Influence of Factors in Green Advertising upon Purchase Intentions- A Study of Pakistani University Students

IntroductionIn contemporary times, the world is obsessed with the "Green" issue. The visible logic behind "Going Green" is the strong adverse impact of rapid emergence of factors such as global warming and uncontrollable population growth, which lias led to the almost extinction of reservoirs of natural resources and a potential threat to the future and prosperity of human species (Sevil, 2011). Green marketing lias gone through transformational stages since 1975, when a pioneer workshop was ananged and executed by the American Marketing Association with the title of "ecological marketing practices for the sustainable development of the world". In today's' times, all businesses seek ecological responsibility as the critical success factor for any uphill marketing or management challenge ahead. A revolutionary change was brought about in 1980's, when marketers liad to specifically build systematic mechanisms for ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty in the context of rapidly increasing consumers of eco-friendly products (Ottman, 1993). Green marketing plunged its way high into western economy in the year 2000, after a highly aggressive response from customers in the 1990s (Ottman, et al. 2006). As a consequence, the number of consumers motivated towards purchasing eco-friendly products lias increased manifold.Firms were bound to adopt or in certain cases adapt towards the "green strategies", in order to cope up with the increasing awareness of consumers concerning the environment and its sustainability. (Ginsberg & Bloom, 2004). Apart from adopting and adapting the "green strategies", firms liad to rationally inculcate sound and credible environmental claims into advertising messages and communication, in order to differenciate from competitors and may possibly gain a competitive advantage through it (Conolly & Prothero, 2003). It can be asserted that a well crafted and equally wll executed strategy of green positioning can help significantly in communicating that edge to the consumer via establishing a far more preferrable yet favorable brand perception. Past studies clearly relate the existence of green products, and the appropriate segments exhibiting a high level of responsiveness towards them in terms of preferring green products over regular non-green products. Marketers once come up with creative yet novel advertisements depicting "green products", it becomes the obligation of customer to be able to differentiate between a variety of competing brands and products based onto his/ her choice. According to (D, Tagliian, Lamb, & Perotiatkos, 2007), from consumer likibility point of view, a number of options regarding environmental advertising can be entertained.Like rest of the world, the Asian side is no longer spared from the on-going threats of global warming, population explosion and other such environmental threats faced by the citizens and domestic government (Lee, 2008). Pakistan, an underpriviledged Asian country is a victim of harmful pollution of both water and air, extremely high noise pollution in the form of a never-ending traffic. There lias been a stark increase in awareness towards environmental issues and terrors, which lias potentially triggered the government as well local citizens to realize the magnitude and worth of this grave issue (Mustafa, 2006). Generally speaking, people are Pakistan eagerly speak up and react in reponse to green issue advertising appeals. The latest evidence comes from the efforts of Pakistani citizens in revitalization of the Hudaira drain, which happened to be a River Ravi tributary surging in between Pakistan and India (Mustafa et al., 2007). For international marketers, there exist multiple opportunties since Pakistan is an emerging market in terms of environmental products, technologies and services. Owing to Pakistan's large population, marketers should focus greatly onto understanding the attitude of customers in the perspective of preferences and non-preferences of advertising messages related to eco-friendly or green products. …