09/11/15 2224030 MKTU9M5

ETHICAL CONSUMERISM: THE ROLE PLAYED BY CONSUMER IDENTITY AND SELF

Student Number: 2224030Module Code: MKTU9M5Word Count: 2998

09/11/15 2224030 MKTU9M5ETHICAL CONSUMERISM: THE ROLE PLAYED BY CONSUMER IDENTITY AND SELF

INTRODUCTIONEthical consumerism, defined as the purchase of products produced in a way that limits or avoids the social and environmental negative consequences of global trade (Uusitalo and Oksanen, 2004), is becoming increasingly important both in the minds of consumers and within business strategies. In fact, most people define themselves as environmentally conscious. At the same time, the vast majority of firms have developed a CSR or a Sustainability dedicated business section, in response to the results of many researches within this field that have clearly shown the positive effects that ethical and sustainable approaches have on profitability, market shares, customer satisfaction and employee commitment (Moser, 2015).

However, the green and the fair trade sectors of the market are not having the expected success. People seem to have many different responses to green and ethical marketing and to the related global issues. A great amount of buyers tend to define themselves as environmentally conscious without actually engaging with environmentally-friendly products. For what concerns fair trade consumerism, the attitude-behaviour gap is even wider as everyone claims to care about human rights, while very few people translate fair trades principles on to consumer purchase behaviour (Strong, 1997). What is the role played by consumer identity and self within this context?

THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDThe Literature Review will be based on the connection between the context of the ethical and sustainable consumption and the consumer identity. The theoretical lenses that have been selected to investigate the topic and address the main questions are:

I. The Extended Self theory which will support the understanding of how people decide to build or not to build their pro-environment self-image through the association with green purchasing behaviour and to what extent sustainable products are seen as an extension of their identity (Belk, 1988). These two elements will s u b s e q u e n t l y d e t e r m i n e t h e magnitude of the influence that the individuals’ identity features have on their consumer behaviour.

II. The Symbolic Interactionism theory which refers to the fact that people form their identity through the social role that they are supposed to have within peer groups (Leigh and Gabel, 1992). Consequently, social groups and the opinion of people influence consumers who tend to consume products that communicate their desired self to the external social environment. This theoretical lens will be useful to identify the stereotypical characteristics that people gain in the eyes of peers when purchasing ethical products.

III. The Neutralisation theory which will be crucial to understand how people that are not consistent with their environmentally conscious attitude when it comes to actually buying ethical products rationalise their decision (Johnstone and Tan, 2015). It is necessary for them to rationalise the choice because otherwise they would feel guilty and their self-esteem would be negatively affected.

KEY THEMESThree spec i fic ques t i ons w i l l be deconstructed and investigated through the knowledge provided by previous literature and the chosen theoretical lenses.

T h e fi r s t t h e m e h a s b e e n v e r y controversially discussed in previous literature and concerns the definition of which are the antecedents or drivers of consumer behaviour. Many attributes have

09/11/15 2224030 MKTU9M5been investigated in previous literature to find the ones directly influencing consumer purchasing choices with regards to ethical products.

The second quest ion that wi l l be addressed relates to the differences in the perception of the self and subsequently in the purchasing behaviour of green products between collectivist societies (e.g. India) and individualistic societies (e.g. Portugal, Spain, UK).

The third element of discussion will cover the way in which people who define themselves as environmentally conscious but do not follow this principle in their purchasing behaviour rationalise their choice in order not to lower their self-esteem and damage the perception they have of their own identity.

BENEFITS OF THE LITERATURE REVIEWThe literature review will give and overall view on ethical consumerism, the process that brings customers to buy or not to buy ethical products and the outcomes. This topic has been covered in many papers and researches during the last decades, what differs is that this literature review will analyse this trends without referring to one particular country or to a group of similar countries. Instead, it will go through the differences between eastern and western societies, bringing together in one paper the diversity of the results collected by researchers all over the world.

Moreover, the connection between identity and green purchasing behaviour will be analysed in depth and some implications for marketers will be identified.

DRIVERS OF ETHICAL CONSUMERISM: A BROADER VIEWAkehurst et al. (2012) have developed a research among the adult population of Portugal analysing both demographic and psychographic variables. Demographic variables (i.e. sex, age, education, income)

have shown irrelevant impact on green purchasing behaviour. On the other hand, psychographic variables seemed to be quite effective on customer behaviour. Findings have shown that altruism has a great influence on the purchasing decisions of consumers. In fact, altruism is by definition the concern about others and it can be extended in terms of the general concern about the well being of everyone else. The welfare of the environment around us influences the present and the future health and prosperity of the human race. Another interesting factor that Akehurst et al. (2012) have found to have a strong impact on the choice of purchasing green products is the Perceived Consumer Behaviour (PCE). Johnstone and Tan (2015) support this theory as they also found, through their research, that individuals tend to think that if no one else worries about trying to be green and make the world a better place, it is pointless that only some individuals do. People find hard to understand the importance and impact of their individual action towards the cause, as they cannot immediately see i t . Subsequent ly, individuals that are surrounded by other ethical consumers are more likely to believe in the effectiveness of their actions and to engage a green purchasing behaviour.

Fraj and Martinez’s (2006) work is based on a sample of 595 Spanish individuals and their purpose was to identify which values and lifestyles provide valid explanation for ethical consumerism. The conclusions that have been drawn explain ecological behaviour through two main antecedents. The first one is the value given to ecological matters and the second one is the enterprising spirit of consumers. It is easy to justify the first element they have identified, while the enterprising spirit can be deconstructed and seen as a self-fulfilment feeling, a constant need to strive for improvement. People who care about being the best version of themselves and always try to improve, resulted to apply this attitude also when concerning the

09/11/15 2224030 MKTU9M5environment, which they try to improve through ethical consumerism. In fact, consumers presenting enterprising spirit resulted to be characterised by having an ecological lifestyle (Fraj and Martinez, 2006). Thus, ecological values along with active, enterprising and improvement-focused lifestyle seem to be determining factors of ecological consumer behaviour.

Khare (2015) has looked for the antecedents to ethical purchasing behaviour within the Indian emerging economy. Findings have shown that green self-identity, peer influence and past green buying behaviour accounted for 54.9 percent for ethical consumerism (Khare, 2015). These results clearly demonstrate that most of Indian people purchasing green products feel a connection between their purchases and their identity. In fact, not only one of the main reasons for their green buying behaviour is that they see ethics as a reflection of their own identity and want to apply this principle to their buying behaviour as well, but they also and most importantly want and feel proud to show their peers their green identity through the purchases they make.

In conclusion, it can be said that the most relevant driving forces determining ethical consumerism are altruism, perceived consumer behaviour, ecological values, enterprising spirit, green self-identity, peer influence and past green buying behaviour. The theory of the extended self can explain four of them:• Altruism and enterprising spirit are

closely related and refer to the desire to improve the quality of life. This desire is a feature which is part of the individuals’ identity and the will to reflect this characteristic in the buying behaviour is clear.

• Ecological values and green self identity are the same thing and represent an internal feature that people want to develop and display to others also through the products they purchase, resulting in a symbolic consumption of

products they identify with and that represent an extension of their self.

The theory of symbolic interactionism clarifies the other three elements:• Perceived consumer behaviour can be

defined as the influence that what other people choose to do has on the customer, which is very similar to peer influence. People feel the need to be like their peers to be accepted and are reluctant to do something if they are not sure about the fact that the majority of other people will do the same (Gupta and Ogden, 2009).

• Past green buying behaviour also relates to influence groups as someone who has been initiated to the purchase of green products by someone they trust is more likely to start consuming ethically.

COLLECTIVIST SOCIETIES VERSUS I N D I V I D U A L I S T S O C I E T I E S : A COMPARISONThrough the analysis of a number of experiments and researches developed in different parts of the world, it has become clear that the perception of the self varies significantly depending on the context and the cultural background of individuals. As it has been explained above through findings and theoretical lenses, the concept of identity is closely related to the ethical consumption patterns. It is interesting to investigate how different societies can shape the individuals’ perception of their identity and consequently change their customer behaviour. The comparison will be based on two types of societies: collectivist societies, such as the Indian society and individualist societies, such as the USA.

In an emerging country like India, information and awareness about green products and marketing and the related behaviours are limited and their popularity is just starting to increase Khare (2015). In collectivist societies, peer influence and group conformance are considered

09/11/15 2224030 MKTU9M5fundamental principles which lie at the basis of the culture itself. Consumers perceive their identity as derived from the group they are part of, and consequently Indian customers prefer adhering to norms, rules and common practices if it means the possibility to be part of a social group.

Within individualistic developed nations such as the USA, green marketing is quite aggressive and people are surrounded by incredibly large amounts of information about ethical consumerism. However, many people find it confusing and suspect as they are not sure of which companies are truly ethical and which are developing a greenwashing process (Johnstone and Tan, 2015). Individualistic societies tend to make people less likely to conform to a new consumption pattern, as people are more interested in their own opinion and thoughts as individuals and tend to question more and be more sceptic. Within individualistic cultures, people are slightly less interested in being accepted in specific social groups as they do not consider it as crucial as in collectivist societies, their push towards ethical consumption comes mainly from their own values and only in part from social pressure (Moser, 2015).

To sum up, it can be stated that the main difference between collectivist and individualist societies is that in collectivist societies people tend to perceive their identity as strictly connected to the social g roup they be long to and , as a consequence, their purchasing behaviour depends on what they are expected to do within the group. In other words, members of collectivist societies value their membership more than their personal preferences (Decropet al., 2007). Within individualistic societies, instead, people define themselves as individuals and like to think that their features are unique. This mindset lead them to be more sceptic and to differentiate from others, resulting in purchasing decisions that are mainly

dr iven by their own opinions and preferences.

THE ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOUR GAP: HOW PEOPLE RATIONALISE THEIR LACK OF CONSISTENCYResearch (e.g. international surveys, opinion polls) shows that consumers are concerned about the environment (Gupta and Ogden, 2009) (Johnstone and Tan, 2015). However, 59 percent of Americans claim they do not even think about participating in ethical activities (Gupta and Ogden, 2009). Moreover, experiments with focus groups provide plenty of examples of individuals who define themselves as environmentally conscious, but still are incapable of performing a truly ethical consumer behaviour, for example:

“In my flat I flick off the lights and only fill up the kettle about half way and my flatmates they’ll be like, what are you doing that for? They’re throwing out bottles and things like this and you’re just making this sort of effort and you just think, what’s the point?” (Johnstone and Tan, 2015).

If ethical principles are part of their identity, how do customers protect their self identity and self esteem from their lack of consistency? Johnstone and Tan (2015) have found that most people tend to use neutralisation techniques to justify their personal norm-violating behaviour. The most popular neutralisation techniques seem to be the denial of responsibility, the denial of injury and the appeal to higher loyalties (Johnstone and Tan, 2015).

The denial of responsibility is often based on factors like monetary cost, great amount of time spent on deciding which products are more reliable, unclear market ing messages and lack o f government intervention with adequate policies and norms.

The denial of injury is supported by common belief arguments such as that non-green products have never killed anyone and that there is no evidence they

09/11/15 2224030 MKTU9M5actually harm the environment. The opposite argument is also made stating that it is useless to put into practice ethical principles as long as most people keep on harming the environment. As stated before and demonstrated in the customer citation at the beginning of the paragraph, people are unlikely to take action if they do not believe that others will do the same. In fact, green buyers are usually high trusters who expect that other people will act in their same way (Gupta and Ogden, 2009).

The appeal to higher loyalties is one of the most utilised methods to rationalise the deviancy and of ten refers to the commitment to familial duties, such as the fact that if you are trying to raise your children and have no money and a lot of things to do, you need to choose what is best for your family.

In conclusion, it can be said that there is a strong connection between the purchasing choices and the perception of the self and identity. In fact, when people do not manage to be consistent with their ethical principles when buying, they feel the need to justify their lack of coherence through neutralisation techniques. However, these justifications are quite weak. The denial of responsibility can be addressed by marketers and policy makers by improving communications and norms. The denial of injury can be denied by simply providing some information on the effects of ethical consumption and non-ethical consumption on the environment. The appeal to higher loyalties can easily be invalidated by pointing out that the welfare of the environment is something concerning everyone and that this is the world in which future generations will have to live, people cannot state they are using intoxicating products because raising children is more important while they are destroying the world in which the same children will have to live.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONSFindings from researches developed all over the world, concerning both emerging

and developed economies, western and eastern countries have shown that the main factors determining consumer behaviour are: altruism, perceived consumer behaviour (Akehurst et al., 2012), ecological values, enterprising spirit (Fraj and Martinez, 2006), green self-identity, peer influence and past green buying behaviour (Khare, 2015). Each of these factors is related to the self and identity of individuals, as demonstrated through the extended self theory and the symbolic interactionism theory.

Consumers belonging to collectivist societies such as India define their identity through their role in society and are more likely to be influenced by peer groups in their purchasing decisions, while members of individualistic societies tend to define their identity through their ‘unique’ characteristics and value more their own preferences and values which are the drivers of their consumption choices. These differences between cultural contexts lead to diversity in the perception of the identity and purchasing behaviour is strongly influenced, demonstrating once more the importance of the self in customer behaviour.

The concept of identity is linked to purchasing decisions in a way that makes it difficult for customers to accept that they are not being consistent with the ethical principles they claim to have when choosing not to consume green products. Accepting their lack of consistency would lower their self-esteem and, in order to protect it, they try to rationalise their choice through neutralisation techniques such as the denial of responsibility, the denial of injury and the appeal to higher loyalties.

Implications for marketers would be to encourage experienced green consumers to help other people understand the benefits of ethical consumerism, applying a ‘learning by doing strategy’ (Tadajewski and Wagner‐Tsukamoto, 2006). In this way, people would also feel more comfortable surrounded by peers and

09/11/15 2224030 MKTU9M5would be more likely to trust them. Moreover, marketers should explain more in detail the positive effects that every single action of every single person can have on the environment, in order to stop people thinking they will have no impact if other people do not start behaving ecologically. Also, providing customers with more precise information and policies concerning ecological behaviour would deny neutralisation techniques, showing the weakness of the arguments and stopping people from using them to justify themselves.

Future research should collect actual purchasing data and focus more on those instead of using surveys and interviews as people are not always accurate in evaluating themselves. Moreover, the stereotype of the ethical consumer should be analysed more in depth in order to overcome it and make people take global issues seriously.

REFERENCES

• Johnstone, M. and Tan, L. (2015). An exp lora t ion o f env i ronmenta l ly -conscious consumers and the reasons why they do not buy green products. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 33(5), pp.804-825.

• Khare, A. (2015). Antecedents to green b u y i n g b e h a v i o u r : a s t u d y o n consumers in an emerging economy. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 33(3), pp.309-329.

• Uusitalo, O. and Oksanen, R. (2004). Ethical consumerism: a view from Finland. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 28(3), pp.214-221.

• Fraj, E. and Martinez, E. (2006). Environmental values and lifestyles as determining factors of ecological consumer behaviour: an empirical

ana lys is . Journa l o f Consumer Marketing, 23(3), pp.133-144.

• Akehurst, G., Afonso, C. and Martins Gonçalves, H. (2012). Re‐examining green purchase behaviour and the green consumer profile: new evidences. Management Decision, 50(5), pp.972-988.

• Leigh, J. and Gabel, T. (1992). Symbolic Interactionism: Its Effects on Consumer Behavior and Implications for Marketing St ra tegy. Journa l o f Consumer Marketing, 9(1), pp.27-38.

• Moser, A. (2015). Thinking green, buy ing g reen? Dr i ve rs o f p ro -environmental purchasing behavior. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 32(3), pp.167-175.

• Gupta, S. and Ogden, D. (2009). To buy or not to buy? A social dilemma perspective on green buying. Journal of Consumer Marketing , 26(6), pp.376-391.

• Decrop, A., Pecheux, C. and Bauvin, G. (2007). Decision Making within Groups of Friends: An Exploratory Study. Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition), 22(2), pp.1-19.

• Strong, C. (1997). The problems of translating fair trade principles into consumer pu rchase behav iou r. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 15(1), pp.32-37.

• Tadajewski, M. and Wagner‐Tsukamoto, S. (2006). Anthropology and consumer research: qualitative insights into green consumer behavior. Qualitative Mrkt Res: An Int J, 9(1), pp.8-25.