G. Granato
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1
Connecting consumers to production processes
A new pathway to sustainable behaviour
A growing body of research shows that consumers feel increasingly distant from the production processes of everyday commodities, particularly fast-moving consumer goods. Literature on psychological distance suggests that when individuals feel distant from events, such as climate change, their engagement and pro-environmental behaviour decline. However, while psychological distance has been widely studied, its application to production-consumption patterns remains unexplored. Moreover, despite numerous behavioural interventions, none address “distance from the production process” as a means of fostering sustainable consumption. Across three studies, one online and two laboratory experiments, this research explores how implicit and explicit packaging design interventions can frame production processes as either closer to or more distant from the consumer, and how such framings affect sustainability perceptions and disposal behaviour. Results demonstrate that short-distance framings enhance perceived packaging sustainability and encourage environmentally responsible disposal, directly or by strengthening consumers’ sense of connection to the production process. These findings highlight the role of design in connecting consumers to production processes as a novel and actionable pathway for sustainable behaviour.
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A growing body of research shows that consumers feel increasingly distant from the production processes of everyday commodities, particularly fast-moving consumer goods. Literature on psychological distance suggests that when individuals feel distant from events, such as climate change, their engagement and pro-environmental behaviour decline. However, while psychological distance has been widely studied, its application to production-consumption patterns remains unexplored. Moreover, despite numerous behavioural interventions, none address “distance from the production process” as a means of fostering sustainable consumption. Across three studies, one online and two laboratory experiments, this research explores how implicit and explicit packaging design interventions can frame production processes as either closer to or more distant from the consumer, and how such framings affect sustainability perceptions and disposal behaviour. Results demonstrate that short-distance framings enhance perceived packaging sustainability and encourage environmentally responsible disposal, directly or by strengthening consumers’ sense of connection to the production process. These findings highlight the role of design in connecting consumers to production processes as a novel and actionable pathway for sustainable behaviour.
The consumer electronics waste has become a serious environmental concern (World Health Organization, 2024). A significant factor driving this issue is “premature obsolescence,” which refers to the premature discontinuation of a product use or the premature replacement of a functioning product with a new one (Magnier & Mugge, 2022; Ylä-Mella et al., 2022). Current consumer replacement theory attributes this phenomenon to psychological value trade-offs, where consumers prematurely value new products over their current ones(Van den Berge et al., 2021). This shift is often driven by an attraction to novel features, updated designs, and the overall sense of novelty offered by new products on the market, while their owned devices increasingly lose appeal due to familiarity and boredom (Echegaray, 2016; Van den Berge et al., 2021). Although existing research highlights the importance of preserving the perceived value of owned products to combat premature obsolescence (Magnier & Mugge, 2022; Van Nes, 2016), effective design strategies are underexplored. This study aims to explore design strategies to preserve value of owned consumer electronics, focusing on strengthening their epistemic value to prolong product lifetime and reduce waste. [...]
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The consumer electronics waste has become a serious environmental concern (World Health Organization, 2024). A significant factor driving this issue is “premature obsolescence,” which refers to the premature discontinuation of a product use or the premature replacement of a functioning product with a new one (Magnier & Mugge, 2022; Ylä-Mella et al., 2022). Current consumer replacement theory attributes this phenomenon to psychological value trade-offs, where consumers prematurely value new products over their current ones(Van den Berge et al., 2021). This shift is often driven by an attraction to novel features, updated designs, and the overall sense of novelty offered by new products on the market, while their owned devices increasingly lose appeal due to familiarity and boredom (Echegaray, 2016; Van den Berge et al., 2021). Although existing research highlights the importance of preserving the perceived value of owned products to combat premature obsolescence (Magnier & Mugge, 2022; Van Nes, 2016), effective design strategies are underexplored. This study aims to explore design strategies to preserve value of owned consumer electronics, focusing on strengthening their epistemic value to prolong product lifetime and reduce waste. [...]
Leveraging social norms for sustainable behaviour
How the exposure to static-and-dynamic-norms encourages sufficiency and consumption reduction of fashion
Contemporary communication platforms, ranging from social media to traditional news outlets, frequently present static norms, reflecting established behaviours (e.g., eating meat, drinking alcohol at parties) in combination with dynamic norms that signal evolving societal trends (e.g., adopting more plant-based diets, attending alcohol-free events). Despite the widespread exposure to such combined static-and-dynamic-norm communications, its influence on consumer behaviour remains unexplored. This research addresses this gap by conducting two laboratory experiments to investigate the impact of static-and-dynamic-norm communications on sustainable behaviour towards reduction of fast fashion consumption.
The results demonstrate that participants exposed to the combination of unsustainable static and unsustainable dynamic norms purchased significantly fewer fashion items than those in other experimental conditions. This behavioural change is affected by a process of social moral cleansing, wherein participants, upon confronting with the widespread unsustainable behaviour of others, experienced a highlighted motivation to counteract these behaviours by acting more sustainably themselves. These findings contribute to the growing literature on social normative influence in sustainable consumption contexts. By identifying a novel and effective normative communication strategy for reducing consumption, this research offers valuable insights for researchers, designers and policy makers seeking to promote sufficiency-oriented behaviour and foster long-term sustainable behavioural change. ...
The results demonstrate that participants exposed to the combination of unsustainable static and unsustainable dynamic norms purchased significantly fewer fashion items than those in other experimental conditions. This behavioural change is affected by a process of social moral cleansing, wherein participants, upon confronting with the widespread unsustainable behaviour of others, experienced a highlighted motivation to counteract these behaviours by acting more sustainably themselves. These findings contribute to the growing literature on social normative influence in sustainable consumption contexts. By identifying a novel and effective normative communication strategy for reducing consumption, this research offers valuable insights for researchers, designers and policy makers seeking to promote sufficiency-oriented behaviour and foster long-term sustainable behavioural change. ...
Contemporary communication platforms, ranging from social media to traditional news outlets, frequently present static norms, reflecting established behaviours (e.g., eating meat, drinking alcohol at parties) in combination with dynamic norms that signal evolving societal trends (e.g., adopting more plant-based diets, attending alcohol-free events). Despite the widespread exposure to such combined static-and-dynamic-norm communications, its influence on consumer behaviour remains unexplored. This research addresses this gap by conducting two laboratory experiments to investigate the impact of static-and-dynamic-norm communications on sustainable behaviour towards reduction of fast fashion consumption.
The results demonstrate that participants exposed to the combination of unsustainable static and unsustainable dynamic norms purchased significantly fewer fashion items than those in other experimental conditions. This behavioural change is affected by a process of social moral cleansing, wherein participants, upon confronting with the widespread unsustainable behaviour of others, experienced a highlighted motivation to counteract these behaviours by acting more sustainably themselves. These findings contribute to the growing literature on social normative influence in sustainable consumption contexts. By identifying a novel and effective normative communication strategy for reducing consumption, this research offers valuable insights for researchers, designers and policy makers seeking to promote sufficiency-oriented behaviour and foster long-term sustainable behavioural change.
The results demonstrate that participants exposed to the combination of unsustainable static and unsustainable dynamic norms purchased significantly fewer fashion items than those in other experimental conditions. This behavioural change is affected by a process of social moral cleansing, wherein participants, upon confronting with the widespread unsustainable behaviour of others, experienced a highlighted motivation to counteract these behaviours by acting more sustainably themselves. These findings contribute to the growing literature on social normative influence in sustainable consumption contexts. By identifying a novel and effective normative communication strategy for reducing consumption, this research offers valuable insights for researchers, designers and policy makers seeking to promote sufficiency-oriented behaviour and foster long-term sustainable behavioural change.
To imitate or not to imitate?
How consumers perceive animal origin products and plant-based alternatives imitating minimally processed vs ultra-processed food
Journal article
(2024)
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G. Granato, B. Wassmann
Changing dietary habits towards a reduction of animal origin proteins, such as meat and fish, in favor of plant-based alternatives can positively contribute to sustainability, health and animal suffering related issues. Despite this awareness and the large variety of plant-based alternatives available on the market, willingness to reduce or substitute animal origin proteins is still very low. This research investigates the role of a so far overlooked factor in the study of consumer adoption of plant-based diets, namely the role of food processing, adding to the understanding of how consumers perceive animal origin products and their plant-based alternatives imitating a minimally processed vs ultra-processed food. Through a Swiss online study with 607 consumers, our results showed that the resemblance to a minimally processed (e.g., chicken filet, tuna) or ultra-processed product (e.g., meatball, fish stick) differently affect animal origin products and plant-based imitations. Specifically, while consumers perceived more positively the minimally processed meat/fish than the ultra-processed one in the animal origin category, in terms of perceived environmental friendliness, perceived health and purchase intention, the reverse was observed for the plant-based imitations. Thus, contributing to theory and practice, the results of this research suggest that the like-to-like imitation of an animal origin product is not only ineffective but can also be counterproductive for perceptions-of sustainability and health- and purchase intentions of plant-based alternatives.
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Changing dietary habits towards a reduction of animal origin proteins, such as meat and fish, in favor of plant-based alternatives can positively contribute to sustainability, health and animal suffering related issues. Despite this awareness and the large variety of plant-based alternatives available on the market, willingness to reduce or substitute animal origin proteins is still very low. This research investigates the role of a so far overlooked factor in the study of consumer adoption of plant-based diets, namely the role of food processing, adding to the understanding of how consumers perceive animal origin products and their plant-based alternatives imitating a minimally processed vs ultra-processed food. Through a Swiss online study with 607 consumers, our results showed that the resemblance to a minimally processed (e.g., chicken filet, tuna) or ultra-processed product (e.g., meatball, fish stick) differently affect animal origin products and plant-based imitations. Specifically, while consumers perceived more positively the minimally processed meat/fish than the ultra-processed one in the animal origin category, in terms of perceived environmental friendliness, perceived health and purchase intention, the reverse was observed for the plant-based imitations. Thus, contributing to theory and practice, the results of this research suggest that the like-to-like imitation of an animal origin product is not only ineffective but can also be counterproductive for perceptions-of sustainability and health- and purchase intentions of plant-based alternatives.
Journal article
(2022)
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G. Granato, Arnout R.H. Fischer, Hans van Trijp
Sustainable food packaging alternatives represent an ever-expanding trend on supermarkets' shelves. Despite the technological efforts, a higher sustainability level often comes at the expense of other (perceived) benefits which consumers might not want to sacrifice. While the balance between the benefits and drawbacks of “cleaner” packaging production is central to the designers’ perspective, it is generally overlooked in consumer research. This paper investigates how European consumers cope with product-packaging decisions, when these involve a compromise. Through an online survey with 5035 consumers in five different European countries, our results show that the sustainability appreciation can spill-over to other conventional benefits, such convenience, aesthetic quality or the perceived ability of the packaging to preserve the content. By contributing to sustainability literature and, in particular, to the understanding of the halo and spill-over effect of sustainability, this study shows that positive associations triggered by eco-design elements (e.g., a biodegradable and compostable material) absorb and filter out negative experiences, preventing consumers from perceiving certain drawbacks. This research also provides valuable practical implications to marketers and product designers, by demonstrating how different product categories, packaging types and consumer characteristics, in terms of gender, age, nationality, values and lifestyle, influence product-packaging decisions and their inherent trade-offs.
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Sustainable food packaging alternatives represent an ever-expanding trend on supermarkets' shelves. Despite the technological efforts, a higher sustainability level often comes at the expense of other (perceived) benefits which consumers might not want to sacrifice. While the balance between the benefits and drawbacks of “cleaner” packaging production is central to the designers’ perspective, it is generally overlooked in consumer research. This paper investigates how European consumers cope with product-packaging decisions, when these involve a compromise. Through an online survey with 5035 consumers in five different European countries, our results show that the sustainability appreciation can spill-over to other conventional benefits, such convenience, aesthetic quality or the perceived ability of the packaging to preserve the content. By contributing to sustainability literature and, in particular, to the understanding of the halo and spill-over effect of sustainability, this study shows that positive associations triggered by eco-design elements (e.g., a biodegradable and compostable material) absorb and filter out negative experiences, preventing consumers from perceiving certain drawbacks. This research also provides valuable practical implications to marketers and product designers, by demonstrating how different product categories, packaging types and consumer characteristics, in terms of gender, age, nationality, values and lifestyle, influence product-packaging decisions and their inherent trade-offs.
Sustainable packaging innovations are becoming increasingly available in the marketplace. However, their communication to consumers remains a challenging task, as neither their distinctiveness nor their higher sustainability level is recognized. Contributing to research in environmental psychology, the current work conceptualized and tested the new concept of Meaningful Reminder as a strategy to communicate such distinctiveness and higher sustainability. To understand how a meaningful reminder can be created and used, this research investigated how eco explicit (logos, labels and statements) and implicit packaging design cues (auditory, tactile and visual elements) combine and interact and how such a combination can be used to the advantage of sustainability, to increase sustainability salience, perception and sustainable disposal behavior of the packaging and its content. Across three lab studies and different measures (lexical decision task, thought listing task, self-reported scales and observations of consumers’ disposal behavior), we identify the conditions under which combining explicit and implicit cues can be counterproductive, not leading to any increase or even a decrease in sustainability salience and perception. However, under different conditions, we show how sustainability salience, perception of packaging sustainability and even consumer sustainable disposal behaviour can be positively affected.
...
Sustainable packaging innovations are becoming increasingly available in the marketplace. However, their communication to consumers remains a challenging task, as neither their distinctiveness nor their higher sustainability level is recognized. Contributing to research in environmental psychology, the current work conceptualized and tested the new concept of Meaningful Reminder as a strategy to communicate such distinctiveness and higher sustainability. To understand how a meaningful reminder can be created and used, this research investigated how eco explicit (logos, labels and statements) and implicit packaging design cues (auditory, tactile and visual elements) combine and interact and how such a combination can be used to the advantage of sustainability, to increase sustainability salience, perception and sustainable disposal behavior of the packaging and its content. Across three lab studies and different measures (lexical decision task, thought listing task, self-reported scales and observations of consumers’ disposal behavior), we identify the conditions under which combining explicit and implicit cues can be counterproductive, not leading to any increase or even a decrease in sustainability salience and perception. However, under different conditions, we show how sustainability salience, perception of packaging sustainability and even consumer sustainable disposal behaviour can be positively affected.
Journal article
(2022)
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G. Granato, Arnout R.H. Fischer, hans van trijp
This paper replies to the call for more agile-stage-gate hybrid methods in the context of physical innovations. By showing how some of the characteristics of conventional linear stage-gate methods and of the agile approaches
can be integrated, we propose and test a new form of hybrid method for the physical new product development process (NPD). Distinguishing itself from the conventional NPD methods and practices, biased towards alignments between
companies and consumers as the key to market success, our method focuses on the innovation potential intrinsic to misalignments. Through a qualitative research applied in an existing European consortium of innovators, the
present work guides companies in the systematic identification and exploration of misalignments between their designers and users. By identifying misalignments at specific level of the NPD process, our method provides companies with a deep
analytical insight into how, where and why (mis)alignments between their designers’ decisions and users’ demands might occur. Our method revealed to be a strategic learning and reflection tool to support companies in the proactive management of the identified misalignments, as informative, beneficial and inspirational aspects of the NPD process.
...
This paper replies to the call for more agile-stage-gate hybrid methods in the context of physical innovations. By showing how some of the characteristics of conventional linear stage-gate methods and of the agile approaches
can be integrated, we propose and test a new form of hybrid method for the physical new product development process (NPD). Distinguishing itself from the conventional NPD methods and practices, biased towards alignments between
companies and consumers as the key to market success, our method focuses on the innovation potential intrinsic to misalignments. Through a qualitative research applied in an existing European consortium of innovators, the
present work guides companies in the systematic identification and exploration of misalignments between their designers and users. By identifying misalignments at specific level of the NPD process, our method provides companies with a deep
analytical insight into how, where and why (mis)alignments between their designers’ decisions and users’ demands might occur. Our method revealed to be a strategic learning and reflection tool to support companies in the proactive management of the identified misalignments, as informative, beneficial and inspirational aspects of the NPD process.
Journal article
(2019)
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Andrijana Horvat, G. Granato, Vincenzo Fogliano, Pieternel A. Luning
New food products have a high chance of market failure. To improve the chances of new product success, a consumer-oriented approach to product development has been recommended. The approach emphasizes the importance of an optimal fit between consumers’ needs and the new product. To achieve this goal, food professionals generate and use various consumer data types and methods. However, very few studies address the extent to which the food industry uses consumer data in product development. This study investigated to what extent European food firms use various consumer data in different phases, i.e., new product development (NPD) and the product life cycle (PLC), and what data collection methods they employ. The current study classified consumer data into three types: consumer involvement, food trend, and environmental factor data. The results showed that more than 85% of the respondents use all three data types in NPD, while they rarely use consumer data in the PLC. Respondents most frequently use data collection methods such as focus groups, consumer surveys, and indirect data collection (e.g., internet, magazines). These methods are less effective in assuring product success and in developing new-to-the-world products. In fact, more than half of the respondents never or rarely worked on new-to-the-world projects. Increasing the use of consumer data in the PLC and adapting data collection methods to the type of the project and the phase of product development present opportunities for food firms to improve chances of new product success.
...
New food products have a high chance of market failure. To improve the chances of new product success, a consumer-oriented approach to product development has been recommended. The approach emphasizes the importance of an optimal fit between consumers’ needs and the new product. To achieve this goal, food professionals generate and use various consumer data types and methods. However, very few studies address the extent to which the food industry uses consumer data in product development. This study investigated to what extent European food firms use various consumer data in different phases, i.e., new product development (NPD) and the product life cycle (PLC), and what data collection methods they employ. The current study classified consumer data into three types: consumer involvement, food trend, and environmental factor data. The results showed that more than 85% of the respondents use all three data types in NPD, while they rarely use consumer data in the PLC. Respondents most frequently use data collection methods such as focus groups, consumer surveys, and indirect data collection (e.g., internet, magazines). These methods are less effective in assuring product success and in developing new-to-the-world products. In fact, more than half of the respondents never or rarely worked on new-to-the-world projects. Increasing the use of consumer data in the PLC and adapting data collection methods to the type of the project and the phase of product development present opportunities for food firms to improve chances of new product success.