Please Do Not Buy Our Brand—How Consumers Respond to Green-Demarketing Messages

• In response to the negative impact of consumption on sustainability, some brands have begun to practice green demarketing (GDM)—an extension of demarketing that discourages demand for products for the sake of the environment. This study examines how consumers process GMD messages and tests the impact of GMD messages on brand attitudes. We propose two opposing mechanisms that affect consumers’ attitudes towards a GDM ad message. While GDM ad messages might profit from their sustainability focus, attitudes toward GDM ad messages are also likely to be compromised by low processing fluency and increased skepticism. Results of an online experiment with fictitious ad messages show that attitudes toward sustainable ad messages are significantly higher than attitudes toward a non-sustainable ad message. In addition, our results reveal a significant negative, indirect effect of a GDM message on attitudes toward the ad that is serially mediated by processing fluency and skepticism. Results of this research are important for brand managers, since we demonstrate a positive effect of attitudes toward the ad on attitudes toward the brand.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

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