The power of silent sustainability : communication strategies for new sustainable products

Consumers are interested in sustainable products but they exhibit wariness about their efficacy resulting in a reluctance to purchase. Consumers perceive a high level functional risk in utilitarian benefits sustainable alternatives can provide. For that reason, communication strategy is essential for the success of new sustainable products. We analytically investigate the optimal pre-launch communication strategy and specifically, explore the role of third party reviews of new sustainable products. Before launching its new sustainable product, a firm can reach out an expert or an influencer to test it and write an honest review which informs consumers about the green product's quality in the traditional performance dimension. The firm cannot interfere with the content of the review, but can affect the degree of its informativeness by its investment level in pre-launch communication. We find that pre-launch communication is always profitable, but the optimal level of informativeness can be short of full revelation depending on the market conditions. Based on our results, we make suggestions to both firms and policy makers, which will help reduce the green attitude-behavior gap. Then, we investigate how the availability of pre-launch communication via third party testing and reviewing affects firms' sustainability strategy decision. Our analysis reveals that, depending on the market characteristics, the presence of pre-launch communication may encourage firms to be bolder in their sustainability initiatives and engage in high environmental impact strategies without concerning to preserve the conventional functional performance, or conversely, make them more risk averse and pursue mediocre environmental impact strategies with strong caution about the conventional functional performance.