Effects of eco-labels and framing message on consumers’ attitudes toward the advertisement, consumers’ attitudes toward the brand, and consumers’ evaluations of brand equity
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Youngdeok Lee (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Kittichai Watchravesringkan
Abstract: In response to environmental challenges, today’s consumers shift their choices toward more sustainable products to promote a sustainable economy, not to mention are willing to support environmentally responsible companies. Because the increasing consumers’ intention is to buy eco-apparel, the size of the eco-apparel market soared. According to Hong and Kang (2019), it is estimated that the revenue of the eco-apparel market will grow from USD 64.95 billion in 2015 to USD 74.7 billion in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.5 percent. Understanding sustainable clothing’s unique definition can not only provide consumers with the right information to make the right sustainable clothing purchase decisions. It is recommended that eco-apparel brands consider incorporating implicit insignia such as seals of approval or eco-labels to differentiate their brand from others, thus enhancing brand equity. Furthermore, although many advertisements employ environmental messages to attract consumers who are interested in environmental problems, consumers are still skeptical about environmental claims because the claimed messages do not contain imagery information which can enhance the persuasiveness of advertisement. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to verify the effectiveness of advertising approaches in the context of sustainable apparel (i.e., eco-apparel). The current study employed a 2 (Eco-label: Absence vs. Presence) x 2 (Framed Messages: Positive vs. Negative) between-subject design to answer all hypotheses. The structured survey was made available through Qualtrics. The final sample consisted of one hundred sixty-four usable responses to be used in the subsequent analysis. Among the respondents in the final study (n = 164), nearly 76% were females and almost 18% were males. The respondents were predominantly Caucasians (43.3%), followed by African Americans/Black (32.3%), Asian (10.4%), multiracial (9.7%), and Hispanic. The majority of respondents (79.2%) were aged between 18-23 years. All hypotheses were tested using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). A series of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed to examine hypotheses 1 through 9. A series of simple regression was performed to test hypotheses 10 and 11. Although MANOVA results showed that positively framed messages revealed a stronger effect on consumers’ attitudes toward the advertisement and the brand as well as consumers’ evaluations of brand equity as measured in terms of brand image, brand credibility, perceived brand quality, and brand loyalty, the presence or the absence of the eco-label had no impact on these dependent variables. In addition, no interaction effect was found. The results of simple regression demonstrated that consumers’ attitudes toward the advertisement and consumers’ attitudes toward the brand are important determinants of consumers’ evaluations of brand image, brand credibility, perceived brand quality, and brand loyalty dimensions of brand equity. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided. Limitations and research directions are addressed.
Effects of eco-labels and framing message on consumers’ attitudes toward the advertisement, consumers’ attitudes toward the brand, and consumers’ evaluations of brand equity
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Created on 8/1/2021
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2021
- Keywords
- Eco-apparel, Eco-label, Message Framing, Signaling Theory, Sustainability, Sustainable apparel
- Subjects
- Clothing trade $x Environmental aspects
- Advertising $x Clothing and dress
- Branding (Marketing)
- Consumer behavior