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The clean beauty phenomenon is gaining momentum and beauty brands are getting creative with on-pack sustainability claims. With the increasing focus on sustainability from both brands and consumers, sustainability communication has the potential to raise the profile of sustainable production and consumption. Further attention is needed on the creative approach behind on-pack sustainability marketing communications as companies no longer focus on single eco labels but instead use a bundle of claims to advertise their commitment to sustainability which finds consumers confused and brands open to accusations of greenwashing. This chapter explores on-pack sustainability communications in the beauty industry through the lenses of creative marketing communications which need to be both original and appropriate. This study contributes to the longstanding debate on the role of sustainability claims in marketing communications and addresses the role of on-pack sustainability claims design and creativity.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether or not mavens’ dissemination activities are likely to promote or hinder retailers’ store brand premiumisation attempts, by revealing the relationship between mavens’ price and non-price on-pack extrinsic cue search and their store brand purchasing behaviours.

The paper adopts a hypothetic-deductive approach and develops a model of mavens’ store brand purchasing behaviour. The model is tested using SEM on a US data set containing 457 respondents. A full discussion of the direct, indirect and total effects is provided.

Mavens’ store brand purchasing behaviours are strongly linked to their price search activities and negatively related to their use of non-price on-pack extrinsic cues. This indicates that their dissemination activities are likely to stress lower prices and hence price competition rather than promote other cues used to infer quality. Thus, mavens are likely to inhibit retailers’ store brand premiumisation attempts. Mavens’ investments in time engaged in search activities are strongly linked to social returns rather than private financial savings.

The work is based on data collected using an online survey in one region of the USA where store brands are not as prevalent in other countries such as the UK.

The investigation of non-price on-pack extrinsic cues reduces mavens’ store brand purchasing behaviours while the use of price cues increases them. This suggests that even with mavens’ market expertise that a non-price extrinsic cue deficit continues to exist for these products. Consequently, retailers need to re-examine and rework the cues contained on pack to convey more positive consumption-related information if mavens are to become store brand advocates.

Rather than conceptualising the maven as possessing market wide knowledge, this research adopts a domain specific perspective arguing that price mavenism can be distinguished from product-related mavenism with consequences for the set of extrinsic cues used as part of the maven’s search process. In doing so, it reveals the conflicting effects that these maven dimensions have on purchasing behaviours and the likely effects on mavens’ dissemination activities.

Using a classification of benefits and costs of promotional offers along three routes – economic, informational and affective – this paper aims at evaluating, from the consumer's point of view, the relative perceptual disadvantages of separate‐item bundles compared to pre‐wrapped bundles.

The marketing literature and a qualitative study based on 18 consumers permits the identification of the relative perceived costs and benefits associated with separate‐item bundles and for hypotheses to be derived. An experiment on a sample of 120 adult consumers was then set up to test these hypotheses.

The findings suggest that consumers associate separate‐item bundles with higher economic benefit but also with higher inspection costs. From a more global perspective, there is no loss of interest in separate‐item bundles compared to pre‐wrapped bundles.

Focusing the research on separate‐item bundles clarifies the way consumers evaluate promotions. Its qualitative phase gives support to the relevance of an “informational route”, beyond the traditional utilitarian and hedonic routes. Its quantitative phase confirms the importance of cognitive biases in consumers' perceptions of promotions.

The numerous advantages of separate‐item bundles for manufacturers and retailers and their attraction to consumers should lead to an increasingly intensive use in promotional campaigns. Besides, the quality of in‐store communication is the most important factor of the success of separate‐item bundles, which provides the opportunity to propose meaningful recommendations for practitioners.

If the strengths and weaknesses of separate‐item bundles have already been studied from a managerial point of view, to the authors' knowledge, no research has focused on separate‐item bundle efficiency from the consumer's point of view.

Outlines how analysing the way that children think ‐ and shop ‐ will help brand managers and marketers. Focuses on the Strottman Kid Engineers, a US project which gave children from ages 6 to 9 headbands containing video cameras, and assigned them to grocery stores, where they would choose the 20 items they most wanted. Discusses the results: promotions were important, and visual rather than verbal promotional communication was popular; children expect and appreciate innovation in the grocery store; favoured hot‐spots were the cereal, snacks and dairy aisles, plus lunchables; children were influenced by in‐store signage; and the draw of licensed properties is stronger than ever.

This is an exploratory study leveraging a domain-specific innovativeness (DSI) perspective to understand adoption of QR code delivered mobile marketing. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of “innovativeness” and “risk aversion” on QR code adoption and usage in the low-involvement context to address tensions between risk and innovation literatures.

Participants were assigned to “laggard” (n=19) and “innovator/early adopter” (n=19) segments using the DSI scale. A combination of qualitative reductionism (means-end chain analysis) and qualitative holism (semi-structured interviewing) was employed.

Confusion regarding the functionality and purpose of QR codes adversely affected willingness to use and utility perceptions. Source trust and information credibility emerged as key concerns for those considering QR codes, with consumer risk aversion and innovativeness orientations influencing the nature of trust concerns. A perceived lack of complementarity between QR codes and retail environments reduced perceived relevance. For low-involvement products, marketers should consider moving beyond brand-level communication to align offerings to the broader foodscape.

Findings are limited to the low-involvement product context. Although DSI was considered, the impact of technological innovativeness was not explored. Future research may consider the impact of information provision at the broader foodscape rather than product-specific level when exploring QR code applications in the food domain.

This is the first study to explore the role of product category innovativeness, as distinct from technological innovativeness on the acceptance and usage of mobile marketing applications in the low-involvement context. This research builds on existing risk and innovation literatures and addresses tensions between these literatures presented by QR codes within the low-involvement context.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate industry expert discourses on aspirational corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication. Analysing CSR managers’ and communication consultants’ talk about aspirational talk as constitutive of aspirational CSR communication, the data provide valuable insights into the dominant discourses, and draw attention to the manifold elements in the process of aspirational CSR communication.

Data gathered during 11 in-depth, qualitative interviews with food industry experts in CSR and CSR communication roles in Ireland, the UK and the USA are studied.

The analysis of industry expert discourses suggests that communicating CSR, and in particular the communication of CSR aspirations, is a source of tensions and ambiguity for organisational members. It is evident that aspirational talk acts as a “commitment and alignment device”, raising the bar for the organisation by encouraging enhanced performance and ensuring a competitive differentiation – and thus revealing a performative character. However, it is also shown that industry experts favour action over talk and consider verification crucial to reduce reputational risk. The challenge ahead will be to encourage organisations to embrace aspirational talk in the age of CSR professionalisation and standardisation to ensure incremental and continual CSR improvements.

The research findings suggest that aspirational talk is a useful resource for organisations to transition towards becoming more responsible businesses. Rather than censoring aspirational talk to prevent scepticism by some, managers rely on robust auditing and verification systems to provide proof of achievement over time.

The study provides data on the topic of aspirational talk, where there has been much theory development, but limited empirical evidence. It does so in the context of the food industry, an industry manifestly to the forefront in the sustainability/CSR agenda.

Shows how children often reject some products which aimed at them, and how marketers can avoid this by adopting a more schematic approach in communicating with children, since the consistency of children’s reactions points to a basic pattern or scheme in their evaluation of communications or products. Gives examples of products which are well or badly packaged from a child’s point of view, and emphasises the importance of stereotypes, colour and age fit, also the relevance of national differences: thus, a series of bear images, colours and typographies associated with a product (Schoko) is illustrated which shows differences between German and British children’s reactions, as well as preferences of different age groups.

This study aims to explore the use of a double diamond design method to engage the industry in a sector-wide response to the issues of food waste as constructed by consumers. This particular design method is achieved by an exploration of a collective intelligence-participatory design (CIPD) project to engage industry participants in understanding and responding to consumers’ perceptions of the role of packaging in reducing food waste.

Using the UK Design Council’s double diamond design method as a guiding conceptual principle, the project recruited industry participants from medium to large food businesses across various food categories. Two scoping workshops with industry were held prior to the initiation of a 12-stage project (n = 57), and then two industry workshops were held (n = 4 and 14). Eighty participants completed an online qualitative survey, and 23 industry participants took part in a Think Tank Sprint Series. The Think Tanks used participatory design approaches to understand barriers and opportunities for change within food industry sub-sectors and test the feasibility and acceptability of package designs to reduce consumer waste.

For CIPD to work for complex problems involving industry, it is vital that stakeholders across macro- and micro-subsystems are involved and that adequate time is allowed to address that complexity. Using both the right tools for engagement and the involvement of the right mix of representatives across various sectors of industry is critical to reducing blame shift. The process of divergence and convergence allowed clear insight into the long-term multi-pronged approach needed for the complex problem.

Participatory design has been useful within various behaviour change settings. This paper has demonstrated the application of the double diamond model in a social marketing setting, adding value to an industry-wide project that included government, peak bodies, manufacturing and production and retailers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers’ responses to emotional and normative communication in comparison with traditional informational campaigns promoting pro-environmental behavior in the context of biodiversity. By adopting the approach of likeability of the communication, the paper identifies which type of communication strategy is liked by consumers’ and which dimensions define likeability in the context of biodiversity. The goal is to improve the effectiveness of communication messages delivered by social marketers or public policy makers through a better understanding of consumers’ responses to different communication strategies.

To investigate which communications strategies are perceived as likeable in the context of promoting biodiversity and to explore the dimensions that underlie likeability of the communication a qualitative study was conducted. First, the information design with the different communication strategies has been developed. Second, focused interviews with 25 individuals have been conducted.

Results indicate that communication strategies using positive emotions led to most favorable responses. Further, findings suggest that informational strategies seem to result in positive attitudes when they tap on procedural knowledge. Favorable judgments are linked with communication strategies that create awareness or which are relevant and informative.

Further empirical research is suggested exploring consumers’ responses to communication strategies that combine emotions and facts.

Based on the findings of this study, social marketers and public policy makers are recommended to use a combination of communication strategies that evoke positive emotions and provide consumers with the facts necessary to take action.

The paper allows for an integrated view and contributes to an increased understanding of responses to communication strategies and provides valuable practical implications for social marketers and public policy makers.