Young Consumer Response to Message Framing in Recycling Advertisements

Structuring effective methods for promoting pro-environmental behaviour is a complex process that requires an understanding of individual preferences and their receptiveness to marketing efforts that are aimed at changing this behaviour. Within this context, effective message framing appears to play key roles in affecting the attitudes and behavioural intentions of the target audience. While both framing respectively positive and negative framing have been studied for their individual main effects, the findings are mixed and do not offer clear justification in environmental studies. This study investigates the effects of competitive framing on positive versus negative frame recycling ads on Muslim adolescents. Anexperiment was conducted to examine the interaction effects betweenIslamic identity framing and prime framing (positive-negative) on respondent's attitude. The results found that informants will reflect different degrees of advertising effectiveness in response to different combinations of advertising framings and Islamic framing will induce a better attitude towards the ad and a greater inclination to recycling intention. The results indicate that in persuasive social contexts, positive frames may be most persuasive with Islamic appeals in order to have a greater persuasion impact.