Presentation given at the 2nd International Consumer Brand Relationships Conference, www.consumer-brand-relationships.org Copyright by Yuliya Strizhakova Robin Coulter Linda Price

1. Building Green Brands:
Global Consumers and Their
Willingness to Pay for Green Causes
Yuliya Strizhakova, Rutgers University – Camden
Robin Coulter, University of Connecticut
Linda Price, University of Arizona
The authors are grateful to the University of Kentucky’s Von Allmen
Center for Green Marketing for their financial support.

2. Consumer-Brand Relationships in
Modern Culture
Consumer Brand
Globalization Environmentalism
Socio-cultural context
Socio-
emotional
context

3. Globalization and Consumer Identity
• Global consumer culture exerts a strong influence on how
people perceive themselves.
• Evidence of varying global and local identity (Ger and Belk, 1996;
Kjeldgaard and Askegaard, 2006; Steenkamp and de Jong, 2010).
Winter
Park
Florida USA World
World
USA
Florida
Winter
Park

4. Who are Global Citizens?
• They identify with the global world more than a
particular country (Zhang and Khare, 2009).
• They view their “citizenship” in the world as important
(Arnett, 2002; Strizhakova, Coulter, and Price, 2008).
• They perceive global brands as a path to expressing their
global citizenship (Holt, Quelch, and Taylor, 2004).
• They are younger, more educated, innovative, heavier
users of new media and express stronger possession
attachment.

5. Environmentalism and Green Branding
• Consumers are increasingly concerned about environment.
• Research in developed countries also shows that consumers
are favorable of green brands (Du, Bhattacharya, and Sen, 2007; Russell
and Russell, 2010; Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001).
• Green branding is an important strategy for global and local
brands in developed countries.
• Less evidence of green branding in emerging markets.

6. Research Framework
• Assess effectiveness of green brand building in developed and
emerging markets
– Globalization influence:
• Consumer global citizenship
• Global companies vs. local companies
• Global brands vs. local brands
– Environmentalism influence:
• Green branding in relation to global causes, local causes, or none
• Consumer environmental consciousness
– Outcomes:
• Attitudes
• Willingness to pay

7. Study Design
Multi-
national
Local
COMPANY BRAND
Global
Local
Local
CAUSE
Global:
Protection of
world’s oceans
Local:
Protection of
region’s lakes
and rivers
None

8. Study Samples
• Countries
– Developed: U.S. (n = 797) and England (n = 317)
– Emerging: Brazil (n = 185) and Russia (n = 309)
• Demographic characteristics
– College-educated 17-25 year old consumers
– About 57 - 60% females

9. Measurement
• Consumer Global Citizenship:
– Global Identity (“I feel like I’m ‘next-door neighbors with people living
in other parts of the world.”)
– Importance of global citizenship (“It is important to me to feel a part
of the global world.”)
– Belief in global citizenship through global brands (“Buying global
brands makes me feel like a citizen of the world.”)
• Attitude toward the brand and the company

10. Measurement
Differential rate of willingness to pay
• Measure of typical price paid for yogurt
– Approximately, how much do you (or someone in your household who purchases yogurt
typically pay for an 8 oz. unit of yogurt?
– less than $.75 __$.75 __$1 __$1.25 __$1.50 __$1.75 __$2.00 __$2.25 __more than $2.25
• Price willing to pay for the described yogurt
– Suppose you participated in a taste test for the local company, and really liked the taste
of the new line of yogurt. How much would you be willing to pay for an 8oz. unit of
yogurt of this local brand?
– less than $.75 __$.75 __$1 __$1.25 __$1.50 __$1.75 __$2.00 __$2.25 __more than $2.25
• Calculated differential rate of willingness to pay

11. Priming and Covariates
• Primed participants on the necessity to protect water
resources.
• Covariates included in all analyses
– consumer trust in the company’s actions
– consumer concern for the environment
– attitude toward the product category of yogurt

12. Attitude toward Brand

13. Attitude toward the Brand by Global
Citizenship

14. Willingness to Pay
• No significant main effects on consumer
willingness to pay.
• 3-way interaction (brand x cause x global
citizenship).

15. Willingness to Pay by
Global Citizenship

16. Willingness to Pay by
Global Citizenship

17. Cross-National Differences

18. Cross-National Differences

19. Cross-National Differences

20. Summary of Findings
Consumer- brand relationships are inscribed in the
globalization context.
Global citizens are more responsive
to global brands and their support of
global green causes. Building green
global brands with local causes does not
impact the responses of global citizens.
Local citizens respond to local brands and local causes.

21. Summary of Findings
Building global green brands in emerging markets
appears to be a viable strategy for multinationals.
Consumers are willing to pay a
premium for global brands and their
cause- related campaigns.
Building local green brands is a viable strategy in
developed markets but more research is needed in
emerging markets.

22. Future Research
• Can building green local brands in emerging
markets be effective?
• Do we find the same patterns of results in
broader samples?
• Expand to consumers in other markets.

23. QUESTIONS?
Thank you!