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The concept of green marketing has assumed many synonyms, each suggesting products and production processes that consume less energy, recycle materials and reduce waste or pollution. The present paper examines issues in understanding the role played by green advertising on brand trust and brand loyalty. A key question is that if a customer's attitude toward green advertising is positive, does that influence their trust in the brand and eventually lead to loyalty among consumers? Despite previous studies on "Green Issues", little research has been done to investigate the relationship between consumer's attitude toward green advertising and brand loyalty with the mediating effect of brand trust. The study uses an 11-item scale for green advertising and a 4-item scale for brand loyalty adapted from Haytko and Matulich (2008). Brand trust scale included 8-items adapted from Delgado-Ballester (2004). All the items were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. Findings from a survey of 180 consumers suggest that consumers exhibiting a positive attitude toward green advertising imposed trust in the brand. The study also found that consumers are willing to pay more for these types of products and are loyal to them. A future study may extend the present research to study other consumer behaviors in response to green advertising, such as, intention to purchase and perceived quality.
INTRODUCTION
The last few decades have seen an unprecedented increase in the presence of green brands in the market suggesting that both the consumers and the marketers look at green marketing as a promising area. Breakthrough in ecological awareness among consumers is leading them to increasingly consider green brands (Chen, 2008), although their reasons for going green may vary depending on their environmental commitment. From the point of view of the companies, however, associating environmental issues with brands is fast becoming one of the ways of gaining competitive advantage (Montoro-Rios et. al., 2008). This is reflected in the way firms are making 'green' efforts by adding environmental claims or labels to products and by using terms and descriptions as "environmental friendly" and "natural". A growing number of organizations are aspiring to 'go green' as a strategy to overcome the challenge of distinguishing their products and services in an increasingly crowded green marketplace. As society becomes more concerned with...