ANTI-CONSUMPTION APPEALS ON MEAT IN

1 | 23-01-2019

ANTI-CONSUMPTION APPEALS ON MEAT IN

A SUPERMARKET BRAND CONCEPT

CONTEXT: WHO BENEFITS?

Master Thesis Defence

By: Meinhardt Draaijer January 23, 2019

First supervisor: dr. M.H. van Dijk

Introduction

• Worldwide challenge: Climate change (George et al., 2014) • Meat sector crucial contributor (The Guardian, 2018)

• Forecast global meat production: rise of 19% (FAO, 2013)

Aim/research question

• Green consumption appeals: Shift to organic meat consumption (Chatzidakis & Lee, 2013)

• Anti-consumption appeals: Reduces category consumption (More effective tackling climate change problem) (Reich & Soule, 2016)

• Supermarkets (sell meat for human consumption)

• Aim is to investigate the difference in brand attitude after presenting the appeals

Research Question:

What is the effect of presenting an

Hypotheses

• H1: An anti-consumption appeal (relative to a green-consumption appeal) has a negative effect on brand attitude.

• H2: A conservative

supermarket brand concept (relative to an openness brand concept) will

strengthen the negative effect of an anti

Method: Procedure

• Design: 2 (anti vs green appeal) x 2 (conservative vs openness supermarket brand concept) between subjects design

• Collection: through social-media & in person

• 4 Groups: Participants were randomly assigned to the conditions

• Cover story: evaluating the advertisement of the supermarket Loblaws coming to the Netherlands

• Manipulations:

Conservative vs Openness: 2 supermarket info texts to manipulate brand concept (Torelli, 2012)

Method: Sample

Variable Count Percentage

Age # % Working situation # % <20 43 23,75 Full time employed 40 22,1

21tm25 113 62,43 Studying 79 43,6

26tm30 9 4,97 Employed & Studying 55 30,4

31tm40 4 2,21 Unemployed 5 2,8 41> 12 6,63 Retired 2 1,1 Gender # % Meat consumption (days pw) # % Male 88 48,6 0 19 10,5 Female 93 51,4 1 10 5,5

Higest finished education # % 2 17 9,4

Method: Measures

• Dependent variables: General brand attitude, Cognitive brand attitude, Emotional brand attitude (Reich & Soule, 2016; Boerman & Van

Reijmersdal, 2012; Ajzen, 1989), measured on 7-point Likert Scales.

• Independent variables: Appeal type & supermarket brand concept, translated into 0-1 dummies based on conditions.

• Control variable green affection: 5 statements on green affection.

Results

Hypotheses Formulation Result

Hypothesis 1

An anti-consumption appeal (relative to a green consumption appeal) has a negative effect on

brand attitude Not supported

Hypothesis 2

A conservative supermarket brand concept (relative to an openness brand concept) will strengthen the negative effect of an

anti-consumption appeal on brand

Results: Hypothesis 2

Scores of general brand attitude per appealtype and supermarket brand concept

Results: Covariates & Additional

analysis

• Control variables: Did not have a significant effect (When added individually to the model)

• Additional analysis:

-Self Direction & Stimulation correlated medium with brand attitude.

Discussion

• Interesthing finding: Higher score green consumption appeal in conservative

context: green consumption not viewed as openness oriented and forward-looking anymore, changing the value distance (García-de-Frutos et al., 2016)

• Academic contribution:

-Answering academic request for more research on anti-consumption appeals. -Extension to earlier research (Reich & Soule, 2016)

• Managerial contribution:

Guideline, showing in which direction the company has to move when they want to be sustainable and evaluated positively.

• Future research suggestion:

References

› Ajzen, I. (1989), Attitude structure and behaviour, Attitude structure and behaviour (1), 241-274. › Boerman, S. C., Van Reijmersdal, E. A., & Neijens, P. C. (2012). Sponsorship disclosure: Effects of

duration on persuasion knowledge and brand responses. Journal of Communication, 62(6), 1047-1064. › Chatzidakis, A., & Lee, M. S. W. (2013), Anti-Consumption as the study of reasons against. Journal of

Macromarketing, 62(2), 190-200.

› FAO (2013), Tackling Climate Change Through Livestock, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved from: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3818e.pdf

› García-de-Frutos, N., Ortega-Egea, J.M., & Martínez-del-Río, J. (2016), Anti-consumption for

Environmental sustainability: Conceptualization, Review, and Multilevel Research Directions. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-25.

› Howard-Grenville, J., Buckle, S. J., Hoskins, B. J., & George, G. (2014). Climate change and management. Academy of Management Journal, 57, 615–623.

› Reich, B. J., & Soule, C. A. A. (2016), Green Demarketing in Advertisements: Comparing “Buy Green” and “Buy Less” Appeals in Product and Institutional Advertising Contexts. Journal of Advertising, 45(4), 441-458.

› Santer, B. D. (1996), A search for human influences on the thermal structure of the atmosphere, Nature, 382, 39-46.

› The Guardian (2018, July 19). Rising global meat consumption will devastate environment. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/19/rising-global-meat-consumption-will-devastate-environment

Further research is required to deepen the knowledge in the

field of presenting anti-consumption appeals in such a way

that both companies and the earth can benefit from them.

Lets start today,