Integrating Behavioural and Branding Perspectives to Maximize Green Brand Equity: A Holistic Approach

Abstract

The aim of this study is to expand the existing understanding of green consumers' behaviour by proposing and testing an integrated conceptual model that explores the influence of consumers' personal concerns for the environment and general attitudes towards green products on brand‐related knowledge structures (image and associations) and relationship preferences (trust and brand equity) for green brands. A questionnaire‐based survey method was used to collect data using convenience sampling. One hundred and ninety‐nine usable responses were obtained. A structural equation modelling procedure was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The results confirmed that a positive relationship exists between consumer concern for environmental values and general attitudes towards green products. Both these constructs influence consumers' knowledge structure of a green brand (image and associations). Furthermore, a strong relationship exists between consumers' knowledge structure (image and associations) and their relational preference (trust and brand equity) with green brands. These findings are important for business strategy formulation by providing empirical support for the idea that a firm should invest its resources not only to project its environmentally friendly brands but also to build consumers' concern for environmental values and their attitude towards green products. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Investigating green brand equity and its driving forces

“…Among similar brands, the brand that exhibits trustworthiness can hold a unique position in consumer mind (Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2001). Several studies support the view that higher trust will increase brand equity in green marketing (Akturan, 2018;Butt et al, 2016;Chen, 2010) as well as in other areas (Ambler, 1997;Ballester & Munuera-Alemán, 2005;Morgan & Hunt, 1994). Thus, this paper hypothesizes as follows:…”

“…Firms positioning themselves as environmentally friendly should be aware of building a reliable image because it will enhance consumer certainty and lower the cost of information search (Erdem & Swait, 1998). Several studies also confirmed this preposition (see Ballester & Munuera-Alemán, 2005;Bekk et al, 2016;Butt et al, 2016;Chen, 2010;Esch et al, 2006). Similarly, brand satisfaction is expected to be connected with brand image.…”

“…Faircloth, Capella, and Alford (2001) postulated that equity of brand can be strengthened through improvement of brand image. In addition, several studies also confirmed the impact of green brand image on green brand equity (see Bekk et al, 2016;Butt et al, 2016;Chen, 2010;Namkung & Jang, 2013;Ng et al, 2014). Consequently, it is appropriate to propose the hypothesis as follows:…”

Substantive or Symbolic Environmental Strategies? Effects of External and Internal Normative Stakeholder Pressures

“…Through analyses of covariance, AMOS enables researchers to specify and measure latent or unobserved constructs through their measured indicators (e.g. Bhattacharyya and Cummings, ; Boiral et al ., ; Butt et al ., ). It confirmed that all the item loadings were statistically significant ( p < 0.001), and the model fit was very good ( χ 2 = 63.88, df = 71, p = 0.737; χ 2 /df = 0.888; confirmatory fit index = 1.0).…”

Breaking niche sustainable products into the mainstream: Organic milk and free‐range eggs

“…This would guide mainstream consumers on buying sustainable products through choice editing (Gunn & Mont, 2014;Morgan, 2015), as is widely the case for coffee, tea and chocolate products and sustainability awareness campaigns. Regarding the latter, emerging evidence shows that mainstream consumers will change their behavior on sustainability issues after awareness campaigns from brands they trust using mainstream consumer values (Butt et al, 2017;Perrini, Castaldo, Misani, & Tencati, 2010;Young, Russell, Robinson, & Chintakayala, 2018).…”