Communicating Sustainability for the Green Economy

With chapters written by experts in their field, this volume advances the understanding of theory and successful practice of marketing and promoting environmental sustainability. Some experts predict that the next big trend in business will involve the green economy. Yet, communicating sustainability to consumers provides a set of challenges for marketers that do not necessarily follow all the rules of other types of marketing communication. In many ways the concept of sustainability challenges the core ideals of promoting consumption. Accordingly, this book identifies for researchers and practitioners the barriers that keep customers from engaging in environmentally sustainable consumption and find ways to overcome those barriers. The book includes topics such corporate advertising strategy related to sustainability, corporate social responsibility advertising, greenwashing, advertising related to values, persuasion and persuasion knowledge in sustainability marketing, social media and sustainability, and advertising and public policy.

Preface 1. Introduction to the Psychology of Communicating Sustainability Part I. Understanding Environmental Sustainability: What It Means to Consumers 2. Sustainability: Is Perception as Good as Reality? 3. The Many Shades of Greenwashing: Using Consumer Input for Policy Decisions Regarding Green Advertisements 4. Product End-of-Life Decisions Part II. Determinants of Sustainable Consumption 5. Religion and Religiosity’s Influence on Sustainable Consumption Behaviors 6. Sustainable Behavior and Holistic Thinking 7. Green Advertising and Behavior: Non-Hispanics vs. Acculturating Hispanics 8. The Influence of Visual Information on Environmentally Significant Behavior Part III. Increasing Sustainable Consumption: Conceptual Frameworks 9. Reluctant for a Reason? A Persuasion Knowledge Perspective on Green Advertising 10. Promoting Low-Carbon Policy to the Public: Message Framing Matters 11. Consumer Creativity and Its Implications for Sustainability Marketing 12. Consequences of Legislating Packaging Behavior: Germany’s Green Dot Program and Its Communications Part IV. Applications of Environmental Sustainability 13. Preschool Children’s Preference for Energy-Dense, Branded Foods: An Unsustainable Trajectory 14. Semantic Analysis of Energy-Related Conversations in Social Media: A Twitter Case Study 15. Oregon’s Iconic Bottle Bill 16. Defining Livability: How Livable Communities Contribute to and Benefit from Social Cohesion

Eda Gurel-Atay, Lynn R Kahle