Werte, Emotionen und Glaubwürdigkeit
Bei der Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation spielen Wertorientierung der Personen, das Wohlbefinden sowie die Glaubwürdigkeit eine zentrale Rolle.
Purpose. The purpose of this research was to develop marketing messages for sustainable products that will persuade a broad target group. The study examined the effects of different communication styles on attitudes toward booking a sustainable hotel, mediated by social-environmental and emotional well-being, as well as the role of credibility.
Theoretical framework. Mass tourism, as one of the most important industrial sectors worldwide, has been discussed since the 1980s with regard to its environmental impacts (Dernoi, 1981; Fischer, 2014; Vainikka, 2013). Today, there is a global trend toward sustainable lifestyles (Schroeder & Hahn, 2013), and sustainable standards are increasingly important in the tourism industry too (Weaver, 2013). However, the question of how to merchandise sustainable tourism to a mass consumer group remains unanswered.
Previous research on marketing sustainable products has been orientated toward a specific target group (Helmke, Scherberich, & Uebel, 2016). In the context of sustainable consumerism, two value orientations have been found to influence this particular behavior (Stern, Dietz, & Guagnano, 1995). These are a biospheric-altruistic value orientation (protecting the environment, universalism, and benevolence) and a self-enhancement value orientation (achievement and power). A biospheric-altruistic orientation is positively correlated with pro-environmental attitudes, whereas a self-enhancement orientation is negatively correlated with these attitudes. Advertisements mainly emphasize the biospheric- altruistic aspect of sustainability (Schultz & Zelezny, 2003), and those with more self- enhancement value orientations are less attracted by such messages.
The consumer group holding self-enhancement values has often been neglected by researchers. However, previous studies and theoretical consideration reveal three communication elements to be relevant for identifying differences between consumer groups regarding the persuasiveness of advertisements of sustainable products: 1) emotionality; 2) amount of information; and 3) certification. First, solution-orientated positive communication is the most effective communication style to persuade a mass audience. In particular, people who are not highly interested in environmental topics will be persuaded by the emotionality of the communication (Schwender, Schulz, & Kreeb, 2008). This communication style raises emotional well-being (Lucas & Diener, 2009) and strengthens pro-environmental attitudes (Lichtl, 1999). Second, providing a greater amount of sustainable information is especially valuable for consumers with an affinity for sustainable information (Chaiken, Liberman, & Eagly, 1989; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Furthermore, the amount of information provided also affects the credibility of the sustainability of the offer (Bachmann & Ingenhoff, 2016). Third, certifications in the form of labels can increase credibility in the view of the consumers (Atkinson & Rosenthal, 2014). If a third party validates the sustainable performance of a company and certifies the advertised goods and services, a label can serve as a cue that the information is true.
Methods. Design and sample. To test the effects of communication style, we conducted a 2 (emotionality: high vs. low) × 2 (amount of information: high vs. low) × 2 (certification: with vs. without) × 3 (value orientation: biospheric-altruistic vs. ambivalent vs. self-referential) between-subjects experiment. This study was conducted in Switzerland with 572 German- speaking participants. Soft quotas for age (M = 43.21, SD = 14.43), gender (nwomen = 281, nmen = 291), and education (nlow = 74, nmiddle = 280, nhigh = 218) were used.
Manipulation. The stimulus material was a digital brochure advertising a fictitious sustainable hotel. Participants spent at least two minutes reading the brochure (M = 3.41, SD = 1.58) before completing the questionnaire. The wording and pictures in the advertisement differed according to the experimental condition. To verify the manipulation, several pretests and a treatment checks were conducted. The treatment checks confirmed that people identified significantly more emotions and more information included in the brochure according to the experimental condition. Furthermore, the treatment checks confirmed that participants recognized the presence or absence of a label in the advertisement.
Measurement. Value orientation was measured using 11 Items (Stern et al., 1995) grouped into three clusters: biospheric-altruistic, ambivalent, and self-enhancement. Keyes’ (2014) well-being scales were adapted to measure social-environmental and emotional well-being. Credibility was assessed following Koch and Zerback’s (2013) scale. To measure attitudes toward booking the promoted hotel, Ajzens’ (2011) attitude concept was used.
Analysis. Multigroup Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to identify the influence of different communication styles (emotionality, amount of information, and certification) on attitudes with respect to value orientation. We hypothesized that the effects are mediated by emotional well-being, social-environmental well-being, and perceived credibility. The model showed a sufficient fit (RMSEA = .074, CFI = .925).
Results. The analysis showed that amongst people with a self-enhancement value orientation, positive attitudes toward sustainable behavior increased along with the level of emotional well-being and perceived credibility. The emotionality of the communication enhanced emotional well-being, and providing more information enhanced credibility. However, for this target group, credibility was negatively affected by exposure to a sustainable label. Amongst people with a biospheric-altruistic or ambivalent value orientation, positive attitudes toward sustainable behavior increased along with the levels of emotional well- being, perceived credibility, and social-environmental well-being. For this target group, the amount of information is very important. The more information provided, the higher the social-environmental well-being. The emotionality of the communication enhanced the emotional well-being for people with biospheric-altruistic values, but not for those with an ambivalent value orientation. However, among both of these target groups, credibility could not be enhanced significantly either by increasing the amount of information provided or by displaying a sustainable label.
Conclusion. This is the first study examining the persuasiveness of a sustainable message to a broad target group. Different effects of communication styles were found according to on consumers’ value orientation. Solution-orientated positive communication will persuade people with self-enhancement orientations who are not highly interested in environmental topics, whereas more details about the sustainability of the product will persuade people who are more interested in environmental topics. Future research should examine the role of credibility in more detail to determine the communication style that increases the perception of credibility for each of the different target groups. To reach consumers with a self-enhancement value orientation, marketing messages should emphasize emotions affecting the self; thus, the existing target group for sustainable products can be broadened.
Institution
67th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Division Strategic Environmental Communication and Exploration of Research in Crisis, Risk and Disaster
Drittmittel
Schweizer Nationalfonds (SNF)
Veranstaltungsdatum
25.-29. Mai 2017
Funktion
Referentin
researcher, sprecker, participant