Att stimulera hållbara attityder och beteenden i dagens konsumtionssamhälle : En kvalitativ studie av hur vinstdrivande organisationer beskriver sin roll för en hållbar utveckling och hur det kommer till uttryck i kommunikation mot konsumenter

Sammanfattning: This qualitative study examines how profit-driven organizations handle the growing demands on acting in a sustainable way and how they take responsibility for a society that has severe sustainability problems. Through text analysis, three cases of sustainability reports and commercial campaigns are studied. The questions answered are how the organizations describe their view on sustainable development and their role on the market, and how that translates into marketing messages. The theoretical frame of the study consists of a strong view on sustainability, where human actions have to take place inside of nature’s boundaries, and the perspective on marketing as a relation-building and meaning-shaping activity, which plays an important role in forming society’s culture and norms. The results show that in two of three cases the organizations describe a strong view on sustainability and their role on the market as proactive in a sense that they, independent of external demands, try to change the market in a more sustainable way. This also shows in the commercials where these organizations take an educating position and try to replace unsustainable needs with facts and values that stimulate a sustainable development. The cases can be used as examples of how modern organizations can combine profit and sustainability, and how they through their role on the market and via their marketing both can increase and decrease a sustainable development. Although, the results need to be completed with closer studies of the organizations ideas and studies of more cases to be fully valid.