Date: 2020-06-09 Level: Master thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr  Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University  Authors: Lisa Eriksson (91/08/31) Lana Rasool (97/02/23)  Title: Keen to be green? Consumer perceptions of green advertising in the skincare industry Tutor: Konstantin Lampou Keywords: Green advertisements, green perceived risk, green trust, green skincare, green marketing, green content.  Research- questions: How do consumers perceive green content in advertisements?  What aspects create perceptions of trust? What aspects create perceptions of risks? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how consumers perceive green advertising practices in the skincare industry and what aspects affect perceptions of trust and risks. Method: The study was conducted through a qualitative approach by performing focus groups. Data was analyzed through a thematic analysis. Conclusion: The research indicate that there are several aspects that lead to consumer perception of trust and perceived risk when consumers view green advertisements. Six main themes that included different aspects were identified.

Title: “Factors affecting consumers green purchase intention towards ecological products: ICA supermarket in Sweden”. Level: Master degree thesis in Business AdministrationAuthor: Khalida Akter Supervisor: Zahra AhmadiExaminer: Maria Fregidou-Malama Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate how consumer trust, eco-branding and green marketing strategy influence consumer purchase intention towards ecological products. Method: The qualitative method and inductive approach have been used for this research. The primary data have been collected through face to face interview and the secondary data have been used through scientific journals and the internet. Findings: The results show the important factors that can promote green marketing towards ecological products are; consumer trust, green trust, eco-label trust, eco-branding, green pricing, green advertising, green design and green promotion have a strong relation with each other. The study also shows that consumer purchase intention can be increased by giving sufficient information regarding ecological products, by increasing awareness, credibility, by reducing the perceived risk of the products, brand uniqueness, by advertising the products through the company magazines, billboards and posters outside of the supermarket, by raising awareness of customer health. Brand loyalty is also an important factor to create a long-term relationship with customers and it can be created by the fair price perception among the customers. The main promotional issues have been found for this study is customer health and climate change. The study also shows that price doesn’t affect on consumer purchase behaviour. Suggestions for future research: This study helps to understand how to promote green marketing for ecological products. For further study, the author suggests to investigate if there is a relationship between green marketing, consumer trust, eco-branding as well as a green marketing strategy. The future study will help to research on green marketing for ecological products. Contribution: This study has identified elements to promote green marketing and factors that can help to increase consumers purchase intention. The author hopes that the findings of this study will help companies to create their consumer purchase intention. The study has contributed to the theory and to the managers by investigating the factors affecting on green marketing. Keywords: Green marketing, Consumer trust, green trust, Eco-branding, Green marketing strategy, consumer purchase intention.

Background: In today ́s world, experiences play an important role for the customers to build loyalty and long-lasting relationships. Brakus et al. (2009) developed one of the most cited scales for measuring brand experience. Especially the clothing industry has a higher interest to create an overall experience since they are operating in different markets. Moreover, sustainability became a huge trend pushing companies to implement sustainable practices. This trend can also be recognized in the clothing industry which makes up 8.1 % of the whole greenhouse gas emissions globally and customers are more and more aware of this. Companies need to change their overall approach to how they produce and how they communicate, to avoid being labelled as a greenwashing company. In the outdoor-clothing industry, Patagonia is one of the most successful brands – heavily focusing on sustainability. Their brand experience could be one factor for their success, which makes this brand an interesting case to further study this concept. Yet there is limited research on this topic in the literature, no study applied the BXS to one specific company nor into the context of sustainability in the clothing industry.  Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate and analyse the brand experience of the outdoor-clothing brand Patagonia with the aim of identifying the effects of sustainability efforts on the brand experience. Method: To investigate the research question appropriately a qualitative research has been conducted by interviewing 13 customers of Patagonia. To structure the study adequately, we relied on the brand experience scale of Brakus et al. (2009) referring to a deductive approach. Nevertheless, inductive elements influenced our sampling process and the data analysis to develop the new model green brand experience by considering the sustainability efforts of Patagonia.  Conclusion: The findings revealed that the brand experience scale by Brakus et al. (2009) is applicable, and all dimensions are influenced by the brand experience. Furthermore, two additional dimensions were identified: green brand trust and green brand image. In the end, a new model named green brand experience is presented. It consists of 6 dimensions which are described through items that show the strongest influence in each dimension. As a conclusion, recommendations for strategies and tools for sustainable companies are given to create a green brand experience. Aside from honest and clear communication, the mission to act sustainable should be in the focus of the experience ahead of promoting their own products.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to gain insights into consumer behavior to provide managerial implications on what fashion companies need to do to increase green trust during the transformation process towards sustainable development in order to increase green purchase intention. Two sub-research questions are raised to answer the main research question all- encompassing in the end. The sub-research questions aim at gaining theoretical knowledge about how consumers perceive corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of fashion companies, including if they can detect companies in the transformation process and what creates trust concerning CSR activities, as well as identifying influencing factors of green trust.  Design/methodology/approach – Since this research aims to investigate complex constructs of consumer behavior, it takes an exploratory approach through qualitative research. Focus group discussions are chosen as the central research method. Data analysis is carried out using qualitative content analysis according to Kuckartz (2014) in order to systematically analyze the data material.  Findings – Five sources of green trust have been identified, which are traceability, brand image, material, transparency, and certificates. The factors green confusion, greenwashing, lack of information and lack of knowledge have been observed to cause green distrust among consumers. The results of the study show that consumers’ level of knowledge on the subject of sustainability in the fashion industry varies tremendously. In order to increase green trust and thus increase green purchase intention, educational measures must be taken by both companies and independent institutions. Moreover, companies need to conduct sufficient CSR communications that are easy to access, understand, and trustworthy.  Research limitations – This paper is limited to a time frame of nine weeks, which was given for the completion of the work. In addition, it is limited to the fact that qualitative research does not deliver statistically proven and representative results. For this reason, it is limited to the interpretation barrier, which states that results are at risk to be subjective.  Keywords – transformation process towards sustainable development, sustainable development in the fashion industry, green trust on the consumer side, strategic CSR, organizational change  Paper type – Master thesis

Greenwashing is considered a global issue and refers to a process of conveying false information and marketing about a company's products and how they are produced. Greenwashing in marketing will give consumers the belief that a company is more eco-friendly than it really is and leads to unsustainable claims. This research aims to assess, through a quantitative analysis in combination with a survey, how Swedish consumers are affected by greenwashing, when it comes to their consumption choices. Moreover, this research assesses whether general attitudes towards ecolabels, green marketing and consumption is determined by a personal attitude towards marketing. In conclusion, the findings contribute to a better understanding of the effect of greenwashing on an individual level and how it has led to an increasing amount of skepticism regarding green trust and ecolabels.

Although consumers’ need for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle drives natural cosmetics consumption, various claims of natural cosmetics make consumers confused and distrustful. This study aimed to explore factors that affect consumers' purchasing behavior of natural cosmetics under the theoretical framework of planned behavior (TPB). The study adopted the qualitative method of purposive sampling. Semi-structured interview technique and thematic analysis were used to collect and analyze data from 21 consumers of natural or traditional cosmetics living in Uppsala. The results showed: consumers had uncertain attitudes towards buying natural cosmetics, which had no obvious impact on the purchasing behavior; the perceived social pressures from family, relatives, groups, etc. had a clear positive impact on the purchasing behavior; online purchasing, recommendation from others, and sustainable lifestyle facilitated the purchasing behavior; high price, inconvenient purchasing location, lack of knowledge, non-harmonized certifications, etc. led to the inconsistency between consumers' purchasing intention and actual purchasing behavior. Product knowledge was explored as an important resource that consumers need. The above findings can be used to improve marketing strategies like harmonized certifications. This study also paves the way for future quantitative verification of these factors.