TY - JOUR
T1 - Promoting reuse behaviour
T2 - Challenges and strategies for repeat purchase, low-involvement products
AU - Kunamaneni, Suneel
AU - Jassi, S.
AU - Hoang, Dong
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the farmers and the farmer cooperatives in Lin-Yuan, Heng-Chun, Shen-Chen, and Fun-Shen areas for their participation and assistance. This study was funded by the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Council of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan of Taiwan, Republic of China, IOSH88-H307. Submitted for publication October 20, 2000; revised; accepted for publication June 29, 2001. Requests for reprints should be sent to Dr. Ching-Wen Chang, In- stitute of Occupational Safety and Health, Council of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan, #99, Lane 407, Hengke Road, Shijr City, Taipei, 221, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Institution of Chemical Engineers
PY - 2019/7/11
Y1 - 2019/7/11
N2 - Reusable products offer reduced environmental impact compared to recycling, but producers mostly focus on strategies such as light-weighting, recyclability and eco-labelling. A reasonable number of innovative reusable products and business models exist for repeat purchase, low-involvement products, but they are largely restricted to niche health-food stores. Therefore, this research primarily attempts to understand consumer attitudes and behaviour towards reuse of household care products (e.g. air fresheners, domestic cleaning products). Focus groups with UK consumers are utilised to examine reusable/refillable spray products and the data are triangulated with global archival data on various refill business models, reusable products and recycling initiatives. The study offers useful guidelines for both producers and policy makers to encourage reusable products. First, we recommend that eco-innovations have a familiar design congruent with well-known brands, to reduce uncertainties for consumers. Second, if the innovation has an unfamiliar design, to mitigate, producers should offer new functional benefits. Third, and most important, producers must place greater emphasis on aesthetic aspects that could evoke product attachment, thus encouraging reuse. Fourth, if reusable products are to become mainstream, ‘well-known brands’ have to promote the transition from one-off sales to a service model built on durable products. Finally, a successful outcome is dependent on government interventions in designing new life cycle policy instruments, in particular de-marketing the current recycling norm and emphasising reusing over recycling.
AB - Reusable products offer reduced environmental impact compared to recycling, but producers mostly focus on strategies such as light-weighting, recyclability and eco-labelling. A reasonable number of innovative reusable products and business models exist for repeat purchase, low-involvement products, but they are largely restricted to niche health-food stores. Therefore, this research primarily attempts to understand consumer attitudes and behaviour towards reuse of household care products (e.g. air fresheners, domestic cleaning products). Focus groups with UK consumers are utilised to examine reusable/refillable spray products and the data are triangulated with global archival data on various refill business models, reusable products and recycling initiatives. The study offers useful guidelines for both producers and policy makers to encourage reusable products. First, we recommend that eco-innovations have a familiar design congruent with well-known brands, to reduce uncertainties for consumers. Second, if the innovation has an unfamiliar design, to mitigate, producers should offer new functional benefits. Third, and most important, producers must place greater emphasis on aesthetic aspects that could evoke product attachment, thus encouraging reuse. Fourth, if reusable products are to become mainstream, ‘well-known brands’ have to promote the transition from one-off sales to a service model built on durable products. Finally, a successful outcome is dependent on government interventions in designing new life cycle policy instruments, in particular de-marketing the current recycling norm and emphasising reusing over recycling.
KW - Consumer behaviour
KW - Eco-innovation
KW - Environmental sustainability
KW - Life cycle analysis
KW - Low-involvement products
KW - Repeat purchase products
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85069869845&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.spc.2019.07.001
DO - 10.1016/j.spc.2019.07.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85069869845
SN - 2352-5509
VL - 20
SP - 253
EP - 272
JO - Sustainable Production and Consumption
JF - Sustainable Production and Consumption
ER -