Surname 1

The Attitudes and Behaviors towards Purchasing the KeepCup.

Student’s Name:

Instructor’s Name:

Institutional Affiliation:

Date:
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The attitudes and behaviors towards purchasing the KeepCup.

Keep cups are reusable coffee cups that are made from plastic and which can be washed

and used again. The KeepCups were designed first in Australia where there was a need to reduce

the waste generated as a result of uncontrolled disposing of the coffee cups and the need to create

a more environmentally friendly and a sustainable option for the customers. KeepCups are

ecologically friendly and long-lasting coffee cups that have been in the forefront to promote

environmental values. KeepCups products are doing their best through the promotion of

sustainable consumption habits as it is encouraging the development of different social movements

which strive for product re-use and environmental sustainability. In this connection, marketing has

a significant role in altering consumer behavior or providing a key strategic consideration for

marketers.

With the launch in 2009, the KeepCups began its operations by creating and selling the

recyclable and reusable cups that also had appealing designs to coffee customers. The KeepCups

are made in a manner that the cup is appealingly attractive to a majority of the hot beverages

customers while at the same time using a pure recyclable plastic. The KeepCups are an illustration

of how viable consumption can be made possible by endorsing eco-friendly and colorful produces,

reducing wastes and at the same time making money. In marketing the KeepCups, one of the

messages used is sustainability as Gray puts it, “Sustainability is a message that translates in any

language, which makes it easy to export the product and sell it in different countries”.1

1
Paju, Kristiina. "Influencing sustainable consumption: a case of KeepCup." (2015).
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In the modern world, consumer cultures that value convenience and affordable prices have

led to issues concerning our consumption habits, as well as sustainability. The way many people

consume products creates global unsustainability, and most of the sectors do not understand that

nature of consumption. Studies on sustainability agree that consumption lies amid unsustainable

and sustainable use. Importantly, consumers still hold on to the ethical and environmental

elements of the products they purchase although the emphasis is not primarily made. Myra Hird

discusses the first perspective of my Keepcups case study in the article “Waste, Landfills, and an

Environmental Ethic of Vulnerability.” Hird applies the constitutive inhuman inclusion concept to

help develop an understanding of the perspective of waste-world-making, which is an important

theory in contemporary societies.2 Myra Hird confirms “Landfills, these analyses suggest, tell us

a great deal about ourselves, and our relations within communities, with the environment, and with

global society.” Therefore, KeepCups are introduced in the market to push the environmental

limits beyond human exceptionalism while evaluating the concept of sustainability and waste

management.3 According to this viewpoint, if the important worries are connected to human de-

stratification of material layering and fossil fuels form the earth's surface, then the landfill will

articulate such issues in the opposite direction to prevent impacts of re-stratification indeterminate.

In regards to the KeepCups, an individual choosing the modified cups over the plastic and paper

mugs is described to be a more responsible customer.

According to Gill Seyfang, sustainable consumption can be described as the use of products

as well as services to provide to primary human wants and offering a better life while at the same

2
Hird, Myra J. "Waste, Landfills, and an Environmental Ethic of Vulnerability." Ethics& the
Environment 18, no. 1 (2013): 105-124.

3
Hird, Myra J., Scott Lougheed, R. Kerry Rowe, and Cassandra Kuyvenhoven. "Making waste management public
(or falling back to sleep)." Social Studies of Science 44, no. 3 (2014): 441-465.
 Surname 4

time reducing the exploitation of natural resources. The second perspective on KeepCups case

study focuses on promoting ecological marketing. In support of this, Gill Seyfang agrees that

“Everyone takes up a certain amount of ecological ‘space’ in the sense of resource use and carrying

the capacity burden, and this space is expressed as a footprint on the earth.”4 By doing so, it

confirms that waste and dangerous materials are well controlled to provide a good environment

for future generations by keeping the citizens aware of waste management and control. In

agreement with Gill Seyfang, the primary objective of the KeepCups is reducing the waste disposal

of the plastic coffee cups hence maintaining the ecological environment through recycling and

reuse of such materials.

The last perspective holds that sustainability is a way of life that aims at creating a safe

environment for future generations and which will permit them to make good use of natural

resources without compromises. The challenge associated with the generation of waste by

disposable hot beverage cups is an international and rapidly growing worry. A substantial

contribution of environmental pollution by the disposable plastic cups and the growing trend is not

expected to go down or stagnate unless strict regulations and measures are brought into attention.

Regarding this, Hird states “The emphasis on individual responsibility operates within a capitalist

rationale to manage waste in ways that do not disturb circuits of mass production and mass

consumption (and industry profit), affecting an almost exclusive orientation toward ‘downstream’

responses to waste.”5 The KeepCups are not fully recyclable, and it is essential and necessary to

research o better methods on how to dispose of them. This angle provides a deeper understanding

4
Seyfang, Gill. "Shopping for sustainability: can sustainable consumption promote ecological
citizenship?." Environmental politics 14, no. 2 (2005): 290-306.

5
Hird, Myra J., Scott Lougheed, R. Kerry Rowe, and Cassandra Kuyvenhoven. "Making waste management public
(or falling back to sleep)." Social Studies of Science 44, no. 3 (2014): 441-465.
 Surname 5

of major environmental concerns and provides various waste management approaches that can be

used to control environmental pollution through recycling technologies and to landfill.

a) What factors impact the potential consumer in deciding to purchase a KeepCup?

In regards to the factors impacting the customers to purchase the KeepCups, most the

customers made the purchases based on the design of the KeepCups, the ecological characteristics

of the cups and finally the convenience the cups provide to the coffee drinkers. The favorable

attitudes towards sustainability promotion is also another factor that the customers put into

consideration while buying the KeepCups since it is eco-friendly hence playing a vital role in

environmental management.6 The decision to buy KeepCups especially among those customers

who had earlier bought at least one KeepCups was based on sustainability idea and secondly the

fresh, appealing design of the cups. The sustainability of services and products is, therefore, a vital

factor influencing the purchase decision making since the customers agree with the product

sustainability before purchasing with a high degree of consensus.

b) Is a consumer buying decision influenced by the ecological values of KeepCup?

The customers'` opinions tend to vary in regards to the ecological value of the KeepCups.

Some customers end up showing a high degree of consensus in regards to sustainability in

consumer behavior. There also exists negative attitudes in connection to sustainability among the

customers though with a different scope.7 In ensuring an eco-friendly environment and the

reduction of waste, customers may develop a positive attitude towards purchasing the KeepCups

6
Seyfang, Gill. "Shopping for sustainability: can sustainable consumption promote ecological
citizenship?." Environmental politics 14, no. 2 (2005): 290-306.

7
Paju, Kristiina. "Influencing sustainable consumption: a case of KeepCup." (2015).
 Surname 6

due to their reusable and recyclable characteristics which helps in environmental conservation and

prevention of degradation. Therefore, the main factors that would attribute customers’ attitude

towards buying a KeepCup would include the ecological properties and the convenience provided.

c) At what scope do the clients conceptualize persuading attempts targeted at them?

Most of the customers in the market do conceptualize the persuading attempts targeted at

them, but it is not automatic that these customers would fall for the persuasion strategies when

brought to them in real life.8 The customer attitude and their changes in attitude indicate customer

behavior in purchasing the KeepCups. An average number of customers do not understand about

sustainability and its association with their habits of consumption due to the clutter of information

in most of the advertisements. The present overflow of sales efforts and marketing materials makes

people develop a perception that they cannot be persuaded since they have high persuasion

knowledge.

Generally, Attitudes are an important part of the customer behavior that affects the buying

of commodities and services in varied ways. Such attitudes provide a topic for any marketer and

salesperson who needs to understand the background of customer’s objectives better.

The worldwide food safety regulations do not recommend the utilization of recycled plastic

for food packaging. The main reason is due to the fact that recycled plastic poses a threat of

contaminated food from non-food safe chemicals that the plastics are exposed to during the

recycling process. Therefore, while researching for the perfect material for making KeepCups it is

8
Paju, Kristiina. "Influencing sustainable consumption: a case of KeepCup." (2015).
 Surname 7

important that one selects a material that guarantees consumers of their health safety. Among the

most appropriate materials for KeepCups manufacture is polyethylene.

Polyethylene is a plastic which is very useful in the manufacturing of KeepCups. The

plastic retrieved from polyethylene is highly resistant from fatigue which makes it even more

important for KeepCup manufacture as it is durable.9 Although there has been a war against plastic,

polypropylene is the most disposable and recyclable plastic which means that its impact on the

environment can be minimized to an absolute level through recycling. Polyethylene provides

longevity and multiple instances of utilization. Among other advantages of this type of plastic is

weight. Despite the plastic being unbreakable, it is lightweight which makes it portable. Apart

from customers' ability to carry it around with ease, cups made from polyethylene have a lower

freight cost due to their lightweight. Other advantages of plastic over any other form of material is

that it minimizes waste on the factory floor due to its low embodied energy and it is stackable

which makes its storage more manageable. The most important advantage of plastic is that it is

readily recyclable.

Development of polyethylene involves a complex process that may be overwhelming to a

lot of people. Instead of focusing on the manufacturing process of polyethylene, it is advisable to

buy it from local manufacturers. This will ease the process of accessing the material and only leave

the individual to worry about manufacturing the KeepCups. There are various companies that

produce and distribute polyethylene, for example, Snetor.

9
KeepCup. "Made To Last | KeepCup Materials, Manufacturing & More | KeepCup." KeepCup | Reusable Coffee
Cups. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://au.keepcup.com/made-to-
last?countryNameChange=au&countryChangeType=auto.
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Polyethylene has been used as the lining for the KeepCups for the past years. It is reported

that polyethylene makes coffee taste better than polystyrene lining that is used in non-reusable

cups. KeepCup colors vary to fit the consumers' preferences. Bold, bright, and funky colors have

been reported to influence the purchasing decision of some customers. KeepCups are the kind of

products that encourage sustainable consumption by not only using eco-friendly products but also

by promoting colorful products. At the completion of a KeepCup's life, the parts of the cup can be

recycled.

Apart from polyethylene, there are other materials that can be used to manufacture

KeepCups. These include the likes of glass, silicone, and cork all of which are recyclable. The

tampered glass is extracted from soda lime, cork is extracted from trees, and silicone is extracted

from sand.10 All the materials used to manufacture KeepCups guarantee the consumers of

durability, recyclability, and precision in terms of design.

Since the goal of this study is to establish the factors that contribute to consumers purchasing

KeepCups, the following questions were answered:

a) What influences customers to purchase KeepCups?

b) Does the preservation of the environment contribute to customers purchasing KeepCups?

c) Do the customers understand and act to persuasions for them to use KeepCups?

A quantitative method was used to seek answers to the above questions. To determine the

factors that impact the buying behavior of the customers, questionnaires were conducted.

10
KeepCup. "Made To Last | KeepCup Materials, Manufacturing & More | KeepCup." KeepCup | Reusable Coffee
Cups. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://au.keepcup.com/made-to-
last?countryNameChange=au&countryChangeType=auto.
 Surname 9

Quantitative research is one of the most significant strategies used for research. Therefore,

questionnaires are a part of a deductive methodology as its structure exists from formulating

questions. Limited time contributed to the option of the cross-sectional time horizon for the

research. The research was carried out from the context of the KeepCup's present users to

determine the factors that lead to the consumer's opt to either purchase or not purchase the product.

Positive and negative attitudes toward the idea of KeepCup's sustainable consumption were

recorded.

Due to the factor of time, most of the information concerning the theoretical framework was

acquired from secondary sources such as books, websites, and journals. The source of primary

data was the already formulated questionnaire. Questionnaires were distributed via online channels

to the consumers and resulted in more than 150 responses. These results were satisfying and

realistic since Facebook alone consists of more than 1000 individuals who use the product. The

time limit of the questionnaire was extended by one week to grant access to individuals who were

unable to access it on the first day. Response to the questionnaire was voluntary.

The method used for the study was convenience sampling. Random samples were selected to

provide an equal chance of expression to all consumers. Convenience sampling was selected as it

was simply accessible for the study by the virtue of its accessibility. Convenience sampling was

supplemented with self-selection sampling in which "individuals themselves indicate their will of

becoming part of the research."11 The two sampling method were combined during the distribution

of the questionnaire online. There was no limitation based on the nationality of the respondents as

11
Paju, Kristiina. "Influencing sustainable consumption: a case of KeepCup." (2015).
 Surname 10

social media networks are international. Questionnaires enhance the speed and diversity of

response even though they may be challenged by an uncertainty of the number of the respondents.

The questionnaire was formulated as a self-completion questionnaire in surveymonkey.com.

Surveymonkey was the best option as it offered cheaper and time-saving administration of the

questionnaire. However, the site also posed a challenge of inadequate responses and access by

anonymous respondents. The contents of the questionnaire aimed at assisting respondents to

elaborate on their views towards the KeepCup which resulted in an interesting and quality

feedback on the study topic. After the collection of questionnaire results, the tri-component attitude

model was utilized to determine the rational and emotional parts of the respondents.

The results of the research were as follows:

a) Most of the prospective customers buy a KeepCup due to its design and convenience to

coffee drinkers.

b) The ecological value of the KeepCup differs from an individual to the other. Half of the

respondents suggested that whoever buys a KeepUp is a responsible one while the other

half was disapproved the KeepCup as an eco-friendly product.

c) Majority of the respondents showed high levels of persuasion knowledge in their responses.

The results of the study in some way compared to the results of the study carried out by Paju

Kristiina. In her research, Kristiina deduced that the design of the KeepCup influences the

consumers' decision to purchase the product.12 The topic on sustainable consumption is however

not closed to further research. It is a field that arises different feeling from different people across

12
Paju, Kristiina. "Influencing sustainable consumption: a case of KeepCup." (2015).
 Surname 11

the world. Therefore, if the study is carried out on a global scale, a more precise result may be

obtained.
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Bibliography

Hird, Myra J. "Waste, Landfills, and an Environmental Ethic of

Vulnerability." Ethics& the Environment 18, no. 1 (2013): 105-124.

Hird, Myra J., Scott Lougheed, R. Kerry Rowe, and Cassandra Kuyvenhoven. "Making waste

management public (or falling back to sleep)." Social Studies of Science 44, no. 3 (2014):

441-465.

KeepCup. "Made To Last | KeepCup Materials, Manufacturing & More | KeepCup." KeepCup |

Reusable Coffee Cups. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://au.keepcup.com/made-to-

last?countryNameChange=au&countryChangeType=auto.

Paju, Kristiina. "Influencing sustainable consumption: a case of KeepCup." (2015).

Seyfang, Gill. "Shopping for sustainability: can sustainable consumption promote ecological

citizenship?." Environmental politics 14, no. 2 (2005): 290-306.