Changing the ‘mental model’: How brands are nudging consumers towards sustainability
In the latest feature in our new series exploring marketing’s role in driving sustainability, we explore the psychology behind switching to sustainable brands.
It could be seen as a perfect marketing storm. Concern for the environment is accelerating, just as the economic climate sees consumers cut back on sustainable products they perceive as too expensive. What options are open to brands when it comes to encouraging their customers to make more sustainable choices?
For the majority of consumers the perception sustainable products are more expensive than the alternatives still holds sway, according to psychologist Kate Nightingale, founder of Humanising Brands.
“This is simply what has been conditioned in us,” she says. “The whole mental model of sustainability has been built in our minds as something expensive and something for the privileged.”
The bad news is that once a concept like this becomes well-established it also becomes hard to shift. The subconscious mind makes more decisions than we realise and it operates on the basis of consistency, says Nightingale. Our subconscious often resists change, because familiarity can equate to safety.
