The attitudes and behaviors towards purchasing the KeepCup.

Keep cups are reusable coffee cups that are made from plastic and which can be washed

and used again. The KeepCups were designed first in Australia where there was a need to reduce

the waste generated as a result of uncontrolled disposing of the coffee cups and the need to create

a more environmentally friendly and a sustainable option for the customers. KeepCups are

ecologically friendly and long-lasting coffee cups that have been in the forefront to promote

environmental values. KeepCups products are doing their best through the promotion of

sustainable consumption habits as it is encouraging the development of different social movements

which strive for product re-use and environmental sustainability. In this connection, marketing has

a significant role in altering consumer behavior or providing a key strategic consideration for

marketers.

With the launch in 2009, the KeepCups began its operations by creating and selling the

recyclable and reusable cups that also had appealing designs to coffee customers. The KeepCups

are designed in a manner that the cup is aesthetically attractive to many hot beverages consumers

while at the same time using a pure recyclable plastic. The KeepCups are an example of how

sustainable consumption can be made possible by promoting eco-friendly and colorful products,

reducing wastes and at the same time making money. In marketing the KeepCups, one of the

messages used is sustainability as Gray puts it, “Sustainability is a message that translates in any

language, which makes it easy to export the product and sell it in different countries”1.

1
Paju, Kristiina. "Influencing sustainable consumption: a case of KeepCup." (2015).
 In the modern world, consumer cultures that value convenience and affordable prices have

led to issues concerning our consumption habits, as well as sustainability. The way many people

consume products creates global unsustainability, and most of the sectors do not understand that

nature of consumption. Studies on sustainability agree that consumption lies amid unsustainable

and sustainable use. Importantly, consumers still hold on to the ethical and environmental

elements of the products they purchase although the emphasis is not primarily made. Myra Hird

discusses the first perspective of my Keepcups case study in the article ‘Waste, Landfills, and an

Environmental Ethic of Vulnerability’. Hird applies the constitutive inhuman inclusion concept to

help develop an understanding of the perspective of waste-world-making, which is an important

theory in contemporary societies. Myra Hird confirms “Landfills, these analyses suggest, tell us a

great deal about ourselves, and our relations within communities, with the environment, and with

global society.” Therefore, KeepCups are introduced in the market to push the environmental

limits beyond human exceptionalism while evaluating the concept of sustainability and waste

management. According to this viewpoint, if the important worries are connected to human de-

stratification of material layering and fossil fuels form the earth's surface, then the landfill will

articulate such issues in the opposite direction to prevent impacts of re-stratification indeterminate.

In regards to the KeepCups, an individual choosing the modified cups over the plastic and paper

mugs is described to be a more responsible customer.

According to Gill Seyfang, sustainable consumption can be described as the use of products

as well as services to provide to basic human needs and offering a better life while at the same

time reducing the exploitation of natural resources. The second perspective on KeepCups case

study focuses on promoting ecological marketing. In support of this, Gill Seyfang agrees that

“Everyone takes up a certain amount of ecological ‘space’ in the sense of resource use and carrying
the capacity burden, and this space is expressed as a footprint on the earth.” By doing so, it

confirms that waste and dangerous materials are well controlled to provide a good environment

for future generations by keeping the citizens aware of waste management and control. In

agreement with Gill Seyfang, the primary objective of the KeepCups is reducing the waste disposal

of the plastic coffee cups hence maintaining the ecological environment through recycling and

reuse of such materials.

The last perspective holds that sustainability is a way of life that aims at creating a safe

environment for future generations and which will permit them to make good use of natural

resources without compromises. The challenge associated with the generation of waste by

disposable hot beverage cups is an international and rapidly growing worry. A substantial

contribution of environmental pollution by the disposable plastic cups and the growing trend is not

expected to go down or stagnate unless strict regulations and measures are brought into attention.

Regarding this, Hird states “The emphasis on individual responsibility operates within a capitalist

rationale to manage waste in ways that do not disturb circuits of mass production and mass

consumption (and industry profit), affecting an almost exclusive orientation toward ‘downstream’

responses to waste.” The KeepCups are not fully recyclable, and it is essential and necessary to

research o better methods on how to dispose of them. This angle provides a deeper understanding

of major environmental concerns and provides various waste management approaches that can be

used to control environmental pollution through recycling technologies and to landfill.

a) What factors impact the potential consumer in deciding to purchase a KeepCup?

In regards to the factors impacting the customers to purchase the KeepCups, most the customers

made the purchases based on the design of the KeepCups, the ecological characteristics of the cups

and finally the convenience the cups provide to the coffee drinkers. The favorable attitudes towards
sustainability promotion is also another factor that the customers put into consideration while

buying the KeepCups since it is eco-friendly hence playing a vital role in environmental

management. The decision to buy KeepCups especially among those customers who had earlier

bought at least one KeepCups was based on sustainability idea and secondly the fresh, appealing

design of the cups. The sustainability of services and products is, therefore, a vital factor

influencing the purchase decision making since the customers agree with the product sustainability

before purchasing with a high degree of consensus.

b) Is a consumer buying decision influenced by the ecological values of KeepCup?

The customers'` opinions tend to vary in regards to the ecological value of the KeepCups. Some

customers end up showing a high degree of consensus in regards to sustainability in consumer

behavior. There also exists negative attitudes in connection to sustainability among the customers

though with a different scope. In ensuring an eco-friendly environment and the reduction of waste,

customers may develop a positive attitude towards purchasing the KeepCups due to their reusable

and recyclable characteristics which helps in environmental conservation and prevention of

degradation. Therefore the main factors that would attribute customers’ attitude towards buying a

KeepCup would include the ecological properties and the convenience provided.

c) At what scope do the clients conceptualize persuading attempts targeted at them?

Most of the customers in the market do conceptualize the persuading attempts targeted at them,

but it is not automatic that these customers would fall for the persuasion strategies when brought

to them in real life. The customer attitude and their changes in attitude indicate customer behavior

in purchasing the KeepCups. An average number of customers do not understand about

sustainability and its association with their habits of consumption due to the clutter of information
in most of the advertisements. The present overflow of sales efforts and marketing materials makes

people develop a perception that they cannot be persuaded since they have high persuasion

knowledge.

Generally, Attitudes are an important part of the customer behavior that affects the purchasing of

goods and services in varied ways. Such attitudes provide a topic for any marketer and salesperson

who wishes to understand the background of consumer’s intentions better.

Bibliography

Paju, Kristiina. "Influencing sustainable consumption: a case of KeepCup." (2015).

Hird, Myra J. "Waste, Landfills, and an Environmental Ethic of

Vulnerability." Ethics& the Environment 18, no. 1 (2013): 105-124.

Hird, Myra J., Scott Lougheed, R. Kerry Rowe, & Cassandra Kuyvenhoven. "Making

Waste Management Public (or Falling Back to Sleep)." Social Studies of Science 44,

no. 3 (2014): 441-465.

Seyfang, Gill. "Shopping for sustainability: can sustainable consumption promote

ecological citizenship?" Environmental politics 14, no. 2 (2005): 290-306.