Does congruency matter for online green demarketing campaigns? Examining the effects of retargeting display ads embedded in different browsing contexts
Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing
ISSN: 2040-7122
Article publication date: 27 February 2023
Issue publication date: 11 November 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Green demarketing, which promotes anti-consumption as a more extreme sustainability tactic, could help consumers and societies move toward healthier consumption patterns while building strong, long-lasting relationships with consumers. As even the most committed brands find the need to oscillate between demarketing and conventional marketing for survival, this research tests how the congruency of the campaign shown on a brand's home page (owned media) and a following retargeting ad (paid media) could impact perceived congruency and further downstream effects. In doing so, this research proposes that the media context (i.e. news or shopping browsing context) in which the retargeting ad is embedded could determine how much congruency of the demarketing campaign across owned and paid media matters.
Design/methodology/approach
An experiment with a 2 (home page content: green vs. demarketing) × 2 (retargeting ad content: product vs. demarketing) × 2 (browsing context: shopping vs. news) between-subjects factorial design was employed with an online panel of 430 participants. The participants first saw the brand's home page content, then were assigned to a website browsing context where the retargeting ad of the brand was embedded.
Findings
In a news browsing context, users perceived higher congruency when product retargeting ads (vs. demarketing) were shown after a green home page exposure and when demarketing retargeting ads (vs. products) were delivered after a demarketing home page. The elevated perceived congruency successfully led to higher ad argument and ad attitude. These differences were not present in a shopping browsing context. These results showed that the congruency between the home page and the retargeting ad for demarketing campaigns mattered more in certain media contexts (i.e. news browsing context).
Originality/value
The study closes the empirical gap in demarketing brand activism campaigns by demonstrating when and how congruency between multiple owned and paid channels for demarketing campaigns impacts consumer responses. This study provides evidence of how the match of the demarketing campaign shown on a brand's home page and a following retargeting ad could impact perceived congruency and further downstream effects of ad argument and ad attitude while considering different browsing context effects.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr. Karen King for her comments on the manuscript.
Funding:This work was supported by the Jim Kennedy New Media Research Funding, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.
Citation
Yoon, H.J., Lee, Y.-J., Sun, S. and Joo, J. (2023), "Does congruency matter for online green demarketing campaigns? Examining the effects of retargeting display ads embedded in different browsing contexts", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 17 No. 6, pp. 882-900. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-08-2022-0262
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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