Essay: The NUS Coffee Cup Campaign

Introduction
The NUS (National Union of Students) have produced a campaign aiming to reduce the number of disposable coffee cups used across UK campuses, by normalising reusable coffee cups (Ref, Appendix i). The health promotion initiative, titled the “NUS Coffee Cup Campaign”, was part of their 2018’s sustainability campaigns (NUS, 2018). The production of plastic has increased vastly in the last 50 years and looks unlikely to slow down. Plastic pollution is the latest threat to environmental and human health, with plastic particles now dispersing across ecosystems (Lambert & Wagner, 2016). As of 2016/17 the most a governement publication indicated that the highest recent age of initial participation at uk universities was 18 (28.0%) with 19 the second highest, thus main target group would be young adults between the ages of 18-22 years (National Statistics, 2018). There are five different approaches to health promotion with the one that the NUS CCC focuses their campaign around being the behavioural change approach. Health promotion initiatives who focus around behavioural change, views health as a property of individuals and subsequently take the assumption that an individual can make real improvements to their health by choosing to change their lifestyle. Along with this is that if the original behaviour does not change that they are to blame for the consequences. Looking to how this relates to the NUS CCC; the way that the campaign is phrased is that if the individual reading the poster or the information provided on the NUS’ sustainability website and that they do not change from using disposable cups to reusable ones, that their habits are to blame or damaging the environment. Behaviour change health promotion initiatives are expert led and targets individuals yet the use of mass communication is often used. There is extensive literature regarding the many different factors that affect an individual’s behaviour, and described as “enormous” (Maio et al 2007). However one thing that is reoccurring from all the different papers is that “there is no one winning model” (Darnton, 2008) and often an effective health promotion initiative is a combination of multiple different techniques, theories and models. From looking at the campaign its self-there are four main models and theories that the NUS have/could of used in order to result in changing the behaviour of thousands of students. Them being; Cognitive Dissonance Theory, SNS (social networking sites) as a novel setting for health promotion, the use of the ISM behavioural change model to create the initiative and the use of social marketing.
Through this essay, they will be analysed to give clear positives and negatives to each of the models/theories and to the overall campaign, finishing with my overall opinion on the campaign and any possible improvements they could make.
ISM – Individual, Social, Material Behavioural Change Tool (Darnton & Horne, 2013)
The NUS website states that they used the behavioural change tool called ISM (Individual, Social and Material) to construct the campaign (NUS, 2018). The ISM behavioural change tool demonstrates that three different contexts (Individual, social and material) influence individual’s behaviours. ISM says that health promotion interventions should take account of influences across all of the three different contexts in order to produce a campaign/programme that is effective and long lasting. The developers of the programme say that the programme has “more chance of success as it encourages broader thinking and points towards collaborative working to develop a more integrated package of interventions” (Darnton & Horne, 2013). There are a few examples of when the ISM behavioural tool has been applied to other issues e.g the NUS’s intervention with ‘pre-driking’. Looking deeper into each of the contexts, we can start to map out areas that need to be addressed when creating an effective intervention regarding the NUS CCC (Darnton & Horne, 2013).
Individual Factors
• Values, beliefs, attitudes – components of the motivational system. If the individual is an environmentalist and/or wanting to protect the environment then these are motivational reasons to wanting to change behaviour. This factor works in accordance with the Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger, 1962). There would be little impact if the individual does not hold a strong opinion on protecting the environment or that they do not see protecting the environment as their problem. This means work needs to focus not wholly on the environment, but also on factors that affect individuals directly i.e. their health.
• Cost & benefit analysis – this is the process that an individual will go through to make a rational and informed choice taking into account all positives and negatives of changing behaviours. This has a major impact in relation to the costs of buying a reusable cup and the money the individual saves by using it at coffee shops e.g. the ‘Reward-a-cup’ scheme. This would work well for students who buy hot drinks regularly; however, for individuals who only by a hot drink rarely this would not make financial sense, this would need to look to other factors ignorer to convince them.
• Skills – this is whether the individual knows how and know what to do in order to change their behaviour. We look into the information provided by the campaign and see whether there is information regarding where to buy reusable coffee cups, how to use them/what to do with them and how to take part in the reward schemes.
• Other factors are; habit, emotions and agency
Social Factors
• Opinion leaders – Involves individuals who have a vast influence over the target audience. Looking to how this factor has changed and helped the campaign there were TV shows, celebrities and for more recently social media influencers that have all started promoting the use of reusable cups. The impact of TV shows like Blue Planet II have caused outrage across the population and promoting the use of reusable coffee cups. In Blue Planet II, Sir David Attenborough highlighted the issue of single use plastic and highlighted the immediate action needed and that the future of the planet is in the palm of our hands (Ruddick, 2017). Attenborough also stated that “we have a responsibility, every one of us” and that “what we actually do here, and in the middle of Asia and wherever, has a direct effect on the oceans – and what the oceans do then reflects back on us” (Attenborough, Honeybourne & Brownlow, 2017). Shows the major benefit celebrities have with a health promotion campaign.
• Network & relationships – this can be combined this the previous point as friendships, especially at university are vital for spreading information. Many articles demonstrate the impact friendships and parental influences on an individual’s behaviour. This means that if an adolescent’s friend/friendship group/society/family use reusable cups, the student it more likely to adopt that behaviour (Engels, Vitaro, Blokland, de Kemp & Scholte, 2004). Social networking sites are also important in this area and often explains how information and behaviours can spread on a mass scale (discussed as a setting for health promotion later)
• Norms – This was one of the main aims of the NUS, as it states on their website “NUS will be asking your institution to join our campaign and commit to making reusable cups the norm across UK campuses” (NUS, 2018). Currently the norm for society is still using disposable cups therefore changing this is vital.
• Other factors include institutions, tastes and meanings
Material Factors
• Rules & regulations – currently there are no rules or regulations in place, however this hasn’t stopped certain companies implementing charges for using disposable cups. As of July 2018, Starbucks have started to charge 5p for use of disposable cups following a successful 3 month trial period that saw use of reusable cups increase by 126 per cent (Gabbatiss, 2018). Also implicit and can be used in informal situations in determining the correct behaviour for an individual; using a reusable cup instead of asking for a disposable one.
• Infrastructure – This includes universities facilities across campuses that will help enable and empower students to change behaviour and use reusable coffee cups. When looking at the organisation section on the NUS Coffee Cup Campaign website they provide details of case studies for other institutions to take inspiration from, they ask for reusable cups to be made available in shops and cafes on campus (NUS, 2018).
• Other factors include technologies, time & schedules and objects
Criticism of the Tool
In an MSc paper by Koziel, 2016 titled “Low Carbon Behaviours: Implementation of The ISM Approach by Public Sector in Scotland”. This was an evaluation based upon six case studies in which two key negative points regarding the tool were highlighted; Need for multiple stakeholders and that the guide does not indicate on where to go next or how to ensure maintenance of behaviour change (Koziel, 2016).
Social marketing
Defined as “the use of marketing principles and techniques to influence a target audience to voluntarily accept, reject, modify or abandon a behavior for the benefit of individuals, groups or society as a whole” (Kotler, Roberto & Lee, 2002), is a vital theory in relation to the NUS CCC. For this to work in the context of health promotion the target group must be educated on why they want to change their behavior and be encouraged to uptake the ‘healthy’ option. The NUS CCC provides the target group with information on the advert but also more detailed information on the need to change on the campaign’s website. Information on what is the ‘correct’ behavior to adopt is written clearly on the advert reading, “Choose a reusable cup”. The information provided on the advert is clear and easy to understand thus meaning it is inclusive of all. In social marketing advertisement is one of the most fundamental parts however it is a multifaceted approach; this section we will explore other different elements to find how effective the NUS uses social marketing in their campaign and identify any areas that are lacking.
The ’4 Ps’
The ‘4 Ps’ are what companies traditionally use to promote a brand or product, however can work nicely with health promotion especially with the NUS CCC. This health promotion initiative is about promoting a product – the reusable coffee cup.
• Product – this is all about the reusable cup its self. It needs to be attractive (different colours and patterns – makes individuals want to share images online), accessible (NUS asks institutions to sell the cups at their facilities on campus),
• Price – as spoken about already it is to do with the cost benefit analysis but also cost of time. The individual would consider all expenditures and see if the benefits outweigh it. The campaign have to focus on providing the individual with all the benefits they need to agree it is worth the extra time and money.
• Place – this is where the behaviour occurs or where the target audience receives the information. In this case it would be mainly in cafes on campus or online.
• Promotion – the initiative needs to be attracting the target audience and at the correct time. It leads directly into the next point of what the NUS are doing to promote the campaign and spread the message
Criticisms of the ‘4 Ps’; a few studies show a few limitations of the theory e.g. the ‘4 P’s’ lack information and theory-based principles regarding the organisation of marketing activities, lack of help regarding the personification of marketing activities, and little consideration of customer behaviour but is internally oriented (Möller, 2006). However, the 4 P’s have always been extremely influential in the development of social marketing theory. Yet despite the emergence of other influences in today’s society, it remains a strong framework within the marketing mix (Goi, 2009).
Channel analysis
This factor investigates how the message/the health promotion campaign will be disseminated across the target group. Looking into what the NUS CCC has done to gain mass communication and what else could be done? The NUS has produced two different posters/images detailing the message of the campaign (ref appendix), they have also set up a hashtag – #CoffeeCupCampaign, useful to increase their presence on social media. They ask individuals to share images of the campaign and insinuations to advertise and create their own reusable coffee cup programmes specific to their university. However, there is little evidence of any other means of spreading the message, despite the plastic pollution being one of the major trends in the news. TV shows like Blue Planet II, BBC’s documentary names ‘Drowning in Plastic”, high profile individuals such as Sir David Attenborough and the UK Government have expressed their concerns in the amount of plastic out ecosystems. Blue Planet II was what had the biggest impact on the public with people still effected from the images the programme produced. The use of hard-hitting images has been proven important in health education and promotion (Houts, Doak, Doak & Loscalzo, 2006), yet when looking at the posters produced by the NUS there is nothing that will have a great impact on the audience.
Social Networking Sites as a setting for Health Promotion
In the 21st century there one main feature that has and will shape billions of people’s lives – Social Networking Sites. Sites like these enables billions of people right across the globe to share and read information that otherwise would not have been so accessible to them. This makes SNS a novel yet promising setting for health promotion initiatives. The most common user of SNS are young adults or teenagers of which also make up a vast proportion of the NUS’s target audience, this makes it especially important for the NUS to exploit SNS to promote their health promotion initiative. SNS allow word of mouth by users sharing the NUS’ campaign poster, the use of hashtags all of which allow easy and quick mass communication. By creating partnerships within the SNS, developing links to other settings/wider community. Studies show SNSs ideal for encouraging interpersonal interaction and for providing information on how to become civically and politically involved (Loss, Lindacher & Curbach, 2014). To look at an example of how SNS can be used for health promotion, The FaceSpace Project used SNS to promote sexual health, focusing on a target group of young people aged 16-29 years (the target group that the NUS primarily focuses on). The health promotion campaign was a set of different videos, a Facebook page and a YouTube channel. From trialling this new health promotion setting they concluded with the fact that the use of social media is more difficult that first anticipated. Developing a health promotion intervention on SNS requires the use of additional techniques/aspects beyond traditional health promotion. There is need for consideration of the online environment and the nature of human interaction online (different to offline). They said that there is need for additional experts who before would not normally be associated with health promotion traditionally. However, although it was stated that this was far more difficult than originally thought they do express the vital importance it is to correctly and effectively develop health promotion strategies on SNS; the increasing amount of time the target group is spending on SNS and thus has changed massively how individuals interact on-line and off-line. Overall, SNS is relatively new and that as time goes on our expertise will increase to a point where effective health promotions will be the norm on SNS and produce positive results (Gold et al., 2012). Looking at the use of SNS by the NUS for their NUS Coffee Cup Campaign. Looking to the NUS Coffee Cup Campaign there is some indication of SNS use; they promote individuals (students) to “share the NUS Campaign on social media” and when they take the “NUS’ Coffee Cup Campaign Pledge – individual” they have a checklist of which sharing on social media is a point to tick off (NUS, 2018). However, when you look on the NUS website that provides details of the campaign there are no direct links to any social media posts regarding the campaigns, making sharing virtually impossible for students to do so. From when following the link to their main Facebook page there is no/little evidence of the campaign. This is damaging to the campaign as it leaves the individuals wanting to make the change lacking empowerment and motivation. Moreover, it has missed the possible mass communication that SNS provides of which could have had a positive impact on the success of the campaign. Despite the areas that are in need of improvement there are some positives, they do have a NUS Sustainability twitter account along with a hashtag for the campaign #CoffeeCupCampaign. This enables individuals to share the campaign and raises awareness for the cause.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
This section will explore how the NUS Coffee Cup Campaign (NUS CCC) could champion the cognitive dissonance theory in order to promote behavioural change, highlighting the positives and negatives of this theory. The NUS CCC could use cognitive dissonance theory to its advantage by provoking dissonance due to the information that they provide which will challenge the individual’s behaviour. Cognitive Dissonance Theory, a theory which uses a person’s psychological discomfort caused by conflicting beliefs and actions to change their initial behaviour in order to reach cognitive stability. In Festinger’s 1962 book called “A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance” he discusses the theory’s hypothesis; “existence of dissonance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate the person to try to reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance”. He adds, “When dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will actively avoid situations and information which would likely to increase dissonance” (Festinger, 1962). The poster created by the campaign contains the words “protect the environment choose a reusable cup” (NUS, 2018). This choice of strap line would work effectively for many people as long as they all share a common interest in becoming greener and living a more sustainable life. If the individual does hold such beliefs then the information provided along with the individual’s use of disposable cups will cause mental instability (dissonance). How to reduce dissonance? Three ways: change attitudes, behaviour and beliefs, acquire new information that outweighs the dissonant beliefs, or reduce the importance of cognitions – Confirmation Bias (Donald, 2010) . Thus the NUS CCC provides a solution to the dissonance i.e. Using a reusable cup, this is what they say can help the environment and the individual’s attitudes, beliefs and actions are in coherence with each other. Dissonance can cause people to feel uncomfortable and causes stress, all of which can lead to other, more serious, medical conditions (Schneiderman, Ironson & Siegel, 2005), thus the need to reduce it and change their behaviour. However, there are other ways to reduce dissonance, that might not result in desired behavioural change. An individual may reduce their dissonance by acquiring new information. Information from new papers or reports that demonstrate that either disposable aren’t the main reason to the globes plastic problem so using them has little impact, or any reports that may highlight any issues with reusable cups. The individual lessening the importance of the cognitions could also reduce dissonance; this might be that the individual would rather live for today, not pay extra for a reusable cup and keep using disposable ones despite future savings that may happen. They might also think that the environmental issues caused by the disposable cups will not affect them immediately thus portraying it as an issue for the future. This is where the flaws lie in the Cognitive Dissonance Theory, although if it works correctly and the individual does reduce their dissonance by changing their actions and use reusable cups then it is a very effective tool, however as shown there are numerous other ways that mental stability can be resolved. Therefore this theory is effective but combination with other theories and models to ensure the desired outcome (McLeod, 2018).