Part II: Marketing, Ethics & Responsibility

The use of plastic in packaging of food products is a very common practice in the UK food
industry. According to studies conducted within the UK, it is found that small takeaways use
100% of single use plastic in food delivery (Jones et al, 2019). Single use plastic however has
become a cause of concern for global environmentalists and the UK is not far behind in
attempting to curb the use of single use plastic. There are a lot of ethical problems raised in
the use of single use plastic (Cotter, 2019). Against such a situation, managers of food chains
are under heavy pressure of using environmental friendly packaging along with being cost
effective. Ethical marketing processes are difficult to implement given the wake of current
situation as it is believed that climate change and banning plastic use is one of the top
priorities of the UK government (Oke et al, 2017). This report thus tries to fill in the gap
between the ban on single plastic use and the marketing of its alternate modes of packaging
materials used by UK supermarkets. The total of 900,000 tonnes of plastic waste created by
UK supermarkets need to be addressed by alternate modes while taking into consideration the
ethical modes of marketing. At first, it is important to look at how the supermarkets are
operating currently followed by the ethical marketing theories and what is expected of the
supermarkets when it comes to green policies.

Use of Plastic Bags:

Plastic bags are used extensively throughout the world and the supermarkets across the globe
consider it to be the most convenient mode of packaging and an indispensable item for
producers, consumers and retailers (Oke, 2017). Plastic bags have inherent properties such as
being lightweight, low cost and durable making them the number1 choice amongst
consumers as well as supermarkets (Sharma, 2019). It is due to these advantages that the
consumption of plastic bags only within the UK was approximately 10 million in 2008
(Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, 2009). Latest figures estimate a total
use of 5 million tonnes of plastic in the UK itself out of a whopping 300 million tonnes
produced every year (Plastic Waste, 2019). However, the use of plastic bags around the
world has caused many problems to the environment. Studies claim that the mere presence of
plastic bags in the environment causes environmental stress (Ayalon et al, 2009) and is a
threat to the survival of the aquatic ecosystem (Adane & Muleta, 2011). Moreover, plastic
bags are not biodegradable which is the most important barrier in using it on a large scale. It
is reported that increasing use of plastic causes marine life destruction across the globe which
may result in food scarcity over the years. Growing environmental concerns and the need to
find alternate plastic packaging substitutes has caused the UK supermarkets thinking on
socially marketing a good mix of economically viable and environmentally friendly source of
packaging.

Alternatives for Single Use Plastic:

Many alternatives for banning single use plastic in the UK have been considered.
Firstly, the supermarkets such as Waitrose imposed charges on single use plastic packaging.
These charges started from 18 pence and increased gradually to 70 pence per bag since the
government imposed a charge of 5 pence per bag in 2011 (Poortinga et al, 2013). As per
reports from the Department of Environment (2014), the use of plastic bag in Norther Ireland
reduced by 72% following the introduction of minimum wage in 2013. The rule also
generated about 4.13million pounds in revenue (Department of Environment, 2014). Similar
numbers and reduced figures are seen in other countries too where plastic bag bans or charges
have been levied. Other regulations to curb plastic use included encouraging the customers to
reuse their bags. The argument against these policies were although it curbed the use of single
use plastic, it was still provided to them by the government itself which was difficult to
digest. Customers felt that if plastic was to be banned why would it be provided by the
government itself. In this way, customers throughout the UK felt that the government is
tackling the wrong issue (Oke, 2017). The result was to use biodegradable substitutes for
plastic packaging such as paper bags, bags made from jute, cloth etc. In October 2018,
various types of plastic items saw a ban and its legislation is expected to be introduced in
2021 (Rankin, 2019). The items to be included in this ban are likely to be those whose
alternatives are easy such as straws, plastic cutlery and certain polystyrenes. Large fast food
giants such as Mcdonalds have already switched to paper straws. The use of paper bags and
straws however cannot be the perfect alternative as research suggests that even paper bags
have an impact on the environment that is heavier than that of plastic bags. Thus, all
alternatives must be carefully evaluated for a large scale replacement.

Social Marketing & Single Use Plastic Ban:

Just as socially irresponsible firms can leave a punitive legacy on the society, socially
responsible organizations can foster curative change (Carrigan et al, 2011). Social marketing
thus can act as a good strategy for developing sense amongst the stakeholders for reducing
the use of plastics overall. In its simplest form, social marketing is a strategy that is defined
as the application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis, planning and
execution of programs designed to change the voluntary behaviour of the target audiences in
order to improve their personal as well as societal welfare (Opel et al, 2009). Using a
marketing medium that is proven to be successful in the commercial sector is sought to
improve societal issues and bring about a positive change (Lee & Kotler, 2011). Social
marketing is thus seen as a approach to influence certain behaviour and has roots in
behavioural theories such as the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the exchange theory etc all of
which have an impact on social marketing. Social marketing also uses the social psychology,
marketing science and human reaction to messages to target specific populations and bring
about a desired change in their behaviour. For the use of single use plastic, organizations that
use social marketing have to deal with ethical and environmental concerns in the use of
plastic that affect almost all of the countries of the world. However, in the quest to change
customer’s attitudes towards the use of single use plastic, supermarkets face the problem of
difference in the consumer’s attitude-behaviour gap (Boulstride and Carrigan, 2000).
Consumers are thus people who are engaged in social interactions that consume products
which might or might not be sustainable. Thus, consumption of products is intertwined with
social relations and norms which is why it is important to bring about a behavioural change in
the customer’s attitude toward the use of certain non-sustainable products (Jackson, 2005).

Example of Social Marketing in Food Industry:

The idea of limiting the use of plastic struck “Plastic Free Pantry” a company that
specializes in offering whole foods and pantry staples in completely plastic free packaging.
The idea behind this company was not to maximize profits but to minimize the use of plastic
packaging. This company provides its products all over UK and is first online plastic free
shop in the UK. It is a social enterprise that is willing to contribute to better future by
compromising on the current profit margins. In another example, industry leaders of the
packaging industry joined hands with each other to form a non-profit organization “Keep
America Beautiful” whose general mission was to inform the people to keep the waste to a
minimum (Goodwine, 2019). However, it is important to note that both the examples cited
are either non profit organizations and/or social welfare organizations whose major task is not
to optimize profits. Therefore, the challenge is for commercial firms to inculcate the
restriction of plastic use and yet make viable solutions for its replacements in a way that
customers not only like the new materials but it is also commercially feasible for
supermarkets to consume them. A useful option practiced by many supermarket is the Bring
your own Bag (BYOB) which encourages users to use cloth bags and offers multiple options
to customers (Ari and Yilmaz, 2017). However, this option often creates distance between
customers and the supermarkets as it is considered to be slightly unethical and miserly of the
supermarket to ask customers to bring their own packaging materials for shopping.

Marketing Problems in Single Use Plastic Ban:

Since the entire food and supermarket industry is dependent heavily on plastic packaging, it
is very difficult to promote alternatives for this type of packaging that could prevent or even
reduce the effect of plastic use in packaging. It is thus imperative to understand the major
marketing problems that may be encountered in reducing the use of single use plastic. One of
the major challenges facing the UK supermarkets is to promote through marketing campaigns
the idea of using less or minimal plastic for packaging. Plastic manufacturers found
innovative ways to use the product in multiple industries ranging from automobiles to food
packaging and even housing all of which makes people addicted to the use of the substance
which is not only cheaper but is easily replaceable (Goodwine, 2019). However, its hazards
not only in the environment but also to medical and human life such as the connection of
plastics causing cancer to humans (Schurr et al, 2018) has given marketers with plenty of
opportunities to propagate the ban on the use of plastic in the packaging industry. On the
contrary, organizations must first develop a robust action plan to minimize the use of single
use plastic by developing alternative methods and packaging materials and getting the
customers to like and use the alternative products. For instance, paper bags which are not
reusable after a point in time are not being liked by customers due to its poor quality to hold
things especially food and meat items (Swida et al, 2019). However, understanding the
history of plastics is also important in the way to find relevant solutions as its replacements.
Through a series of behaviour change and using the Defra’s 4E’s model, marketers of
supermarkets may create a behavioural change that can enable minimized use of plastics.

Applying Defra’s 4E’s Model to Minimize Plastic Use:

Social marketing model such as the Defra’s 4E’s model can be used by marketers in
supermarkets to bring about a behavioural change amongst customers for the minimization of
single use plastic. As per this model, a company should simultaneously use the 4E’s formula
i.e Encourage, Enable, Engage and Exemplify to catalyse a change in consumer’s habit
(Eppel et al, 2013). The entire model is drafted in the below picture. It shows four major steps
which can be used effectively by supermarkets to penetrate and market its messages to its
target audience.

Figure 1: Defra’s 4E Model of Behavioural Change:

The Defra’s model can be used by marketers in supermarkets to minimize the use of single
use plastic. This model is primarily used to inculcate a feeling of belonging towards the
society so that the customers are more mindful of their choices when using plastic packaging.
For instance, managers of supermarket such as Sainsbury’s can use the Defra’s model to
create a change in their customers plastic consumption. The first part of this model
recommends managers to encourage their customers to do a particular action. In the case of
plastic packaging, Sainsbury’s can encourage its customers and offer incentives to use paper
bags while shopping instead of plastic bags. In this way, it can curb the use of plastic through
incentive-based encouragement to its customers. The second part of the model recommends
managers to enable the change which means customers must be oriented towards the new
change by believing in the hazards of plastic use and making them understand of the global
risks they face. Sainsbury’s can probably introduce an app that can inform the customers of
the ill effects of using single use plastic in their packaging so as to educate its audience just
like Drinkaware did for its young customers (Baker, 2011). Through its website, brick and
mortar stores and delivery vans, Sainsbury’s can bombard the message of hazards of single
use plastic so as to deter their customers from using it.

The third E in the model is to engage the audience in believing the limited use of
plastic packaging. Engage in this case would mean a lot of CSR activities undertaken by
supermarkets to curb the use of plastic in packaging. This would mean bombarding
advertisements throughout its integrated network on the limited use of plastic, and efforts
taken by the supermarket in helping achieve this. Efforts can be in the form of offering
incentives to even offering non-plastic materials for its own packaging, using
environmentally friendly and affordable packaging products themselves and offering the
same to their customers. In times where it is difficult to limit the use of plastic, charging for
plastic bags and using the funds to create environmentally friendly products/services and
strategies might not be a bad idea to follow in their social marketing strategy.

The final E in the model correlates to exemplify which means to set an example to the
entire supermarket industry by limiting the use of plastic. As seen in the first part of this
paper, Sainsbury’s is at the bottom half amongst all other retailers in the UK in limiting the
use of plastic. This means that there is ample of scope for management to consider using the
Defra’s model to climb this ladder and set an example for other industry competitors to
follow. By doing this, Sainsbury’s can also impact its own CSR rankings and improve its
overall branding which in turn can lead to greater profitability (see Zen, 2020). Care however
must be taken that all the policies and alternatives that the supermarkets employ are
sustainable and transparent in nature and can enhance its accountability towards the society in
order to make the strategies work (Maye et al, 2019). Thus, it can be concluded that
supermarkets may use behavioural change models to inculcate change in consumption pattern
thus reducing plastic.

Conclusions:

The increasing use of single use plastic is a cause for concern for the supermarkets across the
globe. However, using smart replacements with social marketing of such products may cause
not only a shift to the use of plastic alternatives but also cause consumers to realize and act
responsibly on the use of plastic packaging materials. Through social marketing campaigns,
supermarkets can shift voluntary choices of customers to use non-plastic packaging. Overall,
strategies that can control customer’s behaviour towards the issue must be implemented by
supermarkets in order to tackle this issue. However, ethical constraints in developing
strategies must be evaluated carefully.
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