The effectiveness of environmental advertising : the role of claim type and the source country green image

This study examines how environmental claim type may affect the communication effectiveness of environmental advertising, and how the source country's green image may moderate the claim type-effectiveness relationship. By applying a 4 × 2 factorial research design to investigate 800 subjects in Guangzhou, China, the study demonstrates that environmental claim type and the source country's green image both exert a significant main effect on the effectiveness. This study also demonstrates that these two factors in combination exhibit a significant interaction effect on the effectiveness. These empirical findings remind marketers of the importance of adopting a situational perspective when designing their environmental claims. When deciding which environmental claim type they should apply, marketers should, among others, also take into consideration how their target customers actually perceive the eco-friendliness of the relevant source country. Given consumers' increasing scepticism about products with alleged eco-friendly attributes in the wake of an influx of various misleading green advertisements, environmental claims which are incongruent with their extant perceptions are unlikely to be effective.