IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jobman/v28y2021i4d10.1057_s41262-021-00236-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Green or social? An analysis of environmental and social sustainability advertising and its impact on brand personality, credibility and attitude

Author

Listed:
  • Frauke Sander

    (Hochschule Pforzheim University)

  • Ulrich Föhl

    (Hochschule Pforzheim University)

  • Nadine Walter

    (Hochschule Pforzheim University)

  • Vera Demmer

    (Hochschule Pforzheim University)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of sustainability advertising on brand personality, credibility, attitude toward the ad and brand attitude; special attention was given to whether or not environmental and social sustainability advertising have different effects. The results of an online survey revealed that environmental sustainability advertising has a stronger influence than social sustainability advertising. Thus, the findings suggest that a focus on environmental aspects delivers the more impactful advertising content when promoting a brand’s sustainability. This result is consistent with the existing studies on the sub-dimensions of sustainability; although only researched in different contexts, earlier findings also showed that environmental sustainability has a higher impact. Furthermore, an explicit integration of environmental aspects into the measurement of brand personalities offers a new and interesting field of future research. The study is based on data collected from 166 respondents. The impact of sustainability advertising is investigated by an experimental manipulation of the advertising condition. To test the hypotheses, structural equation models are applied, as well as one-way analyses of variance.

Suggested Citation

  • Frauke Sander & Ulrich Föhl & Nadine Walter & Vera Demmer, 2021. "Green or social? An analysis of environmental and social sustainability advertising and its impact on brand personality, credibility and attitude," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(4), pages 429-445, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jobman:v:28:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1057_s41262-021-00236-8
    DOI: 10.1057/s41262-021-00236-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41262-021-00236-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41262-021-00236-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ingo Balderjahn & Anja Buerke & Manfred Kirchgeorg & Mathias Peyer & Barbara Seegebarth & Klaus-Peter Wiedmann, 2013. "Consciousness for sustainable consumption: scale development and new insights in the economic dimension of consumers’ sustainability," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 3(4), pages 181-192, December.
    2. Mahabubur Rahman & M. Ángeles Rodríguez-Serrano & Mary Lambkin, 2019. "Brand equity and firm performance: the complementary role of corporate social responsibility," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(6), pages 691-704, November.
    3. Polonsky, Michael Jay & Rosenberger, Philip III, 2001. "Reevaluating green marketing: a strategic approach," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 21-30.
    4. Matthes, Jörg & Wonneberger, Anke & Schmuck, Desirée, 2014. "Consumers' green involvement and the persuasive effects of emotional versus functional ads," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(9), pages 1885-1893.
    5. Philip R. Walsh & Rachel Dodds, 2017. "Measuring the Choice of Environmental Sustainability Strategies in Creating a Competitive Advantage," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 672-687, July.
    6. Jean-Noël Kapferer & Audrey Azoulay, 2003. "Do brand personality scales really measure brand personality?," Post-Print hal-00781544, HAL.
    7. Fournier, Susan, 1998. "Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 24(4), pages 343-373, March.
    8. Samuel Greenhouse & Seymour Geisser, 1959. "On methods in the analysis of profile data," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 24(2), pages 95-112, June.
    9. Viktoria Maria Radler, 2018. "20 Years of brand personality: a bibliometric review and research agenda," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(4), pages 370-383, July.
    10. Balderjahn, Ingo & Peyer, Mathias & Seegebarth, Barbara & Wiedmann, Klaus-Peter & Weber, Anja, 2018. "The many faces of sustainability-conscious consumers: A category-independent typology," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 83-93.
    11. Plummer, Joseph T., 2000. "How Personality Makes a Difference," Journal of Advertising Research, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(6), pages 79-83, December.
    12. Jesse R. Catlin & Michael Gerhard Luchs & Marcus Phipps, 2017. "Consumer Perceptions of the Social Vs. Environmental Dimensions of Sustainability," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 245-277, September.
    13. Rob Eisinga & Manfred Grotenhuis & Ben Pelzer, 2013. "The reliability of a two-item scale: Pearson, Cronbach, or Spearman-Brown?," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 58(4), pages 637-642, August.
    14. Holbrook, Morris B & Batra, Rajeev, 1987. "Assessing the Role of Emotions as Mediators of Consumer Responses to Advertising," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(3), pages 404-420, December.
    15. Becker-Olsen, Karen L. & Cudmore, B. Andrew & Hill, Ronald Paul, 2006. "The impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on consumer behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 46-53, January.
    16. Reilly, Anne H. & Hynan, Katherine A., 2014. "Corporate communication, sustainability, and social media: It's not easy (really) being green," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 57(6), pages 747-758.
    17. Cotte, June & Coulter, Robin A. & Moore, Melissa, 2005. "Enhancing or disrupting guilt: the role of ad credibility and perceived manipulative intent," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 361-368, March.
    18. Sudbury-Riley, Lynn & Kohlbacher, Florian, 2016. "Ethically minded consumer behavior: Scale review, development, and validation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 2697-2710.
    19. Geuens, Maggie & Weijters, Bert & De Wulf, Kristof, 2009. "A new measure of brand personality," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 97-107.
    20. Mahabubur Rahman & M. Ángeles Rodríguez-Serrano & Mary Lambkin, 2019. "Brand equity and firm performance: the complementary role of corporate social responsibility," Post-Print hal-02421283, HAL.
    21. Milas, Goran & Mlacic, Boris, 2007. "Brand personality and human personality: Findings from ratings of familiar Croatian brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(6), pages 620-626, June.
    22. Auger, Pat & Devinney, Timothy M. & Louviere, Jordan J. & Burke, Paul F., 2010. "The importance of social product attributes in consumer purchasing decisions: A multi-country comparative study," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 140-159, April.
    23. Keyoor Purani & Sunil Sahadev & Deepak S. Kumar, 2014. "Globalization and Academic Research: The Case of Sustainability Marketing," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 3(1), pages 93-99, January.
    24. Sara Hanson & Lan Jiang & Jun Ye & Nagesh Murthy, 2019. "Society or the environment? Understanding how consumers evaluate brand messages about corporate social responsibility activities," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(1), pages 21-34, January.
    25. Martin Eisend & Nicola Stokburger-Sauer, 2013. "Brand personality: A meta-analytic review of antecedents and consequences," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 205-216, September.
    26. Plummer, Joseph T., 2000. "How Personality Makes a Difference," Journal of Advertising Research, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(06), pages 79-84, November.
    27. van Doorn, Jenny & Verhoef, Peter C., 2011. "Willingness to pay for organic products: Differences between virtue and vice foods," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 167-180.
    28. Aaker, Jennifer & Benet-Martinez, Veronica & Garolera, Jordi, 2001. "Consumption Symbols as Carriers of Culture: A Study of Japanese and Spanish Brand Personality Constructs," Research Papers 1668r, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Patrick Klein & Bastian Popp, 2022. "Last-Mile Delivery Methods in E-Commerce: Does Perceived Sustainability Matter for Consumer Acceptance and Usage?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-27, December.
    2. Chenyu Gu & Shiyu Liu & Subai Chen, 2022. "Does Viewing Green Advertising Promote Sustainable Environmental Behavior? An Experimental Study of the Licensing Effect of Green Advertising," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-14, November.
    3. Evangelia Ktisti & Leonidas Hatzithomas & Christina Boutsouki, 2022. "Green Advertising on Social Media: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-25, November.
    4. Katherine Brookfield & Charlotte Dimond & Susannah G. Williams, 2022. "Sustainability Messages in Residential Property Advertising," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Minjae Sun & Joonseok Kim, 2023. "Sustainability and Brand Equity: The Moderating Role of Brand Color and Brand Gender," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-19, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Avis, Mark, 2012. "Brand personality factor based models: A critical review," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 89-96.
    2. Geuens, Maggie & Weijters, Bert & De Wulf, Kristof, 2009. "A new measure of brand personality," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 97-107.
    3. Vytautas Dikcius & Eleonora Seimiene & Ramunas Casas, 2018. "Brand Personality Scale: Is It Applicable For A Small Emerging Country?," Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, Faculty of Economics, Vilnius University, vol. 9(2).
    4. Viktoria Maria Radler, 2018. "20 Years of brand personality: a bibliometric review and research agenda," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(4), pages 370-383, July.
    5. Liu, Zhihong & Huang, Songshan (Sam) & Hallak, Rob & Liang, Mingzhu, 2016. "Chinese consumers' brand personality perceptions of tourism real estate firms," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 310-326.
    6. Ranfagni, Silvia & Crawford Camiciottoli, Belinda & Faraoni, Monica, 2016. "How to Measure Alignment in Perceptions of Brand Personality Within Online Communities: Interdisciplinary Insights," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 70-85.
    7. Gonçalves, Joana & Guerreiro, Manuela & Mendes, Júlio & Pereira, Luís, 2018. "Events Brand Personality: Insights From Music Festivals In Portugal," Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, Cinturs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, University of Algarve, vol. 6(3), pages 326-343.
    8. Sven Tischer, 2012. "Measuring the impact of critical incidents on brand personality," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2012-064, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    9. Jijo George & Victor Anandkumar, 2018. "Dimensions of Product Brand Personality," Vision, , vol. 22(4), pages 377-386, December.
    10. Rajesh Sharma, 2020. "Building Consumer-based Brand Equity for Fast Fashion Apparel Brands in the Indian Consumer Market," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 45(3), pages 337-365, August.
    11. Kang, Chanho & Bennett, Gregg & Welty Peachey, Jon, 2016. "Five dimensions of brand personality traits in sport," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 441-453.
    12. Matzler, Kurt & Strobl, Andreas & Stokburger-Sauer, Nicola & Bobovnicky, Artur & Bauer, Florian, 2016. "Brand personality and culture: The role of cultural differences on the impact of brand personality perceptions on tourists' visit intentions," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 507-520.
    13. Japutra, Arnold & Molinillo, Sebastian, 2019. "Responsible and active brand personality: On the relationships with brand experience and key relationship constructs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 464-471.
    14. Lara-Rodríguez, Juan Sebastián & Rojas-Contreras, Camilo & Duque Oliva, Edison Jair, 2019. "Discovering emerging research topics for brand personality: A bibliometric analysis," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 261-272.
    15. Theo Lieven, 2017. "How to create reproducible brand personality scales," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(6), pages 592-608, November.
    16. Rauschnabel, Philipp A. & Krey, Nina & Babin, Barry J. & Ivens, Bjoern S., 2016. "Brand management in higher education: The University Brand Personality Scale," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 3077-3086.
    17. Mohamed Abdalla Elsayed Hassan & Konstantina Zerva & Silvia Aulet, 2021. "Brand Personality Traits of World Heritage Sites: Text Mining Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, May.
    18. Pechtl, Hans & Heidarian, Elham, 2016. "Can a cause-related brand be perceived different from other brands?," Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Diskussionspapiere 02/2016, University of Greifswald, Faculty of Law and Economics.
    19. Klaus Heine & Glyn Atwal & Sandrine Crener-Ricard & Michel Phan, 2018. "Personality-driven luxury brand management," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(5), pages 474-487, September.
    20. Smit, Edith & Bronner, Fred & Tolboom, Maarten, 2007. "Brand relationship quality and its value for personal contact," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(6), pages 627-633, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jobman:v:28:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1057_s41262-021-00236-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.