Industry surveyBBB National Programs, 2026

Giving specific reasons for a product's environmental benefits helps consumers make more accurate judgments about your brand's environmental practices.

Positioning & messaging

Reader Note:: Accuracy here means participants told apart the environmental attributes an ad actually claimed from ones it did not — the counterpart to the halo effect broad claims produced. The gain is in what consumers understand, not in what they buy. And it comes free: the same study found that adding the specifics did not reduce brand attitudes. No effect sizes are published for either result, and the ads were simulated.
Evidence:: Experimental
Vendor interest:: Low
Sample:: Survey of 1,794 consumers in the United States shown simulated advertising across six product and service categories.

Good for

Backing budget and pricing decisions in similar situations.

Not for

Situations far from the one tested, without checking again.
The source never says when this data was collected. It could be considerably older than the publication date suggests.
The source never says how this number was measured.
This was measured in one market. It may not hold where you are.
The source says how much it looked at, but not how any of it was chosen.

Personalization in B2B marketing is now standard practice, but leaders stand out in the level and precision of their personalization

Broad green claims make consumers assume companies do more for the environment than the ad actually says.

20%

chose the recommended article when the comment said “I guess this will be a great article” — against 63% for “I believe” and 63% for no qualifier at all