The Effect Of Message Intervention Strategies On The Purchase Intention Of Environmental Friendly Products

Peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality have profound implications for sustainable development in China and the world.Waste separation is a key aspect of environmentally friendly behaviour on the consumer side,which contributes significantly to achieving peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality.Consumers do not sort out waste spontaneously because of the extra effort and time it takes,and waste sorting can be facilitated by recycling-aiding products.With this in mind,this study explores the ways in which marketing messages can be used to encourage consumers to buy environmentally friendly products,e.g.recycling-aiding products.Based on information intervention theory,values-beliefs-norms theory and regulatory focus theory,a model of the mechanism from message framing to purchase intention(PI)of eco-friendly products is constructed.This model takes the message framing as the independent variable,PI as the dependent variable,environmental involvement and regulatory focus as the moderating variables,and perceived value and pro-environmental personal norms as the mediating variables.The purpose is to investigate the effects,the boundaries and the mechanisms of message framing.In this research,three studies have been designed and the experimental data have been empirically analysed using SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 25.0.Study 1 examines the main effect in a 3(environmental information: control vs.positive vs.negative)x 3(self-information:control vs.positive vs.negative)between-subjects experimental design.Study 2 verifies the moderating effect in a 2-level(message framing: positive vs.negative)experimental design.Study 3 analyzes the mediating role in a 2-level(message framing: positive vs.negative)experimental design.The findings are as follows:(1)The effect of negative versus positive frames is different.Negative framed messages have a better impact on consumers’ willingness to purchase environmental products than positive framed messages.(2)Environmental involvement moderates the effect of message framing on PI.Consumers with low levels of environmental involvement are more likely to be persuaded by message framing than consumers with high levels of environmental involvement.(3)There is a matching effect between regulatory focus and message framing.Promotion-focus person are more susceptible to message framing than prevention-focus person.Moreover,negative messages can lead to higher PI among promotion-focus consumers.(4)Perceived value and pro-environmental personal norms mediate the effect of message framing on PI.And the chain mediating effect of perceived value and pro-environmental personal norms is significant.This study examines the optimal matching between message framing and target audiences by categorising consumers from the perspective of environmental involvement and regulatory focus,and explores the mediating effects of perceived value and proenvironmental personal norms from both intrinsic and extrinsic paths.The findings enrich the mechanisms underlying the PI of environmentally friendly products and broaden the scope of application of information intervention theory.The conclusions provide a solid theoretical basis for future research on information intervention strategies,and are also highly practical which could be widely applied to the marketing strategies of environmentally friendly products.