Thereby, results indicated that the functional appeal was more effective than the combined appeal, which is again in contrast with the hypothesis (H1b) and with previous research (Bhat & Reddy, 1998; Hartmann & Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2009; Wang, 2016). The mean value of brand attitude in this study was highest for the functional appeal, followed by the combined appeal, and the emotional appeal resulted in the lowest brand attitude. These contrasting results might be explained by consumers’ rising interest to actively choose brands that communicate about their sustainability credentials (Unilever, 2017). Thereby, the awareness of green washing has increased over the years (Aji & Sutikno, 2015), which could explain consumers preferences to rather see advertisements with factual information about a sustainable product compared to solely showing natural images.

Moreover, level of scepticism did not significantly moderate the effectiveness of green appeals on brand attitude. Highly sceptical consumers indicated to have a more negative brand attitude after exposure to functional appeals compared to emotional appeals. Although this finding is in line with H2a, no significant results were found and are therefore not in line with previous research (Mostafa, 2009; Obermiller et al., 2005). Thereby, highly sceptical

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consumers had a more positive brand attitude when seeing the combined appeal compared to the emotional appeal, which is in contrast with H2b and was again not significant. A possible explanation for the contrasting results might be found in the high level of education among the participants23. Highly educated people are found to have higher levels of environmental

knowledge, higher levels of environmental concern and purchase more sustainable products compared to low educated people (Diamantopoulos, Schlegelmilch, Sinkovics, & Bohlen, 2003; Zhao, Gao, Wu, Wang, & Zhu, 2014). This could explain the overall low level of scepticism among the participants and its non-significant moderating effect.

Results also showed that exposure to high involvement products within a functional appeal did not lead to more positive brand attitudes compared to exposure to low involvement products, which is not in line with H3a nor with previous research (Montoro-Rios et al., 2008). Thereby, exposure to low involvement products within an emotional appeal did not generate more positive brand attitudes compared to exposure to high involvement products. This is again not in line with the hypothesis (H3b) nor with previous research (Petty et al., 1983). The fact that this study was conducted under artificial circumstances may have caused the non-significant and non-supporting results. The participants consciously opened the link to the survey and knew they were participating in an experiment24. Therefore, it is likely that the participants were already paying extra attention to the manipulated advertisement (‘t Hart, Boeije, & Hox, 2009), which could have diminished the hypothesised effect of level of involvement.

Lastly, brand attitude was found to have a strong association with purchase intention. This significant finding is in line with H4 and Ajzens’ TPB (1991), since people with a more positive brand attitude had a higher intention to purchase the clothes. Thereby, brand attitude

23 55.4% of the participants completed a Bachelor’s degree.

24 The experimental design has several limitations, which are discussed in the limitations

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was found to be a significant mediator between green brand positioning and purchase intention. Interestingly, only people who were exposed to the functional appeal indicated to have a significantly higher purchase intention. This finding is noteworthy, since it shows that not all green appeals have the same effect on purchase intention. Whereas previous research suggested that the combined appeal led to the highest brand attitude and thereafter to the highest purchase intention (Hartmann et al., 2005; Wang, 2016), this study shows that the functional appeal does not only lead to the highest brand attitude (albeit non-significant), it also leads to the highest purchase intention.

Extra tests were run with age as variable. Results gave valuable insights on the differences between young and older people. Younger people were found to score significantly higher on brand attitude and purchase intention after exposure to green advertising compared to older people. These findings are in line with the notion that younger people are more dedicated to buy sustainable and ethical products compared to older people (Nielsen, 2015). Thereby, young people are found to be more concerned about harmful substances in clothing and home textile products compared to older people (Oeko-tex, 2018), which could explain the significant different attitudes towards green advertising within the fashion industry.

Limitations and suggestions for further research

This study focussed on clothes as product category. Although the results are useful for marketers and researchers within the fashion field, it is not generalizable to other fields which makes it a limitation of this study. Future research should incorporate several product categories in order to compare the effects green appeals can have on brand attitude, and how this possibly is different between product categories. Furthermore, no control group was used, which makes it only possible to compare the green appeals with each other and not with a neutral condition. A control group tries to exclude possible disturbing factors that may affect the dependent

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variables (‘t Hart et al., 2009). It is therefore recommendable for future research to include a control group when analysing the effects of green brand positioning. As stated earlier, the use of an online experiment creates several limitations. First, the online setting was artificial: participants were asked to look for a few seconds at the manipulated advertisement and to answer questions afterwards. The external validity is therefore an important limitation in this study (‘t Hart et al., 2009). Moreover, the snowball sampling strategy that is used, makes it hard to control the number of participants and whether the group represents the general public (Biernacki, & Waldorf, 1981). Therefore, the sample is not representative for the general population which leads to a low population validity. Concluding, future studies examining green brand positioning should implement a more natural setting in order to obtain results that are valid externally. Lastly, most participants were highly educated and are therefore not representative for the general public. Their high level of education could have influenced the results. As stated earlier, highly educated people have higher levels of environmental knowledge, environmental concern and purchase more sustainable products (Diamantopoulos et al., 2003). Therefore, future research should include a bigger group of less educated people, which would make it possible to analyse differences between the groups.

Implications

Results show that green brand positioning with clothing as product category do not have the same effect on brand attitude as proposed by studies that focused on other product categories. Which confirms the statement by Posavac at al. (2014) that consumers’ general thoughts about a product category can affect their evaluations of a brand within the product category. This study therefore provides useful information about the generalizability of the green brand positioning theory, in which the effects of green brand positioning are influenced by the product type displayed in the advertisement.

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The findings in this study are especially useful for marketers that target consumers with a higher education, since results show that solely the functional appeal leads to a more positive brand attitude and a higher purchase intention within the fashion industry. It is therefore advisable for marketers to especially integrate useful information and facts about sustainable products on their packages, labels or advertisements. The sustainable world will benefit from marketers that pro-actively focus on the functional appeal when making green advertising.

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