When advertising goes tribal green : a study on socialisation's role in green consumer behaviour.

• Main Authors: Hor, Cha Lin., Chen, Lishi., Lin, Juanita Jiaxuan.
• Other Authors: Nanyang Business School
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/51547
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This study investigates the effects of the combination of hedonic shopping motivations and green advertising appeal on consumer’s information processing and purchase intention. The hedonic shopping motivations we examined are ‘Adventure’, ‘Gratification’, and ‘Idea’ whereas the green advertising appeals are ‘Emotional’ and ‘Management’. We also examined the purchase intention with and without socialisation. The main objective was to find out whether tribal branding with inclusive strategy can increase receptivity of sustainable products among the Middle Green consumers. Hypotheses were developed through a ‘One group Pre-test, Post-test’ experiment design with six treatment groups. 410 useful responses were collected through computer administered surveys. Findings showed that ‘Green’ is exclusive and is not a norm in Singapore which suggests that green fatigue has not set in to Singapore yet. Overall, emotional advertising appeals for green products were preferred by shoppers with various hedonic motivations as compared to management advertising appeals. Specifically, when ‘Adventure’ and ‘Idea’ motivation combined with emotional advertising appeals, it enhanced consumer’s information processing and purchase intention. On another aspect, the presence of socialisation also affects shoppers’ purchase intentions. The study offers exciting insights where companies are encouraged to promote the socio-ecological aspects of their products as consumers in Singapore want to be part of the solution to the environment. Print advertisements should include self-empowerment elements that arouse the emotions of a shopper to increase purchase intention. Lastly, companies may want to alter their promotional efforts and retail environment to enhance socialisation by adopting communication channels such as social media platforms. Limitations of this study include subjectivity of personal preference towards the advertisements. Future research may include the use of personality tests to separate the participants into sociable and non-sociable consumers to increase reliability of the study.