The Effectiveness of Environmental Advertising in the Hotel Industry

Abstract

Environmental advertising can create opportunities for a hospitality company to maximize messages and sponsorships. This research explores the independent and interactive influences of environmental claims and the emotional benefits on consumer response to hotels’ environmental advertising. This study further analyzes whether there are differences in responses to green advertisements between high-involved and low-involved consumers. The results indicate that a substantive claim would elicit much more positive responses from consumers than an associative claim, and a self-expressive benefit is generally more successful than a nature-related benefit in fostering positive responses. At the same time, a substantive claim was more persuasive when it was coupled with a self-expressive benefit, while an associative claim led to more positive reactions after exposure to a nature-related benefit. Finally, there is a difference in responses to hotels’ environmental ads between high- and low-involvement consumers. This article provides empirical information for hotel marketers contemplating the development and presentation of environmental advertising to improve their environmental brand image and increase consumer purchase intent.