The skeptical green consumer revisited: Testing the relationship between green consumerism and skepticism toward advertising

Autor(en)

Jörg Matthes, Anke Wonneberger

Abstrakt

This article revisits the widely believed notion of the skeptical green consumer, in other words, that green consumers tend to distrust green advertising. Study 1, a survey of U.S. consumers, found no positive relationship between green consumerism and general ad skepticism. However, green consumerism was negatively related to green advertising skepticism. Study 2, a survey of Austrian consumers, addressed the underlying mechanism of this negative relationship in a mediation analysis. It was shown that green consumers saw more informational utility in green ads than nongreen consumers did. This, in turn, decreased their green advertising skepticism. The emotional appeal of green ads, however, had no impact on green advertising skepticism. Findings suggest that the "dilemma for marketers who desire to target the green consumer" (Zinkhan and Carlson 1995, p. 5) is far less serious than previously thought.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft

Externe Organisation(en)

University of Amsterdam (UvA)

Journal

Journal of Advertising

Band

43

Seiten

115-127

Anzahl der Seiten

13

ISSN

0091-3367

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2013.834804

Publikationsdatum

2014

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

508007 Kommunikationswissenschaft, 508014 Publizistik

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Communication, Marketing, Business and International Management

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/the-skeptical-green-consumer-revisited-testing-the-relationship-between-green-consumerism-and-skepticism-toward-advertising(889dd1c7-6a6e-4f8f-aba6-42e846c34ab0).html