Green Media: Exploring Green Media Selection and its Impact on Communication Effectiveness

Does the choice of a medium, by which a company’s advertising message is carried, communicate something about that company’s commitment to act responsibly towards the green environment? Does the choice of a medium that consumers perceive as more harmful for the green environment impact ad and brand evaluations more negatively than a medium that they perceive as less harmful? If so, to what extent do companies have knowledge of such change in consumer media behavior and thereby take into account the green environmental aspect with media selection? Driven by such questions, and by way of an experiment, secondary data analysis, interviews and surveys this thesis explores green media selection and its impact on communication effectiveness from the consumer’s and marketing manager’s perspective.

Building on theories of advertising planning and media selection the thesis contributes with four empirical studies to increase the understanding of green advertising media and how consumers’ eco-harmful media perceptions impact communication effectiveness. The findings shed light on the importance of taking the green environmental aspect into account when practitioners select advertising media. This is particularly valid for companies that are committed to act responsibly toward the green environment, by for instance having documented green environmental policies, and wish to be associated as such through their brands and marketing communication thereof.

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