Color Effects in Green Advertising
Document Type
Article
Keywords
marketing; advertising; marketing communications; green (color); color; sustainability; persuasive knowledge
Identifier Data
https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12589
Publisher
Wiley Online Library
Publication Source
International Journal of Consumer Studies
Abstract
Marketers often use green in marketing communications to signal sustainability, despite the lack of supportive data. This article is a report of two experiments to observe consumer reactions to advertisements that use color to indicate environmental friendliness. The pretest and Study 1 confirm that consumers associate green with environmental friendliness and gray with environmental unfriendliness. Thus green (gray) is more (less) effective for producing positive ad attitudes and purchase intentions. Consumer perceptions regarding color appropriateness mediate the effects. Study 2 shows that persuasion knowledge moderates the effects: when consumers have high persuasive knowledge, green has a less positive effect; gray has a less negative effect; blue remains neutral. The study concludes that green functions as a peripheral cue signaling an eco‐friendly brand image, but the use of green may backfire when consumers are aware that green is used to bias responses.
