Consumer responses to environmental advertising in China

Abstract

This study examines how consumers in China perceive and respond to company‐sponsored environmental advertising claims. Based on a survey of 914 Chinese respondents in Beijing and Guangzhou, the study has derived some important findings. First, it confirms the casual observation that environmental advertising has already been widely used in the country. Second, it indicates that Chinese consumers, in general, rate print environmental advertisements more favorably than broadcast ones. This is probably due to the pragmatic orientation of Chinese consumers, who consistently seek concrete and substantiated product information from advertisements to guide their shopping. Regression analyses on the collected data further reveal that “perceived credibility of the claim”, “relevance of the advertised product to daily lives”, “education level” and “media type” are all significant factors that would positively affect green purchase intention of Chinese consumers. In addition to providing researchers with further understanding of Chinese consumers' attitudinal and conative responses toward environmental advertising, these findings provide advertisers with useful insights into fine‐tuning their environmental advertising strategies in China.