Social Exclusion and Effectiveness of Self-Benefit versus Other-Benefit Marketing Appeals for Eco-Friendly Products

Despite the growing need, marketers of eco-friendly products have not yet identified the most effective ways to attract consumers to their products. The current research explores the effectiveness of two distinct marketing appeals for eco-friendly upcycling products. In particular, an experiment is conducted to examine the hypothesis that the psychological state, especially feeling socially excluded, and marketing appeal type (self-benefit vs. other-benefit) will interact to affect the effectiveness of the promotion. The results suggest that self-benefit appeals are more effective than other-benefit appeals for encouraging positive purchase intentions when consumers feel socially excluded. Importantly, the effect of social exclusion is moderated by how lasting consumers think their social exclusion experience will be. The more stable consumers think their social exclusion experience will be, the more positively they respond to self-benefit appeals as compared to other-benefit appeals. The results suggest a way that marketers could tailor their marketing message to consumers’ psychological state.