Social marketing through a music festival: Value perceived by festival visitors who reduced meat consumption
ISSN: 2042-6763
Article publication date: 16 January 2018
Issue publication date: 22 March 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine a social marketing initiative pursued by the privately owned Swedish music festival Way Out West during 2012-2014. This paper’s aim is to explore how events can support individual behaviour changes, and it seeks to assess the effects of Way Out West, as well as to understand what motivated visitors to change.
Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical lens of perceived consumer value (Holbrook, 1999) as the individual outcome of a social marketing exchange is used for the analysis. The paper uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods; a Web survey (n = 1757) monitors self-reported behaviour over time, and in-depth interviews are conducted with a handful visitors who reduced regular meat consumption.
Findings
The results of this paper suggest that the initiative was a strong inspiration for 15 per cent of the sample (corresponding to ca. 9,300 festival visitors who decreased their meat consumption 2012-2014). It was evident that these “Decreasers” perceived functional, emotional, social and altruistic value as outcomes of changed behaviour. The paper identifies and discusses links between the adoption of a new behaviour in the temporal non-ordinary setting of a music festival and the endurance of the behaviour in a mundane environment.
Originality/value
This paper examines self-perceived effects on behaviour that a private social marketing initiative had on consumers. The paper contributes by applying Holbrook’s (1999) theoretical framework of perceived consumer value to empirical context, by investigating hedonic aspects of social marketing consumption in the non-ordinary setting of a music festival. The paper discusses how a temporarily adopted behaviour continues to create value for consumers, when maintained in ordinary life.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to extend a “thank you” to the anonymous reviewers and the editor for your valuable input throughout the review process. Thank you Professor Lena Mossberg, Professor Tommy D. Andersson and Erik Lundberg, PhD, for inspiration and creative suggestions. Also, the author would like to thank Professor C. Michael Hall and Dao Truong, PhD, for reading and commenting on early drafts of this paper.
Citation
Jutbring, H. (2018), "Social marketing through a music festival: Value perceived by festival visitors who reduced meat consumption", Journal of Social Marketing, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 237-256. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSOCM-03-2017-0017
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited