Do Consumers Understand What Different Green Claims Actually Mean? An Experimental Approach in Italy

This article extends the literature on consumers' responses to green claims and their intentions to buy green products. We used an experimental approach based on three complementary studies. The first compares the effects of two claims regarding different levels of a company's environmental commitment. The second examines whether consumers can recognize exaggerated claims. The third analyzes consumers' perceptions of a company's environmental commitment and intentions to buy the advertised product when an institutional methodology is used to substantiate the message. Surveys were administered online in January 2020 to samples of the Italian population aged 18 to 75. The results suggest that consumers positively perceive the commitment that lies behind all the conditions tested, strongly influencing intentions to buy. However, consumers have either little or no understanding of differences among green claims and are also easily deceived by exaggerated claims (such as "zero impact"). Using multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM), we highlight the important role of education. Consumers with a higher level of education are more receptive to claims that imply a higher commitment and appreciate the presence of an institutional methodology as a credibility signal. However, even highly educated consumers are likely to be deceived by exaggerated claims.