In sympathy with the increasing environmental consciousness of consumers over the past three decades, the use of environmental claims for advertising has become more and more popular (Banerjeeet al., 1995; Easterlinget al., 1996; Manraiet al., 1997). Apart from the wide application of environmental claims in the product market (Kangunet al., 1991; Polonskyet al., 1998), service \ufb01rms of various types (e.g. hoteliers and fast food operators) have been increasingly resorting to these claims to enhance consumer acceptance of their intangible offerings (Conlin, 2000; Jones, 2002). An empirical investigation of a sample of major magazines has also highlighted that over one-third of the environmental advertisements placed therein are related to service offerings (Carlsonet al., 1996b).

Despite the popular use of environmental claims among practitioners, limited academic attention has been paid to exploring the effectiveness of these claims. Of the few studies

on this issue, nearly all concern the use of environmental claims to promote tangibles in developed economies of the West (Manraiet al., 1997; Morriset al., 1995; Polonskyet al., 1998). Although Chan (2000) examined the effectiveness of using environmental claims in China, the world\u2019s largest developing economy, his work was con\ufb01ned to a product (shampoo) rather than a service. In sum, a review of the existing literature reveals that investigation of the effectiveness of environmental claims in promoting services (and particularly promoting them to consumers in developing countries) remains virtually non-existent.

Within the foregoing context, this study attempts to analyze and better understand the communication effectiveness of environmental claims for advertising services to consumers in China. To this end, the study refers to the existing literature on services advertising and general advertising in order to analyze the effectiveness of environmental claims for advertising services to Chinese consumers. It also examines how key environmental advertising variables such as environmental claim type (Carlsonet al., 1996a), country image of the service \ufb01rm (Manraiet al., 1997), and consumer involvement (Chan, 2000) may affect the communication effectiveness.

The work described in this paper was supported by a research grant from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Research grant account: A-PD23).

In bridging the aforementioned research gap, this study will make academic and practical contributions in several ways. In academic terms, marketing scholars have long been dissatis\ufb01ed with the lack of integration between the services advertising and general advertising literature (Mittal, 1999; Tripp, 1997). Such scholars contend that studies of services advertising would bene\ufb01t from utilizing those long-established communication and behavioral concepts derived from investigations into advertising issues in general (Mortimer, 2002). In response to this call, the current study applies knowledge and theories documented in the general advertising literature to aid the analysis of services advertising issues. It is hoped that this will contribute to cross-fertilization between related subject \ufb01elds and provide insights into the relevance of general advertising theories in explaining offerings other than tangibles.

In practical terms, the choice of China as the setting of analysis will also provide signi\ufb01cant insights to various service \ufb01rms that are attracted to investing in the lucrative Chinese market (Luo, 2001; Ralstonet al., 1999). China\u2019s gross domestic product has grown at a compounded annual rate of nearly 10 percent throughout the last two decades (China Statistical Yearbook, 2002). The rapid rate of economic development and the associated increasing purchasing power of Chinese consumers make the country an attractive market for both foreign and local investors (Kilburn, 2001; Li and Gallup, 1995). The sustained economic growth has also led to the expansion of China\u2019s service industry. In recent years, the industry has contributed to around one-third of the country\u2019s national income and workforce (China Statistical Yearbook, 2002; Fu, 2002; Luet al., 2002). With China\u2019s accession to the World Trade Organization, it is believed that immense business opportunities will further emerge in its tertiary sector due to the in\ufb02ux of foreign investment (Tang, 2002). Taking the fast food industry as an example, it is reported that China has already become the fastest-growing market of McDonald\u2019s in the world (Madden, 2004).

While investors have been attracted to China\u2019s remarkable economic performance, they have more recently started to pay increased attention to the downside of this speedy economic development, namely environmental degradation. At least half of the world\u2019s ten most polluted cities are located in China. The country is also the world\u2019s largest producer of ozone- depleting substances, and the second largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions (Baldinger, 2000). With a national daily sewage rate of around 3.7 billion tonnes, China would need 10,000 waste-water treatment plants costing some US$48 billion just to achieve a treatment rate of 50 percent (The Economist, 2004). Moreover, it is believed that three- quarters of the river water \ufb02owing through China\u2019s urban areas is unsuitable for drinking or \ufb01shing, and that 300,000 Chinese citizens each year die prematurely as a result of air pollution (Mallet, 2004). In recent years, the country has produced 120m tonnes of solid waste annually, and this amount is increasing by 8 percent per annum (Chuan, 2003). It is further estimated that environmental degradation and the resultant resource scarcity costs China the equivalent of 8-12 percent of gross domestic product annually (Economy, 1999).

The continuing environmental degradation has forced the Chinese government to resort to various legislative and administrative measures for recti\ufb01cation (Chan, 2000). Among other measures, the government has strengthened its environmental laws, developed new environment-related tax

structures (China Environment Series, 1998; East Asian Executive Reports, 1999; Stover, 2000), and upgraded its National Environmental Protection Administration (NEPA) to ministerial status (Baldinger, 2000). All of these actions indicate the signi\ufb01cantly increased commitment of Chinese of\ufb01cials, at least at the national level, to tackle environmental issues. This increased commitment from the central government, together with the corresponding tightening of national environmental policy, has posed new operating challenges to enterprises that conduct business in China (Spitalnik, 1996). Failing to meet such challenges may jeopardize the survival of these enterprises. For example, it is reported that 60,000 heavily polluting enterprises from 15 industries have been forced to close down since China\u2019s enforcement of various environmental regulations in 1996 (Dutton, 1998).

With China\u2019s continued economic and social advancement, and the increased of\ufb01cial commitment to tackle environmental problems, Chinese consumers (especially those residing in urban areas) have also gradually realized the importance of ecological well-being to their enjoyment of increased amounts of leisure time. This observation is supported by Chan\u2019s (1999) empirical study, which demonstrates that Chinese consumers residing in urban areas are even more emotionally concerned about environmental problems than are their American counterparts. They are also willing to pay an additional premium of 4.5 percent for a green version of an offering (Chan, 1999). Moreover, Ye\u2019s (2000) investigation indicates that more than 75 percent of Chinese consumers have strong intentions to purchase offerings that are eco-friendly, and that over 90 percent of enterprises are willing to sell green products in China. In view of these developments, it is hoped that the current study will provide service marketers operating in China with some useful insights into \ufb01ne-tuning their green advertising strategy. A better understanding of how to effectively use environmental advertising claims will render service marketers with another promising tool to differentiate their offerings from competitors. This understanding is particularly important given the dif\ufb01culties commonly associated with the positioning and promotion of intangibles (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004).

With reference to the classical marketing communication model (see, for example, Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004), a framework guiding the subsequent discussion and analysis is depicted in Figure 1. Brie\ufb02y, the framework adopts the systems approach (Input! Process! Ouput) to delineate the major factors that affect the communication effectiveness of environmental claims. The framework \ufb01rst postulates that the sender\u2019s or advertiser\u2019s demographic characteristics such as the nature of his/her offering (e.g. service or product) and country of origin, and strategic decisions on the use of environmental claims, will have a signi\ufb01cant bearing on the consequent advertising messages and informational cues of the advertisement. These messages and informational cues are then psychologically processed by the receiver (the target audience). Moreover, because the literature concerning the advertising of products has revealed that country image and level of involvement exert signi\ufb01cant in\ufb02uences on the decisions of consumers (Manraiet al., 1997; Mortimer,

2001; Vaughn, 1980), and particularly Chinese consumers (Chan, 2000; Zhao and Shen, 1995), the present framework further proposes that the psychological processing of the receiver will be moderated by his/her perceived eco- friendliness of the originating country of the advertiser, and his/her degree of involvement with the advertised offering. This processing will eventually lead to the receiver\u2019s communicative responses being expressed in terms of attitudes toward the advertisement and the brand, and purchase intention. From the perspective of the advertiser, these attitudinal and conative outputs constitute a basis for evaluating the communication effectiveness of the advertisement (Stevensonet al., 2000).

With reference to this framework, the remainder of this paper begins with a review of the literature on how the intangible nature of an offering may affect the relevant advertising approach. This is followed by a discussion of different types of environmental claims (environmental claim types), and the possible responses of consumers toward these claims. Two proposed moderating in\ufb02uences on the communication effectiveness of environmental claims, namely country image and consumer involvement, are then analyzed. These conceptual considerations are used as a basis for the development of four hypotheses, which are tested using data collected from Chinese consumers. Relevant managerial implications and concluding remarks are made at the end of the paper.

Although in the last two decades there has been increased interest in the phenomenon of services marketing (Groveet al., 2002), the way in which services should be advertised remains a relatively unexplored research area (Tripp, 1997). Given the unique characteristics of services, some researchers argue that the approach for advertising services should differ from that for tangible products (e.g. George and Berry, 1981; Legg and Baker, 1987; Stafford and Day, 1995). However, others cast doubt on the argument for distinguishing between products and services, and question whether it is really necessary to study services advertising separately from advertising in general (Mathur and Kenyon, 1998; Mortimer, 2001).

While researchers of services advertising often express different views on how to advertise services, they generally agree that the relevant advertising strategy should emphasize addressing the issue of tangibility (George and Berry, 1981; Legg and Baker, 1987; Mittal, 1999). In this context, researchers including Hill and Gandhi (1992) and Tripp (1997) maintain that services advertising should contain concrete language to help potential customers recognize the service bene\ufb01ts, and to build up con\ufb01dence in the service quality. However, as Mortimer (2002) succinctly points out in her review of the services advertising literature, other researchers hold different views about how the issue of tangibility should be addressed in advertising (e.g. Stern, 1997; Young, 1981). They concede that while most services have some tangible components, their differentiating appeal may well lie in some intangible aspects of the service process or outcome (Mittal, 1999). On this basis, those researchers suggest the possibility of using emotional advertising appeals to link the properties of the service to consumers\u2019 subjective bene\ufb01ts of using the service, as well as to their social and psychological experiences.

Stafford and Day\u2019s (1995) study provides useful empirical input for evaluating the relative superiority of rational and emotional appeals in services advertising. In their work, Stafford and Day (1995) demonstrated that when compared with emotional appeals, rational or informational appeals are able to generate more favorable attitudes toward the advertisement for advertising both experiential and utilitarian services. They attribute the result to the ability of speci\ufb01c and concrete information to reduce the higher level of perceived risks commonly associated with the purchase of services (see also Murray and Schlacter, 1990). From this analysis, Stafford and Day (1995) postulate the universal superiority of rational appeals for advertising services regardless of their degrees of experiential/utilitarian content.

When examined carefully, Stafford and Day\u2019s (1995) \ufb01ndings appear to be consistent with the conventional view of environmental researchers (e.g. Polonskyet al., 1997) concerning the relative effectiveness of different types of environmental claims. For this reason, the issues relating to the classi\ufb01cation and nature of different environmental claim types, and consumers\u2019 possible responses toward them, are discussed in the following sections.