University of Twente Student Theses
Communicating sustainability in marketing advertisements : the influence of visualisation and advertisement claims on Instagram advertisements of sustainable clothing brands
Dalen, J. H. van (2021) Communicating sustainability in marketing advertisements : the influence of visualisation and advertisement claims on Instagram advertisements of sustainable clothing brands.
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| Abstract: | As sustainability has increasingly become a popular topic in today’s society, the relatively new concept of sustainable marketing has emerged. Sustainable marketing has a focus on the quality of the environment and social welfare, as well as the promotion of environmental friendly products. When sustainable marketing is practiced correctly, this can bring competitive advantages for the organization. Therefore, organizations nowadays tend to include sustainability in their marketing strategies both offline as well as online. Nevertheless, it appears as if little research has been conducted regarding the influence of online sustainable marketing advertisements. Therefore, the aim of this research is to examine how advertisement visualisation and advertisement claims influence attitude towards the brand, purchase intention, perceived sustainability, trust towards the brand, online engagement, and lastly greenwashing of an online sustainable marketing advertisements of a clothing brand. A 2 x 2 (visualisation: natural visualisation & raw material visualisation x advertisement claim: gain claim & loss claim) experimental design was used in order to research how visualisation and advertisement claims influence online sustainable marketing advertisements. Data of 123 respondents aged between 18 and 64 was used for the analysis of the results. It was tested whether natural visualisation more positively influenced online sustainable marketing advertisements of clothing brands compared to the use of raw material visualisation. In addition, it was also tested whether the gain claim more positively influenced the online sustainable marketing advertisement compared to the use of a loss claim. Moreover, it was tested whether an interaction effect exists between visualisation and advertisement claims. Lastly, it was tested whether the use of visualisation and advertisement claims influenced perceived greenwashing towards the clothing industry in general. Results showed no significant main effect of visualisation, advertisement claim and the interaction effect on online sustainable marketing advertisements of a clothing brand. Nevertheless, there is a positive effect present between visualisation and perceived sustainability, as the use of raw material visualisation in the online sustainable marketing advertisement of a clothing brand positively influenced perceived sustainability. Moreover, a significant effect was found for the greenwashing effect, as the respondents in general perceived the clothing industry to be less misleading after having viewed the advertisement. However, as there was no significant effect of visualisation and advertisement claim on greenwashing, it cannot be concluded that these elements caused this reduction. This study provides more insights in the research available regarding the influence of visualisation and advertisement claims towards online sustainable marketing advertisements. Moreover, new knowledge regarding the use of raw material visualisations in sustainable marketing advertisements to increase perceived sustainability can aid marketeers in the development of new advertisements. Nevertheless, there is still a need for more research regarding this topic, as well as further investigating the findings regarding the reduction of greenwashing. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 05 communication studies |
| Programme: | Communication Studies BSc (56615) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/85495 |
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