Sustainability and Brand Equity: The Moderating Role of Brand Color and Brand Gender

Abstract

Green color priming has been introduced as a cue for consumer perceptions of sustainability. Nevertheless, the color green is not necessarily effective in every brand’s sustainability strategy. This study aims to understand the impact of a brand’s color and gender in an investigation of the relationship between sustainability and brand equity, including perceived quality. This study examined Interbrand’s Best Global Brands, conducted an international online survey of more than 400 participants, and demonstrated the relationship between brand color, brand gender, and sustainability using the process macro analysis method. In study 1, it was found that the use of the color green in sustainability color strategy is limited depending on the brand gender of the Best Global Brands through case analysis. In the empirical analysis of study 2, it was discovered that a majority of brands created higher brand equity in the color green than in iconic colors when implementing sustainability strategies. However, brands with a high level of feminine personality with graceful and tender characteristics created a higher level of brand equity when implementing their sustainability strategies with iconic colors than with green. These findings suggest that iconic colors are more effective than the color green in sustainability strategies when the masculine personality level is low, and the feminine personality level is high.