1 Faculty of Economics and Business
MSc Business Administration, specialization – Marketing Management
The effect of advertisement emphasized with sustainability
on consumer preference: the moderating effect of
self-congruity and relevant knowledge.
Yuwei Gao student number: 2182432 Duindoornstraat 655 9741 PT Groningen Tel: +31(0)632282994 Email: gyw200651207@gmail.com
2
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of advertisement emphasizing sustainability on consumer preference compared to the advertisement without focus on sustainability. An experiment was conducted to study the effect. The influence of moderating roles of the product knowledge, sustainable knowledge, and self-congruity on brand attitudes and purchase intentions is examined by the experiment as well. In addition, the mediation effect of attitude to the ad on ad effectiveness is also taken into account in this study. The results of the analysis demonstrate that participants’ attitudes to the brand and participants’ purchase intentions are not affected by the types of advertisement. With regard to main effects of three moderators, the analysis shows that participants with extensive sustainable knowledge express more favorable attitudes to the brand and have higher purchase intentions than participants with limited sustainable knowledge, while the degree of product knowledge does not influence the ad effectiveness. Moreover, participants with high self-congruity express more favorable attitudes to the brand than participants with low self-congruity. The degree of self-congruity, however, has no significant effect on consumers’ purchase intentions. With respect to the moderation effect, the results reject the initial hypotheses. All three variables, product knowledge, sustainable knowledge and self-congruity, have no moderating effect on brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Finally, the variable, attitude to the ad, is found to play a significant role in mediating the relationship between types of ad and ad effectiveness in this study.
Keywords: CSR, sustainable ad, product knowledge, sustainable knowledge,
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Table of contents
Chapter 1 Introduction ... 4
Chapter 2 Literature review and hypotheses ... 7
4
Chapter 1 Introduction
Sustainability in itself is a popular term which is widely used. The concept of sustainability in general has become important in doing business because of increasing concern with the environmental protection. From the perspective of literature, it is more appropriate to speak in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which is defined by McWilliams and Siegel (2001) as “actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law”.
CSR is especially important in industries exploiting scarce natural resources, because activities of these industries are energy-intensive, and represent a risk to the global climate through potential pollution and other accidents (Hillestad et al., 2010). Big corporations may bear much more responsibilities towards the environment and society in general since they invest in all kinds of industries. For example, ABN AMRO bank makes every effort to become a responsible service provider for its clients, an attractive employer for its employees, a caretaker for its environment and a credible bank for the society (www.abnamro.nl).
5 1986) suggested that ability and motivation have significant effects on determining the degree of processing the information.
First of all, prior knowledge as a personal ability can influence the information processing and advertisement judgments (Hong and Sternthal 2010). In this paper, it can be divided into two parts regarding the relevant knowledge, namely, product knowledge and sustainable knowledge. According to Milliman (1983) and Hoyer and MacInnis (2007), consumers who have product knowledge or experience with an advertised product or are more cognitive complex are better able to think deeply about the information than equally motivated but less knowledgeable consumers. Besides, consumers with extensive knowledge tend to pay more attention to the arguments shown in advertisements in detail. It is because they prefer to make any judgments based on their own ability. In contrast, consumers with limited knowledge tend to base their evaluations on the heuristic cues, such as pictorial components and famous brands (Fennis and Stroebe 2010). Thus, the degree of prior knowledge may moderate the responses of consumers to the advertisement focusing on sustainability.
In addition, Self-congruity (Sirgy, Grewal & Mangleburg 2000) which refers to the consistency between the brand image and the consumer’s self-concept is a motivational factor to determine the degree of processing information. Congruity, referring to self-image or product image congruity, affects the consumers’ product preference and purchase intentions (Sirgy, 1982). Especially, self-concept mainly reflects a kind of value and lifestyle by which consumers are motivated to attend to and process information. Thus, consumers with diverse self-concepts respond very differently to the similar advertisement. In general, consumers will pay more attention to the advertisement and devote more efforts to process the message in the advertisement if the value and the belief delivered by the advertiser are consistent with consumers’ self-concepts. Therefore, we consider self-congruity as an important moderator influencing the relationship between types of the ad and customer preference.
6 emphasizing sustainability on consumer preference compared to the advertisement without focus on sustainability. Besides, the experiment could be able to examine the influence of moderating roles of product knowledge and sustainable knowledge as well. Different reactions towards the advertisement with focus on sustainability included by consumers with different level of self-congruity are also carefully studied in this paper. In addition, the mediation effect of attitude to the advertisement on advertisement effectiveness is also taken into account in this study. Figure 1 shows an overview of the relationship among these variables.
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Chapter 2 Literature review and hypotheses
The effectiveness of advertisement focusing on sustainability
8 companies which place higher priority on reducing pollution than on increasing profitability. However, little research is emphasized on the effect of advertisement focusing on sustainability. Hence, it is the purpose of this paper to examine this effect on consumers’ preference. Figure 1 shows an overview of the relationship among these variables.
Figure 1: Conceptual model
In this model, two dependent variables are consumers’ attitudes to the sponsored brand and consumers’ purchase intentions. In addition, two variables, being prior knowledge and self-congruity are considered as moderators influencing the relationship between ad focusing on sustainability and consumers’ attitudes towards the brand and purchase intentions. Besides, prior knowledge is divided into two components, namely, product knowledge and sustainable knowledge. The attitude towards the advertisement plays a role of mediator in this model.
Attitudes to the brand and advertisements
The definition of attitudes suggested by Zanna and Rempel (1988) is ‘the categorization of a stimulus object along an evaluative dimension’. Mitchell and Olson (1981) defined attitude towards the brand as an individual’s internal evaluation of the brand. One of their studies demonstrated that the evaluative belief and the rated evaluation of the advertisement together mediated fully the impact of the advertisements on attitudes towards the various brands of facial tissue. Based on these
Attitudes to the brand
10 consumers to form positive attitudes toward the sponsored brand.
H1a1: Consumers will express more favorable attitudes toward the advertisement
focusing on sustainability than the advertisement without focus on sustainability.
H1a2: Consumers will express more favorable attitudes to the sponsored brand
advertised by advertisement focusing on sustainability than by advertisement without focus on sustainability.
Purchase intentions
11 on performing that behavior which will result in certain positive or negative consequences and the evaluation of these consequences (Ajzen, 2005; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). Sometimes, even though the advertised product has little association with sustainability, consumers could also express high purchase intentions if the function of the product can help them solve the needs they have. The study of Doorn and Verhoef (2011) showed that for vice food categories, organic claims are associated with lower quality, leading to a decreased consumer willingness to pay, which suggested that sustainable arguments for products cannot always increase consumers’ willingness to pay for these products. Therefore, it is worth researching whether consumers exposed to advertisement focusing on sustainability will express higher purchase intentions to the advertised brand than those exposed to advertisement without focus on sustainability.
H1b: Consumers exposed to advertisement focusing on sustainability will express
higher purchase intentions to the advertised brand than those exposed to advertisement without focus on sustainability.
The moderating effect of prior knowledge
12 Under this condition, consumers who have product knowledge or cognition in advertised product are more prone to have a deeper consideration about the information than equally motivated but less knowledgeable consumers (Milliman 1983 and Hoyer and MacInnis 2007). Similarly, Fennis and Stroebe (2010) confirmed that consumers with extensive knowledge tend to analyze the arguments shown in advertisements in detail. Consumers with extensive knowledge prefer to obtain the decisions based on their own knowledge while consumers with limited knowledge tend to base their evaluations on the heuristic cues such as pictorial components and famous brands. For example, experts enjoy seeking the ingredients’ information to differentiate the cosmetics whereas novices may only consider the brand. As Maheswaran (1994) stated in his study, when the attributes of the products are clearly stated, experts make judgments based on these specific attributes, while novices evaluate the product via the cues in the advertisements such as country of origin. Therefore, when customers are rich in product knowledge, they may consider sustainable information presented in the advertisement as cue.
13 sponsored brand. Therefore, it is expected that there are different attitudes to the sponsored brand and purchase intentions among customers with different degree of relevant knowledge.
H2a: Consumers with extensive sustainable knowledge will express more favorable
attitudes to the sponsored brand advertised via ad focusing on sustainability than via ad without focus on sustainability.
H2b1: The more extensive sustainable knowledge consumers have, the higher
intentions they will express to purchase the sponsored brand advertised via ad focusing on sustainability than via ad without focus on sustainability.
H2b2: Consumers with extensive product knowledge focus on the advertised product
itself and are not likely to express different intentions to purchase the sponsored brand advertised via ad focusing on sustainability and via ad without focus on sustainability.
The moderating effect of self-congruity
14 self-concept reflects a kind of individual’s value and lifestyle. As Grubb and Grathwohl (1967) have demonstrated, self-concept is of value and of central importance to the individual and the self-concept of an individual will be sustained if he believes the good he has purchased is recognized publicly and classified in a manner that supports and matches his self-concept. Based on dual process theories of persuasion (Elaboration Likelihood Model and Heuristic-Systematic Model), self-congruity can be considered as a motivational factor to determine the degree of processing information. Therefore, consumers tend to pay more attention to the processing information when the value presented in the advertisement coincides with consumers’ value. However, consumers with low self-congruity are not likely to show much effort to process the information in the advertisement. Besides, according to the study of Rodrriuez, Bosnjak and Sirgy (2012), the self-congruity effect produces favorable brand attitudes and purchase intentions. In another study of Sirgy (1985), the result also favors the relationship mentioned above. For example, consumers concerning environmental protection are more likely to purchase green products than others. In this case, it reflects self-congruity does have some effects on consumer behaviors. Johar and Sirgy (1991) demonstrated that value-expressive (image) advertising appeals are affective when the product is value-expressive, and audience persuasion is influenced through self-congruity. However, this kind of advertisement is not effective when the product is utilitarian. Therefore, it is expected that self-congruity should be considered as a moderator which may influence consumers’ attitudes to the sponsored brand and purchase intentions, especially when the advertised product has little relationship with sustainability.
H3a: Consumers with high self-congruity of sustainability will express more
favorable attitudes to the sponsored brand advertised via advertisement with focus on sustainability than via advertisement without focus on sustainability, while the opposite effects hold for consumers with low self-congruity of sustainability.
H3b: Consumers with high self-congruity of sustainability will express higher
15 opposite effects hold for consumers with low self-congruity of sustainability.
The mediating effect of attitudes towards the advertisement
As demonstrated previously in this paper, the attitude towards the advertisements plays a role of mediator affecting advertising effectiveness. According to the study of Mitchell and Olson (1981), consumers’ attitudes towards the advertisements influenced brand attitudes, even when beliefs about brand attributes and the evaluation of these attributes were statistically controlled. With the development of Dual Mediation Hypothesis of advertisement, the role of attitude towards the advertisements as a mediator is further explained. The attitude towards the advertisements can influence brand attitudes directly and indirectly. In the direct way, consumers may be easily in favor of the arguments about the product presented in the advertisement as long as they like the advertisement. On the other hand, exposure to the consumer-favorite advertisement can stimulate consumers to form favorable attitudes towards the sponsored brand through processes of evaluative conditioning. Therefore, the liking of the advertisement focus on sustainability can be transferred to the sponsored brand resulting in greater liking of the advertised product.
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Chapter 3 Methodology
Participants and design
A total of 140 male and female participants took part in this experiment, and 8 participants did not finish the questionnaires completely. Therefore, after data cleaning, as seen in the Figure 2, 132 valid questionnaires were collected (63 male, 69 female; Mage = 24.16 years (range 20-30)). Among all participants,67 out of 132 were
exposed to the ad 1 focusing on sustainability and others saw the ad 2 without focusing on sustainability. All participants were students of Beijing Jiaotong University in China and they were selected either on campus or in the library. Before the study was conducted, all participants were asked whether they were willing to participate in a printed advertisement experimental research voluntarily. Basically, participants were randomly assigned to one of the two different advertisements, namely, ad focusing on sustainability and ad without focusing on sustainability. After watching the advertisement which they chose, all participants responded to a questionnaire including questions about the sponsored brand. This experiment lasted around 5 minutes.
Figure 2: sample description of the gender
17 The computer was selected as an experimental product due to its widespread use among students. Almost every student is familiar with the basic functions of a computer and uses it for daily study. However the computer has little relationship with environmental protection because computer components contain many toxic substances, like dioxins, cadmium, chromium, radioactive isotopes, and mercury. Therefore, the usage and disposition of computers can have a significant effect on environmental protection. In this experiment, GYW2012 as the fictitious brand and type served as the sponsored brand so that the experimenter could make up the attributes of this product and the contribution this company made to the environmental protection.
Procedure
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Independent variables Type of ads
Two advertisements were designed in order to manipulate this independent variable. The first one mainly focused on the sustainability that the company did for environmental protection. In this advertisement, a statement of “New GYW2012
introduction”was used as the headline illustrating the topic of this ad, which was followed by three words “Competent, Excellent, Sustainable” in order to emphasize the personality of this fictitious brand (Aaker 1997). Following was the body text of this ad which included attributes and graphs of this product. According to the theory of matching activation (Janiszewski 1990), the left part of the body text was a picture of this product, matching participants’ right hemisphere, whereas the right part was the specific attributes of GYW2012, matching participants’ left hemisphere. At the bottom of this ad was the slogan of this brand “GYW wants to be a responsible service provider for all clients, a caretaker for environment and a credible company for the society”. And the green grass was used as the background. The second one was an advertisement without focus on sustainability. Most elements included in this ad were the same as those in the first advertisement except for some small differences. The word “credible” was used instead of “sustainable” following the headline and the slogan of the brand at the bottom was changed into “GYW2012 is your better choice”. The color of the background was white instead of green. A question “Please indicate to what extent you agree with sustainable image of this advertisement.” was used to check whether these two ads were perceived differently by participants and whether participants regarded the ad 1 as more sustainable than the ad 2.
Product knowledge and sustainable knowledge
19 0.838 respectively. Semantic differential scale was used for rating these variables and each item of the scale was anchored at 1 to 7 with 4 as the midpoint.
Self-congruity
Based on the work in self-concept (Sirgy and Danes 1981), a self-congruity measure was developed. Self-image congruity was measured using the model
Where Di = psychological or subjective difference between how one views oneself
and image of sponsored brand.
First of all, the extent of participants’ agreement on sustainable image of sponsored brand GYW was measured by using a 7 point Likert scale. In addition, biospheric environmental concern of participants was measured to see how they view themselves with respect to sustainability through four-item Likert scale (α=0.873). The environmental concern measure was based on the procedure used by Schultz (2001). Little difference between scores on both questions means more consistency between the brand image and self-image. In particular, if participants score high on both questions, they have a higher self-congruity with a sustainable message in the advertisement.
Dependent variables
Attitude towards the advertisement
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Attitude to the sponsored brand
The dependent variable , attitude to the brand, was measured by a six-item scale namely, bad/good, dislikable/likable, unpleasant/pleasant, unfavorable/favorable, negative/positive, and poor quality/high quality from Batra and Stayman (1990) (α=0.917).
Purchase intention.
A four-item scale, namely, unlikely/likely, improbably/probably, uncertainly/certainly, and definitely not/definitely was used to measure participants’ intention to purchase the sponsored brand (Bearden, Lichtenstein, and Teel 1984) (α=0.924).
Confounding variable Mood
A four-item scale (bad mood/good mood, irritable/pleased, sad/happy, and depressed/cheerful) previously used by Barone, Miniard and Romeo (2000) was adopted in this study and each item was seven-point, anchored at 1 to 7 (α=0.940).
Regression models
Based on the conceptual model, general linear regression models are formulated as follows:
(1) Y1 = β0 + β1X1 + β2X2 + β3X3 + β4X4
(2) Y2 = β8 + β9X1 + β10X2 + β11X3 + β12X4
(3) Y1 = β13 + β14X1 + β15X2 + β16X3 + β17X4 + β18X1X 2 + β19X1X3 + β20X1X4
(4) Y2 = β21+ β22X1 + β23X2 + β24X3 + β25X4 + β26X1X 2 + β27X1X3 + β28X1X4
Where Y1 = brand attitudes;
Y2 = purchase intentions;
X1 = the type of ad;
X2 = the degree of product knowledge;
X3 = the degree of sustainable knowledge;
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Chapter 4 Results
Manipulation check
The question “to what extent you agree with sustainable image of this ad” is used in the questionnaire to check whether the advertisements in two conditions are different for participants or not. The result of t-test shows a significant effect of two different advertisements (p = .001). As shown in Figure 3, two advertisements are perceived differently for participants and the ad 1 (M = 4.45, SD = 1.28) is regarded as more sustainable than the ad 2 (M = 3.66, SD = 1.14). This suggests the manipulation of types of ad is successful. In addition, the results of t-test on brand attitudes and purchase intentions for two different advertisements demonstrate that participants’ attitudes to the sponsored brand advertised in ad 1 are more favorable than their attitudes to the sponsored brand advertised in ad 2 (M1 =
4.79, SD1 = 0.99, vs. M2 = 3.90, SD2 =1.13), p< .05. Similarly, as can be seen from
Figure 4，the graph illustrates that purchase intentions of participants seeing ad 1 are higher than those of participants exposed to ad 2 (M1 = 3.92, SD1 = 1.36, vs. M2 =
3.07, SD2 =1.26), p< .05.
0,00
2,00
4,00
6,00
Brand
Attitude
Purchase
Intention
Ad 1
Ad 2
Figure 3Brand Attitudes Purchase Intentions
Figure 4: mean scores of brand attitude and purchase intention
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Confound check
The scores of t-test on mood show that the effect of mood is not significant (p>0.05). The mean score of mood of participants exposed to the ad 1 focusing on sustainability is 5.31 and this figure for participants seeing the ad 2 without focusing on sustainability is 5.15 (Figure 5). These results demonstrate that mood states of participants are not affected by types of ad and therefore, mood cannot explain any findings.
Advertising effectiveness check
First of all, correlations between three moderators are examined before advertising effectiveness check. As can be seen in Appendix 4, the result shows that no strong correlations are found among these variables. Then general linear regression analyses for regression equations 1 and 2 described in the regression models part are conducted to check the main effects of four variables, namely, types of ad, product knowledge, sustainable knowledge and self-congruity.
Table 1: results of regression Y1= brand attitude Y2= purchase intention
Beta Sig. Beta Sig. X1 (types of ad) -0.239 0.003** -0.180 0.030*
X2 (product knowledge) 0.148 0.064 0.128 0.117
X3 (sustainable knowledge) 0.277 0.002** 0.388 0.000**
X4 (self-congruity) 0.164 0.061 0.038 0.667
Notes: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01
The results (see Table 1) reveal that the main effects of types of ad on brand attitudes and purchase intentions are significant, both ps < .05, and participants exposed to ad 1 focusing on sustainability have more favorable brand attitudes and express higher
24 purchase intentions than those seeing ad 2 without focus on sustainability. In addition, the main effects of three moderators on brand attitudes are positive, βpk = .148, βsk
= .277, and βsc = .164 respectively, all ps < .1. However, as to purchase intentions, only types of ad and sustainable knowledge have significant main effects, βiv = -.180
and βsk = .388, respectively, all ps < .05.
Furthermore, when all interactions are included in the regression models (regression equations 3 and 4), values of R2 for two models change slightly, from 0.337 to 0.338 for model 1 and from 0.302 to 0.311 for model 2 respectively. The results of analysis (see Table 2) demonstrate that, as to brand attitude, no significant main effects are found for independent variable (β = -.172, p = .592) and moderator, product knowledge (β = .122, p = .292). As opposed to what had been expected initially, the effect of different types of ads on participants’ attitudes towards the sponsored brand is not significant, meaning no support finding for H1a. Neither are the moderating effects of product knowledge, sustainable knowledge and self-congruity on brand attitudes, p = .800, p = .730 and p = .874 respectively. Therefore, there are no support findings for H2a and H3a. However, sustainable
knowledge and self-congruity have main effects on the attitude to the brand, β = .322 and .177, both ps < .05.
With respect to purchase intentions, the results of analysis (see Table 2) show that the effect of types of ad on purchase intentions is not significant (β = -.050, p = .880), meaning no support finding for H1b that consumers exposed to advertisement
25 moderating effect on purchase intentions for both the ad focusing on sustainability and the ad without focus on sustainability (β = -.122, p = .700), which supports H2b2.
Moreover, the moderating effect of sustainable knowledge on purchase intentions is not significant (β = -.265, p = .413), which indicates that the degree of sustainable knowledge does not moderate the relationship between the types of advertisement and purchase intentions. Therefore, there is no support finding for H2b1. At the meantime,
there is no significant moderating effect of self-congruity on purchase intentions (β = .271, p = .212), which demonstrates that whether self-image is consistent with brand image does not influence the effect of types of ad on purchase intentions. Therefore, this result cannot give any support for H3b that consumers with high self-congruity of
sustainability will express higher intentions to purchase the sponsored brand advertised via ad focusing on sustainability than via ad without focus on sustainability.
It should be noted that VIFs for types of ad, interaction effect between product knowledge and types of ad, and interaction effect between sustainable knowledge and types of ad are all above 10, which means that multicollinearity problem can affect the results of these new models.
Table 2: results of regression Y1= brand attitude Y2= purchase intention
Beta Sig. Beta Sig. X1 (types of ad) -0.172 0.592 -0.050 0.880 X2 (product knowledge) 0.122 0.292 0.143 0.225 X3 (sustainable knowledge) 0.322 0.009** 0.389 0.002** X4 (self-congruity) 0.177 0.045* 0.048 0.611 X1X2 (moderating effect of PK) 0.078 0.800 -0.122 0.700 X1X3 (moderating effect of SK) -0.110 0.730 -0.265 0.413
X1X4(moderating effect of self-congruity) -0.034 0.874 0.271 0.212
Notes: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01
26 equations 1 and 2, the results of analysis (see Table 3) show that the sustainable image of the ad has main effects on brand attitudes and purchase intentions, β = .411 and β .309, both ps < .01, which means the more sustainable image of the ad perceived by participants, the more favorable brand attitudes and higher purchase intentions participants have. It should be noted that the main effect of product knowledge on brand attitudes becomes insignificant (p = .064 → .454). There are no dramatic changes in the significance of effects of other variables. However, compared to the two old models, these new regression models can explain the collected data better (R2 of regression model 1: 0.337 → 0.432; R2 of regression model 2: 0.302 → 0.356).
Table 3: results of regression Y1=brand attitude Y2=purchase intention
Beta Sig. Beta Sig. X1 (sustainable image of the ad) 0.411 0.000** 0.309 0.000**
X2 (product knowledge) 0.056 0.454 0.059 0.458
X3 (sustainable knowledge) 0.225 0.007** 0.350 0.000**
X4 (self-congruity) 0.201 0.010** 0.066 0.417
Notes: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01
Similarly, when the variable, types of ad, is replaced by sustainable image of the ad in the regression models 3 and 4, the results of general linear regression analysis in Table 4 show that the main effect of sustainable image of the ad on brand attitudes is significant, β = 1.133, p < .05, but not on purchase intentions, p > .1. Compared to the results in Table 2, the new results illustrate that the main effects of sustainable knowledge and self-congruity on brand attitudes become weaker (psk = .009 → .025,
psc =.055 → .095) and the main effect of sustainable knowledge on purchase
intentions becomes insignificant (psk = .002 → .306). In addition, there are no
27 Table 4: results of regression Y1=brand attitude Y2=purchase intention
Beta Sig. Beta Sig. X1 (sustainable image of the ad) 1.133 0.020* 0.273 0.554
X2 (product knowledge) -0.039 0.887 0.000 0.998
X3 (sustainable knowledge) 0.640 0.025* 0.276 0.306
X4 (self-congruity) 0.532 0.095 0.120 0.691
X1X2 (moderating effect of PK) 0.167 0.727 0.106 0.817
X1X3 (moderating effect of SK) -0.428 0.330 -0.091 0.829
X1X4(moderating effect of self-congruity) -0.936 0.133 0.162 0.785
Notes: * p < 0.05
Furthermore, there is a marked change in values of R2 for new regression models (regression model 3: R2 = 0.338 → 0.433, regression model 4: R2 = 0.311 → 0.378), while there is no obvious differences between values of R2 for new regression models 1 and 2 and values of R2 for new regression models 3 and 4. However, although the new regression models 3 and 4 can explain data better compared to the old regression models 3 and 4, VIFs for all variables in the new regression models are above 10, which indicates that significant multicollinearity problem exists within the new models.
Table 5: results of regression Y1 = brand attitudes
Beta Sig. VIF X1 (sustainable image of the ad) 1.115 0.014* 39.230
X2 (product knowledge) 0.052 0.510 1.234
X3 (sustainable knowledge) 0.337 0.000** 1.543
X4 (self-congruity) 0.606 0.049* 18.374
X1X4(moderating effect of self-congruity) -1.089 0.069 69.549
28 To explore deeper, new regression models in which three interactions are included once at a time are estimated and the results reveal that when the interaction effect between sustainable image of the ad and self-congruity as the only one interaction effect is included in the model, there is a significant moderating effect. As seen from Table 5, self-congruity has a significant moderating effect on brand attitudes, β = -1.089, P < .1. However, multicollinearity problem also exists due to high values of VIF for three variables in this model.
Mediation effect check
In this paper, the mediation effect of the attitude to the ad on the ad effectiveness is also examined, but all three moderators are not included in the regression models in order to simplify the study. Based on Baron and Kenny (1986), three regression equations are estimated to test for mediation. The first equation regresses the mediator on the independent variable, the second equation regresses the dependent variable on the independent variable and the third one is made for regressing the dependent variable both on the independent variable and on the mediator.
Table 6 attitude to the ad as a mediator of ad effectiveness
Variable Y1= brand attitudes Y2= purchase intentions
Regression 1 (X→M) βx = -.872 p = .000 βx = -.872 p = .000
Regression 2 (X→Y) βx = -.892 p =.000 βx = -.842 p = .000
Regression 3 (X,M→Y) βx = -.511 p = .007 βx = -.497 p = .041
Βm =.437 p =.000 βm = .396 p = .001
Note X= types of ad; M= attitude to the ad; Y= ad effectiveness
30
Chapter 5 Conclusion
General discussion
The current research examines the effects of two different ads focusing on sustainability or not on consumer preference, and the moderating effects of product knowledge, sustainable knowledge and self-congruity on brand attitudes and purchase intentions. One experiment was conducted in order to check these effects. First of all, mood as confound variable cannot account for any findings. Additionally, a set of different regression models are estimated so as to examine effects described above. Table 7 is a summary pertaining to the results of hypotheses in this study. The analysis of regression models with only main effects reveals that participants exposed to ad 1 focusing on sustainability have more favorable brand attitudes and express higher purchase intentions than those seeing ad 2 without focus on sustainability. All of the three moderators have positive effects on brand attitudes but only the types of ad and sustainable knowledge have significant main effects on purchase intentions.
31 problem exists within the model.
When the sustainable image of the ad instead of types of ad is used in the regression models, values of R2 increase, meaning new models can explain data better. However, there is a significant multicollinearity problem for new models. Values of VIF for all the variables are above 10. The possible reason for this phenomenon is that the sustainable image of the ad has interaction effect with other variables. For example, the degree of consumers’ sustainable knowledge could influence their judgment on the degree of sustainable image of the ad and the brand. In addition, to explore deeper, new regression models in which three interactions are included once at a time are estimated. The results illustrate that only when the moderating effect of self-congruity as the only one interaction effect is included in the regression model, there is a significant moderating effect. However, multicollinearity problem also exists due to high values of VIF for three variables in this model.
Finally, this study finds that the variable, attitude to the ad, does play a significant role in mediating the relationship between types of ad and ad effectiveness.
Table 7: results of the hypotheses
H1a1: Consumers will express more favorable attitudes toward the
advertisement focusing on sustainability than the ad without focus on sustainability.
Supported
H1a2: Consumers will express more favorable attitudes to the
sponsored brand advertised by the ad focusing on sustainability than by the ad without focus on sustainability.
Not supported
H1b: Consumers exposed to advertisement focusing on sustainability
will express higher purchase intentions to the advertised brand than those exposed to the ad without focus on sustainability.
Not supported
H2a: Consumers with extensive sustainable knowledge will express
more favorable attitudes to the sponsored brand advertised via the ad focusing on sustainability than via the ad without focus on sustainability.
Not supported
H2b1: The more extensive sustainable knowledge consumers have,
the higher intentions they will express to purchase the sponsored brand advertised via the ad focusing on sustainability than via the ad without focus on sustainability.
Not supported
H2b2: Consumers with extensive product knowledge focus on the
advertised product itself and are not likely to express different
32 intentions to purchase the sponsored brand advertised via the ad
focusing on sustainability and via the ad without focus on sustainability.
H3a: Consumers with high self-congruity of sustainability will
express more favorable attitudes to the sponsored brand advertised via the ad with focus on sustainability than via the ad without focusing on sustainability, while the opposite effects hold for consumers with low self-congruity of sustainability.
Not supported
H3b: Consumers with high self-congruity of sustainability will
express higher intentions to purchase the sponsored brand advertised via the ad focusing on sustainability than via the ad without focus on sustainability, while the opposite effects hold for consumers with low self-congruity of sustainability.
Not supported
Theoretical implications
As to theoretical implications, this study to some extent makes some contributions to the theoretical development by extending the current knowledge in the field of sustainable advertisement. First of all, previous studies mainly focus on the effects of prior knowledge and self-congruity on the general ad effectiveness separately. However, based on EML (Petty et al., 2002), this research suggests that product knowledge and sustainable knowledge as personal ability and self-congruity as motivation can moderate the relationship between types of ad and consumer responses. Besides, the focus of this study is on the effectiveness of using sustainable messages to improve consumers’ brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Although most of hypotheses are not supported by the findings due to the multicollinearity problem and limitation of the sample, the result reveals that the degree of sustainable image of the ad has a significant main effect on brand attitudes. Therefore, consumers could generate a more favorable brand image when they are exposed to an ad with sustainable image rather than an ad without sustainable image. Overall, this study provides insights into whether the ad focusing on sustainability is more effective to persuade consumers than the ad without focus on sustainability.
Practical implications
33 can be applied to the Chinese market because data used in this study are collected in China. Based on the results, companies can find some ways to improve consumers’ attitudes towards the brand and consumers’ purchase intentions. Firstly, as the results show that sustainable image of the ad has a significant positive main effect on the ad effectiveness. Therefore, in order to improve consumers’ brand attitudes, marketers could make use of elements such as message, logo or color in the ad to emphasize their advertisements with sustainable image, especially when the product in the ad is manufactured for environmentalists. Additionally, in this study, it should be noted that how much product knowledge consumers have does not influence their brand attitudes and purchase intentions. However, consumers with extensive sustainable knowledge have more favorable attitudes to the brand and express higher purchase intentions than those with limited sustainable knowledge. Therefore, it may be a better choice for marketers to put more information about the sustainability of the advertised product in the ad rather than basic information of product functions. Also, companies could put message about their contributions to the environmental protection in the ad in order to create a sustainable brand image. Moreover, consumers with high self-congruity will have more favorable attitudes to the sponsored brand than those with low self-congruity. However, the impact of self-congruity on purchase intentions is not significant. Thus, when marketers realize that the target market includes many environmentalists, they could use sustainable message in the ad to communicate their product and brand. Finally, marketers should pay attention to the mediation effect of attitudes to the ad on ad effectiveness. It is better for companies to use different ad formats to advertise same product for different consumer segments. For example, young people prefer colorful pictures in the ad while elderly people prefer concise and clear pictures in the ad.
Limitations and future research
34 environmental awareness than those in developed countries. Therefore some effects of variables in this study can be influenced significantly. Second, the computer as the product used in the experiment is a high-involved product rather than low-involved product, which could lead consumers to hard express their actual attitudes and purchase intentions when they are just exposed to a simple ad without enough information about the price and attributes of the product. Furthermore, multicollinearity problem existing within the model can significantly influence the results.
35
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Appendix
Appendix 1
Questionnaire
Please put your answers in brackets at the beginning of each question. Part one
Please indicate to what extent you agree with sustainable image of this advertisement. ( ) not sustainable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 very sustainable
Please rate your attitude to the advertisement.
( ) bad 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 good ( ) dislike 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 like
( ) irritating 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not irritating ( ) uninteresting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 interesting
Please rate your attitude to the sponsored brand (GYW) in the advertisement. ( ) bad 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 good
( ) dislikable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 likable ( ) unpleasant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 pleasant ( ) unfavorable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 favorable ( ) negative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 positive ( ) low quality 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 high quality
Please rate your intention to buy the product advertised in this ad, if you would like to buy a computer in the future.
41 ( ) definitely not 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 definitely
Part two
Instructions: For each of the statements below, please indicate to what extent you agree with the statement. If you strongly disagree with the statement, please choose a “1”; if you strongly agree with the statement, please choose a “7” next to the question; if you neither strongly agree nor disagree with the statement, please choose the number in the middle of the scale that describes the best fit. Please keep the following scale in mind as you rate each of the statements below: 1 = strongly disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = slightly disagree; 4 = neutral; 5= slightly agree; 6 = agree; 7 = strongly agree.
Knowledge assessment
( ) I feel knowledgeable about function of a computer.
( ) If my friends asked me about a computer, I could give them advice about the attributes of this product.
( ) If I had to purchase the computer advertised in the ad today, I would need to gather little information in order to make a wise decision.
( ) I feel confident about my ability to tell the difference in quality among different brands of computers.
Sustainable knowledge assessment
( ) I feel knowledgeable about sustainability such as how to protect our environment.
( ) If friends asked me about sustainability, I could give them explanation of this term and some examples.
( ) If I had to purchase a product focusing on sustainability today, I would need to gather little information in order to make a wise decision.
42 Self-congruity assessment
( ) Please indicate to what extent you agree with sustainable image of the brand GYW in this advertisement. not sustainable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 very sustainable
Please indicate to what extent the values below are important as a guiding principle in your lives.
( ) preventing pollution not important 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 very important ( ) respecting the earth not important 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 very important ( ) unity with nature not important 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 very important ( ) protecting the environment not important 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 very important
Please rate your current mood.
( ) bad mood 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 good mood ( ) irritable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 pleased ( ) sad 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 happy ( ) depressed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 cheerful
Gender: Age:
43
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