Promote me or protect us? The framing of policy for collective good

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to identify the best marketing communications for policy messages that makes these messages acceptable and fair to the public. Within the context of the Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) tax, this paper examines how framing messages through the alternative perspective of tribalism can increase individual support towards the corresponding policy. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a mixed methods approach. Study 1 uses a qualitative content analysis process based on grounded theory to identify the themes that surround 331 public comments on a transportation policy. Study 2 follows with two 2x2 quantitative factorial experiments to test specific hypotheses. Findings – If messages are framed to address the collective losses of the political tribe for collective good, then they generate more favorable attitudes towards the policy, as opposed to the self-interest perspective. Research limitations/implications – This paper focuses on two political tribes: the collective good and self-interest. Additional research needs to address the other socially symbolic political tribes to develop the empirical research on the theory of tribalism. Practical implications – The marketing of public policy based on traditional segmentation is limiting. Policy messages can be more salient if they are framed for the political consumption of the socially symbolic tribe. Originality/value – A key contribution is that the paper is the first to use a mixed methods approach, with two studies that examine the effects of framing policy from a tribalism perspective.