Chap. 8: Communications

Question 1

Sustainability Marketing Communication

• Conventional view of communication

Answer 1

The conventional view of communication related to conventional marketing thinking –> Models of communication from the field of physics

–> Communication: “Sender”——–> “Receiver”
(encoding –> transmitting –> decoding/interpreting)

• Consumes resources (financial & physical)
• Some argue that communication can shape societies (e.g. promotion of junk food
• –> communicating values –> leads to a homogenous global culture (?)

Question 2

Sustainability Marketing Communication

• Alternative approach

Answer 2

Alternative approach from sociology:

• Communication essential for human interaction and understanding (sharing of knowledge, information, meaning)

–> More relevant to understand and promote sustainable development and marketing that emphasizes the process of building and maintaining relationships with consumers

–> Dialogue with consumers –> Dual focus:

1. Communication about sustainable solutions
2. Communication about the company as a whole

(–> “sustainability product communicaions” & “sustainability corporate communications)

–> This is a conversation based approach! (growth in recent years in interactivity in marketing communications through online communications, interactive sales promotions etc.)

• For sustainability marketers: vital part of marketing mix! Without effective communication, no awareness for consumers –> long-term relationships to ensure a whole life-cycle approach!
• Marketing communication is conventionally discussed as the fourth marketing mix “P”: Promotion (=PR, ads, sales promotion, personal selling)

Question 3

The Ambivalence of Communication

Answer 3

• Difficult to create campaigns that reach their target audience and meet their communication goals without creating controvercy or drawing negative comments from other stakeholders

Question 4

Development of communication approaches

• From x to y

Answer 4

–> picture

Question 5

Transformation of credence into quasi-search qualities by signalling

Answer 5

–> picture

Question 6

Credibility and Trust

• Theory of Infromation Economics I & II

Answer 6

–> picture

Question 7

2. Sustainability Product Communication:

Name 8 Common Objectives of Marketing Communications Efforts

Answer 7

Common Objectives of Marketing Communications Efforts:

• Generating Awareness
• Informing consumers about products and their availability, about the nature of the company and its activities or about special promotion offers
• Reminding consumers about a product and it’s availability, or about the need to maintain or replace the product
• Persuading consumers to try a new product, switch their brand loyalty or change their behaviour in some way
• Reassuring consumers in the face of direct or implied criticism of a product and reassure them that past purchases of the product were sensible choices (reassure that it actually works!)
• Motivating consumers to respond, not simply to make a purchase but perhaps by making a phone call or testing a free product sample
• Rewarding consumers through the provision of direct benefits for past custom and loyalty or for other behaviours
• Connecting with consumers through relationship-building activities and interactive communication

Question 8

2. Sustainability Product Communication:
   - Different media that marketers use for their communication
   - 3 terms

Answer 8

1. Above-the-line: classical & traditional advertising –> directly recognizable advertising
2. Below-the-line: non-classical advertisement and communication activities

–> Through-the-line: line in between 1. and 2. got blurred recently –> through-the-line = integrated marketing communication efforts

Question 9

2. Sustainability Product Communication:

I. Advertising

Answer 9

Advertising:

• mass media (television, radio, billboards, print)
• powerful medium (reaches large, dispersed market repeatedly with persuasive and informative messages)
• Challenge: Communicate meaningfullly about sustainability topics

Question 10

2. Sustainability Product Communication:

II. Personal Selling

Answer 10

Personal Selling:

• A medium more closely associated with industrial and business-to-business marketing than consumer marketing
• Sales staff should understand the issues related to sustainability

Question 11

2. Sustainability Product Communication:

III. Direct Mail

Answer 11

Direct Mail:

• The concept of junk mail has made direct mail a target for environmental activist campaigns and or grumbling by many householders –> Has to be accuratly targeted

Question 12

2. Sustainability Product Communication:

IV. Sales Promotion

Answer 12

Sales Promotion:

• Include a range of techniques offering consumers additional benefits to generate a response, such as a purchase or product trial
• Value-increasing: Price reduction or Quantity increases
• Value adding: Additional benefits to convey (e.g. access merchandize; club-membership)
• -> Critisism: Overconsumption / Wastage

Question 13

2. Sustainability Product Communication:

V. Labelling

Answer 13

Labelling:

• An important means of communicating with customers about sustainability consumption
• Plays a crucial role in shopping for food and domestic appliances
• Trustworthy signal
• Different aspects (energy, fair-trade, green, recycle); too many labels = confusing

Question 14

Critical Factors of Labelling (4 D‘s):

• To ensure that standards, certification and labelling work together to communicate effectively

Answer 14

• DEFINE standards for processes, performance
• DELIVER through expertise and networks
• DEMONSTRATE delivery through certifications or verifications
• DEMAND influence by appealing to wants and needs among buyers

Question 15

2. Sustainability Product Communication:

VI. PR

Answer 15

Public Relations:

• Covers wider range of nonadvertising communication approaches
• Connect with a wider audience beyond target consumer
• Build a reputation for the brand and the company behind it
• News media mgmt: Generate positive news coverage; Try to limit damage

Question 16

2. Sustainability Product Communication:

VII. Online Sustainability Marketing

Answer 16

Online Sustainability Marketing:

• online communications environment –> conversations companies can join in with, but cannot control (enhance or destroy brand/rep)
• online attack/shitstorm –> react in a proactive/open way
• seeking assistanc of online communities (sustainability-oriented ‘communities of interest’)

–> Not one ‘best’ media –> communications mix of different media

Question 17

Sustainability Marketing Messages I:

• Rational/Emotional/Moral appeals
• Channels

Answer 17

Sustainability Marketing Messages:

Rational appeals: Target the consumer‘s self-interest (e.g. marketing organic foods as healthier; low-energy products as more economical)

Emotional appeals: Seek to make an emotional connection with consumers –> conneting the benefits of sustainability strategies to childre‘s warfare; endangered animals; disadvantaged people from poorer countries

Moral appeals: Aim to engage people‘s sense of right and wrong (stressing our duty to protect the quality of the environment for future generations or to try to put an end to poverty)

Channels

Websites: Foundation of online marketing/communication

• Present approach
• Sustainable effects

Blogs/fb/twitter

• “Astroturfing”: Companies posing onlin to fight negative comments

Question 18

Sustainability Marketing Messages II:

• six types of appeal

Answer 18

Financial appeals: Linked to price reductions from resource conservation or to donations to charitable causes (rational)

Management appeals: Position the company as a part of the „green movement“ and part of the „solution“ rather than of the „problem“ (rational)

Euphoria appeals: Sense of well-being by highlighting the naturalness of health benefits of a product (emotional/moral)

Emotional appeals: Evoke fear for the future or guilt about our impact on the planet, or to generate a sense of empowernment (emotional/moral)

Zeitgeist appeal: Link to predominant social concerns about environmental and social issues

Others: Such as comparative advertising or celebrity endorsement

Question 19

Sustainability Marketing Messages III:

• Style of messages

Answer 19

• Right choice of language / tone
• Make issue personally relevant
• Avoid negative guilt-based messages
• Associating behaviour with positive self-image of consumer
• Interactive/playful vs. informative

Question 20

Communication thoughout the Consumption Process

• 4 phases (Consumption Process)
• Characteristics of value-action gap

Answer 20

Pre-Purchase: Generating awareness, informing consumers about a product and persuading them to consider it (free sample, demonstrations etc –> reduce perceived risks associated with purchase)

Purchase: Persuasive advertising campaigns that consumers recall or are influenced by when shopping, point-of-sale displays and promotional offers or the efforts of sales staff in store can all help motivate consumers to buy a sustainability-oriented product („encouraging purchase“)

Use: Companies seek broader range of consumer responses across a wider range of consumption behaviours –> communication that is not sales oriented

Post-use: Product disposal is a huge issue! Campaigns by goernments/producers encourage consumers to recycle products and packaging

Value-Action Gap:

-Consumers are very concerned about environmental issues but they are struggling to translate this into purchases

Reasons:

• Scepticism about businesses’ sustainability claims
• Being green’ needs time and space in people’s lives that is not available in increasingly busy lifestyles)

Overcoming this gap:

• Would lead to a fundamental shift in behavior (individuals’ use of natural resources, ensuring sustainable development and conservation of the environment)

Question 21

Conventional Marketing Objectives:

AIDA model

Answer 21

• series of steps customer goes through before making purchase decisions

(Note: affective = gefühlsbedingt)

Question 22

The Consumer as Communicator

There are a number of ways on which companies can engage in dialogue with consumers and other stakeholders in order to build trust and benefit form listening to, as well as talking to them:

…

Answer 22

• Roundtables –> Discussions with stakeholders about issues and solutions
• Citizen Panels –> Discussions about sust. topics, resulting in publication / citizen report
• Consensus conferences
• Word of mouth: Talk positively among friends , like on fb, retweet (online media increasingly important)

-Emphasis on openess, credibility, authenticity

Question 23

The credibility of sustainable products

• Who defines credibility
• 3 statements about credibility

Answer 23

Credibility: Like the meaning of communication, credibility is something that is defined by the audience, not the communicator

• Using vague & weak sustainability claims erodes trust & credibility
• Consumers rely on third parties ( –> Labelling)
• Consistency across all products

Question 24

What are the instruments of Sustainable Product Communication?

Answer 24

1. Advertising
2. Personal Selling
3. Labelling
4. Online/Social Media
5. Sales Promotions
6. Direct Mail
7. Point-of-Sale

Question 25

Sustainable Corporate Communications:

• 4 fundamental and interrelated principles relevant to sustainability marketing communications

Answer 25

• All aspects of corporate & environmental performance are relevant

–> Whole performance of company as part of product

McDonagh‘s model of sustainable communications: 4 fundamental and interrelated principles relevant to sustainability marketing communications

• Ecological Trust: Reverse the trend towards a loss of confidence in business and business leadership and the resulting crisis of ecological legitimation
• Ecological Access: Allowing stakeholders access to organizations, their facilities and the information they hold, particularly about the ecological impacts of their strategies, decisions, products and production process
• Ecological Disclosure: When done voluntarily through corporate environmental reporting helps to build ecological trust since customers are more likely to trust companies that disclose information
• Ecological Dialogue: With Stakeholders to build trust, to learn from stakeholders and their concerns, and to begin to draw them into corporate decision making process

–> All 4 points –> Customer Care –> Interpretation of consumer counts

Question 26

Holistic Sustainability Communication

Answer 26

• Trust
• Access
• Disclosure
• Dialogue

(Keywords like in McDonagh’s model of sustainable communications)

• Needs CSR, promo communication, two-way communication approach , PR

Question 27

Employees as Sustainability Brand Ambassadors

• 4 categories

Answer 27

Employees:

• Audience & communication channel –> Act as ambassadors
• Should be in agreement with strategy & create possitive word of mouth
• Positive impact on brand performance

See picture:

–>

Bystanders: Have info & understand the link but dont care –> sceptical

Champions: Have intellectutal understanding & emotional commitment –> advocates for brand

Weak links: Dont understand and dont care of message of sust.

Loose cannons: Loyal, emotionally bought into company‘s sust. strategy, lack understanding

Employees: Play vital, credible and authentic role as sust brand ambassadors

Question 28

7 sins of greenwashing

Answer 28

1. Hidden trade-off: Product is green-based on narrow set of attributes (no attention to environmental effect on wider scope)
2. No proof: No third party certificate, no accessible info
3. Vagueness: Claim that is poorly defined
4. Irrelevance: Unimportant for consumer & environment (e.g. label of something what is already demanded according to law)
5. Fibbing (flunkern): Claims are simply false
6. Lesser of two evils: e.g. organic cigarettes, environmentally friendly pesticides –> True in product category but distracts consumer from overall impact
7. Worshipping: False labels à Fake label

Question 29

What is gamification?

Answer 29

Gamification is the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service.