Promotion

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that the entire process - including transportation - is optimized can help them overcome this barrier and increase the reputation of the brand, therefore the trust as well.

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could be promoted together with a sustainable dishwasher tablet, or a natural toilet cleaner with a sustainable all-purpose cleaner.

7.4.2. Advertising

The next part of the Promotion to assess is advertising. As lack of information on the sustainable household products and how purchasing them contributes to sustainable consumption is identified as a barrier based on the findings of this research, it is important to incorporate educational elements into the product or brand advertisement as well. Therefore, the message of the advertisement elements should always be meaningful and informative, providing validated content and authentic claims.

During this study the Individual Self part of the SHIFT model was tested, and findings show that this aspect can be a great motivator for consumers to change their behaviour. Consumers expressed that they often feel like they contribute to the society when they engage in purchasing a sustainable product or other sustainable actions, thus how they perceive themselves changes to the positive. They are feeling proud of themselves and they feel like they are an important and respectable part of the society. Therefore, it is suggested that these elements are incorporated in the product advertisement. The communication should aim to convince consumers that they are doing good when they purchase the specific green cleaning product, and that they are role models to the society, who can set example to the others.

Feelings and cognition are another important factor in terms of the advertising. Based on this research, companies should stay away from intense negative emotions as a motivational method, as consumers often feel like they are being blamed and companies are making them feel guilty in order to push them to buy their products. They have the tendency to connect this type of communication with emotional manipulation, which doesn’t offer any solution, just creates guilt in the consumers. Since consumers are lacking knowledge over the different issues and many of them are not aware of yet of the impact of using conventional products, using intense negative emotions or guilt makes them feel like they are being blamed for something they did not know about. However, collective guilt seemed to have receive better results with motivating the consumers, especially when put in a context that they can identify

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with. Hence, it is advised that companies create advertising campaigns that incorporate elements of sustainability impact in the consumers’ close environment, like mentioning plastic waste of their county of residence or the annual amount of harmful chemicals being released into the environment of their area. Moreover, based on the outcome of this research, it is advised to back up these claims and motivational messages with concrete numbers and data, as it is increasing the credibility and trust in the brand for the consumers and helps them believe that the purchase of these sustainable goods can help solve this problem.

Furthermore, positive emotional motivation was found to be a very effective method to change consumer behaviour in this study, as consumers feel like they are helping and they are contributing with their actions of buying green products. Many consumers expressed that they look for the outcome that can be reached by purchasing a certain sustainable good, as it actually highly motives them to purchase them. For this reason, it is suggested that the product advertisement includes exactly how changing consumer behaviour contributes to sustainability. It is deemed a good method for marketing managers to incorporate elements like how much water waste can be avoided by changing their action, how much the waste can be reduced or a similar aspect that using this product can contribute to.

Anticipated guilt and continuity also emerge as a good motivation, especially the continuative aspect of the need for sustainability as it emphasizes that the current behaviour of consumers need to be changed long-term. The results of this research pointed out that consumers are concerned about the future, especially in terms of their own family. As an example, some of the participants mentioned that seeing a message from companies that uses anticipated guilt made them nervous and worried for the future of their children, and as a result motivated them for action and to be more engaged towards sustainability.

Moreover, collective positive emotion is seen to have a great effect, especially when combined with educational information. Pointing out a problem, and suggesting what could be done to make it better with the given product help the consumers understand the way they contribute with changing their behaviour by switching to sustainable cleaning products. Therefore, we suggest that the advertisement of these products include communication in line with this. It is

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deemed important to remind consumers on the fact that sustainability is not just the latest trend that will go out of fashion, but something that will stay, and something that has a great impact on the future. As an example, a chemical free bathroom cleaner could be advertised with communication highlighting the harmfulness of chemical to the environment and the users, and offer the solution of buying the chemical free, sustainable product instead.

A great example of a successful advertising campaign was done by the brand Finish. The automatic dishwashing brand is aiming to change their consumers’ behaviour by opening their eyes about how much water is wasted when dishes are being pre-rinsed before placing in the dishwashers. The campaign provides relevant data of the average water waste per household annually, brings it to a local perspective by mentioning how much the country is accounting to when it comes to water shortage and water waste, uses positive emotions and anticipated guilt with continuity when expressing that with a change the future generations can have enough water as well, and also provides a solution to this problem by explaining that consumers don’t need to pre-rinse their dishes when using the new Finish dishwasher tabs.

(Finish, n.d.).

7.4.3. Strategic alliances

This part of promotion was deemed relevant for this study as many consumers struggle with not knowing what company or brand to trust and if their communication is authentic. The findings of this study indicate that one of the barriers that stops consumers from purchasing sustainable cleaning products more often, thus creates the attitude – behaviour gap is their mistrustfulness, however, in order to know which brand or product to trust, they often look for endorsements from trusted authorities or known and respectful brands. As a result, it is advised for marketing managers to work together with trusted companies and authorities when focusing on the different promotional tools, as this can reassure the consumers of the validity of the message and helps them believe that the given product can actually help make a difference. Connecting the product or the brand with an organization, company or brand that has good reputation and is trusted by the public can encourage consumers to choose the given green product over regular cleaning goods, or over the competitors’ products. Hence, it is

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suggested to identify local or global partners who are seen relevant to the product and the sustainability angle of it, and build a partnership with them.

A great example for this is the mentioned Finish campaign to save water and stop consumers from pre-rinsing their dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Finish collaborated with strategic partners like National Geographic, who supported the brand with a short video addressing water shortage as an environmental issue. This strategic alliance enabled the brands’ message to reach wider audience, but also strengthened the brand’s message and its credibility (Finish, n.d.).