Vardagsmat eller domedag? Marknadsföring av ekologiska varor genom svaga och starka rädslor

Sammanfattning: In a time when concern for the environment is a topic that is met with both love and hatred, organic goods and services become increasingly common on the market. Communication efforts with the purpose of increasing the proportion of organic products consumed are being conducted by both private and public actors. However, achieving attitudinal and behavioral change within complex areas such as this comes with many difficulties.Within public opinion change, a common way of achieving a change in behavior is to use fear appeals and scare tactics. Earlier studies have shown that messages prompting a low level of fear can be more effective than messages prompting a high level of fear, since a high level of fear tends to raise defense mechanisms in the consumer. The purpose of this essay is to examine whether fear and defense mechanisms is a problem when it comes to making consumers choose organic products, as well as studying whether messages prompting low levels of fear are more effective than those prompting high levels of fear.This quantitative study is conducted in the form of a questionnaire-based experiment, comparing the effectiveness of two messages prompting different levels of fear. The efficiency of the message is measured by changes in behavior (purchase intentions and word-of-mouth intentions) and associations to organic products. The results do not show any differences between the groups either in the level of fear arousal or in the efficiency of the message, except in single instances.The implication of significant and non significant results is discussed along with criticism towards the experiment. The most important conclusion is that negative consequences for the consumer are too distant to have any larger effect. Also, there are big credibility issues due to a strong skepticism towards concern for the environment.