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CHAPTER 4

EXPLORATORY RESEARCH

4.1 OVERVIEW

Literature review indicated that there is sparse research on green

advertising in India and the phenomenon of greenwashing. The exploratory

phase discussed in this chapter includes qualitative research conducted in two

phases to investigate these issues.

4.2 QUALITATIVE STUDY 1: CONTENT ANALYSIS OF

GREEN ADVERTISEMENTS IN INDIA

Content analysis is used to classify green advertisements in India.

“Content analysis is a research technique for making replicable and valid

inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the contexts of their use”

(Krippendorff 2004). It is a reliable and valid systematic technique that is

widely used in consumer research and can be used to determine the themes,

appeals and claims used by advertisers (Kassarjian 1977). This method is

highly suitable for identifying patterns and frequencies in advertising and has

been extensively used in green advertising literature (Carlson et al 1993; Iyer

& Banerjee 1993; Banerjee et al 1995; Karna et al 2001; Leonidou, et al 2011;

Dai et al 2011; Saabar et al 2011; Baum 2012).

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4.2.1 Data Collection

The Indian print media is experiencing an uptrend with increasing

circulation (http://www.kpmg.com/in/en/issuesandinsights/thoughtleadership/

ficci-kpmg-report-2011.pdf) and accounts for 46 % of all Indian

advertisement spending (http://www.pwc.in/en/assets/pdfs/Publications-

2010/E_M_Report_2010.pdf). Other recent content analyses of Indian

advertisements have also chosen English print advertisements (e.g., Kalro et

al 2010). Extant studies indicate that educated Indian consumers with more

disposable income are more receptive to green marketing (Jain & Kaur 2006).

Hence English language print advertisements were chosen as the sample since

most educated Indians prefer to read the English papers vis-a-vis vernacular

dailies.

Also, the rise in green advertising in India began at the beginning

of this decade (2010). The survey for Indian green brands was conducted in

2011 and the Indian chapter of the International Advertising Association

launched its awards for green advertising during that year. Hence the years

2010 and 2011 were chosen for the analysis and advertisements from the

Times of India for the years 2010 and 2011 were downloaded from the online

advertisement archives provided by the newspaper. The Times of India is the

leading English language daily in India as per the Indian Readership Survey

(http://www.hansaresearch.com/dload/Output.pdf). Advertisements in major

Indian English language publications for the years 2010 and 2011 were also

downloaded from Coloribus (www.coloribus.com), an online advertisement

archive that partners with major advertising agencies. Duplicates, political

and regional language advertisements and advertisements of small size were

eliminated. A set of 4704 advertisements were identified and a census

approach was used to examine if each advertisement contained a green claim.

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Advertisements that used specific keywords like “eco”, “green”,

“organic”, “recycling” or environment specific credentials like “LEED”,

“EnergyStar” and affiliations to environmental programs were selected. There

were 215 (4.57%) green advertisements in the two years.

4.2.2 Coding Framework

Each advertisement was the unit of observation and the green claim

in the advertisement was the unit of analysis. A detailed review was carried

out and four major variables were identified. A codebook for content analysis

was developed in this research. The codebook included degree of greenness

(Banerjee et al 1995) (to indicate claim specificity), claim type and validity

(Carlson et al 1993) and company and product identification marks (Leonidou

et al 2011) as the major coding variables. Apart from these four major

variables advertiser profile, body copy tone, illustration setting and

illustration presenter (Leonidou et al 2011) were also chosen as additional

coding variables. The codebook is shown in Appendix 1.

“Claim validity” is one of the major variables used for coding the

advertisements. This variable uses greenwashing classification based on

expert specified definitions. Qualitative study 2 was conducted to resolve any

differences between stakeholder views and expert opinions of greenwashing.

Hence qualitative study 2 is conducted prior to executing the coding process

of the content analysis study.

4.2.3 Qualitative Study 2: Thematic Analysis of Greenwashing

This study used online data to determine if there were any major /

common themes in greenwashing concerns expressed by different

stakeholders. Three different online forums where stakeholders from each

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category have expressed concerns regarding ‘greenwashing’ were selected for

analysis. The themes were obtained from the data in an inductive manner.

Three representative stakeholders from each category based on the

classification proposed by Rivera-Camino (2007) were chosen. He had

identified two groups of stakeholders: classic and social stakeholders. Three

different online forums where stakeholders from each category have

expressed concerns regarding ‘greenwashing’ were selected for the analysis.

Table 4.1 highlights the characteristics of the different online forums.

Table 4.1 Online stakeholder website description

Site URL Description Stakeholder Type

stopgreenwash.org Greenpeace is a leading independent activist organization that campaigns for environmental conservation. This organization owns the site stopgreenwash.org since 2008. The group posts messages related to greenwashing by offending organizations.

Greenpeace-US-NGO

www.guardian.co.uk/ environment/series/greenwash

The guardian is the second-most popular UK newspaper website as of May 2011. This UK media group’s online site has a series of editorial articles relating to greenwash in UK for a period of 2 years (2008-2010).

Guardian-UK-Onlinenewspaper

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Table 4.1 (Continued)

Site URL Description Stakeholder

Type

http://www.greenwashing index.com

This website is promoted by EnviroMedia Social Marketing in partnership with the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. This US based site helps consumers in evaluating green advertisements . Users are allowed to upload green advertisements and discuss the claims made in these advertisements.

EnviroMedia-Greenwashing Index-Consumer

4.2.3.1 Thematic analysis method description

Thematic analysis has been widely used to analyze textual content.

It can be defined as “a method for identifying, analyzing and reporting

patterns (themes) within data that minimally organizes and describes the data

set in (rich) detail” (Braun & Clarke 2006). Leximancer

(www.leximancer.com), a powerful text analysis tool that uses machine

learning to discover keywords and associated concepts was used to perform

content analysis and determine themes from the text. Concepts from the text

are identified in a “concept map” and the associations between the concepts

are shown in a “theme summary” table. The theme summary table also lists

the themes based on their priorities. Rich and complex information can be

extracted from textual data using Leximancer (Smith & Humphreys 2006). It

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has been used in a wide range of domains like health communications

(Cretchley et al 2010), accounting research (Lodhia & Martin 20112) and

cybercrime (Martin & Rice 2011). Leximancer has been used in market

research to define contemporary commercial marketing definitions of social

marketing (Dann 2010) and to examine online consumer conversations about

brands and advertisements (Campbell et al 2011). This inductive approach to

detect themes i.e. data coded “without trying to fit it into a pre-existing coding

frame or the researcher’s analytic preconceptions” (Braun & Clarke 2006)

ensures that the concerns from each stakeholder arise from the data and there

are no prior assumptions regarding the number and types of themes in the data.

Leximancer uses machine learning to generate word co-occurrence matrices

based on the text and discovers keywords and associated concepts. The

semantic relationship between the concepts are then illustrated using colour

coded concept maps that denote important themes using colours like red and

orange and lesser important themes with “cool” colours like blue and green.

Figure 4.1 summarizes the method.

Figure 4.1 Method summary for thematic analysis

Publicly available data on various social media sites identified in

Table 4.1 was gathered for analysis and textual content was extracted from

these files. The text files were loaded into the Lexiportal

Data Collection Clean Files

Load into Leximancer Generate themes / attributes of

greenwashing issue

Stakeholder websites

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(https://www.leximancer.com/lexiportal/) (an on-demand portal that provides

access to Leximancer in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)) to :

a. develop perceptual maps that show themes and the associated

concepts and

b. identify the strength and relative importance of the various

themes in the data.

4.2.3.2 Results of thematic analysis

A total of 147 text files were created after cleaning the HTML tags

from the downloaded files. These were loaded into the Leximancer portal.

Table 4.2 shows the themes, ordered based on priority identified through

Leximancer. The concept maps obtained from data are shown in Figure 4.2,

Figure 4.3 and Figure 4.4.

Table 4.2 Themes in stakeholder discussions

Greenpeace Guardian Enviromedia

coal (coal, clean, technology, power)

carbon (carbon dioxide, emissions, gas, electricity, future)

energy (energy, coal, clean, power)

ad (ad, campaign) energy (energy, climate, change, government, fuel)

campaign (campaign, emissions, change)

carbon (carbon) coal (coal, power, technology, clean)

claims (claims, gas)

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Table 4.2 (Continued)

Greenpeace Guardian Enviromedia

energy (energy) project (project, investment, countries, forests, global, solar)

advertising (advertising)

climate (climate, change)

oil (oil, sustainable, products)

car (car, vehicles)

emissions (emissions)

claims (claims, website)

fact (fact)

oil (oil) car (car) fuel (fuel, marketing)

efforts (efforts) water(water) water(water)

The concepts associated with the theme are indicated in the brackets

Figure 4.2 Concept map based on Greenpeace data

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Figure 4.3 Concept map based on Guardian data

Figure 4.4 Concept map based on Enviromedia data

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Figure 4.6 summarises the major themes in the analysis. Two

significant themes were found in the stakeholders’ discussions on

greenwashing: (a) Marketing Communication Credibility (b) Impact on

Natural Environment. Of these two themes, credibility of marketing

communication forms a significant portion of the discussions.

Theme1 - Marketing Communication Credibility: This theme is concerned

with the credibility of marketing communication tools. The major sub-themes

are (a) Energy (b) Campaign (c) Investment (d) Product Content (e) Waste

management claims. Claims about “clean coal” and “energy usage” are

mostly considered greenwashing. The campaigns run by energy, oil and gas

companies relating to the usage of clean coal and alternate energy are major

targets for criticism. The veracity of claims regarding financing of

environmental projects and waste management are also questioned and

considered unauthentic.

Palm oil usage which is a major cause of deforestation is a unique

issue discussed by the U.K media stakeholder. The other stakeholders discuss

the ramification of proclaiming a product component to be natural or organic

and a packaging component to be biodegradable/recyclable when in fact it is

not. Fuel and emission related claims of auto companies are considered

misleading and untruthful by all the stakeholders whereas marketing of hybrid

vehicles by automobile companies faces flak in consumer discussions only.

Theme2 - Impact On Natural Environment: While the discussions on the

impact on natural environment varied from carbon emissions, global warming,

vehicle emissions, and deforestation across the different discussions, they

culminated in a single theme: “climate change”. Carbon emissions,

greenhouse emissions, carbon offsets and carbon footprint feature

prominently in most discussions and the associated impact on climate change

worries all the stakeholders.

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Greenwashing

Marketing Communication Credibility

Impact on Natural

Environment

Energy -Clean Coal claims -Oil and Power Industry energy claims

Campaign -Emissions -Oil and Gas Industry campaigns

Investment -International Projects -Alternate energy

Climate Change-Global warming

-Carbon emissions -Vehicle emissions -Deforestation

Product Content /component -natural/organic -sustainable palm Oil -biodegradability -Cars and Vehicles

Waste -Waste management

-E-waste

Figure 4.6 Significant themes in stakeholder discussions on greenwashing

Emission and environmental damage are therefore critical

components of these discussions and invariably energy, gas and auto

companies are considered the key perpetrators. All the stakeholders’

discussions feature companies like Shell, Chevron, BP, GM, and Exxon. Most

companies in Europe are part of the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil

(RSPO) association that requires them to use sustainable palm oil in their

products. On scrutinizing these discussions it was seen that companies that

violate this requisite are accused of greenwashing.

4.2.3.3 Conclusions of qualitative study 2: thematic analysis of

greenwashing

The two major common themes in all the three stakeholder

discussions were related to (a) Marketing communication credibility and

(b) Impact of company’s actions on natural environment. This clearly

signifies that stakeholders’ skepticism will increase unless companies fulfill

their green marketing claims. While most researchers advocate the use of

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credible green marketing claims to avoid the “greenwasher” label (Carlson et

al 1993; Newell et al 1998) certain researchers emphasize that lack of

commitment towards the implementation of credible green policies is also

considered greenwashing (Ramus & Montiel 2005). The results exhibit these

two aspects of “greewnwashing” as the two major sub-themes in the analysis.

The results also show the emergence of common themes in the

stakeholder discussions. One major theme that was found amongst all

stakeholders was that of credibility of claims. Most claims are dismissed as

being exaggerated or untruthful. Communication professionals therefore need

to bolster the source credibility of their claims specifically energy, emission

and packaging claims to improve the trustworthiness of the message.

Therefore, this study demonstrated that the stakeholders’ view on green

advertising coincided with extant literature on “expert-rated” greenwashed

claims.

Hence this variable was used to code green advertising in India

using predefined expert typologies.

4.2.4 Coding

Two coders (second year marketing post graduate students) were

chosen and were briefed about the codebook. The coders were blind to the

research questions and were asked to classify the claims using the codebook.

They undertook a pilot study of 10% of the advertisements to understand the

process. Each coder obtained the complete set of advertisements after this test

to complete the coding. During the procedure the coders identified the claims

independently and marked the category of the claims using the definitions in

the codebook. Inter-coder reliability was measured for each variable based on

both the Perreault and Leigh’s (1989) P/L index and Krippendorff’s (1970)

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for all the variables. The inter-coder reliability indices range from 0.82 to 0.93

(Table 4.3) which meet the criteria suggested by Rust and Cooil (1994).

Table 4.3 Inter-coder agreement reliability

VariableInter-coder reliabilityPerreault and Leigh’s

P/L index

Inter-coder reliabilityKrippendoff’s

Degree of Greenness 0.84 0.83

Claim Type 0.91 0.90

Claim validity 0.87 0.86

Company Identification 0.82 0.82

Product identification 0.91 0.93

Body copy tone 0.89 0.89

Illustration Setting 0.86 0.87

Illustration Presenter 0.92 0.92

4.2.5 Content Analysis Results

The results of the coding were tabulated based on the coding

variables and their associated frequencies. Chi-square goodness-of-fit test was

used to test the tables. The assumptions for running the test were met. The

frequency tables are shown in Appendix 1 (Tables A1.1 – A1.9).

4.2.5.1 Advertiser profile

In all, 76 unique companies advertised using environmental claims.

Table 4.4 shows the list of advertisers. More than half of the green

advertisements were created by Indian companies (60.9%) followed by

Japanese companies (12.6%). This was followed by green advertisements co-

branded by Indian and French companies (6.5%). A few other multi national

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companies from developed countries are also involved in green advertising in

India. These included firms from Canada (5.1%), France (5.1%), America

(4.2%), Ireland (1.9%), Germany (1.4%), Indo-Japanese collaborations (0.9),

Spain (0.9%) and Denmark (0.5%).

Of the 215 green advertisements, an overwhelming number of 123

(57.5%) were sponsored by manufacturing companies followed by 23

(10.7%) advertisements from real estate companies ( 2 [df = 7, N = 215] =

409.03, p < 0.001). Agriculture, banking, governmental organizations, mining

and retail, footwear, clothing and electronics manufacturers sponsored green

advertisements. Curiously, it was observed that sometimes, Indian media

companies tied up with foreign companies for specific green events’

promotion. NDTV, a media company has in collaboration with the Japanese

car maker Toyota promoted a green event on their television channel.

Similarly, another media house, the Times of India group has worked with the

French cosmetic manufacturer, Garnier, to host a number of event based

initiatives involving the general public to promote green ideas.

Table 4.4 List of advertisers

Industry Companies

Automobile Toyota Prius, Volkswagen, Hero Honda, Kabirdas-xite

Apparel/Accessories/Footwear Turtle, Van Heusen / PVH, Woodland, Killer Jeans

Conglomerates/ Group ITC, Future Group, Neesa

IT / Computer / IT Infrastructure services/ IT Peripherals

Allied Digital, Chirag / R.P. Infosystems, Club laptop, HP

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Table 4.4 (Continued)

Industry Companies Engineering and Electronics, Consumer goods

Bosch, Carrier, Emerson, Fujitsu General, G.E., Toshiba, Citizen, Hindware, IFB, MRF SLR, Panasonic

Energy/Alternate Energy Indo solar, Mosaer Baer, Sujana Energy, Suzlon

FMCG Amul, Garnier

Industrial goods Adhunik Metals, Grundfos, Ingersoll Rand, JSW, Tata Steel

Mobile Services/ Telecom Infrastructure

Aircel/ Global Holding Corporation Private Limited

Misc. services Aberfill, Ananta Organic Spa, Attero, Kuoni, NDTV

NGO Citizens for Bhopal, Concern India Foundation, People For Animals

Pharma Fresenius Kabi Oncology

Real Estate Akshaya Homes, Godrej Prakiriti, Hindustan Construction Company-Lavasa, India Bulls Greens, MARG, Prestige Group,

Public Sector / Govt of India Coal India Ltd, Gujarat NRE Coke, National Jute Board, Karnataka Tourism, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, National Jute Board, NMDC, ONGC, SBI, SJVN limited, Save The Tiger Campaign-Public Awareness-Govt of India.

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4.2.5.2 Claim specificity

The percentage of shallow green advertisements is comparatively

higher than other categories. Around 67% of green advertisements were

shallow. At least 31.1% of the advertisements were “Moderate” and only a

miniscule 1.9% of advertisements were “Deep” ( 2 [df = 2, N = 215] =

143.898, p < 0.001). Deep advertisements included an elaborate explanation.

For example a chairman’s message used exact figures to showcase his

company’s achievements regarding watershed and forestry programs.

4.2.5.3 Misleading green advertisements – greenwashing

Misleading/deceptive categories (51.7%) exceed valid

advertisements. Most misleading claims either omitted relevant information

or were vague/ambiguous ( 2 [df = 2, N = 215] = 40.028, p < 0.001).

Ambiguous/Vague advertisements used terms like “eco-friendly”, “eco-idea”,

“sustainable communities” and “pro-planet” that did not have any kind of

substantiation or explanation. Misleading advertisements that omitted

information included a dishwasher advertisement which stated that it “is in

sync with the needs of the planet earth by cutting down power, water and

detergent usage”. However this claim was not substantiated with any

scientific evidence or third party studies.

4.2.5.4 Associative claims in green advertisements

Companies advertising their green image led the list. Therefore the

percentage of image related advertisements were high as more than half of the

environmental claims were image based claims (60.0%). The focus of these

green advertisements was the “greenness” of the brand and was not centred on

any singular product or service. This involved the usage of tags like “eco

ideas”, “pro planet” and “introducing eco-friendly fashion” in the

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advertisements. This was followed by “product” related advertisements

(24.7%). Claims from environmental NGOs do not fall under these pre-

defined categories and therefore were segregated under “Others” as a separate

category. Process claims amounted to 2.3% and fact based claims formed

2.8% of the claims. ( 2 [df = 5, N = 215] = 336.302, p < 0.001). “Image”

related claims form the major component of the associative claims.

4.2.5.5 Certifications in green advertisements

The results showed that most of the claims regarding products did

not have any identification marks (96.7%) ( 2 [df = 3, N = 215]= 590.302, p <

0.001). Similarly most companies used no specific environmental

identification or certification (50.7%). The companies used green signature

cuts (17.21%), green logos (13.49%) and awards like International Dairy

Federation Award (1.86%) as special identification marks ( 2 [df = 5, N =

215]= 199.502, p < 0.001). No more than four kinds of product certifications

were used in the entire set of advertisements. This comprised the two

endogenous “BEE Energy Star Rating” and “Exnora Eco Star rating”

credentials and international certification like TUV German certification and

the LEED® certification for green buildings. Frost-free refrigerators, air-

conditioners, distribution transformers and fluorescent lamps require

mandatory BEE Energy Star rating labels (http://www.thehindu. com/business

/Industry/bee-makes-rating-mandatory-for-more-appliances/article3453053.ec

e) in India. Therefore all the products that used the Energy Star rating were

required by legal constraints to use the label.

4.2.5.6 Copy characteristics

An analysis of the copy characteristics revealed that 74.4% of the

advertisements used a rational appeal and 9.8 % emotional ones ( 2 [df = 3, N

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= 215] = 164.493, p < 0.001). Around 15.8% of the advertisements did not

use any specific appeal.

Presenters were not normally used (57.2%) in the advertisements. 2 [df = 7, N = 215] = 437.614, p < 0.001). Endangered species like tigers,

black bucks and vultures were some of the animals that were used as

presenters. The summary of results is shown in Table 4.5.

Table 4.5 Content analysis results summary

Dimension of analysis Results Claim Specificity Shallow: 67.0%

Moderate : 31.1% Deep : 1.9%

Misleading green advertisements – greenwashing

Acceptable: 48.3% Omission: 14.0% Vague/Ambiguous:37.7%

Associative Claims In Green Advertisements

Image: 60.0% Product: 24.7% Process: 2.3% Fact : 2.8% Combination: 4.7 % Other: 5.6%

Product Certifications in green advertisements

EnergyStar rating: 1.9% Exnora Eco Star rating:0.5% TUV German certification:0.9% No certification: 96.7%

Company Certifications in green advertisements

No identification:50.7% Green Signature Cut:17.2% Green Logotype:13.5% Environmental website:11.7% Environmental slogans:5.1% Green Award / Certifications :1.9%

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Table 4.5 (Continued)

Dimension of analysis Results

Copy characteristics-Body Copy Tone

Rational: 74.4% Emotional: 9.8 None:15.8%

Copy characteristics- Illustration setting

Still Life:30.7% No Setting:25.1% Abstract Design:18.6% Natural Environment:11.6% Industrial Environment:3.7% Normal Scenery:3.7% Imaginary/Artificial Environment:2.8% Slice Of Life:1.9% Environmental Object:1.4% Green Slogan:0.4%

Copy characteristics-Illustration Presenter

No Presenter:57.2% Normal People:20% Celebrity:8.4%Animals:5.6% Company Person:2.8% Expert and Special People:2.3% Expert:1.9%Special People:1.9%

4.2.6 Conclusions of Qualitative Study 1: Content Analysis of Green

Advertisements in India

The content analysis of green advertisements in India for the years

2010 and 2011 yielded interesting results. Manufacturing companies (57.5%)

and real estate companies (10.7%) use green advertising more than other

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sectors in India. These findings indicate a growing interest among Indian

manufacturing and real estate companies in communicating environmental

commitment through green advertising. The results also show that most

organizations promote the “green” reputation of the company by bolstering

their image in advertisements as the number of image related claims exceeds

the other categories. Firms were focused on using image (60.3%) related

advertisements when compared to other categories.

Most green claims were also “shallow” (68.4%). There were also a

good amount of “moderate” (30%) advertisements and very few “deep”

(2.9%) advertisements. Again, more than half of the green advertisements are

“shallow” and were categorized as misleading. Misleading and acceptable

claims formed almost equal proportions as 50.9% of the claims were

categorized as misleading claims and 49.1% were acceptable, signifying that

at least half of the Indian advertisements are greenwashed. This is a direct

implication of the absence of regulation (Delmas & Burbano 2011; Baum

2012).

Very few companies used environmental identification for

differentiating products. Third party ratings have not been used and only four

kinds of product certifications were used. These were (1) Energy Star Rating

(2) Exnora Eco Star rating (3) TUV German certification and (4) LEED

certification for green buildings. Of these labels the “Energy Star” ratings are

mandated by the Indian government for the product category advertised.

4.3 IMPLICATIONS

In summary, the exploratory phase of this research examined

stakeholders’ view of greenwashing and current state of green advertising in

India. Thematic analysis was first used to investigate publicly available data

to capture the major themes in greenwashing. Marketing communication

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credibility formed a major theme of greenwashing. The results showed that

consumer opinion on greenwashing coincided with expert opinion. The

stakeholder discussions showed that the credibility of marketing

communication and the impact of a firm’s action on the environment were

major concerns. This coincided with the viewpoint of most researchers as the

absence of environmental friendly actions and vague environmental claims

are considered greenwashing (Carlson 1993; Ramus & Montiel 2005; Furlow

2010).

Based on these results, the content analysis study used previously

defined taxonomies to classify green advertisements in India. The study

highlighted that most green advertisements were greenwashed (50.9%). Most

green claims were also “shallow” (68.4%) and very few companies used

environmental credentials to support their claims. In the absence of regulation

greenwashing proliferates extensively. Companies hesitate to go green in such

a situation as they reap no competitive benefits (Furlow 2010). The results

also underline the lack of awareness among Indian consumers. Consumers

with low environmental knowledge may not be sufficiently engaged to

process green claims in a critical manner as they may not have developed a

“schemer’s schema” (Wright 1986). Therefore advertisers have used this to

their advantage by using greenwashed claims. Low awareness among Indian

consumers regarding environmental issues is a fact confirmed by existing

literature (Jain & Kaur 2006; Mehta 2007; Nair & Menon 2008). In the

absence of regulation and a congenial environment for using green marketing

claims, companies should make efforts to calibrate consumer knowledge

through green advertisements that educate the consumer (Ottman et al 2006).

One way to do this is to use environmental messages that emphasize public

health and/or national security as these are considered more emotionally

engaging and personally relevant (Stafford et al 1996; Ottman et al 2006;

Myers et al 2012). Such messages may be more pertinent to developing

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countries where the consumer is not willing to pay a premium but might be

persuaded to consider green products that favourably impact his health or

national security. Health related issues are related to the consumers’ intrinsic

goals and are personally relevant to them (Pelletier & Sharp 2008).

Consequently, informed by the conclusions from literature review

and findings of the first phase, the second phase used experiments

emphasizing health aspects to promote green product purchase intentions.

Three factorial experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of message

involvement on attitudes and purchase intentions.