1. How can green branding improve
appeal to environmental preferable
product service in the
fast food market?
Brand Identity Management creates brand appeal
Dissertation by Matteo Fabbi
BA Global Marketing 2008/2011
UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER

2. Urbanization together with globalization and industrialization has
shifted the food system away from simply moving basic staples from
the farms to the (local) plate (Maxwell and Slater, 2003)

3. Food is increasingly produced by commercial growers, feeding long
and sophisticated supply chains, and marketing often processed and
branded products to mainly urban consumers. (Garrett, 2000).

4. Due to the great impact of environmental pollution – which is directly
linked to industrial manufacturing in the world – consumers have
become more willing to buy products perceived as environmentally
friendly (Chen, 2009).

5. Given their size and the enormous amount of resource consumption
and waste, also the fast food chains felt the need to change their
behavior to comply with society‟s environmental concerns (Weinberg
and Parss, 2010),

6. As a consequence, an increasing number of companies have
positioned their brand identities based on environmentally friendly
characteristics, functions, ingredients and benefits usually encoding
their messages with the term or color „green‟ to communicate this
new position (Pundit, 2010).

7. However, since the the early 90‟s too many companies have created
green campaigns and claimed themselves to be green in some way or
another, even those with questionable green credentials. The type of
disinformation so as to present an environmentally responsible public
image has led to three main phenomena…

8. marketing consumers
Green marketing
m y
washing
o p i a disillusionment about

9. Green messages have lost its credential
Green
leading consumers to rethink the issue and
mounting cynicism and suspicion.
appeal
Companies are finding green
factors not to be a differentiator
advantage anymore and they are
loosing touch with their customers.

10. Green
How can
branding

11. The question in context 1/3
The branding process is a way of thinking about how an organization
aligns its goals and abilities with the demands of its stakeholders
(Aaker, 1997). When a firm manages a brand in such a way that meets
stakeholders demand and exceeds expectations in doing so, people
benefit and a value is created (Keller, 2007).

12. The question in context 2/3
Currently there is little doubt about the strategic importance of creating
a well-defined identity for delivering brand value (Aaker, 2000,
Kapferer, 1997), so this research has taken into account the Brand
Identity System model by Aaker (1997) to explore the effect of green
brands identities management on brand appeal.

13. Models and theor es:
Aaker’s Brand Identity model EXPLAINED 1/2
Drawing from Aaker‟s findings on brand identity management (1997),
a brand value can be represented by functional, experiential,
and self-expressive benefits.
Green brand strategists can therefore consider three different brand
patterns when enriching and increasing depth for their green identities:
the brand as a product, the brand as an organization and the brand
as a person.

14. Models and theor es:
Aaker’s Brand Identity model APPLIED 1/3
The (green) brand
as a product
Consumers derive a functional benefit
from green brands because the
“environmental care” expressed via
product usage

15. Models and theor es:
Aaker’s Brand Identity model APPLIED 2/3
The (green) brand
as an organization
Consumer derive a experiential
benefits from green brands because
the feeling of satisfaction for
“contributing to social welfare”

16. Models and theor es:
Aaker’s Brand Identity model APPLIED 3/3
The (green) brand
as a person
Consumer derive a symbolic
benefit from green brands because
the “social approval” and
“personal expression” feeling
derived via the brand use and display

17. The question in context 3/3
Then the research has taken into account theories of brand appeal:
the 23plusone study by Cramer and Koene (2010), which states that
the degree by which a brand feels good, brand appeal, has to do with
the fundamental human drives, the things people find important in life.
BAW Brand awareness + BEX Brand expectation + 23plusone brand profile = BAP

18. Models and theor es:
Brand appeal explained 1/2: theories
An extensively literature study revealed that there are 24 (23plusone)
fundamental human drives, like for example loyalty, status and
sexuality. When they are triggered, we experience a pleasant feeling of
wellbeing or happiness.
The better a brand touches on the 24 fundamental human drives, the
higher the brand appeal (23plusonestudy, 2010).
Click to see the 24 human drives 

19. The fundamental human drives
identified by Cramer and Koene (2010)

20. Models and theor es:
Brand appeal explained 2/2: theories
The better a brand simultaneously triggers drives from the five groups,
the higher the brand appeal.
Brands which trigger „unexpected’ drives‟, deviating from category
conformity, increase in brand appeal.
There are no universal mixing rules. The most effective „drive cocktail‟
is category-dependent.

21. Can green brand identity management
really influence brand appeal?

22. The GBAP Survey
The author created a new research framework called the Green
Brand Appeal Survey (GBAS) based on brand appeal theories
from Cramer and Koene and Aaker‟s brand identity model. The
objectives of the survey were to reveal the following:
the main motivations (drivers) for consumers to adopt
preferable environmental brands in the fast food industry.
effect of brand identity management on green brand appeal
new insights into the green branding concept

23. The GBAP Survey
Based on a target population of 120 university students from
the UK, the online questionnaire measured respondents‟
perceptions on three different adverts each representing a
different green brand identity.
The study was created thanks to the adoption of the drivograms
a set of 24 visual and verbal stimuli, each representing the human
drives, created by branding agency BR-ND to measure brand
appeal and used by the author for measuring green brand appeal
instead.
Click to see the drivograms

24. The 24 human drives translated into 24 visual-verbal stimuli,
called Drivograms by agency BR-ND, Amsterdam.

25. The GBAP Survey
In line with the main objective of exploring and measuring the
green brand appeal generated by different green brand identities,
the questionnaire was divided into two main sections.
• The first part of the questionnaire allowed the author to identify
the respondents profile.
• The second part of the questionnaire was dedicated on the
perceptional responses from three different advertisements
Click to see the an example of the survey 

26. Students were asked to express their most important values in life
by selecting five of the drivograms below.

27. To find out the level of expectation for a green brand, students
were also asked to select a max of five the drivograms that
they felt would fit an environmentally friendly fast food brand.

28. Finally students were asked to rate how much each
AD3:
AD2: Green brand
drivograms would fit with the proposed adverts with thebrand
AD1: The Green aim of
measuring perceptions of the different green brand identities.
as a symbol.
brandorganization
an as a product
1 2 3 4 5
For example…

29. Each adverts representing a different green brand identity were
assessed against the principles of brand appeal. Brand appeal was
calculated for each of the three adverts.

30. Results showed that AD3 was the ad that generated highest green
brand appeal among the students. Therefore green self – expressive
benefits are those that are more appealing.
AD1 AD2
AD3

31. The results have shown that green brand position based on the
three different identities perspectives have different effect on the
green brand appeal.

32. CONCLUSIONS
Implications for managers
Results from the test of the three perspectives have shown that a well-
implemented green brand identity based on symbolic and personality green
brand attributes and benefits lead to higher green brand appeal
than organizational and product brand identity perspectives.

33. CONCLUSIONS
Implications for managers
In order for companies to deliver a
consistent and appealing green value,
brands need to satisfy consumers‟ needs
and interests beyond what is “green”.
Successful green marketing programs will
broaden the consumer appeal of green
products by convincing consumers of their
“non-green” consumers values.
Mangers need to consider how people
want to feel when going green and target
the motivations, needs and aspirations of
those people outside the green sphere.

34. CONCLUSIONS
Implications for managers
Focusing exclusively on the health
functional attributes may lead to green
marketing myopia. When targeting
consumers with strong green values then
such as the case of the target population in
the survey, marketers need to focus on the
„unexpected factor‟ if they want to make
green to spark.