When going green backfires: How firm intentions shape the evaluation of socially beneficial product enhancements - Newman, Gorlin & Dhar - 2014 - Article

One of the most common ways for companies to make a product more desirable is to add more and new features. However, products with social benefits are increasingly popular: examples are products that are fair trade or environmentally friendly. The researchers in the article try to investigate what the effects of a green label on the purchase decisions are and what role firm communication has in this. When a firm created a new, green product, they can choose to state that the green benefit was intended; they could also state that the green benefits are just a side effect of the product.

Although the first option seems more preferable, literature shows that products that have green benefits as side effect are more popular by consumers than products whereby the green effect was intended.

Intentions may have influence on people’s judgements. For example, intended crimes are generally regarded as less moral than unintended crimes. Although there are lots of studies that investigate the influence of intentions on behavior, there are only few that concern the role that firm intentions may have on consumer behavior. In fact, the study described in the article has the hypotheses that green products may be evaluated worse if they are communicated as “intended to be green” than if a firm communicated the green effect as being just a side effect of the product.

Past research suggest that there’s a link between intentions and perceived effort. In case of an intended green product, consumers may believe that the firm devoted greater resources towards the greening of the product. In this case, intentions can be linked to the allocation of resources. Consumers may believe that if there are more resources used for the greening of the product, there are fewer resources invested in other quality aspects. Of course, this perception of quality may have strong influence on purchase intentions.

In the article, three hypotheses are important. The first one states that consumers believe that firms invest fewer resources in product quality when the green enhancement is intended (versus unintended). The second one states that consumers therefore infer lower product quality when green improvements are intended (versus unintended). The last one states that consumers will be less likely to buy a product when the green benefits are intended (versus unintended). To test the hypotheses, a series of four studies was conducted.

First study

The first study tested the central hypothesis that consumers are less likely to purchase a product when the green benefits are intended versus unintended. In the study, there were three conditions: intended green enhancement, unintended green enhancement and a control group. 303 participants were randomly assigned to these conditions. Their task was to read a description of two new products that claimed to be significantly better for the environment (except of the control group, in their descriptions was no claim). Next, the participants had to answer questions concerning purchase intent, product quality and resource allocation.

The outcomes confirmed the hypothesis: participants showed higher purchase intentions for the unintended green products. They also believed that companies diverted more resources away from product quality, in order to make intended green products. Intentions had also influence on the perception of product quality: participants rated product quality higher in the unintended condition than in the intended condition.

Second study

The second study consisted of two related sub-studies, each soughing to address an alternate explanation for the intended versus unintended effects. Experiment 2a was almost the same as the first experiment, but a fourth condition was added: this was the “care-about-both”-condition and described that the firm intended both green benefits and quality improvement. 404 participants took place in this study. Experiment 2b presented a new scenario in which the firm’s focus laid on the improvement of a particular dimension. In the intended condition, participants read that this improvement and green enhancement were both important. In the unintended condition, the focus laid on the improvement, but the green enhancement was mentioned as side effect. In this study, 514 adults took place.

The findings of study 2a were in line with the outcomes of the first study. The purchase intention for the care-about-both-condition was lower than in the unintended condition. There was no significant difference in quality perception between the care-about-both and the unintended condition. There were also no significant differences in resource allocation found between the care-about-both and the unintended condition. Also the outcomes of study 2b were in line with the former findings.

Third study

Previous studies confirmed that consumers are less likely to buy a intended green product versus an unintended green product. However, two categories of benefits can be differed. Green effects can be inherent to the product itself: examples are less harmful chemicals or the level of biodegradability. On the other hand, benefits like fair trade reflect the firm’s actions and are separate from the product characteristics. It is likely that there’s a key difference between those two categories; thus, there may be a key moderator that could explain the effects of firm intentions on purchase intentions.

The researchers predict that if benefits that are inherent to a product’s composition are intended, people will be less likely to buy them. On the other hand, in cases that the benefits are separate from the product's composition, they may be even more positive evaluated when intended.

The study was a 2x2 design, with the variables intended versus unintended and inherent versus separate. 400 participants were randomly allocated to one of these four conditions. They all had to read a description of a all-in-one cleaner; depending on the condition, some claims were made. Next, the participants reported their purchase intent, perception of the product’s cleaning ability, agreement with resource allocation and overall liking of the firm.

The outcomes of purchase intention confirmed the expectations: people in the inherent condition showed less purchase intentions when the benefits were intended versus unintended. However, benefits separate from the product were rated higher when intended. Intended benefits were estimated to draw more resources away from quality; however, the intention of benefits led to greater liking of a firm. Also other effects were visible. For example, intended green benefits had negative effects on the quality perception of a product, but only when the benefits were inherent to the product and vice versa.

Fourth study

The forth study focused on the effects of intention in general. The former studies all focused on green, environmentally friendly or fair trade products; the forth study was concerned with health perception. 295 adults were recruited from an online survey pool. All of them had to read an article about a new way to produce ice cream: half of them read that this method was developed because of both the health and taste benefits; the other half read that the method was developed to improve taste, but had healthiness as side effect. Next, the participants had to answer questions about the perceived quality of the product and resource allocation. Lastly, there was a manipulation check to confirm that the participants were able to recall if they read about intended or unintended benefits.

In line with the outcomes of former studies, people in the unintended condition believed that the quality of the ice cream was better, compared to people in the intended condition. People in the unintended condition were also more likely to think that firms drew resources away from quality improvement. There was no significant difference in purchase intention between the two conditions.

Conclusion

The idea that the intention of being green actually has negative effects on purchase intent may be ironic. However, studies 1 and 2 confirmed this statement. Experiment 3 identified an important underlying moderator: benefits inherent to a product have other effects on consumer’s perception than benefits separate from the product. Finally, the fourth study showed that the effects of intention are generalizable and may have influence on other dimensions.