Maximizing the Communicative Persuasiveness of Environmental Products: An exploratory study of the effects of nonverbal visual and material packaging design on product quality attributions

Practitioners frequently use ecological designed semantic on packaging to provide consumers with information about the environmental quality of the product itself. However, discrepancies between packaging cues and actual pro-environmental product quality trigger confusion and mistrust regarding organic products (i.e., “greenwashing” a conventional product with ecological semantics, “conventional-washing” an organic product with conventional semantics”). This study sought to understand whether (nonverbal) ecological packaging semantics would equate to increases in attributed environmental product quality; the persuasiveness of nonverbal packaging design media (i.e., visual, material), effects on further quality attributions and marketing-relevant variables (e.g., trustworthiness, willingness to pay) and the influence of consumers’ environmental consciousness levels. Findings indicate robust spillover effects of ecological design communications on a product's perceived environmental friendliness, which in turn was correlated to further quality attributions and marketing-relevant variables (e.g., trustworthiness, willingness to pay). Moreover, individuals’ environmental consciousness (EC) showed as a relevant moderating variable, with spillover effects being more pronounced for individuals with rather low EC.

实践者常在包装上运用生态设计的语义，以向消费者提供有关产品本身环境品质的信息。然而，包装提示与实际环保产品品质之间的差异，引发了消费者对有机产品（即“绿色洗白”传统产品以生态语义，或“传统洗白”有机产品以传统语义）的困惑和不信任。本研究旨在探究（非言语）生态包装语义是否等同于环境产品品质归属的增加；非言语包装设计媒体（即视觉、材料）的说服力，对品质归属及市场营销相关变量（如可靠性、支付意愿）的影响，以及消费者环境意识水平的作用。研究发现，生态设计沟通对产品感知环境友好性的溢出效应显著，进而与品质归属及市场营销相关变量（如可靠性、支付意愿）相关联。此外，个体的环境意识（EC）作为一种相关调节变量，表现出明显的溢出效应，对于环境意识较低的个人而言，这种效应更为显著。