Branding LEED to millennials : a consumer-oriented approach to the marketing of green building certifications
- Author:
- Roostaeian, Yasaman
- Published:
- [University Park, Pennsylvania] : Pennsylvania State University, 2017.
- Physical Description:
- 1 electronic document
- Additional Creators:
- Poerschke, Ute
Access Online
- etda.libraries.psu.edu , Connect to this object online.
- Graduate Program:
- Restrictions on Access:
- Open Access.
- Summary:
- This research intends to systematically investigate, analyze, and make recommendations on how LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) as one of the most successful eco-brands, can be strengthened to build a greater impact in fulfilling the U.S. Green Building Council's mission, a prosperous environment that improves the quality of life for all. The prevalent concern for the environment has caused expansion of green certifications and labeling programs covering different products such as consumer packaged products, electronics, and home appliance. Similarly, the building industry has witnessed the emergence of rating systems, certifications, and eco-labels such as EPAs ENERGY STAR, USGBCs LEED. Among others, although the view that eco-labels are brands is not unanimously held, this thesis argues that well-known eco-labels such as LEED have come to represent themselves as brands because they are capable of motivating consumers and influence their behaviors in the market. The theoretical foundation of this research is built on the notion of consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) as one of the most dominant concepts in mainstream marketing academic research which indicates that consumers are the ones who decide the success, failure or economic impact of any brand. Green buildings certifications and labeling programs are voluntary environmental programs and they have a market-driven approach which means their success is dependent on gaining sufficient traction from the players in the market, from high-stakes investors to end-users. Building a stronger brand can increase the likelihood to attract a consumers favorable response and in long-term, it will increase the demand for certified-buildings.However, certification organizations often direct their marketing programs and advertising campaigns towards business owners, real estate investors, architects, and contractors to eventually deliver healthier products to end-users. In the meantime, the role of the end-users as the consumers of green spaces and their responses to the environmental brand are largely disregarded. In the case of LEED, there is a shortage of comprehensive branding guidelines for direct business to consumer purposes. For the long-term success of USGBCs mission, my thesis is that there is a necessity to target end-user consumers especially of the younger generation also known as Millennials. With the objective of providing branding recommendations that resonate with Millennials, the wide array of USGBCs efforts in managing the LEED brand were studied. In these examinations, several data sets are collected, including analyzing journals advertisements, social media, information from ad agencies, and conducting interviews with the director of the Brand Management team of USGBC. Through a systematic review of existing knowledge on Millennials and their environmental concerns, the attitudes and priorities of Millennials are analyzed and compared with the efforts of USGBC to form recommendations specific to this clientele.
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- Genre(s):
- Dissertation Note:
- M.S. Pennsylvania State University, 2017.
- Technical Details:
- The full text of the dissertation is available as an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file ; Adobe Acrobat Reader required to view the file.
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