Do plant-based food products communicate sustainability?
A case study of brand meanings in Thailand and their relationship to sustainable diets
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14456/ncrj.2023.1Keywords:
Sustainability, Plant-based foods, Eco-labelling, Communication, SemioticsAbstract
Meat consumption is a significant contributor to global warming and reducing meat consumption is a key step towards achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), and especially to promoting healthier diets, more responsible consumption, and mitigating climate change (SDGs 3, 12 and 13). Although many people broadly understand the impact of diet on sustainability, encouraging changes to eating habits is difficult with many barriers to uptake among most people. There is evidence that nudging people using visual and verbal cues is an effective way to encourage sustainable eating. With the objective of understanding how sustainability is (and is not) being communicated, this paper reviews the visual and verbal messaging of different brands of plant-based foods in Thailand. The findings suggest that sustainability can be leveraged more systematically and consistently, in conjunction with other key category messages, to encourage sustainable eating. Although other research determines that there are multiple motivations for consuming plant-based foods, these findings suggest some approaches to communicating sustainability that might increase the attractiveness of the category to more people.
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