Does Green Branding Drive Green Purchase Intentions? Evidence From An Empirical Study With Mediating Role Of Green Trust

Abstract

The production and consumption activities resulting from industrialization and human evolution have been detrimental to the environment, leading to an increasing trend of environmental degradation. However, environmental concerns have raised awareness of the benefits of green products. Despite this, many customers fail to exhibit green purchase behavior, indicating a gap between their preferences and actual behavior. Moreover, the increasing trend of greenwashing activities by companies has led to customer distrust towards available green products. To address this issue, a sincere green branding is needed to make consumers aware about genuine green brands and motivate to transform their concern for environment into purchase intentions and subsequent behavior. This paper analyzes the effect of green branding on customer purchase intentions, mediated by green trust, for eco-friendly fast moving consumer goods(FMCG). A data of 216 Indian customers of consumer goods is collected using a structured questionnaire to ascertain their views. Linear regression is applied using Haye’s process model in SPSS to empirically evaluate a conceptual model developed for the study. Based on path coefficients of the model understudy, green branding strategy of companies helps in developing positive green trust among the consumers which further boosts their green purchase intentions positively. Future research should explore other green marketing strategies such as eco-labelling, green advertising, and green packaging, as well as longitudinal studies at the regional level to expand on these findings.