Engaging consumers with environmental sustainability initiatives : consumer global-local identity and global brand messaging

Abstract

Environmental sustainability is a common practice of global brands, with 90% of the top 100 Interbrand global brands making statements about environmental efforts on their websites. In this research, the authors explore how a consumer’s global–local identity can affect consumer engagement with a global brand’s environmental sustainability initiative. Specifically, they examine consumer engagement in response to environmental messaging based on regulatory focus, spatial construal, and temporal construal. They theorize and find, across six experimental studies, that consumers with a strong global identity are more engaged with environmental sustainability initiatives when messaging includes frames congruent with their global identity, specifically promotion frames coupled with distant spatial frames and with proximal temporal frames. For consumers with a local identity, these regulatory and construal messaging frames do not impact consumer engagement with environmental sustainability initiatives. Consumer environmental mindset mediates the effect of global–local identity on consumer engagement with environmental sustainability initiatives when such congruent frames are used, and consumer eagerness to act provides additional process explanation for the asymmetric spatial (distant) and temporal (proximal) construal effects. The findings have significant implications for the design of global brand and environmental policy messaging, particularly for consumers with a strong global identity.