Relationships among the individual factors of ecologically oriented consumption and advertising believability

The purpose of this dissertation is to clarify the individual factors of ecologically oriented consumption and the effects of advertising on that behavior. Eco-consumption, the act of selecting a product because of its ecological advantages, is a unique and relatively new type of consumer activity. Eco-consumerism, the active search and product evaluation that underlie eco-consumption, represents a new and growing type of consumer behavior. The percentage of American adults who reported being at least somewhat ecologically conscientious in product selection grew from 45% in 1991 to 54% in 1994.;Chapter One presents an introduction of this topic by describing recent changes in the green marketplace. A set of definitions is presented. A discussion of eco-advertising's relationship with the emerging Sustainable Development paradigm is also presented.;Chapter Two organizes the theory of eco-consumption around a cognitive, information processing model of consumer behavior. Specific eco-consumption related literature is integrated with factors not previously researched in this field. Two new constructs are introduced: ecological orientation and perceived ecological relevance. Consumer involvement with ecologically advantageous products and eco-ads is explored. Advertising believability, its relationship to consumer skepticism and cynicism are described. Two models, the basis of an empirical study, were derived from this review. One represents current understanding of eco-consumption and one represents a proposed model.;An experimental design incorporating two repeated measures and three comparison groups was conducted. The sample was drawn from employees of four Michigan businesses. Path analysis indicated that the proposed model described the data better than the current model. Additional results indicate that subjects did not find eco-ads less believable than the control ad.;Environmental marketers want to understand how advertising affects the purchasing decisions of this segment. Conventional wisdom has been that ad campaigns which employ environmental claims as their major theme (eco-ads) are not considered to be very believable, and so consumers do not buy. This dissertation tests that assumption.