An Overview of Sustainability in Consumer Behavior Study

Consumer Behavior

Rayane Brasil Barbosa

 Sustainability is nowadays a key word for each one of the daily activities of

everyone’s life. Since scientific researches about environmental imbalance and global

warming are showing up at the media, and people can see climatic changes caused by

our misuse of natural resources, they are becoming more aware about the impacts of

simple actions like brushing the teeth with the sink open or taking long showers.

Inevitably, the multiple dimensions of sustainability reached the business world and

gave a big and complex challenge for the CEO’s to face: how to increase profit while

reducing environmental impacts of their companies’ activities.

Regardless of the recent attention given to this topic, environmental sustainability

was already important for consumers since the 1980s when global climate changes had

increased sharply. In this scenario, the concept of Green Marketing came on and

brought together traditional marketing topics as advertising and promotion, purchase

intention, consumer behavior, and market strategy, with a new sustainable approach.

In order to make sustainability a common practice in Business Environment, some

countries have legislation that obligates or encourage (by tax incentives, for example)

the companies to make their production process less harmful for the environment. In

that case, corporations have to find ways to encourage their consumers to buy these

green products instead of the ones that they are used to. In other words, companies have

to try to change habits of their consumers’ behavior.

 Two of consumer behavior issues related to sustainability deserves to be

highlighted: product life cycle assessments and the increasing association of the “last

mile problem”. In first place, many companies are conducting researches on product

LCA. These researches show that their negative impact to the environment is more

intense during the “end stage” of their product. This is especially true for companies in

the fast-moving consumer goods, clothing or consumer electronics sectors. Try to

change the way the consumers see these kinds of products and how they get rid of them

when they don’t want them anymore is an important part of a sustainable company job.

In second place, “the last mile problem” is the need for companies to not just develop

sustainable problems but also make sure that consumers know about these products and

use and discard them in a sustainable way.

The multiple dimensions of sustainability, environmental, economic and social

domains (the triple bottom line) have resonated in the field of business strategy which

remodels sustainability concepts into business issues. While businesses, marketers and

academics see green products, as part of the solution of sustainability, some others think

it is also part of the problem since it still stimulates consumption. This marketing focus

misses the wider problem of modern infinite consumption, and other main values of

modern life that Kassiola (2003) discusses, ‘‘are inconsistent with ecological limits and

are producing an unsustainable, unsatisfying and undesirable society.’’ Therefore,

treating environmental concerns as a business opportunity, a green opportunity, can

have both the positive consequence of contributing to sustainability, and the negative

consequence of damaging the environment by stimulating consumption.

 The social aspect of sustainability is concerned with the well being of people and

communities as a noneconomic form of prosperity. The sustainability problem is about

finding a balance between personal and societal ‘‘needs’’ (and also “wants”) and

nature’s capability to support human life and activity, as well as maintaining ecosystems

equilibrium. This social approach of sustainability has become more apparent, shown by

increased public disbelief toward business practices, exemplified in scandals that

became famous by the large public, like those surrounding Enron and Exxon Oil, as

well as more public expectations of companies to do more for social well-being (Mohr

and Webb 2005).

Finally, the recent economic breakdown, which began in 2008 with the collapse of

Wall Street financial institutions, has attracted more attention to economic sustainability

around the world. As a consequence, with the lasting global economic recession,

consumers are extremely and urgently worried about economic sustainability due to fear

of general job losses, insecurity, and financial risk to governments to provide social

security program for the population. Sheth et al. (2011) have recently articulated the

meaning of the economic aspect of sustainability.

There is empirical evidence that during economic crises, firms are forced to

engage in cost-cutting activities and consequently cut their spending on sustainability

projects (Karaibrahimoglu 2010). This tendency may be aggravated by consumers’

focus on the cheapest price rather than quality or additional product features such as

ethical production (Manubens, 2009). However, the crisis and the concept of

sustainability call for similar needs which are innovation to guarantee long-term
entrepreneurial survival, and maintenance of internal organizational culture and

employee motivation, all of which help firms to navigate through rough economic

waters (Fernandez-Feijó Souto 2009).

From this perspective, corporate sustainability can serve as an effective tool to

manage economic crises and make firms less vulnerable to their vicious effects.

Furthermore, we argue that maintaining or even improving the level of corporate

sustainability is a signal to the capital markets that a firm still has enough financial

strength to pursue a long-term business strategy and is not forced to restrict its resources

to vitally important short-run functions. Our empirical findings support this argument

since they detect a positive momentum shift in perception of corporate sustainability

during the financial crisis, in particular for firms that operate in industries with high

environmental and social risks.

There are several examples on how sustainability issues have changed the way

corporations behave. One of them is Unilever's work around basic hygiene. Well-known

advertising in developing world markets has increased consciousness about the link

between bacteria and disease. However, only by including particular messaging on the

need for handwashing after going to the toilet or before making food is Unilever

actually contributing to a reduction in diarrhoea-related deaths.

Motivation is a good starting point. Establishing why people adopt – or don't

adopt – a sustainable habit is a clearly critical if you want to move such habits into the

mainstream. Establish action points is another good action. That's the second imperative

to widespread behaviour change. Communication campaigns are essential, but they need
to leave people with a clear message on what to do next so they don’t continue to

behave like they’re used to. John Drummond, chairman of specialist consultancy

Corporate Culture, gives the example of Anglian Water. The UK utility wanted to stop

fast-food restaurants putting fats and oils down the sink, so it asked why blocked drains

presented a problem. Restaurant owners cited the smell, which put off customers and

saw income subsequently fall.

"You would have thought it was obvious", Drummond says. "But almost every

other intervention up till then had been 'do it because there's legal requirement to do it."

Anglian Water changed its messaging accordingly. Within six weeks, sewer blockages

had halved.

With all these examples it’s clear that it is possible to increase profits and be

sustainable at the same time, what is missing for the companies that still remain acting

like their resources are endless is some consciousness that if each one of companies and

population contribute we can leave to the future generations a much better place to live.

References

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