Do Ethical Consumers Really Love Green Brand? A Comparison of Chinese and Korean Consumers

Purpose – As socially responsible consumption increases, green marketing emerges as a new philosophy in marketing. A number of companies are now putting forth green marketing strategies. But there is no single definition of “green brand” that can be used interchangeably. In this paper, we attempt to explore the meaning for “green brand,” especially in Information and Technology products. Research design, data, and methodology – The author developed qualitative and quantitative research design. In particular, the paper approaches this topic from the Asian consumers’ perspective and applies ethical concepts to green brand research. For this, Chinese and Korean consumers were used as consumer segmentation variables to investigate their ethical perspectives. Results – Qualitative research showed that there are several attributes and benefits we need to consider for green brand. Quantitative study showed positive correlations of the two variables: the higher the consumer ethics are, the more they prefer green brands. Conclusions – The current study shows that consumers clearly have a certain propensity toward green brand equity. Thus, marketers should consider the consumers’ evaluation about green brands. This paper also proposes that ethics have a close relationship with green brand equity, and companies may use ethics in marketing strategy management.