The effects of congruency of environmental issue and product category and green reputation on consumer responses toward green advertising

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the congruence effect of the product and claimed environmental issue on green advertising on consumer responses as well as the moderation effect of the perceived green reputation of the product on the congruence effect. Design/methodology/approach: A two-by-two designed experiment (high/low congruence × high/low green reputation) with a covariate (ad skepticism) was conducted via online survey recruiting 179 college students. Findings: High congruence of green issue and product category generated positive ad attitude, sponsor attitude, behavioral intention (BI), sponsor credibility and message credibility. Low green reputation positively affected ad attitude and BI. An interaction effect of congruence and green reputation on BI occurred. Originality/value: This study contributes to suggest a new approach to green reputation by examining a perception of a product category in terms of green reputation. The study findings recommend marketing communication managers to keep high congruence of their product category and claimed environmental issue to maximize communication effectiveness.