The power of silent sustainability: Communication strategies for new sustainable products

Özge Turut

6 citations0/0 files storedCleaner and Responsible Consumption

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Environmental Sustainability in Business Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Abstract

Consumers are interested in sustainable products but they exhibit wariness about their efficacy resulting in a reluctance to purchase. Consumers perceive a high level functional risk in utilitarian benefits sustainable alternatives can provide. For that reason, communication strategy is essential for the success of new sustainable products. We analytically investigate the optimal pre-launch communication strategy and specifically, explore the role of third party reviews of new sustainable products. Before launching its new sustainable product, a firm can reach out an expert or an influencer to test it and write an honest review which informs consumers about the green product's quality in the traditional performance dimension. The firm cannot interfere with the content of the review, but can affect the degree of its informativeness by its investment level in pre-launch communication. We find that pre-launch communication is always profitable, but the optimal level of informativeness can be short of full revelation depending on the market conditions. Based on our results, we make suggestions to both firms and policy makers, which will help reduce the green attitude-behavior gap. Then, we investigate how the availability of pre-launch communication via third party testing and reviewing affects firms' sustainability strategy decision. Our analysis reveals that, depending on the market characteristics, the presence of pre-launch communication may encourage firms to be bolder in their sustainability initiatives and engage in high environmental impact strategies without concerning to preserve the conventional functional performance, or conversely, make them more risk averse and pursue mediocre environmental impact strategies with strong caution about the conventional functional performance.

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References

2019How to SHIFT Consumer Behaviors to be More Sustainable: A Literature Review and Guiding Framework 2020Perceived Greenwashing: The Effects of Green Marketing on Environmental and Product Perceptions 2018Exploring attitude–behavior gap in sustainable consumption: comparison of recycled and upcycled fashion products 2020Towards closing the attitude-intention-behavior gap in green consumption: A narrative review of the literature and an overview of future research directions 2020Bridge the gap: Consumers’ purchase intention and behavior regarding sustainable clothing 2017Green marketing consumer-level theory review: A compendium of applied theories and further research directions 2019Firms Talk, Suppliers Walk: Analyzing the Locus of Greenwashing in the Blame Game and Introducing ‘Vicarious Greenwashing’2014When Going Green Backfires: How Firm Intentions Shape the Evaluation of Socially Beneficial Product Enhancements

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