Building Green Brands: Global Consumers and Their

Willingness to Pay for Green Causes

Yuliya Strizhakova, Rutgers University – CamdenRobin Coulter, University of Connecticut

Linda Price, University of Arizona

The authors are grateful to the University of Kentucky’s Von Allmen Center for Green Marketing for their financial support.

Consumer-Brand Relationships in Modern Culture

Consumer Brand

Globalization Environmentalism

Socio-cultural context

Socio-emotional

context

Globalization and Consumer Identity

• Global consumer culture exerts a strong influence on how people perceive themselves.

• Evidence of varying global and local identity (Ger and Belk, 1996; Kjeldgaard and Askegaard, 2006; Steenkamp and de Jong, 2010).

Winter Park

Florida USA World

WorldUSA

Florida

Winter Park

Who are Global Citizens?

• They identify with the global world more than a particular country (Zhang and Khare, 2009).

• They view their “citizenship” in the world as important (Arnett, 2002; Strizhakova, Coulter, and Price, 2008).

• They perceive global brands as a path to expressing their global citizenship (Holt, Quelch, and Taylor, 2004).

• They are younger, more educated, innovative, heavier users of new media and express stronger possession attachment.

Environmentalism and Green Branding

• Consumers are increasingly concerned about environment. • Research in developed countries also shows that consumers

are favorable of green brands (Du, Bhattacharya, and Sen, 2007; Russell and Russell, 2010; Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001).

• Green branding is an important strategy for global and local brands in developed countries.

• Less evidence of green branding in emerging markets.

Research Framework

• Assess effectiveness of green brand building in developed and emerging markets– Globalization influence:

• Consumer global citizenship• Global companies vs. local companies• Global brands vs. local brands

– Environmentalism influence: • Green branding in relation to global causes, local causes, or none• Consumer environmental consciousness

– Outcomes:• Attitudes• Willingness to pay

Study Design

Multi-national

Local

COMPANY BRAND

Global

Local

Local

CAUSE

Global: Protection of

world’s oceans

Local: Protection of region’s lakes

and rivers

None

Study Samples

• Countries – Developed: U.S. (n = 797) and England (n = 317)– Emerging: Brazil (n = 185) and Russia (n = 309)

• Demographic characteristics– College-educated 17-25 year old consumers– About 57 - 60% females

Measurement

• Consumer Global Citizenship:– Global Identity (“I feel like I’m ‘next-door neighbors with people living

in other parts of the world.”)– Importance of global citizenship (“It is important to me to feel a part

of the global world.”)– Belief in global citizenship through global brands (“Buying global

brands makes me feel like a citizen of the world.”)

• Attitude toward the brand and the company

Measurement

Differential rate of willingness to pay • Measure of typical price paid for yogurt

– Approximately, how much do you (or someone in your household who purchases yogurt typically pay for an 8 oz. unit of yogurt?

– less than $.75 __$.75 __$1 __$1.25 __$1.50 __$1.75 __$2.00 __$2.25 __more than $2.25

• Price willing to pay for the described yogurt– Suppose you participated in a taste test for the local company, and really liked the taste

of the new line of yogurt. How much would you be willing to pay for an 8oz. unit of yogurt of this local brand?

– less than $.75 __$.75 __$1 __$1.25 __$1.50 __$1.75 __$2.00 __$2.25 __more than $2.25

• Calculated differential rate of willingness to pay

Priming and Covariates

• Primed participants on the necessity to protect water resources.

• Covariates included in all analyses– consumer trust in the company’s actions– consumer concern for the environment– attitude toward the product category of yogurt

Attitude toward Brand

Attitude toward the Brand by Global Citizenship

Willingness to Pay

• No significant main effects on consumer willingness to pay.

• 3-way interaction (brand x cause x global citizenship).

Willingness to Pay by Global Citizenship

Willingness to Pay by Global Citizenship

Cross-National Differences

Cross-National Differences

Cross-National Differences

Summary of Findings

Consumer- brand relationships are inscribed in the globalization context.

Global citizens are more responsive to global brands and their support of global green causes. Building green global brands with local causes does not impact the responses of global citizens.

Local citizens respond to local brands and local causes.

Summary of Findings

Building global green brands in emerging markets appears to be a viable strategy for multinationals.

Consumers are willing to pay a premium for global brands and their cause- related campaigns.

Building local green brands is a viable strategy in developed markets but more research is needed in emerging markets.

Future Research

• Can building green local brands in emerging markets be effective?

• Do we find the same patterns of results in broader samples?

• Expand to consumers in other markets.

QUESTIONS?

Thank you!