Conspicuous anticonsumption: When green demarketing brands restore symbolic benefits to anticonsumers

This article introduces the concept of conspicuous anticonsumption and provides evidence that it can be an effective means for green demarketing brands to encourage anticonsumption. Conspicuous anticonsumption refers to practices whereby brands provide visible signals imbued with meaning that consumers use to convey environmental motivations for consumption reduction activities. Two experiments suggest that without a signal, observers perceive anticonsumers to have lower socioeconomic status. However, when a visible signal communicates environmental motivations for anticonsumption actions, negative status inferences are mitigated and perceptions of the associated brand become more favorable. These visible signals confer status and restore the symbolic benefits that are often lost when consumption is forgone. Because symbolic benefits are powerful drivers of consumption choices, conspicuous anticonsumption can appeal to a broader base of moderate consumers. This practice has the potential to reduce negative environmental impact on a societal level as well as have positive outcomes for the brand. Counter to the prosocial perspective taken in most anticonsumption literature and activist thinking, This study highlights the importance of focusing on the personal symbolic benefits and costs of anticonsumption at the individual level.