Attitudes towards green advertising in Hungary

Abstract

Today, a significant number of academic studies analyze the changes in sustainable development and consumer attitudes that accompany it. Advertising research remains very popular, but few results have been published in the international literature on the attractiveness of green advertising, including in Hungary. The present study aimed to assess the purchasing patterns and product preferences influenced by green advertising strategies, highlighting aspects of trend following and environmentally friendly behaviors. A survey on green advertising with 306 answers was conducted in Hungary. Out of 22 statements, 4 factors, and based on them five significantly distinguished clusters were identified, with different attitudes toward green advertising, revealing which groups can be effectively reached by them. Out of the five clusters, the "Subjective Environmentalists" and "Objective Environmentalists" believed the purchase of green products to be more important than the average, so they can be considered to be the main target group for sustainable communication. Our results also show that there are still a significant number of passive individuals (the "Rejecters" cluster), those who focus on trends rather than sustainability (the "Trend-following Neutrals"), and those who like advertisements but do not purchase green products (the "Advertising Lovers"). Overall, however, it can be concluded that the acceptance of green advertising is higher than for traditional advertising, so the outlook for the spread and popularity of green advertising is likely to be optimistic.