Scores, labels, scales... the puzzle of labelling to promote sustainable eating
What information should be featured on packaging (and how) to encourage consumers to choose products that are more in line with sustainable development objectives?
Béatrice Siadou-Martin, University of Montpellier; Fatiha Fort, Montpellier SupAgro and Gilles Séré de Lanauze, IAE Montpellier
Awareness of the potentially negative effects of our consumption is spreading among the general public. The urgency is clear: according to France's Environment and Energy Management Agency(Ademe), in 2019, a quarter of France's greenhouse gas emissions and 23% of the total energy consumed in France will come from our plates. New legislation is attempting to kick-start a global movement towards more sustainable consumption.
However, beyond intentions, behavior doesn't always follow. This gap is partly due to information-related issues. According to a report published in October 2021 by the European Commission, 29% of consumers consider the lack of information on product sustainability to be a major obstacle to adopting more sustainable consumption behaviors, and 27% deplore the lack of information on product reparability.
Reliable, objective information on packaging is therefore essential to help align behavior with environmental and social concerns, attitudes towards the most sustainable products and purchasing intentions. This is what we set out to explore in a recent study devoted to the food sector.
Too much information?
The task is complicated by multiple constraints. The often reduced size of packaging (and this is also an ecological imperative) often generates a clutter of complex information if all the dimensions of sustainable development are to be taken into consideration: economic, environmental and social. Preservation of resources, environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes, safeguarding of health interests, protection of workers and consumers... there are many elements to be highlighted.
Should we multiply explanations and positive justifications, or focus on legibility, intelligibility and credibility, by forcefully asserting a message of commitment, even if simplified? Often, it's the environmental aspect that takes the lead. Are ecological arguments more effective than social ones?
Most labels and other displays of product sustainability take the form of either a single score with no precise factual arguments, or a multi-criteria scale. This is the option recommended by Ademe, a multi-criteria assessment based on a product life-cycle analysis measuring the quantifiable environmental impacts of the good over its life-cycle, from design to marketing.
Display, it's efficient
In our experiment, 161 people were shown a photograph of a product with no information, followed by information about its sustainability. A total of eight information presentations were tested: in addition to the control situation, participants were presented with three display formats (multi-criteria scale, overall score and "sustainable product" logo) and two types of sustainability information (environmental, social and simultaneous presentation of both). After reviewing this information, the consumer indicated his or her attitude, positive or negative, towards the product and his or her purchase intention. The study was carried out on three products - wine, comté cheese and foie gras - presenting different sustainability challenges.
First and foremost, the results confirm that product sustainability displays, whether environmental or social, have a positive influence on purchase intentions in all cases. In fact, these effects are amplified when the two aspects are presented together. For the county, attitude towards the product (" I like this product ") is evaluated at 4.28 (out of 5) in the presence of environmental information, and remains similar in the presence of social information (4.29); on the other hand, it increases significantly (4.41) in the presence of both pieces of information. It stands at 4.16 without information. The same observation applies to purchase intention: 3.80 in the presence of environmental information, 3.75 in the presence of social information, 3.99 in the presence of both, 3.66 without any information).
Logos, not very effective
We then compared three different ways of displaying this information: a double multi-criteria scale with three environmental and three social criteria, a double overall rating, environmental and social, and a synthetic logo based on the principle of ecolabels. The results show different levels of effectiveness depending on the pillar of sustainable development considered. The overall rating appears to outperform the multi-criteria scale for environmental labelling, while the opposite is true for social labelling. This could be due to a higher degree of abstraction of environmental issues in the minds of consumers. In all cases, however, both the overall score and the multi-criteria scale produce greater positive effects on attitude and intention when compared with a synthetic logo.
While the superiority of the overall score for social aspects and that of the multi-criteria scale for environmental aspects are established overall, statistical analyses carried out at product level lead us to qualify these statements. In the case of foie gras, no difference was found in terms of format for environmental labelling. Could this be linked to the sustainability challenges facing these products? Foie gras production is particularly concerned with animal welfare, while the wine sector is more in the spotlight for its use of pesticides. The information and education needs expressed by consumers would therefore be different.
Sustainable signage, when it follows certain paths rather than others, is thus a valuable tool for raising awareness and educating. This is as true for brands striving to improve their products as it is for public policy-makers seeking to encourage virtuous consumer behavior.
This research was supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR) under its Environmental, Social and Territorial Sustainability of Processed Food Products program. The ANR finances project-based research in France. Its mission is to support and promote the development of fundamental and applied research in all disciplines, and to strengthen the dialogue between science and society. To find out more, visit theANR website.
Béatrice Siadou-Martin, University Professor of Management Sciences, University of MontpellierFatiha Fort, Professor of Marketing, Montpellier SupAgro and Gilles Séré de Lanauze, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, IAE Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.