Investigation of green marketing tools’

effect on consumers’ purchase behavior

Elham Rahbar and Nabsiah Abdul Wahid

1. Introduction
Elham Rahbar is based at
the School of Management, Over the past decades, concern about the environment has become not only a significant
Universiti Sains Malaysia, public issue but also a crucial topic in academic research. A sharp rise in environmentalism
Malaysia. has emerged in the US and western Europe. A positive change within consumers’ behavior
Nabsiah Abdul Wahid is towards environmental related products can be seen due to the increased level of
based at the Graduate environmental awareness since the 1970s (Alwitt and Pitts, 1996). This change contributed
School of Business, to the start of the green revolution to prevent further damage to the environment. Malaysia is
Universiti Sains Malaysia, also following the same tools to protect the environment.
Malaysia.
Throughout the years, Malaysia has demonstrated serious commitment towards
environmental management to achieve environmental objectives, such as, launched the
Product Certification Program, Malaysia’s national labeling program by the Standards and
Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM). This eco-labeling scheme emerges with
the purpose of providing information to consumers in order to identify environmental
products and their specifications. Other considerable national environmental policies which
were endorsed by the Agricultural Department and Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority
(FAMA) and the Malaysian Energy Commission are related to agricultural products and
energy efficiency (EE). The developments observed in Malaysia show the efforts taken
through green marketing initiatives to encourage consumers into taking account the
environmental aspects in their purchasing behavior. Naturally, the change in consumer’s
behavior where those who worry about the environment will indicate their concerns through
different behaviors like checking the products which they are going to purchase to ensure
they are buying ethically (Suchard and Polonski, 1991).
Green marketing tools such as eco-label, eco-brand and environmental advertisement will
make easier perception and awareness of green products attributes and characteristics,
consequently, guiding them into purchasing environmentally-friendly products. Applying
these policy tools plays an essential role to switch consumer’s actual purchasing behavior to
buy environmental friendly products, therefore, reduce the negative impact of synthetic
products on the environment.
Studying the determinants of consumers’ green purchase behavior would benefit green
marketers. Although studies on the influence of green marketing tools on purchase behavior
has been the focus of some of recent studies, majority of them have been conducted in
industrialized countries (Bleda and Valente, 2008; Chatterjee, 2009; Chan, 2004; Davis,
1993) but the findings often contradict each other. Therefore, the findings may only be
relevant in certain cultural, time and geographical context. Due to the complexity in
consumers’ green purchasing behavior, generalization is often not meaningful under
This research project was
funded by the Universiti Sains different cultural and demographical context. According to Ottman (1992a, b) and Peattie
Malaysia fellowship scheme. (1992) demand and attitudes for green products is likely to be uneven across different
The authors thank the IPS and
the School of Management for
market segments and cultures. Consequently, research on the effect of green marketing
providing facilities. tools on purchase behavior in emerging Asian markets is considered to be well-timed. In

DOI 10.1108/17515631111114877 VOL. 12 NO. 2 2011, pp. 73-83, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1751-5637 j BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES j PAGE 73
 addition, this kind of research can provide some insights to green marketers regarding how
they can expand their operation in Asia especially in Malaysia.
In particular, the objective of this paper is to examine if the green marketing tools (i.e.
environmental advertisement, eco-label and eco-brand) as a variable, affect the consumer’s
actual purchasing behavior among Penang’s consumers (state in Malaysia).

2. Literature review
2.1 Green marketing tools
Lee (2008) states three stages for green marketing. The first stage of green marketing
emerged since the 1980s, when the green marketing notion was newly initiated in industry
(Peattie and Crane, 2005). Green marketing went into its second stage in the 1990s, in this
decade the specific backlash was experienced by marketers (Wong et al., 1996).
Progressively, marketers apprehended that consumers concern, their positive attitude
towards environment and green products did not translate into purchasing behavior
(Schrum et al., 1995). Since 2000, green marketing has developed into a third stage. In the
this stage green marketing has gone through new momentum again with implementation of
more advanced technology, stricter regulation by governments and enhancement of global
environmental awareness.
According to Hartmann and Ibáñez (2006) green marketing generally focuses on the
efficiency of cognitive persuasion strategies, and believes that the consumer’s high
involvement concerning environmental issues is an effect of growing environmental
knowledge.
Stanton and Futrell (1987) define green or environmental marketing as actions intended to
replace current needs and wants with minimal harmful impact on our environment.
Ginsberg and Bloom (2004) claim that there is not any single marketing tool that would be
appropriate for all firms. Rather, strategies should be different based on different markets
and the degree of consumer concern on the environment.
Three green marketing tools are considered in this study as enhancements to a consumer’s
knowledge about environmental friendly products. Currently, these tools are also used to
help consumers distinguish between green products and conventional products. These
tools include eco-brand, eco-label and environmental advertisement.

2.2 Perception of eco-labeling

One of the significant green marketing tools is using eco-label on environmental friendly
products. The Environmental labels are increasingly being utilized by marketers to promote
the identification of green products (D’Souza et al., 2006). Sammer and Wüstenhagen (2006)
identify eco-label as an important tool to allocated asymmetry information between sellers
and buyers. They also state that labels are a signal to accomplish two main functions for
consumers: information function that informs them about intangible product characteristics
such as product’s quality and value function which provide a value in themselves (e.g.
prestige). Moreover, Rex and Baumann (2007) define eco-labels as a tool for consumers to
facilitate making decision for select environmentally-friendly products also enable them to
know how products are made.
Many of the studies on eco-labels looking for the ways to make them effective in consumers’
purchase behavior of environmental safe products (D’Souza et al., 2006; Sammer and
Wüstenhagen, 2006). The crucial issue is recognizing the impact of eco-labels on
consumers and their influences on environment and whether they consider eco-labels in
their decision making. Nik Abdul Rashid’s (2009) study has shown that awareness of
eco-label has positive effect between knowledge of green product and consumer’s intention
to purchase. However, some other studies indicate that although the functions of labels are
recognized by some consumers but this does not automatically lead them to green
purchasing decisions (Leire and Thidell, 2005).

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Few studies have investigated the link between environmental labeling and a consumer’s
intention and behavior to purchase environmentally-friendly products (D’Souza, 2004; Nik
Abdul Rashid, 2009; Whitson and Henry, 1996). In addition, D’Souza (2004) explains that
little is understood about the effect of label information on a consumer’s intention to purchase
environmental friendly products. For instance, according to a report by the Parliamentary
Office of Science and Technology (2004), in markets with low awareness consumers about
environmental issues, eco-labeling as a green marketing tool is ineffective. One reason for
this ineffectiveness is the lack of consumer’s trust of eco-label schemes (Schwartz and Miller,
1991). In some cases consumer’s distrust of eco-labels can be expressed through their
ignorance in identifying eco-labels and the regulations which authorize companies to place
labels on their products (Lyer, 1999). In this sense investigators such as Bleda and Valente
(2008) state that performance of eco-labeling schemes has shown the adverse effect in
some situation, whereas, Kuhn (1999) illustrate that these situations will emerge by growth in
pollution from enlarging the market in result of achieving greater market share through
manufactured environmental friendly products.
Furthermore, not much has been said about the influence of the cognitive process of reading
label information as a choice criterion that consumers use to make green purchases.
According to Nik Abdul Rashid (2009) eco-labels are attractive instruments informing
consumers about the environmental impact of their purchasing decisions. To help
consumers to identify products those are more environmentally preferable than other similar
products, eco-labeling schemes were initiated in order to promote environmental
consumerism. The first eco-labeling schemes have been developed since the late 1977 in
Germany (Blue Angel eco-label). To date, there are approximately 30 different green label
schemes worldwide. Asian countries such as China, Japan, Korea, India, Thailand, Malaysia
and Singapore have launched their own eco-labeling schemes. The Malaysian business
sector is not far behind in responding to challenges arising from demand made from the
consumers for environmentally friendly products. Malaysian green label schemes were
committed to start in 1996 by the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia
(SIRIM) at that time there were eco-labeling schemes related to energy conservation,
agricultural products, degradable, non-toxic plastic packaging material, hazardous
metal-free electrical and electronic equipment, biodegradable cleaning agents and
recycled paper.
This study deals with the consumers’ recognition of various labels, use of eco-labels and the
understanding of eco-labels meaning and trust of the label’s message.

2.3 Perception of eco-brand

The American Marketing Association define a brand as ‘‘a name, term, sign, symbol, or
design, or the combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or
group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of a competitor.’’ This definition can be
generalized for eco-brand as well. Eco-brand is a name, symbol or design of products that
are harmless to the environment. Utilizing eco-brands features can help to consumers
differentiate them in some way from other non-green products.
Consumers will aspire to buy eco-friendly alternatives for products that generated high level
of environmental impact compared to those with low level of environmental impact
(Chatterjee, 2009). According to a prior study by Rahbar and Abdul Wahid (2010),
Malaysian consumers consider glass based, house hold cleaning, aerosols, pesticides and
plastics as non-green product categories with high level of impact to environments. Hence, it
can be predicted that consumers will respond positively to products with environmental
features known as eco-branded products. The earlier research in western countries
supports this idea that consumers in the USA and Germany take action positively to
eco-branded products such as Body Shop and green energy (Wustenhagen and Bilharz,
2006).
A consumer’s evaluation on the environmental performance of brands should be positively
affected by environmental labels (Roe et al., 2001). Understanding the influence of brands
on consumers’ buying decisions is very important for marketers and marketing researchers.

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 This influence is known as brand equity. According to Aaker (1992), brand equity, from a
consumer’s perspective, can be defined as a differential effect that brand knowledge has on
a consumer’s response to the marketing of that brand. Green brands should be used to
emphasize the position that green products perform the same as non-green ones. Also,
green brands should be used to help consumers differentiate green brands from other
similar brands with same functions. The significant factor motivating consumers to change
actual purchase behavior to buy eco friendly products is emotional brand benefits
(Hartmann et al., 2005). Hartmann et al. (2005) list different types of emotional brand benefits
as:
A feeling of well-being, auto-expression benefits through the socially visible consumption and
nature-related benefits (p. 11).

Thus, the purchasing behavior will switch to buy environmental friendly products as a result
of consideration of the benefit of green brands. The consumers who acknowledged
themselves as an environmental conscious consumers prefer to select the green products in
their actual purchase to satisfy their emotional needs.

2.4 Environmental advertisements

In parallel with improving green movements worldwide and with increasing public attention
to environmental problems, most organizations have chosen environmental advertisements
through media or newspapers as green techniques for introducing their products to
environmentally responsible consumers. The objective of green advertisements is to
influence consumers’ purchase behavior by encouraging them to buy products that do not
harm the environment and to direct their attention to the positive consequences of their
purchase behavior, for themselves as well as the environment.
Davis (1994) describes that environmental advertising by corporations usually contains
three elements. Firstly, the advertisement begins with a statement of corporate concern for
the environment. Secondly, the advertisement describes the way the corporation has
changed its procedures in order to demonstrate its concern and dedication into improving
the environment. Thirdly, the advertisement describes specific environmental actions in
which the corporation is involved and/or results for which the corporation takes credit.
According to Baldwin (1993), environmental advertisements help to form a consumer’s
values and translate these values into the purchase of green products.
As stated by Chase and Smith (1992), environmental messages in advertisements and
product labeling was found to ‘‘sometimes’’ influence the purchasing decisions of 70
percent of the respondent. In the same study, more than half of the respondents indicated
that they paid less attention to such messages due to excess usage, and most respondents
reported that environmental advertisements were not credible. Chan (2004) states the main
reasons for the low perceived credibility of environmental claims in environmental
advertisement. The reasons are:
The vague arguments to substantiate the environmental claim, the source country of the advertised
product does not bear an eco-friendly image, the manufacturer (advertiser) of the advertised
product does not bear an eco-friendly image and the alleged eco-friendliness of the advertised
product does not match with the respondent’s previous consumption experience (p. 431).

2.5 Consumer’s actual purchase behavior

Previous studies have focused on examining the factors affecting environmental purchasing
behavior for instance, attitude, knowledge and value. Although these factors have been
acknowledged as an important determinant of environmental purchasing behavior, none has
investigated the use of environmental friendly marketing activities as a determinant to
influence consumers’ purchase of environmental friendly products. Green marketing
activities are increasing in many countries, and these activities have had an important
influence on increasing consumer knowledge and in shifting consumer into purchasing
green products (Cohen, 1973). Marketers should emphasize the ecological knowledge in

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their organizations, their products and their advertising in order to achieve the goal of
changing the consumer purchasing behavior (Mendleson, 1994).
Referencing from the existing literature, it is thus hypothesized that:
H1. A significant and positive relationship exists between green marketing tools and
customer’s actual purchase behavior.
H1a. A significant and positive relationship exists between eco-label and customer’s
actual purchase behavior
H1b. A significant and positive relationship exists between eco-brand and customer’s
actual purchase behavior.
H1c. A significant and positive relationship exists between environmental
advertisement and customer’s actual purchase behavior.

3. Method
3.1 Sample and procedure
The respondents in the current study were individual consumers in Penang. It was decided
that the sample be formed by individuals over the age 18-years-old. The reason is
individuals above this age are familiar with purchasing of products and are also empowered
in their decisions for choosing the right items between many available choices, therefore,
considerate to environmental issues in their purchasing behavior. The method of data
collection was a structured questionnaire. The survey was distributed in some main
shopping centers in Penang where people purchase their daily necessities from. A total 250
individuals in Penang participated in the present study.

3.2 Measures
The questionnaire is composed of five sections. The first part focused on the demographic
characteristics of respondents.
Perception towards environmental advertising was measured in the second part of the
questionnaire following Chan’s (2004) study. Four items measuring the perceived impact of
environmental advertisement on consumer’s actual purchasing behavior were used on a
five-point Likert scale (1 ¼ strongly disagree, 5 ¼ strongly agree).
The third part measures perception of eco-label of green marketing tools as a guide to
consumers for recognizing environmentally-friendly products. It was adapted from Nik
Abdul Rashid’s (2007), the original study consisted of three components of evaluating
consumer’s cognitive behavior towards the eco-label which are: awareness, knowledge and
trust. With respect to subject we utilized awareness and trust, again with five-point Likert
scale composed of three items respectively. The respondents’ recognition about the
eco-label was tested by applying one of the local logo (Malaysian best) in the questionnaire.
The fourth part of questionnaire was designed to measure the impact of eco-brand on
consumer’s actual purchase behavior. The last part of the questionnaire covers the
dependent variable of the study, i.e. actual purchase behavior. In this study, the variable is
measured by the level of the priority given when respondents decide on their actual product
purchase of green products with ecological features versus non-green products. Each item
measured would underline the feature of green and non-green products to be selected by
consumers following a related study by Nik Abdul Rashid (2007). In his study, consumer
intention was measured using two group products, i.e. energy saving versus non-energy
saving light bulbs (green and non green products) where respondents were asked to
compare the two group products and specify their preference on a five-point Likert scale
(1 ¼ strongly agree to 5 ¼ strongly disagree). Although the focus of this study is on actual
purchase behavior (not purchase intention), the researchers have followed closely Nik Abdul
Rashid’s method but the two groups of products were created following Yam-Tang and
Chan’s (1998) classification of environmentally sensitive products instead. Group A displays
a six items/green products with characteristics that fit with a green product definition (they

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 can impact positively on the environment) whereas group B displays seven items representing
the non green products. The displays of both group A and B products are followed by related
statements on consumer actual purchase behavior. A five-point Likert scale as used in Nik
Abdul Rashid’s study is used here. Statistical techniques were used to process the data
included, factor analysis, reliability analysis, and multiple regression analysis.

4. Findings
Factor analysis was utilized on four study variables to provide information included in several
variables into a small number of factors. Thus, the basic structure of the domain could be
discovered and would facilitate the interpretation of underlying domains (Sekaran, 2006;
Hair et al., 1998).
All constructs were subjected to principle component analysis with Varimax rotation. The
solution was using the criterion of eigenvalue greater than 1.00 with the cumulative
percentage of above 50 percent and factor loading for each item should load 0.50 or greater
are considered significant while loading lower than 0.35 on other factors are acceptable
(Hair et al., 1998).
Green marketing tools have been used as an independent variable to specify the impact on
actual purchasing behavior. The variables include three dimensions: environmental
advertisement, eco-label and eco-brand. These three dimensions were combined for factor
analysis. A factor analysis on 16 items (four items environmental advertisement, six items
eco-label and six items eco-brand), was performed to measure this construction and four
identifiable dimensions, appropriately named as environmental advertisement, eco-label,
eco-brand and one dimension for trust perception to eco-label and eco-brand (Table I).
The results have shown similarity with the study by Nik Abdul Rashid (2007), in his research,
perception towards eco-label had only two identifiable dimensions, listed as awareness of

Table I Factor analysis results

Items 1 2 3 4

Environmental advertisement
Environmental advertisement enhance my
knowledge about green products 0.87 0.03 0.007 0.10
I enjoy watching broadcast environmental
advertisement 0.82 0.13 0.10 0.05
Environmental advertisement guide customers to
making an informed purchasing decision 0.79 0.16 0.009 0.13

Perception of eco-label
I am aware the Malaysian best logo 0.01 0.14 0.91 0.03
The Malaysian best logo is easily recognizable
for me 0.06 0.13 0.90 0.004

Perception of eco-brand
I am aware of eco-brands 0.09 0.63 0.33 0.10
Eco-brand is symbol of product reliability 0.06 0.79 0.09 0.24
I believe eco-brand is truthful 0.15 0.88 0.02 0.04

Trust in eco-label and eco-brand

I am doubtful of the above logo 0.03 0.05 0.04 0.84
I am doubtful of the eco-brand 0.06 0.21 0.002 0.78
Eigenvalue 2.80 1.81 1.55 1.10
Percentage of variance 28.02 15.59 18.12 11.01
Bartlett’s test of sphercity 0.00
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin 0.65

Extraction method: principal component analysis

Reliability 0.78 0.70 0.84 0.54

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the label and trust in label. All remaining items had a factor loading of between 0.63 to 0.91
and the eigenvalue of 2.80, 1.81, 1.55, and 1.1 respectively. The four factors cumulatively
contained 72.76 percent of the variance in the data with KMO of 0.65 and significant
Bartlett’s Test of Sphercity.
The reliability test was carried out for four dimensions, resulted Cronbach alpha 0.78, 0.70,
0.84 and 0.54 respectively for environmental advertisement, eco-label, eco-brand and trust
in eco-label and eco-brand.

Only one dimension was extracted from four items measuring the actual purchase behavior
since the solution cannot be rotated. The eigenvalue extracted was 2.52 and captured 63.19
percent of the variance in the data with KMO 0.77 and significant Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity.
Reliability test performed gave a 0.80 on Cronbach alpha.
From the factor analysis results, one dimension to green marketing tools was added (trust in
eco-label and eco-brand).
Multiple regression analysis was performed to analyze the relationship between a
dependent variable and independent variables and addressed hypothesis (Coakes and
Steed, 2001; Hair et al., 1998).
A descriptive analysis using mean and standard deviation of two variables to help
researchers understand the respondent’s perception of variables and other detailed
analysis that were performed. A summary of all descriptive statistics are provided in Table II.

Respondents agree that environmental advertisements are effective techniques to enhance

their information about environmentally friendly products and purchase green products
(mean ¼ 3:72), moreover, they recognize the eco-label (mean ¼ 2:91), trust to eco-label and
eco-brand (mean ¼ 3:15), and rely on those in order to their purchase behavior. For
eco-brand majority of respondents seems aware of eco-brands and knows that symbol of
products reliability the value of mean in above prove this assumption (mean ¼ 3:19).
In order to test the hypotheses formulated and identify significant predictors of consumer’s
purchase behavior, a multiple regression was carried out. Based on the result shown in
Table III below, eco-brand (b ¼ 0:17, p , 0.01) and trust to eco-label and eco-brand
(b ¼ 0:19, p , 0.01) are positively and significantly associated with actual purchase
behavior, thus, it could be concluded that H1b and H1d are accepted.

Table II Description of variables study

Variables Mean Standard deviation

Green marketing tools

Environmental advertisement 3.72 0.61
Eco-label 2.91 0.79
Eco-brand 3.19 0.62
Trust in eco-label and eco-brand 3.15 0.74

Actual purchase behavior 3.62 0.80

Table III Result of multiple regression analysis

Variables b Sig.

Eco-label 20.09 0.17

Eco-brand 0.17 0.01**
Environmental advertisements 0.04 0.52
Trust in eco-label and eco-brand 0.19 0.003**

Notes: *p , 0.05; **p , 0.01; R square ¼ 0.109; adjusted R square ¼ 0.07; n ¼ 250

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 The effect of eco-label and environmental advertisement on actual purchase behavior were
not significant at all with b ¼ 20.09, p . 0.05 and b ¼ 0:04, p . 0.05. Hypotheses H1a and
H1c are rejected.

5. Discussion and implications

The main objective of the study was to explore the relationship between consumer’s actual
purchase behavior and green marketing tools (eco-label, eco-brand and environmental
advertisements). With the changes resulting from factor analysis, a modified research model
emerged and one more dimension was added to green marketing tools that was named trust
in eco-label and eco-brand.
An investigation on the coefficients of each dimensions of green marketing tool shows
eco-brand and trust in eco-label and eco-brand as the positively significant variable related
to actual purchase behavior. it seems eco-branded products have been commercially
successful due to its positive public image, which lead consumers to purchase and causing
the growth to brand loyalty (Ginsberg and Bloom, 2004). It appear that awareness of
eco-brand among Malaysian consumers and their attention to buy environmentally branded
products were influenced by their belief in the benefits of green products and protect the
environment by purchase of eco-branded products.
Since the introduction of national eco-label in Malaysia (1999) no significant increase as
resulted even for those consumers who have enough knowledge about eco-labels regarding
their purchase behavior. It seems that using this tool to increase green products purchase by
consumers in Malaysia, will not be significant. According to Nik Abdul Rashid (2007), there is
a missing factor that could increase purchasing behavior of green products to higher level
and it would be the trust in the eco-label itself. The study of Nik Abdul Rashid (2007) also
shows trust in eco-label between knowledge of green products and purchase intention has
not been significant in Malaysia.
Environmental advertisement is also another dimension of green marketing tool that is not
significant with purchase behavior. The environmental advertisement’s mean of (3.72)
demonstrates that a majority of the respondents believed environmental advertisement
enhances their knowledge on green products and they also consider green advertisement
guides consumers into making an informed purchasing decision. However their belief has
no influence on their purchase behavior concerning buying green products.
One of the factors contributing to the failure of applying environmental advertisements to
enhance purchase behavior is due to low credibility of green advertisements among
consumers (Kilbourne, 1995). According to Davis (1993), the factor resulting to consumer’s
weak response to environmental advertising is not the consequence of consumer’s
unwillingness to take action and change their behavior to purchase green products; rather
consumers are unwilling to change their purchase behavior given the manner in which
‘‘green’’ products have been promoted and advertised. One of its specific reasons is the
lack of specificity in many environmental claims that may have resulted in consumers
forming a negative view of the green advertisement and advertised products. Therefore, this
condition would unlikely lead to the purchase of environmental friendly products.
In terms of Penang’s consumer, as mentioned in the above paragraph, the result of the mean
indicates that Penang’s consumers believe that the environmental advertisements increases
their knowledge about green products. Mass media, television and newspapers are two
major media in Malaysia to acquire information by people (Mat Said et al., 2003) however,
due to the lack of environmental advertisements in Malaysia; people are not familiar with
most of the alternative products.
In this study, the relationship between trust in eco-label, eco-brand and purchase behavior
are found to be significant. This means that the respondent’s trust in eco-label and
eco-brand has a positive effect on consumer’s actual purchase behavior. Without
consumer’s confidence and trust of eco-label and eco-brand, it is very difficult to
convince them to make purchase decisions. Based on their trust in eco-label and eco-brand,

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they will choose the environmental friendly products that are less harmful to the environment
than their alternatives.
Whitson and Henry (1996) note that only few studies (e.g. Nik Abdul Rashid, 2007; D’Souza
et al., 2006; D’Souza, 2004) have been done on consumer’s purchase behavior and
environmental labeling.
The similarity between results of this study and Nik Abdul Rashid’s (2007) study could be
seen in terms of trust in eco-label. Furthermore, both studies were conducted in Malaysia
and the findings express the Malaysian consumer’s trust in eco-label and eco-brand that
influence their intention to purchase and also their actual purchase behavior.
Nik Abdul Rashid (2007) argues that eco-label (also eco-brand in this study) is a new concept in
Malaysia not only in terms of existence but as strategies that are utilized by marketers to
influence on the purchase behavior. He also describes the lack of any critical efforts by
marketers and producers to develop the trust in eco-label and eco-brand among Malaysian
consumers and thus, whatever trust they have would likely to be accidental and this is
generated from the consumers’ interaction with environmental issues. The same assumption
may be used for this study as well. Since eco-brand and trust to eco-label and eco-brand is
found to be important in influencing green purchase behavior of consumers, it is suggested for
the green marketers and the manufacturers to pay particular attention to eco-branded products.
The implication of this study to governmental policy is providing a few guidelines for
government to formulate the green policies such as providing promotional incentives to
those green products manufacturers who are truly green in their manufacturing processes,
encouraging the public to buy products with eco-label.
Secondly, government can raise campaigns to promote public awareness of eco-labels as it
is proven in this study that trustfulness of eco-labels can exert a significant influence in green
purchase behavior of consumers. With the increase awareness on eco labels, it would help
in promoting green consumption among consumers. However, government should be
monitoring the credibility and trustworthiness of messages carried in eco-labels. Besides,
government should endeavor to inform citizens about the meaning and availability of the
new eco-labels and eco-brands and the benefits of using eco-labeled and eco-branded
products to environment (Rios et al., 2006).

6. Limitations and suggestion for future research

While conducting this research, certain limitations were identified, with some suggestions for
future studies; it may provide helpful insight to be considered in generating a new framework.
First, this study was limited to consumers of Penang (one of the states of Malaysia) and did
not cover all states in Malaysia. In future studies, it would be ideal to consider all states of
Malaysia or at least some of the larger states. Secondly, this study is conducted on general
eco-brands. As such, future studies could focus on a specific eco-brand such as Body Shop
or Himalaya for a better understanding by respondents. Additionally, choosing a specific
eco-brand can provide respondents with the opportunity to compare eco-branded and the
non eco-branded products thus generating a more reliable response.

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Further reading
Aaker, D.A. and Stayman, D.M. (1992), ‘‘Implementing the concept of transformational advertising’’,
Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 237-53.
Davis, J.J. (1993), ‘‘Strategies for environmental advertising’’, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 10
No. 2, pp. 19-36.
Shrum, L.J., McCarty, J.A. and Lowrey, T.M. (1995), ‘‘Buyer characteristics of the green consumer and
their implications for advertising strategy’’, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 71-82.
Whitson, D. and Henry, W. (1996), What’s in a Label? Environmental Issues in Product Packaging,
The Haworth Press, New York, NY, pp. 29-43.

Corresponding author
Elham Rahbar can be contacted at: [email protected]

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