What Sustainability Claims Move Consumers the Most? the Role of Moral Satisfaction in the Consumption of Sustainable Products

What sustainability claims move consumers the most? The role of moral satisfaction in the consumption of sustainable products. The case of Colombia. Abstract Sustainable claims about products have become increasingly diverse. While consumers are increasingly concerned about sustainable practices and responsible consumption, information is often misunderstood, and consumers feel they have to make trade-offs between certain attributes. Linking sustainability and consumer behavior theory and focusing on agricultural products, we conducted a mixed-model experiment to evaluate the effect of different sustainable claims on moral satisfaction and purchase intention. Claims related to certain sustainability areas are more effective than others: locally produced food, fair prices for farmers and support for childhood education are the claims that move consumers the most. In terms of implications, we suggest that specific, self- explanatory claims, rather than labels, enhance meaningful connections with consumers in developing countries through a moderator effect of moral satisfaction. Keywords: sustainability related claims, sustainable consumption, developing countries, consumer behavior, standards. 1. Introduction Consumers no longer only evaluate products in terms of quality, innovation, and price: They are also increasingly concerned about sustainability (Delmas & Colgan, 2018) and the impact of their purchase decisions (Angus & Westbrook, 2019). Indeed according to these authors, global consumers show a growing preference for locally produced, fresh, and organic food and new generations prefer food that has a lower environmental impact in its production process. Responding to these consumer demands and to those of other stakeholders like investors or partners, companies are increasing their sustainable offering (Mohr, Webb, & Harris, 2001; Pomering & Dolnicar, 2009) and communicating about their sustainability efforts (Türkel & Akan, 2015) through different means: sustainability reports, advertising activities, cause-related marketing or sustainable labels. Labels, one of the most widely used approaches, build on a certification and usually have a corresponding logo or graphic on the product packaging (Grunert, Hieke, & Wills, 2014). However, consumers may be confused by the multiple labels found in the marketplace: there are more than 463 sustainable labels in 199 countries and 25 industry sectors (Big Room Inc., 2019). Current research points to a poor understanding of labels among consumers (Cho & Berry, 2019; Grunert et al., 2014). Moreover, as different labels on diverse aspects of sustainability have been proliferating in markets, consumers seem to be confused. They find them redundant, ambiguous or difficult to interpret when the logo is not self-explanatory (Janßen & Langen, 2017). This lack of understanding can explain why, when buying food products, consumers use price, quality, 1 nutritional information and expiration date as their first cues in their purchase decision, sometimes ignoring sustainability related information (Grunert et al., 2014). Consumers may not only be confused by the lack of an explicit message, they also barely know sustainability related practices companies are adopting (or avoiding) (Cerri, Testa, & Rizzi, 2018; Pomering & Dolnicar, 2009; Rees, Tremma, & Manning, 2019). Thus, some sustainable products may be considered by consumers as niche products for wealthy and well-educated consumers (Johnston, Szabo, & Rodney, 2011), posing challenges for their diffusion in developing countries with low levels of knowledge. Existing research is not conclusive about purchase behaviors concerning sustainable products. Some studies show that consumers may perceive sustainable products as more expensive or of lower quality and believe they may have to forego attributes such as price and quality to buy sustainable products. Such trade-offs constitute barriers to sustainable consumption lifestyles (Barone, Miyazaki, & Taylor, 2000). The concern for these attributes is so strong that consumers will buy a less ethical product as long as they can satisfy their needs (Luchs, Naylor, Irwin, & Raghunathan, 2010). Other studies point to an enhanced experience gained from sustainable products: a food product from a company that ensures its employees' welfare is described as tastier (Wei, Miao, Kim, Behnke, & Almanza, 2018) and headphones produced with sustainable materials can enhance the enjoyment of music (Tezer & Onur, 2019). If the product is perceived as healthier and with more nutritional value, consumers will be willing to pay a premium price (Rousseau, 2015; Vecchio & Annunziata, 2015). Current research about consumers’ responses to sustainable products and labels highlights the emotional and cognitive components of sustainable purchases (Ladhari & Tchetgna, 2017). Emotions elicited by a marketing tool (e.g. logos, messages) generate a cognitive process that influences consumers' attitudes towards companies, brands, and products. As a result, emotions influence their behavior (Holbrook & Batra, 1987): positive emotions can increase product evaluations and purchase intention (Bagozzi, Gopinath, & Nyer, 1999). In the purchase of sustainable products, it has been demonstrated that moral emotions such as pride, gratitude, and guilt are positively correlated with purchase intention (Liang, Hou, Jo, & Sarigöllü, 2019). In this article, we follow this line of inquiry exploring consumers’ reactions to different sustainability related claims. Understanding what sustainability related claims work best for consumers was our guiding idea. We first conducted a preliminary study to understand reactions towards sustainable labels. Labels are now familiar in developed regions but this is not necessarily the case for developing regions. The results showed that most participants could not identify the sustainability related practice for each label confirming confusion around labels that might even be greater in developing countries. Thus, we decided to conduct a second study, based on a mixed-model experiment to evaluate consumer responses to sustainability related claims. Specifically, we focused on how consumers reacted to different claims about diverse social and environmental issues for different fruits, a product particularly appropriate for our context, Colombia. We also chose fruit because claims can be easily read (e.g., with a sticker). 2 We find that moral satisfaction mediates the purchase intention of sustainable products because consumers’ emotions vary depending on the social or environmental issue. Local food, fair wages for workers, and support for childhood education are the domains that move consumers the most. Our study makes a twofold contribution. First, by bringing experiential marketing to understand sustainable consumption, we delve into the cognitive approach to understand the consumption of sustainable products. Our contribution lies in showing that emotions, particularly, moral satisfaction acts as a complete mediator of the purchase intention of products with sustainability related claims. Second, this refines the question of what business claims about sustainability might be significant for consumers (Klein & Dawar, 2004; Maignan, 2001). The effect of sustainability-related practices on consumers’ perceptions is not yet clear. Consumer responses vary according to their perception of companies’ actions (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001), which are increasingly diverse and cover multiple social and environmental topics. Moreover, as there are multiple actions, it is unclear which different claims related to sustainability might be effective (Brach, Walsh, & Shaw, 2018). Our study clarifies what claims are more effective to increase purchase intention of fruit. In terms of policy and managerial implications, by showing how consumers react to different sustainability related messages; our results help company managers and policy makers define most suitable practices to foster the consumption of sustainable products particularly healthy products such as fruit. In developing countries, companies could include the most successful claims when promoting their products that can make meaningful connections with consumers. The significance of our results is particularly important for developing countries where research on perceptions social and environmental actions remains limited (Pisani, Kourula, Kolk, & Meijer, 2017). Companies face uncertainty about consumers’ requirements, as they are diverse and constantly changing, and there is little information about how consumers will react to the adoption of standards (Montiel, Christmann, & Zink, 2019). Our results also point to the importance of rethinking the use of labels as means to make social and environmental commitments visible. The remainder of the paper presents first our theoretical background. Then we detail our experiments methodology before moving onto the results. Finally, we discuss these results particularly in terms of policy implications. 2. Theoretical Framework 2.1 Consumer’s responses to different sustainability-related claims As consumers are increasingly looking for sustainable options in the market, companies have diversified their responses to different sustainability-related issues (Peloza & Shang, 2011). The multiplicity of sustainability issues may be an explanation to the abundance of sustainable labels (Janßen & Langen, 2017) and the increasing presence of sustainable products in retail (Jones, Comfort, & Hillier, 2007). For instance, when

Load more