How to design effective sustainability marketing communications - the role of political ideology

Description

People generally care about the environment and take action to tackle environmental issues. Despite such efforts, policymakers and scientists across the globe have urged that more actions are necessary to avoid further catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet.

In response, global and national media have steadily increased their efforts to communicate climate change. The main media strategy is to create fear and a sense of urgency to act. For example, The Guardian recently featured a piece of news suggesting that “Climate change is a slow-motion disaster”, using a picture of a forest fire in Greece to convey fear among readers. A few years ago, Time Magazine headlined “Be Worried. Be Very Worried”. Current advertising strategies from charities and environmental movements (e.g., WWF, Climate Reality Group) also tend to consistently feature fear messages combined with dramatic imagery illustrating the possible consequences of climate change.

Most people worry about the environment, but their motivations to act varies across different segments (Climate Outreach, 2024). The political spectrum (liberal vs conservative) is a potential mechanism to segment and target individuals, as different political orientations shape how they think, feel, and act to support and protect the environment.

The main assumption is that people with a more liberal (compared to a more conservative) political orientation tend to behave in a more sustainable way. However, a review of the literature suggests that prior work on the effect of political orientation on pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour is inconclusive, leaving policymakers and managers without clear guidance on the actions that need to be implemented, adjusted, or ceased to encourage individuals with different political orientation to take actions on supporting and protecting the environment.

Research overview

The study investigates how and when political orientation drives individuals to take action on supporting and protecting the environment. In doing so, this study aims to examine how image macros (i.e., a picture or artwork with some text superimposed) can influence people’s intentions to behave more sustainably, and how these image macros may differently affect people with diverse political ideology.

Using between-subjects random allocation, we will experimentally investigate how combinations of different types of imagery (e.g., positive vs negative/dramatic, nature-focused vs industry-focused) with different types of headlines influence sustainable behaviours.

Contact

Dr Karen Tejedor Bowen

This project is funded by Leeds University Business School’s Climate Change and Environmental Research Fund.