How are consumers feeling about green brands? The link between green brands and consumers’ brand attitude

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School of Business | Bachelor's thesis

Date

2019

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Mcode

Degree programme

Markkinointi

Language

en

Pages

32

Series

Abstract

The climate change and other environmental issues have gained attention among both consumers and producers all around the world. For improving the global situation, radical actions need to be taken also in the field of business. One thing affecting the operations of business is the (consumer) behaviour, and consumer attitudes are a part of consumer behaviour explanation. Another influencing factor is company’s brands and products that are sometimes one of the few things that companies can use to signal their values and actions for the customers, e.g. green brands can signal the environmental sustainability of the whole company. This literature review focuses on examining the link between consumers’ brand attitudes and green brands. The main question of the research is how does the greenness of a brand affect consumers’ brand attitudes. The review starts with conceptualizing relevant concepts: brand attitudes and green brands. Brand attitudes are being approached through the concept of overall attitude theories and research. Many researchers argue for the correlation between brand attitudes and consumer behaviour and how positive brand attitudes can eventually lead to increased company profitability. However, the underlying gap between consumer attitudes and behaviour is an existing factor, and the attitude-behaviour gap research has been examined among various researchers, especially in the context of green consuming. The second notion that is in relevant position in this literature review, green brands, is being approached with conceptualizing the term ‘sustainability’ and its relevance in business context. The popularity of green brands is an increasing theme, and companies around the world have learned the importance and profitability of green brands in today’s business world. The effect of green brands on consumers’ brand attitudes has been researched scantly. The existing literature, however, suggest that greenness of a brand affects consumer brand attitudes positively which was consistent with my expectations for the results. Nevertheless, the connection between brand attitudes and green brands needs further research to make wider conclusions for the companies to benefit from. Also, the attitude-behaviour gap must be considered when utilizing the existing results, since positive attitudes do not always prevent positive consumer behaviour.

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Thesis advisor

Mikkonen, Ilona

Keywords

attitudes, brand attitudes, sustainability, green brands, green products

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