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warm water consumption behaviour in germany

1. 57 6 2 INTERVIEW DISCUSSION 59 6 2 1 Product 59 6 2 2 Strategic M rketing Plan 62 6 3 SUMMARY OF QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS c cccssesseeececeecceesseccccceeeususseccceeeeeaensecceetsaeuenecececessaeusseceeeeessugueneceeeeeteugnens 66 7 MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS 2 2 55252522245045822548208 580840040 000 selscnseubes sauoaedadeussbassseuseasanteusas seneaebecsasens 67 7 1 MARKET POTENTIAL nahen 7 2 AP S OF THE MARKETING MIX 7 3 THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS sssseccccceceseeseecccceeeusnsceccceeeueueneceeeeeesaeessecececeesuensnececeseesuensecesetseengneserees 7 3 1 Target Audience Decision Making 7 3 2 Positioning of the WaterGuide the German 71 7 3 3 Communication 5 73 8 CONCLUSION 76 APPENDICES 2
2. a E APPENDIX 1 HANDOUT IN SCHOOUS APPENDIX 2 ONLINE SURVEY IN GERMAN Vi APPENDIX 3 WATERGUIDE USER MANUAL APPENDIX 4 WATERGUIDE QUICK APPENDIX 5 FAMILY STRUCTURE OF TEST FAMILIES ssssccccccccesssseeecccceeussececceessuensecceseeeeuaessececceeeeuansseceeeteeeuanesecesetsuananenss APPENDIX 6 SURVEY RESULTS u a XXIV APPENDIX 7 SUMMARY OF INTERVIEWS sessececccecceessseccceseceeesssececeseceeesseecccesesaesseceeceeesuenseceeesseeuenseceseseaeuegeecesetsuangnenss XXIX WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Maslow s Hierarchy of N dS ccccscccsssscssssecseseecsnececseecseseecseeeecsaeesesaeesessecsseeessaeeseaaeeseseeesaess 15 Figure 2 Theory of Reasoned Action anne Ale au 16 Figure 3 Theory of Planned Behaviour ccccscccsssecssssecssscecsneeecuecssseecseneecsaeeesaaeesessecseeesaeeseaeessseeesaees 20 Figure 4 Adapted Theory of Planned Behaviour ssccscssecssscesssscessaecseseeceeeeecsaeeessaesseeeecsaeessaeesenaesseneess 23 Figure 5 The Wate rG Gide ac Banned 25 Fi
3. 15 2 3 THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR 16 2 3 1 Theory of Planned 16 2 3 2 The Attit de Concept nennen a e AE 22 2 3 3 Adapted Theory Planned 22 3 CASE COMPANY GRRPEPRRCHESEREPRHEUNEREEEFPRRREEEREETERNEERRERENHEPERERTERBEETEETERTOFEITVERTERERERRHERFRPERDRERTEENCFEREPERBERFTEERTEEFEFERPREETRERTFEEEPERTERR 24 3 1 SMILEIENERGY 24 3 2 THE PRODUCT 2 ee nahen aaa aan a en aaa nn a nennen Fahnen 25 3 3 MARKET SITUATION 4 2 ers ren ee a 27 4 METHODOLOGY E E E E O A E E E T T deus sbaedseutelsdeseveussuteaenedsieses 28 4 1 PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE EEEE REEE 28 4 2 RESEARCH APPROACH 2 SKEA 29 4 3 RESEARCH STRATEGY i naechsten ers 30 4 4 METHODS DATA COLLECTION dadd ii 31
4. We use shopping bags several times We collect and recycle paper We recycle glass We use the car for short distances O We buy organic food We separate waste We recycle returnable bottles O O O O 3 Please indicate your beliefs in regards to the following statements Disagree Slightly disagree Slightly agree Agree 1 2 3 4 It is important to save warm water O Reducing warm water consumption helps the envi 8 o o o o ronment It is not necessary to reduce ones warm water Sa o o o o consumption Every person saving warm water has a positive YP 8 o o o o effect on the environment 34 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 4 Please indicate your feelings towards reducing warm water consumption Disagree Slightly disagree Slightly agree Agree 1 2 3 4 feel like am doing something good for the envi o ronment when saving warm water that it is important to reduce warm water consumption feel like a better person when saving warm wa feel that reducing warm water consumption is pointless 5 Please indicate to which extent the following statements apply to you Never Sometimes Mostly Always 1
5. 2 3 4 turn off the tap when brushing my teeth only turn on the washing machine when have a full load O O O O turn off the shower tap when putting on soap try to shower fast in order to save warm water try to reduce the amount of showering bathing only turn on the dishwasher when it is full 6 Please indicate to which extent you agree with the following statements Disagree Slightly disagree Slightly agree Agree 1 2 3 4 Our friends would support us reducing our warm water consumption Our family would support us reducing our warm water consumption Our friends think that we should reduce our warm water consumption Our Family thinks that we should reduce our warm water consumption 7 Please indicate to which extent you find the following statement realizable Difficult Rather difficult Rather easy Easy 1 2 3 4 Reducing the warm water usage in our household would be 35 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 8 Please indicate to which extent you agree with the following statement Disagree Slightly disagree Slightly agree Agree 1 2 3 4 It is own decision to reduce the warm water consumption in our household 9 Plea
6. Chapter 4 outlines the methodological choices made in this research At first the underlying research phi losophy is described Then the research approach and strategy will be introduced followed by a detailed description of how the quantitative and qualitative research are conducted and analysed Chapter 5 and 6 contain the findings as well as the in depth analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data sets Chapter 7 develops the managerial implications that can be drawn from the primary data analysis First it is assessed whether there is a market for the WaterGuide in Germany This is followed by marketing recom mendations for the brand Chapter 8 concludes with answering the research question and its sub questions based on the analysis from chapter 5 and 6 as well as the managerial implications from chapter 7 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The aim of this chapter is to provide a deeper understanding of the topic at hand and to introduce theories and concepts based on which the empirical analysis will be constructed First current literature in the field of ecological consumer behaviour will be reviewed and relevant findings presented Then consumer behav iour constructs underlying this work will be briefly introduced Finally the main theory used for the empiri cal analysis will be assessed in detail the Theory of Planned Behaviour TPB This will be followed by a dis cu
7. Journal of Environmental Psychology vol 24 no 3 pp 279 288 Darby S 2010 Smart metering what potential for householder engagement Building Research amp In formation vol 38 no 5 pp 442 457 De Young R 2000 Expanding and Evaluating Motives for Environmentally Responsible Behavior Journal of Social Issues vol 56 no 3 pp 509 526 Dembkowski S amp Hanmer Lloyd S 1994 The Environmental Value Attitude System Model a Framework to Guide the Understanding of Environmentally Conscious Consumer Behaviour Journal of Marketing Management vol 10 no 7 pp 593 603 Euromonitor International 2012 DIY Home Improvement and Garden Centres in Germany Category Brief ing Homepage of Euromonitor International Online Available http www portal euromonitor com esc web lib cbs dk Portal Pages Search SearchResultsList aspx 2012 08 07 Fishbein M amp Ajzen 1980 Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River NJ 07458 Gadenne D Sharma B Kerr D amp Smith T 2011 The influence of consumers environmental beliefs and attitudes on energy saving behaviours Energy Policy vol 39 no 12 pp 7684 7694 Gatersleben B Steg amp 2002 Measurement and Determinants of Environmentally Significant Consumer Behavior Environment and Behavior vol 34 no 3 pp 335 362 Geuens M Van den Bergh J amp De Pelsmacker P
8. Not important Umweltengel might be good TUV increases credibility Are there any final comments you would like to make No The daughter used one of the non used symbols when washing hair so it wouldn t add up to her consumption Display should be bigger We are not very focused on saving money so we most likely wouldn t buy the WaterGuide Answers Family 3 Answers Family 4 Did you have any problems installing your WaterGuide Any technical trou ble while using it It was fast and easy to set up No In general how do you like the Water Guide What do you perceive as posi tive negative about it It was fun especially for the kids You get used to it and change your behaviour so we might remove it after a while Good to know how long you shower Not possible to stay in green yellow level when having to shave Turned off sound because it was annoying Woke up the others in the morning because it was too loud Single lever tap was in the way of the display How do you perceive the visualization of your consumption Positive easy to understand Increased awareness XXXI WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 To which degree did the family engage a competition and enjoy it Did engage in competition but also became frustrating No competition However kids teased father for always being in the red level To which d
9. didn t come up with a second attribute time be Where would you expect the product to be sold How would you rate the WaterGuide 5 Very good on these attributes Which price would you be willing to pay 20 for the WaterGuide How long should the maximum payback No relevant DIY sanitary retail water suppliers XXXV WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Which attributes benefits of the Wa terGuide are most important to you Visualization awareness it raises When referring the product to friends and family which characteristics would you point out It helps saving money and the kids like it Especially good for families Why would you buy the WaterGuide In order to always being made aware how much you re consuming and that you should shorten your shower time How high low is your perceived risk when buying the WaterGuide e g financially social emotional No risk How important are quality labels for your buying decision such as TUV Not relevant Are there any final comments you would like to make No XXXVI
10. feel that reducing warm water consumption is pointless The noticeably high amount of re spondents not agreeing 73 0 and the mean value of 1 35 indicating that on average disagreement pre vails clearly show that saving warm water is felt to be worthwhile Overall the results show that respon dents do feel that it is important and worthwhile to reduce warm water consumption However regarding feeling like a better person and feeling to do something good for the environment results are mixed The reason could be that even though people do feel the importance of conservation they do not have the feel ing of having an actual impact themselves 4 Please indicate your feelings towards reducing warm water consumption Mlagree mislightlyagree 1 slightly disagree ml disagree feel like I am l feel that itis feel like a better feel that doing something important to person when reducing warm good for the reduce warm saving warm water environment water water consumption is when saving consumption pointless warm water Figure 10 Results Survey Question 4 Source Author based on survey results shown in Appendix 6 The question aiming at the behavioural attitude component shows two differing outcomes Three state ments show a highly positive behaviour With a mean of 3 67 there is a clear tendency of respondents turn ing off the tap when brushing their teeth Results are even stronger for waiting to do la
11. Each press on the button makes you jump to a new icon The one you mark is automatically chosen after 2 seconds and it is shown in the top left corner If you don t want to join the competition just skip choosing a user icon This way your consumption and your smiley is still shown during the shower Step 7 Ready set go You are now ready to shower and to let you inspire of the WaterGuide s unique way of visu alizing the consumption of hot water It gives you an overview And it makes it a lot easier to save water and energy Remember that the WaterGuide turns off automatically after 5 minutes of inactivity You don t have to do anything XXII WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Appendix 5 Family Structure of Test Families Consider themselves Family m Life Form ran environmentally Interviewee Members Type conscious Family 1 M Married Owned Yes M amp F F House 1 7 years C 2 10 years Family 2 M Married Owned Yes M amp F F House C 1 12 years C 2 16 years Family 3 F Homosexual Owned Yes F F Marriage House C 1 6 years Foster Chil C 2 11 years dren Family 4 M Married Owned Not really M amp F F House C 1 9 years C 2 13 years Family 5 M Married Owned Not very conscious F F Apartment but try to be C 1 8 years M male parent F female parent C child XXIII WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Appendix 6
12. Homepage of Bundesverband der Energie und Wasserwirtschaft Online Available http www bdew de internet nsf id DE_Energiedaten 2012 08 10 Belk R W 1988 Possessions and the Extended Self Journal of Consumer Research vol 15 pp 139 168 Bergman M M 2008 Introduction Whither Mixed Methods in Advances in Mixed Methods Research SAGE Research Methods Online pp 1 7 Bonini S M J Hintz amp Mendonca L T 2008 Addressing consumer concerns about climate change The McKinsey Quarterly vol 2 pp 52 62 Bundesministerium f r Wirtschaft und Technologie 2011 BMWi Energiepreise und Energiekosten Ener giekosten der privaten Haushalte Homepage of Bundesministerium f r Wirtschaft und Technologie Online Available http www bmwi de DE Themen Energie Energiedaten energiepreise energiekosten html 2012 08 10 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Bush R P Ortinau D J amp Hair J F 2009 Marketing Research In a Digital Information Environment McGraw Hill Irwin Boston Carmines E G amp Zeller R A 1979 Introduction in Reliability and Validity Assessment Thousand Oaks SAGE Publications Inc pp 9 16 Christer 5 2002 Willing consumers or locked in Policies for a sustainable consumption Ecological Economics vol 42 no 1 pp 273 287 Costarelli S amp Colloca P 2004 The effects of attitudinal ambivalence on pro environmental behavioural intentions
13. Since each of the components has an influence on behaviour they can serve as a Starting point to influence a person in order to change his behaviour Ajzen 1991 Perceived Behavioural Control amp Control beliefs Perceived behavioural control is defined as a person s perception of how easy or difficult it is to perform a specific behaviour The rationale behind adding this construct to the theory is backed up by research which has proven that a person s behaviour is affected by his confidence in the own ability to perform Ajzen 1991 A person s ability to perform a specific behaviour may be limited by the following different aspects lack of information limited skills amp abilities the level of will power emotions pressure time opportunity and finally dependence on others Ajzen 1985 20 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Overall PBC influences a person s intention to behave in a specific situation Furthermore the theory as sumes that in some cases PBC provides an estimation of actual control and therefore together with inten tion can predict behaviour directly Ajzen 1985 Perceived behavioural control is determined by a person s beliefs control beliefs They are the beliefs a person holds regarding whether he has the resources and opportunities to perform a behaviour These beliefs can be based on the person s own previous experiences friends experiences and secondary infor mation about
14. 01 0 87 tion Our friends think that we should reduce our warm water consump 42 7 39 3 15 7 2 2 1 78 0 79 tion Our Family thinks that we should reduce our warm water consump 29 2 36 0 25 8 9 0 2 15 0 95 tion Table 1 Results Mean and Standard Deviation for Question 6 Source Author based on survey results shown in Appendix 6 Perceived Behavioural Control Perceived behavioural control was assessed with two statements First respondents had to indicate how difficult or easy they think it is to reduce the warm water consumption in their household Figure 11 shows the results It is evident that most respondents 56 2 think it would be rather difficult to do so Only a 50 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 minority of 5 6 thinks that it is easy However there are also 31 5 believing it is rather easy In sum these results indicate that respondents tend to have a somewhat weak confidence in their ability to reduce warm water consumption 7 Reducing the warm water usage in our household would be E Difficult Rather difficult Rather easy mEasy Figure 11 Results Survey Question 7 Source Author based on survey results shown in Appendix 6 Second respondents were asked whether they think it is their own decision to reduce their household s warm water usage 42 7 agreed and 41 6 rather agreed indicating that overall respondents have a rather strong confidence in themselv
15. 2010 Marketing Communications A European Perspec tive 4th edn Financial Times Prentice Hall Harlow Gilg A amp Barr S 2006 Behavioural attitudes towards water saving Evidence from a study of environ mental actions Ecological Economics vol 57 no 3 pp 400 414 Globe Scan 2010 06 2010 last update Greendex 2010 Consumer Choice and the Environment A World wide Tracking Survey Homepage of National Geographic and GlobeScan Online Available http images nationalgeographic com wpf media live file GS NGS Full Report June10 cb1275498709 pdf 2012 06 06 Greenyworld GmbH 2012 Wasser sparen Available http www greenyworld de shop wasser sparen html 2012 06 18 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Hargreaves T Nye M amp Burgess J 2010 Making energy visible A qualitative field study of how house holders interact with feedback from smart energy monitors Energy Policy vol 38 no 10 pp 6111 6119 Jackson T 2005 Motivating Sustainable Consumption a review of evidence on consumer behaviour and behavioural change Sustainable Development Research Network University of Surrey Jorgensen Graymore amp O Toole 2009 Household water use behavior An integrated model Journal of Environmental Management vol 91 no 1 pp 227 236 Kaiser F G W lfing S amp Fuhrer U 1999 Environmental Attitude And Ecological Behaviour Journal of Environmenta
16. 26 89 XXIV WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 dem Auto Wir machen das Licht aus wenn wir einen Raum verlassen 33 54 2 0 3 35 89 Wir haben Elektroger te auf Stand by 9 33 36 11 2 45 89 answered question 89 skipped question 0 3 Bitte geben Sie Ihre Meinung zu den folgenden Aussagen an Ich stim Ich stim Ich stim Answer Options nicht meeher me eher zu nicht zu zu Ich stim Rating Response me zu Average Count Es ist wichtig Warmwasser zu spa ren 2 3 32 52 3 51 89 Das Einsparen von Warmwasser hilft der Umwelt 3 2 34 50 3 47 89 Es ist nicht notwendig seinen Warm wasserverbrauch zu reduzieren 55 21 8 5 1 58 89 Das Sparen von Warmwasser eines jeden einzelnen hat positive Auswir 6 4 29 50 3 38 89 kungen auf die Umwelt answered question 89 skipped question 0 4 Bitte geben Sie Ihre Empfindungen zum Einsparen von Warmwasser an Ich stim Ich stim Ich stim Answer Options me nicht meeher me eher zu nicht zu zu Ich stim Rating Response me zu Average Count Es gibt mir das Gef hl etwas Gutes f r unsere Umwelt zu tun wenn ich Warmwasser spare 9 17 40 au es Ich empfinde es als wichtig den Warmwasserverbrauch zu reduzieren 0 7 46 36 3 33 89 Es gibt mir das Gef hl ein besserer Mensch zu sein wenn ich Warmwas 25 31 21 12 2 22 89 ser einspare Ich empfinde das Einsparen von 65 18 5 1 1 35 89 Warmwasser als sinnlos answered question 89 skipped question 0 XXV W
17. Family 3 Family 4 Family 5 1 most important Saving po Functional Saving po attribute Ease of use 8 8 tential Technology tential nd 2 mostimpartant Saving po Saving po attribute Price Ease of use tential tential Table 3 Two Most Important Product Attributes of the WG Source Author based on interview answers shown in Appendix 7 It becomes evident that the saving potential is the most important product characteristic Two families indicated it as being the most important and another two families as the second most important product attribute No other characteristic was mentioned as often At first it is not clear which attribute the second most important is Both ease of use and price are mentioned once as most important and once as sec ond most important Thus they could both be identified as the second most important attribute However Family 4 mentioned functional technology as the most important attribute This can be understood as the technology having to be convenient for its purpose which can also be interpreted as the technology having to be easy to use Based on this reasoning ease of use can be identified as the second most important product attribute The interviewees were also asked to indicate how they rate the WaterGuide s performance in those two attributes Two families rated the saving potential as very good Family 3 said the saving potential is small Ho
18. For example taking a long shower provides relaxation while reduc ing ones shower time can lead to monetary savings and environmental protection in the long run Finally Jorgensen et al 2009 state that people often countervail their behaviour For example someone who installs a water saving showerhead is likely to increase their shower time hence no saving occurs This is also called the rebound effect van Dam Bakker amp van Hal 2010 2 1 2 Environmental Attitudes In the reviewed literature it became evident that attitudes are a main concept in ecological consumer be haviour and that there is a difference between two types of attitudes in this area attitude towards the environment and attitudes toward ecological behaviour itself Kaiser W lfing amp Fuhrer 1999 Attitude towards the environment refers to environmental concern Kaiser W lfing amp Fuhrer 1999 garding the direct connection between attitudes towards the environment and environmental behaviour numerous studies found that there is only a weak direct influence Even though many consumers indicate to be concerned about the environment their behaviour is inconsistent with these attitudes Vantomme et 11 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 al 2004 Bamberg 2003 Nevertheless other scholars found attitude towards environmental issues to be directly connected to environmental behaviour such as recycling and buying environmentally safe p
19. Sie die folgende Aussage f r umsetzbar halten Eher Eher Rating Response Answer Options Schwer er leicht Leicht Average Count Den Warmwasserverbrauch in unse rem Haushalt zu reduzieren w re 50 2 z answered question 89 skipped question 0 8 Bitte geben Sie an inwieweit Sie der folgenden Aussage zustimmen Ich stim Ich stim Ich stim Answer Options nicht meeher me eher peor nicht zu zu 9 Es ist meine freie Entscheidung den Warmwasserverbrauch in unserem 4 10 37 38 3 22 89 Haushalt zu senken answered question 89 skipped question 0 9 Bitte machen Sie zu der folgenden Aussage eine Angabe Es ist meine Absicht in den n chsten 6 Monaten meinen Warmwasserverbrauch zu reduzieren Answer Options en sehr unwahrscheinlich 4 5 4 unwahrscheinlich 9 0 8 kaum 19 1 17 m glicherweise 37 1 33 wahrscheinlich 20 2 18 sehr wahrscheinlich 10 1 9 answered question 89 skipped question 0 10 Im Folgenden sind m gliche Gr nde zum Einsparen von Warmwasser aufgelistet Bitte geben Sie an in welcher Rangfolge diese auf Ihren Haushalt zutreffen Dabei ist 1 der wichtigste Grund Warmwasser zu spa ren und 7 der am wenigsten wichtige Grund Jede Zahl kann dabei nur einmal vergeben werden Response Answer Options 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Count Wir m chten Energiekosten sparen 52 25 5 3 2 1 1 89 Wir m chten unsere Wasser kosten reduzieren 13 37 19 9 9 2 0 89 Wir sind um unsere Umwelt besor
20. This goes hand in hand with the previous finding that respondents are quite environmentally concerned The hedonic motiva tion of feeling good about helping protect the environment is ranked reason four Hence it does play a middling important role to respondents Moral obligation the image others have of oneself as well as social pressure by neighbours are irrelevant drivers as indicated by their low ranks Finally it should be men tioned that the ranking results were very distinct meaning that no two ranks were close to being in reverse order Comparison based on different household sizes As mentioned before it is interesting to assess whether there are differences in the warm water consump tion behaviour between small and big families Therefore in this part families with up to two children will be compared to families with three or four children Though the number of families in the sample with one 53 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 or two children is substantially higher than the number of big families 75 and 14 respectively Hence this distorts the results and lowers the informational value of the analysis Concerning respondent s attitude towards conserving warm water the bigger families have a slightly more positive attitude The cognitive component only has minor differences in the distribution of answers and the cumulated average 3 44 is the same Hence results show the same for both sub groups
21. Who in your family would make the final buying decision for the product Both parents Wife Who would make the actual purchase The mother who would suggest the purchase Could be either of the parents Which steps would you carry out before actually buying the product Search for information check the price evaluate if the product is needed Cost benefit calculation ask friends about recommenda tion What kind of product is the Water Guide Into which product category would you classify the WaterGuide Hence which products do you consider as alternative substitute options Energy saving products Energy warm water saving products Water flow controller Water saving shower head XXXII WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 What are the two most important product attributes benefits within that product category on which you would base your buying decision 3 Price 4 Benefit saving potential 3 Functional Technology 4 Saving potential How would you rate the WaterGuide on these attributes 3 N A price not known 4 Small because they were already aware and con sumed little 3 Easy to handle However it must be explained in the beginning how overall energy consumption is calculated 4 Not that good Because they don t know how much they actually saved Which price would you be willing to pay for the WaterGuide No more
22. actually is that respondents have the intention to reduce their warm wa ter consumption within the next 6 month The results are illustrated in Figure 13 The most frequent an swer is maybe which supports the preceding findings In sum the three positive answers maybe likely and very likely constitute 67 4 of the answers This shows that overall there is the tendency of house holds wanting to reduce their consumption Nevertheless the percentage of respondents with a negative answer 32 6 is rather high as well and cannot be denied It highlights that there is a significant amount of German families with children that is not concerned about reducing their warm water consumption The reason could be that they simply do not care about it believe that they are not able to or already are using a minimum amount of warm water 52 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 9 It is my intention to reduce my warm water usage within the next 6 month E Very unlikely Unlikely Rarely mLikely Very likely Figure 13 Results Survey Question 9 Source Author based on survey results shown in Appendix 6 Motivation Finally it was assessed what motivates German families with children to reduce their warm water con sumption It becomes evident that the main driver is of financial nature Saving energy cost and saving wa ter cost ranked reason number one and two In the third rank is environmental concern
23. case company as described in section 3 1 The first two questions aimed at gaining an understanding of the general attitude of German families with children towards environmental protection Question one asked the respondents about their beliefs Over all the results show that they are quite aware of environmental problems For example 60 7 agree that politics should become more active in protecting the environment and 86 5 agree that it is every citizen s responsibility to protect the environment Furthermore with 49 4 slightly agreeing and 32 6 agreeing the majority of respondents is worried about the existing environmental problems Question two asked to which degree various environmental friendly activities are carried out in the household Separating waste recycling glass returnable bottles paper were all indicated as being always done by 87 6 or more of the families Regarding taking the car for short distances 62 9 answered that they sometimes do it and 24 7 mostly do it A total of 47 2 either always or mostly has electronic devices on stand by Question three to five aimed at identifying the respondents attitude towards saving warm water Hence they ask about their beliefs emotions and behaviour respectively As shown in Figure 9 on average re spondents hold very positive beliefs about how important water conservation is 3 Please indicate your beliefs in regards to the following statements Every person saving wa
24. coded This means that each response op tion must be assigned a numerical value This enables the researcher to carry out calculations which could not be done with alphabetical data Bush Ortinau amp Hair 2009 The codes used in the analysis are included in the English translation of the survey which can be found in the end of section 4 4 1 All data calculations are done using Excel For the analysis of each question one way tabulation is used Moreover descriptive statistics are applied in order to draw conclusions from the findings The mean av erage of all responses mode most frequent occurring response and standard deviation average disper sion around the mean will provide helpful insights into understanding the data Bush Ortinau amp Hair 2009 Since the survey assesses complex constructs such as attitude each question includes a set of statements which will provide an indication of the overall construct There are for example seven statements aiming at gaining an understanding of respondents beliefs regarding environmental protection Sometimes a total average will be calculated in order to help interpreting the data This will be done by summating the aver age of each statement which is then divided by the number of statements Furthermore there are cases in which statements are formulated negatively In order to be able to include those into the calculation they 40 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY
25. drawn However reasoning behind these connections could not be found in the reviewed literature Though for example it seems logical that a low degree of perceived behavioural control could influence a person s attitude in an unfavourable way Nevertheless these connections will not be taken into account in the further progress of this thesis as they are not of interest for the research The aim of the research is to understand the behav iour of interest namely reducing warm water consumption Therefore the focus of this thesis is on the constructs attitude towards behaviour subjective norm perceived behavioural control intention and be 21 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 haviour as they will help understanding the behaviour and identify what needs to be addressed in order to change that behaviour 2 3 2 The Attitude Concept An attitude is a lasting general evaluation of people objects advertisements or issues Solomon et al 2010 It is highly relevant to identify attitudes because they do have an influence on actual behaviour Olson Zanna 1993 This is also a main statement of the TPB The relevance of reviewing the concept of attitudes lies in the fact that it is a more complex construct than and subjective norm As stated before Ajzen amp Fishbein 1980 regard attitudes as a function of beliefs towards the object in question However most scientists today view attitudes as a const
26. energy is used to heat the water This means you have three levers to turn if you want a green smiley and protect the environment as well as your wallet o You can turn down the shower s pressure or mount a water saving shower head You can lower the temperature a few degrees You can reduce the time spent in the shower XVII WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 e Turn off the water while shampooing or shaving legs A Danish study indicates that almost 3 out of 4 don t turn off the water and this means that far more water than necessary is used Water that goes directly into the drain e f you don t have a thermostatic shower mixer consider buying one It saves a lot of water because it makes it much easier to turn off the water while lathering or shaving With a thermostatic shower mixer you don t have to adjust the temperature of the water every time you reopen it It stays the right temperature during the shower e Consider buying a water saving shower head You may not know whether your shower head is con serving or wasting water If not it might be advisable to find out since the cost difference can be huge Up to several hundred a year in an ordinary family With your WaterGuide it is very easy to give your shower head a check Turn on the water fully and read on the display how many liters per minute are used A good water saving shower gives about 7 10 liters per minute without lack of showering comfo
27. gasket included in your box Use the wrench or pliers to tighten the connector Step 5 Now you are soon ready to take a shower with your own smiley featured WaterGuide All you have to do to activate the meter is to press the button or open your shower Step 6 Select user You have 6 personal icons from the water universe to identify the members of your family Each press on the button makes you jump to a new icon The one you mark is automatically chosen after 2 seconds and it is shown in the top left corner If you don t want to join the competition just skip choosing a user icon This way your consumption and your smiley is still shown during the shower Step 7 Ready set go You are now ready to shower and to let you inspire by the WaterGuide s unique way of visu alizing the consumption of hot water It gives you an overview And it makes it a lot easier to save water and energy Remember that the WaterGuide turns off automatically after 5 minutes of inactivity You don t have to do anything Daily use of WaterGuide WaterGuide measures both how much water you use and how hot the water is From these two values it calculates your energy consumption And it is the energy consumption that determines whether your bath is green yellow or red And whether the smiley is happy or angry or right between Start your shower and select user e You wake your WaterGuide from sleep mode by pressing the button once or by openi
28. identified as e Awareness it raises due to the visualisation e The resulting saving potential e Fun and teaching for the whole family 64 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Price and Distribution Asking the families how much they would be willing to pay for the WaterGuide answers vary significantly Family 4 and 5 had the lowest willingness to pay 20 Family 4 justified their answer with the fact that they do not know how much the WG actually helps them save The husband estimated that they could save 20 in a year Since he would expect a payback time of 1 2 years he concluded that he is willing to spend around 20 The price willingness of Family 3 is also rather low with 30 However this is most likely due to that fact that they already have a low consumption level and therefore do not really need the WG In con sequence their price willingness is low The other two families showed higher price willingness Family 2 would pay around 50 75 depending on how much they could actually save They also said that the maxi mum payback time should be 1 years In Family 1 the wife would pay 90 and her husband would be will ing to spend around 120 It becomes obvious that there are very different levels of how much people would spend for the WaterGuide This could be due to different household income levels It could also be due to differing importance the families place on reducing their warm water consumption For
29. interviewer which may limit the compassed results Nevertheless the researcher came to the feeling that most inter viewees felt comfortable in the interview situation and opened up providing detailed answers to the ques tions Furthermore the analysis of the qualitative data will underlie the researcher s interpretive bias In addition the small number of only 5 test families being interviewed highly limits the generalizability of the findings It is merely a small fraction of the target group and therefore only provides initial insights 42 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 5 ANALYSIS OF QUANTITATIVE DATA The goal of the online questionnaire was to gain insights into the warm water consumption behaviour of German families with children More specifically their attitude towards saving warm water as well as what drives them to reduce their consumption was assessed In this chapter the quantitative data gathered will be analyzed First the general findings will be described in section 5 1 This will be followed by a discussion and analysis of the findings in relation to the theoretical framework section 5 2 Finally a sub conclusion will be drawn in section 5 3 The complete survey results can be found in Appendix 6 5 1 Survey Findings The online survey was mainly answered by women accounting for 68 5 of a total of 89 answers It can be assumed that this due to most children handing papers they get in school to
30. is to discover insights about beliefs feelings and opinions that the respondent holds about the topic of interest Therefore probing questions are used to get as detailed information as possible Bush Ortinau amp Hair 2009 Since the objective of the qualitative research is to gain insights into the test families beliefs and opinions about the WaterGuide the semi structured interview approach was identified as suitable In order to eliminate the risk of insufficient answers due to language problems the interviews were con ducted in German language With the intention of assuring a comfortable and relaxed interview setting it was chosen to conduct the interviews in the families homes The interviews lasted between 20 and 60 minutes The digital record of the interviews can be found on the attached CD 37 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Formulating the Interview Questions The following questions served as a guideline for the interviews with the test families The actually asked questions may vary between interviewees based on the depth of information given and the direction to wards which the interviewees answer It may also occur that one question leads the interviewee to give an extensive answer and thereby unknowingly answer other questions Hence those might not need to be asked specifically Probes and prompts are used in order to get as detailed information as possible Product Ease
31. motives he did not have before Furthermore the monitor will be more effective if it displays consumption of one source so that the user can adjust his be haviour in regards to that specific source Finally the monitoring appliance must be visually attractive to the user Kuznetsov and Paulos 2010 identified in their study that a visual display led to higher savings than a numeric display on a water flow meter This was identified to be due to the fact that users did not know how to interpret the numbers because they did not know what is high and what is low consumption The authors conclude that visual displays showing clear negative or positive benchmarks are most likely to have an influence on long term behaviour 2 2 Consumer Behaviour In this section general consumer behaviour constructs relevant for the analysis and the construction of the primary research will be introduced briefly In general consumer behaviour can be identified as the process individuals go through when selecting purchasing using and disposing a product service that satisfies their needs Hence it is an ongoing process the marketer needs to understand and incorporate into the marketing plan Solomon et al 2010 Geuens Van den Bergh amp De Pelsmacker 2010 As McCracken 1986 states consumer goods have a significance that goes beyond their utilitarian charac ter and commercial value In this regard it is important to introduce the concepts of the sel
32. of consumption and the awareness it therewith raises is communicated as the unique benefit the product provides WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES 22 2 00 3 LISTLOF TABLES 3 1 INTRODUCTION za se a a dasa 4 1 1 PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION EO AE EET a 5 1 2 RESEARCH QUESTION aa aa e ideas 6 1 3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES aE E EEE AA AKEKE 7 1 4 THESIS STRUCTURE aaaea eor anne nn ONE TERN TEE 8 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 42 224254 lt 4 2458w005 200 sans een essen aa u OSE S uS i Tieren 10 2 1 CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND 4a a a 10 2 1 1 Ecological A 10 2 1 2 Environmental Attitudes innnan ae 11 2 1 3 Real time Feedback 12 2 2 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR 13 2 2 1 The Self einen na 13 2 2 2 Consumer Motivation 14 223
33. of use Did you have any problems installing your WaterGuide Any techni cal trouble while using it Product perception In general how do you like the WaterGuide What do you perceive as positive negative about it How do you perceive the visualization of your consumption To which degree did the family engage in a competition and enjoy it Behavioural influ To which degree did the WaterGuide raise awareness regarding ence warm water consumption in the shower Which family members felt surprised by their consumption Did the WaterGuide change your attitude towards saving warm wa ter Did the meter influence actual behaviour Whose behaviour changed most Overall were the different family members willing to reduce comfort in order to save money protect the environment Other What would you adjust in order to improve the product Marketing Communication Strategy Decision making Who in the family would propose buying the WaterGuide and who would influence the decision Who in your family would make the final buying decision for the product Who would make the actual purchase Which steps would you carry out before actually buying the product 38 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Positioning What kind of product is the WaterGuide Into which product cate gory would you classify the WaterGuide Hence which products do you consider as alternative substitute options What are
34. preliminary assumption All families indi cated that the visualisation of their consumption was very helpful and raised their awareness about how much they actually consume The display of their consumption in three different levels motivated and en abled them to reduce their shower time However the degree to which the families adjusted their behav iour varied by their willingness to reduce comfort and by the importance they place on saving money and protecting the environment Nevertheless in sum all test families perceived the awareness raising smart energy meter WaterGuide as highly positive Finally it needs to be pointed out again that the research results and the derived recommendations are limited by the rather small sample size in both the quantitative and qualitative research Hence it would be highly valuable to conduct this research on a larger scale in order to get more precise and more gener alisable results Furthermore it would be extremely interesting to monitor and measure to which degree the families adjust their showering behaviour and hence how much actual saving potential the WaterGuide presents for German families with children WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 BIBLIOGRAPHY 2012 Attitudes and persuasion in The Oxford Handbook of Personality and Social Psychology eds K Deaux amp M Snyder Oxford University Press New York pp 367 393 1991 The Theory of Pl
35. products credibility The other families do not per ceive it as important but mention that it would be nice if the WaterGuide had a TUV or Umweltengel label 58 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 6 2 Interview Discussion The analysis of the interviews will be divided into two sections First the set of questions asking about the product will be discussed Hence it will be identified how the WaterGuide is perceived by the different families Second the marketing related questions will be discussed 6 2 1 Product Perception In this sub section the interview questions identifying how the WaterGuide is perceived will be analysed This will be done for each family separately followed by a brief overall summary of the product perception Family 1 Overall Family 1 perceived the WaterGuide as highly positive and helpful for reducing their warm water consumption This is clearly indicated by their statement There is nothing negative to say about the Wa terGuide It is a highly positive device and even the kids always made sure to stay in the green level Min ute 1 04 The visualization of the consumption was found to be very helpful Especially seeing how much water one uses was perceived as helpful It is really difficult to estimate how much water you use and therefore I would have underestimated it Minute 3 50 Also the chart shown after showering compar ing each person s usage led to a co
36. surprised by her consumption Did the WaterGuide change your atti tude towards saving warm water Yes Parents also adjusted their water consumption behaviour outside the shower e g while brushing teeth And tried to teach it to their son Did the meter influence actual behav iour Whose behaviour changed most Yes it did XXXIV WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Overall were the different family members willing to reduce comfort in order to save money protect the envi ronment A bit However environment wasn t considered What would you adjust in order to im prove the product Nothing Who in the family would propose buy ingthe WaterGuide and who would influence the decision Both parents Who in your family would make the final buying decision for the product Both parents Who would make the actual purchase Most likely husband Which steps would you carry out before actually buying the product Gather information about the product and discuss with husband wife What kind of product is the Water Guide Into which product category would you classify the WaterGuide Hence which products do you consider as alternative substitute options Water energy saving products What are the two most important product attributes benefits within that product category on which you would base your buying decision 5 Saving potential
37. the behaviour as well as other factors that influence the perceived level of ease to perform the behaviour The more confident a person is to have the resources and opportunities to perform the be haviour the higher his perceived control will be Ajzen 1991 In order to assure that the measurement of PBC provides an appropriate indicator for intention and or behaviour the three concepts must be consistent Ajzen 1991 Other variables amp Fishbein also acknowledge in their work that there might be other variables influencing a person s behaviour These could be such as personality traits intellectual and social abilities or demographic vari ables However these variables are assumed to only have an indirect influence on behaviour as they are mediated by beliefs It is not expected that including other variables would improve the prediction and understanding of behaviour Fishbein Ajzen 1980 Ajzen 1985 Further notes As stated in the beginning of this section the Theory of Planned Behaviour is built on the notion that hu man behaviour is rational This must be seen as a limitation of the theory since it is generally agreed that human behaviour is not rational Jackson 2005 but rather influenced by emotions and the consumer s self concept Solomon et al 2010 It also needs to be pointed out that in the TPB connections between atti tudes towards the behaviour subjective norm and perceived behavioural control are
38. the company s point of view Rather the market actually defines itself by how consumers see the market Percy Elliott 2009 Therefore one interview question asked the test families into which product category they would categorize the WG All families indicated that they see it as an energy saving product When asking for alternative products within the category a water flow controller for the tap was mentioned by three families One also mentioned water saving shower heads as an alternative The alternatives con sidered show that even though the interviewees answered energy saving as the category they actually only thought of saving energy used for warm water Consequently the product category the WaterGuide belongs to is products reducing warm water energy usage Accordingly the category need the device sat isfies is the need to reduce ones warm water energy consumption 71 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Differential Advantage In order to establish an effective positioning three steps need to be carried out as shown in Table 4 Step 1 Make initial decisions e With regard to the product category choose central versus differentiated e With regard to other brands choose user versus product orientation Step 2 Select appropriate benefits Identify benefits that e Are important to the target group e The product can deliver e Can be delivered better than from other brands Step 3
39. the research objectives are based on the case company Smile Energy and their product WaterGuide Therefore this chapter provides an introduction to the case company their product WaterGuide and the competitive market situation 31 Smile Energy In December 2010 Thorkild Rasmussen started the company Smile Energy ApS in Skanderborg Denmark The company s aim is to develop products that help private households save energy and therewith protect the environment The products will be sold through the company s webshop and in the Do it yourself DIY chain Bauhaus Moreover the company aims at helping consumers to change habits and lower their energy consumption The appliances will do so in an easy and fun way Up to this point the main focus of the company is its first product development the WaterGuide With this product idea Thorkild Rasmussen won over two investors Energi Midt Udvikling A S and Innovation Midt Vest A S The product will be described in detail in the following section 3 2 The target group identified by Smile Energy are families in the age group of 30 55 with children Education is not a segmentation criterion as it is assumed that all families will be attracted by the opportunity to save energy It is planned to mainly use Public Relations as a communication tool Thorkild Rasmussen has a background in journalism and will use this expertise to get free publicity in printed as well as electronic media Furthermore onli
40. the two most important product attributes benefits within that product category on which you would base your buying deci sion How would you rate the WaterGuide and the competitors on these attributes Price Which price would you be willing to pay for the WaterGuide How long should the maximum payback time be Distribution Channels Where would you expect the product to be sold USP s Which attributes benefits of the WaterGuide are most important to you When referring the product to friends and family which characteris tics would you point out Why would you buy the WaterGuide Other How high low is your perceived risk when buying the WaterGuide e g financially social emotional How important are quality labels for your buying decision such as TUV Are there any final comments you would like to make As can be seen the interview is structured into two main sections Product and Marketing Strategy The product section includes general questions concerning the WaterGuide The questions aim at identifying how product characteristics are perceived and if the respondents think the device could be improved Fur thermore several questions aim at gaining insights whether the WaterGuide had an influence on actual behaviour The questions in the second section aim at gathering essential information in order to provide recommendations regarding how to market the WaterGui
41. their mothers Hence most likely the mothers received the hand out asking to participate in the survey and did so The age of respon dents varies between 30 and 59 years However with 65 1 most respondents are aged between 40 and 50 years Overall 29 families have one child 46 families have two children 13 families have three children and 1 family has four children Hence 84 3 of the respondents have one to two children whereas only 15 7 have three or four children Overall the age of the children covers a broad range between 1 and 23 years The question regarding household income was answered by only 64 of the respondents Further more answers such as 0 and 3 appear invalid Therefore this question will not be helpful for the further analysis Most families live in a semi detached house 25 8 or house 29 2 they own The 21 3 of families living in a rented apartment are mainly families with one child Regarding the education of the re spondents the highest percentage with 34 8 has mittlere Reife which in Germany it the certificate for leaving school after 10 grade This is followed by 29 2 having a college degree Overall all different kinds of educational levels were present in the survey Summarizing the demographic data shows that there is a 43 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 broad variety of different family situations amongst the respondents This complies with the target group of the
42. them somehow changed it The interviews with Family 1 and 3 showed that the WaterGuide even has the potential to change habits In Family 5 it actually influenced the warm water consumption behaviour outside the shower Of course a behavioural change is only possible if people are actually willing to As can be seen in Family 4 the father had no willingness to change his behaviour and therefore the WG had no impact on him Finally all families found it to be a good tool to teach their chil dren about the topic 61 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 6 2 2 Strategic Marketing Plan In this sub section the interview questions aiming at getting insights in order to develop specific managerial marketing implications will be analyzed This will be done by analysing all families answers in conjunction for each topic e g decision making price and so on Decision Making Table 2 shows who is part of the decision making in each family and which role they play It becomes evi dent that the main initiator the person suggesting to buy the WaterGuide is the husband in a family In most cases no one influences the decision making However when it comes to the final decision there is the clear tendency for both parents to decide together Finally the husband will most likely carry out the actual purchase Role Family 1 Family 2 Family 3 Family 4 Family 5 Initiator Husband Husband Wife Husband Both Infl
43. torts the results and lowers the informational value ofthe analysis The cognitive component of the attitude concept shows some differences between the household types In all statements assessed respondents living in a house had more positive beliefs towards saving warm wa ter This is supported by the cumulated means which is 3 27 for families living in an apartment and 3 52 for families living in a house The emotional component shows similar results Families living in a house tend to have more positive feelings towards warm water conservation The behavioural component shows that people living in a house behave more conscious when using warm water The mean value of 3 13 shows that on average they mostly behave positive For people living in an apartment the average is 2 86 showing that they on average sometime behave positive with the tendency to mostly do so In sum all three com ponents show that families living in a house have a somewhat more positive attitude towards conserving warm water than families living in an apartment Regarding the subjective norm results show that respondents living in a house perceive more social pres sure to reduce their warm water consumption However their confidence to be able to do so is also slightly higher Nevertheless their perception that it is their own choice is lower than of families living in an apart ment 3 08 and 3 41 respectively The majority of both families living in a house and
44. was to gain insights into how the families perceive the awareness raising energy meter WaterGuide First general findings will be summarized which is followed by an in depth discussion of the interview find ings 6 1 Interview Findings The first part of the interview focused on product related questions None of the test families experienced problems with the installation and usage of the WaterGuide Asking to indicate their general opinion about the product interviewees mainly mentioned positive aspects They said that it is good to know how long and warm you shower This raises awareness motivates to shower faster and can lead to behavioural change One interviewee mentioned that the WG and the changing levels green yellow red can also cause stress and another one pointed out that it does not allow additional grooming such as shaving All families perceived the visualization of their consumption in numbers as well as smileys and colours as helpful in order to adjust showering behaviour because it raises awareness It was furthermore character ized as easy to understand and fun In regards to a competition between the family members about who consumes less answers differ Family 4 and 5 did not engage in a competition Family 2 only in the begin ning Family 3 engaged in a competition but described it as being frustrating Family 1 said that especially the children developed a competition All families highlighted that the WaterGuide raise
45. 0 This points out again the theory s relevance for the present research as the case company s product strives to change people s showering behaviour Attitude towards the behaviour Behavioural beliefs Behaviour Normative beliefs Subjective norm Figure 2 Theory of Reasoned Action Source Ajzen Fishbein 1975 16 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 In general the theory states that the likelihood of performing a specific behaviour is determined by the person s intention to do so A person s intention consists of two constructs the attitude towards the be haviour in question and the subjective norm Finally the attitude towards behaviour is influenced by the person s behavioural beliefs and the subjective norm is influenced by the person s normative beliefs Ajzen Fishbein 1975 All six construct of the theory will be described in the remainder of this section Behaviour The Theory of Reasoned Action departs from the notion that human behaviour is rational Hence people consider the consequences of their actions before deciding whether to engage or not to engage in them Furthermore it is assumed that people perform behaviour under volitional control Fishbein Ajzen 1980 According to the theory it needs to be differentiated between single behaviour and general behavioural categories Since it is impossible to directly observe behavioural categories single actions that ar
46. 2 did perceive the WaterGuide as positive but with some exceptions The visualization was perceived as fun and the smileys and sound motivated the children to stay in the green level A competition only arose in the beginning but did not last The family states that the WG did raise their awareness and therewith also changed their behaviour Now they pay more attention to their warm water consumption and are trying to reduce it For example the father used to leave the water running while soaping but does not do that anymore Overall they were willing to reduce the comfort of a long shower sometimes but certainly not always The motivation to stay within the green level even lead the daughter to some creative thinking In order to wash her long hair she changed to an unused symbol so that it wouldn t add up on her account Family 3 All in all Family 3 had a positive perception of the product In the beginning they felt it was fun to shower with the WaterGuide especially for the children After some time they adjusted their behaviour and man aged to stay within the green level Therefore they are considering uninstalling the device at some point since it has served its purpose The visualisation was also perceived as very positive and made it easy to understand ones consumption The chart in the end comparing each person s consumption created a competition within the family How ever that also led to the children being upset and
47. 2012 will be reversed For example 41 respondents answered disagree to the statement Environmental prob lems are exaggerated In order to make this a positive statement it will be assumed that those 41 people would have answered agree to the opposing statement Environmental problems are underrated Finally in order to compare sub groups of the sample such as big versus small families the data will be filtered accordingly and then analysed with the above mentioned methods 4 5 2 Qualitative Data In order to be able to analyze the qualitative data the interviews need to be taped The audiotapes of all five interviews can be found on the attached CD Instead of transcribing the interviews word by word it was decided to write down a summary of each interviewees answer to each question This can be found in Ap pendix 7 Usually the researcher analyzing qualitative data uses coding to develop categories that consist of similar topics Bush Ortinau amp Hair 2009 However since the interview was highly pre structured and questions were set up based on pre determined categories such as price decision making further coding is found not to be necessary The data is analyzed separately for each category and in some cases tables are used to demonstrate the results Furthermore quotes are used to emphasize findings 4 6 Reliability and Validity Any research should be tested for reliability and validity in order to d
48. 4 4 1 Quantitative Research Design 32 4 4 2 Qualitative Research 37 4 5 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS cenio NESIEDIGEEREEEFUEEKEEERTEERETETTEEEFNEFTETDENPEURFEETERTEEEFEETHERPEHEECEEEFEPEUEEEETEETOELTE 40 4 5 1 Quantitative 2 2 nam ren 40 4 5 2 Qualitative 41 4 6 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY 41 4 7 LIMIT TIONS 42 5 ANALYSIS OF QUANTITATIVE 2 2 cot ssbaedsesselecatedeansevsaatacsassis 43 5 1 SURVEY FINDINGS 43 5 2 SURVEY DISCUSSION i cesssiiactss 46 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 5 3 SUMMARY OF QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS 56 6 ANALYSIS OF QUALITATIVE 0R 0 57 6 1 INTERVIEW FINDINGS
49. ARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 5 Bitte geben Sie an inwieweit die folgenden Aussagen auf Sie zutreffen Rating Response Answer Options Nie Manchmal Meistens Immer Average Count Ich drehe den Wasserhahn aus w h rend ich meine Z hne putze 2 6 11 70 3 67 89 Ich warte mit der W sche bis ich eine Maschine voll habe 0 0 28 61 3 69 89 Ich drehe in der Dusche das Wasser ab w hrend ich mich einseife 17 25 19 28 2 65 89 Ich versuche schnell zu duschen um Warmwasser zu sparen 10 21 40 18 2 74 89 Ich versuche weniger oft zu du schen baden 40 23 22 4 1 89 89 Ich stelle die Sp lmaschine nur 0 1 10 78 3 87 89 wenn sie voll ist answered question 89 skipped question 0 6 Bitte geben Sie an inwieweit Sie den folgenden Aussagen zustimmen Ich stim Ich stim Ich stim eneum Rating Response Answer Options me nicht meeher me eher zu richt zu me zu Average Count Unsere Freunde w rden es bef rwor ten dass wir sparsamer Warmwasser verbrauchen 12 21 40 16 2 67 89 Unsere Familie w rde es bef rworten dass wir sparsamer Warmwasser 4 21 34 30 3 01 89 verbrauchen Unsere Freunde sind der Meinung dass wir sparsamer Warmwasser 38 35 14 2 1 78 89 verbrauchen sollten Unsere Familie ist der Meinung dass wir sparsamer Warmwasser verbrau 26 32 23 8 2 15 89 chen sollten answered question 89 skipped question 0 XXVI WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 7 Bitte geben Sie an inwieweit
50. August 2012 Master Thesis in cand merc Marketing Communications Management BUSINESS SCHOOL WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY N A study on how Ge feedback from 5 Author Nadine Schindler Thesis Counsellor Anders Due Department of Marketing Number of STU s 157 673 Physical pages 78 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The fact that natural resources are diminishing and that climate change as well as environmental pollution have a negative effect on the current and upcoming generations makes environmental protection an ex ceedingly relevant field of study The smart energy meter WaterGuide was identified as a highly interesting and innovative new product in the area of environmental protection because it has the potential to change consumer s behaviour and habits It provides real time feedback about ones energy consumption while showering and is targeted at families with children As the company wants to expand to the German mar ket it was decided to research how German families with children perceive the device More specifically it is investigated how German families with children think about reducing their warm water consumption whether the WaterGuide has a market potential in that target group and how it should be marketed best The chosen research approach includes quantitative and qualitative primary research The quantitative res
51. N BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 recall means that the consumer has a need and then remembers the brand Percy Elliott 2009 Taking a look at the target audience decision making process it becomes clear that in the present category the need occurs first Hence the brand awareness strategy must be brand recall This implies that in the communica tion the name WaterGuide needs to be linked to the category need and be mentioned repeatedly This will enable that the consumer links the WG to the need when it occurs in real life Furthermore it is important to link it in that exact order the need and then the WaterGuide satisfying it Percy Elliott 2009 Finally brand attitude must be a communication objective The target audience must have a positive atti tude towards the WaterGuide in order to consider buying it That means they must evaluate the brand and its ability to satisfy their need positively Percy Elliott 2009 Since the WaterGuide is a new product brand attitude must be newly created In order to build a positive brand attitude one of four potential strategies must be applied to the marketing communication Figure 15 shows the four possible strategies Motivation Informational Transformational negative positive gt 8 2 gt Figure 15 Rossiter Percy Brand Attitude Strategy Grid Source Percy Elliott 2009 As identified earlier there is no perceived risk when bu
52. NSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Subjective Norm Table 1 shows results mean values and standard deviations of question six which is concerned with the subjective norm As is evident from looking at the numbers results vary a lot Asking whether friends and family would support reducing warm water consumption the majority slightly agrees However in both cases the standard deviation is rather high meaning that responses are quite dissimilar The mean values show that the tendency is to either slightly agree or slightly disagree Most respondent disagree that friends believe they should lower their warm water usage Furthermore a total of 65 2 disagrees or slightly disagrees that their family believes they should reduce warm water consumption Calculating the overall average of all four statements leads to a mean value of 2 4 This shows that in total the most fre quent answer lies between slightly disagree and slightly agree This can be interpreted as the subjective norm being moderately strong Thus perceived social pressure to conserve warm water is not predominant but does exist 6 Please indicate to which extent you agree with the following statements disagree l ENUY agree nn disagree agree Deviation Our friends would support us reducing our warm water con 13 5 23 6 44 9 18 0 2 67 0 93 sumption Our family would support us re ducing our warm water consump 4 5 23 6 38 2 33 7 3
53. ONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Therefore to assure consistent intentions the time distance between the measurement of intention and behaviour should be as short as possible Fishbein Ajzen 1980 Albeit asking a person for his intention can help predicting behaviour this does not lead to an understand ing of why the person behaves in a certain way In order to also understand behaviour Ajzen amp Fishbein identified two direct determinants of intention attitude towards the behaviour and the subjective norm Fishbein Ajzen 1980 Ajzen Fishbein 1975 Attitude towards the behaviour In general attitude towards behaviour is a person s evaluation whether that specific behaviour is good or bad and therefore should or should not be performed Attitudes are defined as a function of behavioural beliefs Fishbein Ajzen 1980 For example in the present study this means if a person believes that reduc ing warm water consumption will help protecting the environment this person s attitude towards saving warm water is positive It is important to point out that the theory assumes the attitude towards behaviour to be determinant of intention not the attitude towards an object Ajzen amp Fishbein state that attitude towards an object will only predict a general pattern of behaviour However the aim is to predict and understand a single behav iour Therefore it is the attitude towards that single behaviour which needs to be asses
54. Q Q Q Ich empfinde das Einsparen von Warmwasser als sinnlos Q Se 36 Zur ck Weiter VII WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Masterarbeit Nadine Schindler 5 Bitte geben Sie an inwieweit die folgenden Aussagen auf Sie zutreffen Nie Manchmal Meistens Immer Ich drehe den Wasserhahn aus w hrend ich meine Z hne putze 2 Ich warte mit der W sche bis ich eine Maschine voll habe Ich drehe Dusche das Wasser ab w hrend ich mich einseife Ich dusche eher als das ich bade Ich versuche schnell zu duschen um Warmwasser sparen Ich versuche weniger oft zu duschen baden Ich stelle die Sp lmaschine nur an wenn sie voll ist Ich benutze die Wassersparfunktion der Toilette 43 Zur ck Weiter Masterarbeit Nadine Schindler 6 Bitte geben Sie an inwieweit Sie den folgenden Aussagen zustimmen Ich stimme nicht zu Ich stimme eher nicht zu Ich stimme eher zu Ich stimme zu Unsere Freunde w rden es bef rworten dass wir sparsamer Warmwasser verbrauchen Unsere Familie w rde es bef rworten dass wir sparsamer Warmwasser verbrauchen Unsere Freunde sind der Meinung dass wir sparsamer Warmwasser verbrauchen sollten Unsere Familie ist der Meinung dass wir sparsamer Warmwasser verbrauchen sollten Q ZZ 544 50 Zur ck Weiter Mas
55. R K 1994 Case Study Research Design and Methods 2nd edn Sage Publications Thousand Oaks WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 APPENDICES Appendix 1 Handout in schools Copenhagen Business School HANDELSHBISKOLEN Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren liebe Eltern mein Name ist Nadine Schindler und ich f hre im Rahmen meiner Masterarbeit an der Copenhagen Busi ness School eine wissenschaftliche Umfrage durch Diese zielt auf deutsche Familien mit Kindern ab Das Thema der Umfrage ist Warmwassernutzung in privaten Haushalten Ihre Meinungen und Einsch tzungen zu diesem Thema sind enorm wichtig f r den Erfolg der Umfrage und werden selbstverst ndlich vertraulich behandelt Ich bin auf eine zahlreiche Teilnahme angewiesen und m chte Sie daher herzlich bitten sich bis zum 30 04 2012 an der Umfrage zu beteiligen Ich sch tze Ihre Hilfe sehr und jede Beteiligung hilft mir enorm Die Umfrage findet online statt Als Dank werden unter allen Teilnehmern 3 Preise verlost 7 Movie Park Bottrop All Inclusive unbegrenzt Speisen und Getr nke HOVE PARK Tageskarten fiir die ganze Familie Aqua Park Oberhausen Wochenend Tageskarten f r die ganze Fami ENE Derk fsen lie 20 Speisegutschein amazon de Amazon Gutschein im Wert von 30 Freundlicherweise wurde mir genehmigt diese Nachricht an Ihrer Schule auszuh ndigen Die Teilnahme ist selbstverst ndlich freiwillig und alle Dat
56. Survey Results 1 Bitte geben Sie Ihre Meinung Wahrnehmung zu den folgenden Aussagen an Ich stim Ich stim Ich stim Ich stim Rating Response Answer Options nicht meeher me eher zu nicht zu Zu me zu Average Count Unsere Kinder werden in schlechteren Umweltverh ltnissen leben m ssen 4 17 40 28 3 03 89 als wir heutzutage Die Politik muss im Bereich Umwelt schutz aktiver werden 2 5 28 54 3 51 89 Ein Gro teil der Bev lkerung verh lt sich nicht umweltbewusst 0 7 38 44 3 42 89 Umweltprobleme belasten meine Ge sundheit 14 28 32 15 2 54 89 Ich mache mir Sorgen wegen der vorhandenen Umweltprobleme 3 13 44 29 3 11 89 Umweltprobleme werden bertrieben 41 35 10 3 1 72 89 Vom Aussterben bedrohte Arten sch tzen ist unn tig 64 17 4 4 1 42 89 Es ist die Verantwortung eines jeden B rgers die Umwelt zu sch tzen 1i 77 answered question 89 skipped question 0 2 Bitte geben Sie an wie oft die folgenden Aktivit ten in Ihrem Haushalt durchgef hrt werden Rating Response Answer Options Immer Meistens Manchmal Nie Average Count Wir kaufen Bio Lebensmittel 2 16 61 10 2 11 89 Wir trennen M ll 78 11 0 0 3 88 89 Wir verwenden Einkaufst ten mehr fach 59 27 2 1 3 62 89 Wir recyceln Glas 81 3 4 1 3 84 89 Wir recyceln Pfandflaschen 84 2 2 1 3 90 89 Wir sammeln und recyceln Papier 80 5 3 1 3 84 89 Wir benutzen chemische Reini gungsmittel 5 28 49 7 2 35 89 Wir fahren auch kurze Strecken mit 4 22 56 7 2
57. The conclusion to be drawn is that German households have 46 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 the tendency to behave ecological however this is less present in situations that require them to spent more money or reduce their comfort Summarizing the data from these two questions gives a strong indication that in sum respondents have rather positive attitudes towards environmental protection However even though they are aware of the problem they are not always willing to behave accordingly Attitude towards warm water conservation In order to assess respondent s attitude towards reducing warm water consumption the three attitude components cognition affect and behaviour were asked about In the following each of the three compo nents will be analyzed separately and then a conclusion about the overall attitude will be drawn With 58 4 most respondents agree that conserving warm water is important Another 36 0 slightly agree Hence a total of 94 4 have an approving belief The same is true for the statement that it helps protecting the environment when conserving warm water Again a total of 94 4 either agrees or slightly agrees 56 2 and 38 2 respectively These results clearly show that respondents have a highly positive belief about how important it is to reduce warm water consumption also see Figure 9 The numbers of the last two statements support this finding The majority of respondents disagree with th
58. Use correct benefit focus e Positive purchase motivation emphasis on emotional consequences e Negative purchase motivation focus directly on the benefits Table 4 Three Steps to Effective Positioning Source adapted from Percy Elliott 2009 Step 1 The WaterGuide should be positioned differentiated meaning that besides the primary category benefits it needs to focus on additional benefits The primary category benefits were identified as saving potential and ease of use It is self evident that the competitors water flow controllers and water saving shower heads both deliver well on those two benefits Therefore the WaterGuide must be differentiated Which benefits should be used to differentiate the WG will be assessed in Step 2 However the positioning should be based on the product meaning that product characteristics are the message Step 2 The interview analysis identified that the visualisation of consumption which creates awareness and therewith enables changing ones behaviour was the most important product benefit Furthermore the saving potential and the fun it creates for the children were highly important product attributes Since sav ing potential is a primary category benefit it cannot serve as a differentiator Consequently the benefit that performs best as distinguishing the WaterGuide from its competitors is the visualisation of consumption The WG is the only product that can deliver this benefit As the s
59. XV WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 e Timer Here you can see the duration of your shower note with the water running Picture Red display no drops e No drops indicate that the shower is finished or paused e g when shampooing e The energy consumption during the actual shower in kilojoule kJ now Water consumption during the actual shower till now e Average temperature of the shower e Time spent in the shower with running water till now Red display color indicates that you have taken your time in the shower Picture White display energy bars When you finish your shower either because you are done or because you pause the display switches between your personal result and a comparative scoreboard In the comparative screen you can see who in the household was better at conserving energy and water Note The list is based on the shower of each user It is not a list of your accumulated consumption e The winner who used least energy is to the left with the smallest energy bar The one who spent the most is at the far right The height of the bars is calculated proportionately from the largest consumption which will peak the scale Icons that have not been in use for the past 25 Baths in total disappear from the result screen Conse quently only the current users appear Picture Display with smiley and low battery icon e The four AA batteries are calculated to last a
60. about their answers thoroughly Bush Ortinau amp Hair 2009 Since there was no monetary budget a rather creative idea was needed in order to reach the target popula tion of the survey 8 080 million German families with children Statistisches Bundesamt 2011 Therefore nonprobability sampling was applied The author s personal relation to a school secretary was found to be of help The school principal of that school as well as the school principal of the neighbour school allowed the hand out of a flyer Appendix 1 to all the students The two schools are located in western Germany In total the teachers handed out flyers to 1042 of their students The flyer asked the parents to go online to complete the survey In order to provide an incentive to participate a drawing of three prices was offered The questionnaire ran from March 27 until May 20 Hence respondents were given a time period of approximately 7 weeks to answer the survey During that time 106 people started the questionnaire out of which 101 completed it 95 3 Drop outs occurred in the beginning middle and end of the survey ques tion 2 5 13 15 Hence no conclusions can be drawn why people didn t complete it Out of the 101 com pleted surveys 12 were found to be answered by children age 12 to 20 Since the questionnaire aims at parents and it can be assumed that children do not have the knowledge to correctly answer the questions the 12 answers were excluded fro
61. ace the cursor is chosen after app 2 seconds Mounting of your WaterGuide Step 1 Unscrew the lid for the battery compartment with a screwdriver Take off the lid including the battery box Insert the 4 batteries make sure they are mounted as shown on the box Now put back the battery box in the lid the box can only fit in one position so you cannot turn it upside down Put in place the lid and the battery box and tighten the two screws XX WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Step 2 Unscrew the shower hose with the wrench included Or if necessary use a pair of pliers you might want to protect the chrome surface with a cloth Step 3 Put a rubber gasket in the tap connector ofthe WaterGuide and use your fingers to screw it on the mixer tap Adjust the position and tighten with the wrench Step 4 Use your fingers to screw the shower hose on the exit connection on the bottom side of the WaterGuide If there is no gasket in the hose connector you should use the rubber gasket included in your box Use the wrench or pliers to tighten the connector WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Step 5 Now you are soon ready to take a shower with your own smiley featured WaterGuide All you have to do to activate the meter is to press the button or open your shower Step 6 Select user You have 6 personal icons from the water universe to identify the members of your family
62. ame is valid for the fun the product creates that could be emphasised as well However the main focus in order to gain a differential advantage should be on the attribute most important to the consumer The WaterGuide visualizes consumption which cre ates awareness and therewith helps improving shower behaviour 72 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Step 3 In the last step it needs to be identified how the benefit should be emphasized in marketing com munication Hence it is already a first part of the communication strategy to be developed in section 7 3 3 The underlying purchase motivation can be assumed to be negative hence a problem needs to be solved or avoided More specifically the problem of consuming too much energy for warm water needs to be solved If the motivation is negative the benefit must be communicated through providing information This can be done for example by pointing out the negative emotion which can be solved through the benefit Percy Elliott 2009 Summarizing it was identified that the WaterGuide is in the products reducing warm water energy usage market In order to differentiate itself from the competition water flow controllers and water saving shower heads it was determined that the benefit visualization of consumption must be emphasized in the marketing communication 7 3 3 Communication Strategy Establishing the communication strategy is the final step in the pla
63. anned Behaviour Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Process es vol 50 pp 179 211 Ajzen I 1985 From Intentions to Actions A Theory of Planned Behavior in Action control From cognition to behavior eds J Kuhl amp J Beckmann Springer Heidelberg Germany pp 11 39 Ajzen 2006 Theory of Planned Behaviour Available http people umass edu aizen tpb html 2012 03 15 Ajzen I amp Fishbein M 1975 Belief Attitude Intention and Behavior An Introduction to Theory and Re search Addison Wesley Reading Mass Alasuutari P Bickman amp Brannen J 2008 2 The End of the Paradigm Wars in The SAGE Handbook of Social Research Methods eds P Alasuutari L Bickman amp J Brannen SAGE Publications Ltd Lon don pp 12 25 Armitage A 2007 Mutual Research Designs Redefining Mixed Methods Research Design British Educa tional Research Association Annual Conference Institute of Education University of London Bamberg 5 2003 How does environmental concern influence specific environmentally related behaviors A new answer to an old question Journal of Environmental Psychology vol 23 no 1 pp 21 32 BDEW 2012 Wasser Abwasser Kundeninformationen Wasserversorgung Kosten Available http www bdew de internet nsf id DE_ Kosten 2012 08 10 BDEW 2010 Daten Grafiken Energiedaten Energieverbrauch in Deutschland Struktur des Endenergie verbrauchs der privaten Haushalte
64. ble implications for the WaterGuide Thus the chosen research strategy is valid 4 7 Limitations Before analysing the data and developing managerial implications it is highly important to clarify the limi tations the qualitative and quantitative research underlie The questionnaire was conducted in a small geographic area in western Germany because the researcher did not have the means to reach respondents in the whole country This must be seen as a limitation be cause answers may have been very different if asked in whole Germany Thus this lowers the generalizabil ity of the survey findings to the entire German market Furthermore the rather small sample size also limits the generalizability of the results With 8 080 million households with children in Germany Statistisches Bundesamt 2011 and 89 completed surveys only 0 001 of the target population were reached Thus the author has to base his analysis and recommendations on the data available however the validity for the whole target group is highly limited Finally the quantitative research is based on one main theory the Theory of Planned Behaviour which could limit the results as not all relevant constructs in the field of energy conserving behaviour might be considered Nevertheless due to the limited scope of this paper it was not feasible to apply additional the ory In regards to the qualitative data it must be pointed out that the researcher is not a trained
65. conference in Stockholm in 1972 that environmental consciousness became a global topic Christer 2002 Today scientists agree that climate change is happening and that natural re sources are diminishing As a consequence governments started developing regulations and legislation as well as specific goals in order to minimize climate change NGO s such as WWF and Greenpeace are actively fighting against the different ecological problems and are trying to raise awareness in society In addition numerous corporations began to take action as well They started rethinking their production processes and began selling environmentally friendly products As worldwide energy consumption has reached enormous dimensions it becomes evident that governmen tal and NGO actions alone will not be enough to face this key problem consumers need to act as well A study by Bonini et al 2008 showed that about 90 of consumers think that corporations should take ac tions regarding environmental issues But the question arises what consumers themselves can do to protect the environment they live in There are lots of ways consumers can act taking public transportation using energy saving electrical equipment recycling eating less meat and more organic food or using green en ergy just to name a few The Greendex study by National Geographic 2010 identified that 56 of con sumers are concerned about environmental problems but only 29 feel guilty about their own
66. customer sees as an alternative Geuens Van den Bergh amp De Pelsmacker 2010 Therefore in the following potential competitors of the WaterGuide will be introduced briefly According to Thorkild Rasmussen devices that help households reduce their water and energy bill are competitors of the WG There are several different products that help consumers save warm water and therewith energy costs The most basic way is to attach a flow controller to the water tap on the sink This reduces the amount of water used from about 15 litres per minute to 7 litres Additionally estimations show that it saves approximately 111 in energy costs a year Water saving shower heads are also a well established tool to reduce warm water consumption in the shower They use about 8 litres of water a minute compared to 15 litres when using a conventional shower head Energy costs can be reduced by about 97 Consumers can also install a thermometer in the shower in order to raise awareness how warm they shower Greenyworld GmbH 2012 Another option for the consumer to reduce water and energy consumption is a good water flow heater For example Siemens sells one with an eco button Simply pressing that button saves up to 20 energy and water Siemens Elektroger te GmbH 2012 In the broader sense energy and water efficient dishwashers and laundry machines can then be considered as competition as well Overall it becomes clear that there are diffe
67. d awareness re garding warm water consumption Two families said that it also had a positive influence on their attitude towards saving warm water Two families already had a highly positive attitude before However the Wa terGuide makes it easier to actually behave in accordance to our attitude Family 1 Minute 4 44 The last The sources of this chapter are the interviews to be found on the attached CD Detailed references will only be pro vided for quotations indicating interviewee and minute 57 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 family said it influenced their attitude only slightly A positive influence of the WaterGuide on actual behav iour and the willingness to reduce ones comfort of taking a long shower was reported by three families The other two mentioned a minimal or partly only some family members influence The second set of questions aimed at gaining valuable insights in order to provide recommendations how to market the WaterGuide in Germany Asking who in the family would propose buying the device who would make the final buying decision and who would actually buy it the answer was either both parents or the husband All families would gather information about the product ask friends if available whether they would recommend it and then evaluate the product before making the buying decision Concerning in which product category the WG belongs all interviewees defined it as energy saving prod
68. d in question 10 are mainly based on the consumer behaviour constructs introduced in section 2 2 All questions are structured hence they are closed ended However question 10 15 and 16 offer the respondent the option to add further comments Besides question 14 which asked for the monthly net household income all questions were mandatory Because a high dropout rate when asking for income was feared it was decided to make it an optional question All other questions were classified as highly important for the results and therefore had to be answered The main survey questions 1 to 10 are presented in English language at the end of this section 32 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 In order to assure valuable data which is compatible for augmentative analysis different scales were used Interval scales which enable indentifying hierarchical order and differences between data points were used in question 1 to 8 Ordinal scales which allow ranking of responses were applied in question 9 and 10 The remaining demographic questions were either based on a nominal or ratio scale All interval scaled questions had four scale points Based on the authors perception and the information received in the pre test more scale points would not have led to more significant results It was deliberately decided not to include an either nor answer because it is assumed that this would lead respondents to take the easy way out and not to think
69. d that this view will provide superior and more detailed insights into a person s attitude The adjusted theoretical framework is shown in Figure 4 22 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Attitude towards the behaviour Subjective norm Behaviour Perceived behavioural control BEN m Figure 4 Adapted Theory of Planned Behaviour Source Ajzen 2006 with adjustments made by the author based on Solomon et al 2010 As can be seen in Figure 4 further small adjustments to the Theory of Planned Behaviour opposed to as shown in Figure 3 were made In the TPB it is stated that attitude subjective norm and perceived behav ioural control are determined by a person s beliefs It is assumed that Ajzen included beliefs in the model in order to explain how the three constructs are formed Since beliefs constitute the three constructs atti tude subjective norm and PBC it is assumed not to be necessary to assess them separately Beliefs are assumed to be predominantly equal to the corresponding construct Finally the interrelation between atti tude subjective norm and PBC is not shown in this adjusted framework The author does acknowledge the correlation However in accordance with the research objectives it was decided that it is not of relevance to the present project 23 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 3 CASE COMPANY As mentioned in the introduction
70. de in Germany The questions are set up based on the following theoretical reasoning A first step is to understand the decision making process of the target audience This includes identifying who is involved and which role each person plays Percy Elliott 2009 Second the positioning for the product must be determined Therefore it needs to be identified in which market the consumer sees the 39 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 product and how the product is perceived on important attributes relative to the competitors In order to derive USP s to be communicated it must be assessed which product characteristics are most important to the consumer Geuens Van den Bergh amp De Pelsmacker 2010 Percy Elliott 2009 The marketing mix con sists of the 4 Ps product price place and promotion Geuens Van den Bergh amp De Pelsmacker 2010 Hence questions aiming at determining price and distribution channels are included as well However promotion is not considered as it is not the aim of this project to develop specific recommendations on which marketing instruments to use 4 5 Method of Data Analysis This section will provide an overview of how the primary data will be analyzed First the method of data analysis for the quantitative data is described followed by a description of how the qualitative data is ana lyzed 4 5 1 Quantitative Data In order to mathematically analyze quantitative data it must be
71. dentity Solomon et al 2010 Belk 1988 2 2 2 Consumer Motivation In order to understand why people behave in certain ways one has to understand their motivation In gen eral a motivation is a person s desire to satisfy an occurring need This need can either be hedonic or utili tarian Hence it can be the desire to achieve an emotional experience or functional and tangible benefits respectively However a consumer can also be motivated to buy a product that provides both hedonic and utilitarian types of benefits Overall motives are always goal oriented and vary in strength depending on the level of need arousal Furthermore the goal orientation can be either positively or negatively moti vated In the case of negative motivation the consumer tries to avoid a negative outcome whereas when being positively motivated he seeks personal satisfaction Solomon et al 2010 Finally it can be distin guished between primary and selective motives A primary motive is a person s reason to engage in a class of behaviour while a selective motive is his choice regarding which specific behaviour in that class to en gage to Moisander 2007 In consumer research a number of different approaches to classify consumer needs exist Needs can for example be classified into need for affiliation need for power need for achievement and need for unique ness However one of the most known approaches and therefore worthy of introducing it here is Masl
72. e part of a category must be observed instead Fishbein Ajzen 1980 Overall the authors identified four elements of behaviour which need to be taken into account when ob serving it These are action target context and time First of all behaviour always implies an action Sec ond it is important to define the target at which the behaviour is directed Finally it needs to be taken into account in which context and within which time frame the behaviour occurs However the authors also state that behaviour assessed through self reports rather than observation can be obtained without speci fying target context and time Fishbein Ajzen 1980 Intention As mentioned above the TRA assumes that people perform behaviour under volitional control Therefore the theory argues that a person s intention to perform a specific behaviour is the only direct influence on actual behaviour whereat intention is defined as the likelihood to perform a specific behaviour In conse quence one can predict a person s behaviour by simply asking that person for his intention to perform the behaviour Fishbein Ajzen 1980 In order to assure that intention can help predicting behaviour two criteria must be fulfilled First the in tention measurement must be consistent with the behaviour measurement Hence action target context and time must be the same for both measurements Second the intention must be consistent over time 17 WARM WATER C
73. e quality labels for your buying decision such as TUV Umweltengel would be good TUV But wouldn t be very important for buying decision WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Are there any final comments you would like to make The son once cried when the WaterGuide didn t show the happy smiley Consumption in the family was already very low Changed the WaterGuide to easier level Husband thinks other water saving products make more sense Husband would like to know exactly how the status bar is calculated Because this would make saving easier Husband worries about safety because batteries are on the bottom and water might get in Answers Family 5 Did you have any problems installing your WaterGuide Any technical trou ble while using it No In general how do you like the Water Guide What do you perceive as posi tive negative about it It was good to know how warm and long you actually shower How do you perceive the visualization of your consumption It was helpful in order to adjust ones behaviour To which degree did the family engage competition and enjoy it No competition To which degree did the WaterGuide raise awareness regarding warm water consumption in the shower Which family members felt surprised by their consumption It raised awareness and led us to shorten shower time Especially mother was
74. e statement It is not necessary to reduce ones warm water consumption Also most respondents agree that each person mini mizing their consumption has a positive effect on the environment totalling in 88 8 agreeing or slightly agreeing Asking respondents about their feelings towards saving warm water results are rather mixed as can be seen in Figure 10 The first bar shows that most participants a total of 77 5 to some degree have the feeling of doing something good for the environment when reducing warm water consumption However that leaves almost a quarter of the sample not feeling this way The mean value of 3 07 shows that the av erage answer is slightly agree However the standard deviation of 0 81 also indicates that there is no ticeable difference between the answers A clear majority of respondents have positive feelings regarding the importance of warm water conservation with 51 7 slightly agreeing and 40 4 agreeing As can be seen in the third bar answers differ significantly when asking whether saving warm water gives the feeling of being a better person With a mean of 2 22 the standard deviation of 1 01 supports this finding The mean indicates that there is a tendency to slightly disagree However the standard deviation proves that 47 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 overall responses are rather dissimilar The last statement assessing participant s feelings is negatively for mulated
75. e study definition relevant theory must be identified prior to data collection as it will guide what data to collect in order to investigate the research question Yin 1994 Therefore prior to data collection in chapter 4 4 the theoretical framework was established in chapter 2 Furthermore the definition points out that a case study is based on multiple sources This is also given in the present work In 30 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 chapter 2 1 various secondary data concerning the given topic was reviewed and in the following chapter 4 4 primary data will be gathered As Yin 1994 states case studies can be exploratory descriptive and explanatory and can also be a mix of qualitative and quantitative research In the present study the research approach is a combination of ex ploratory and descriptive research Exploratory research gathers insights and helps getting a deeper under standing of consumer behaviour attitudes and motivation The methods used are qualitative Bush Orti nau amp Hair 2009 In the present research the method used is semi structured interviews chapter 4 4 2 Descriptive research gives answers to how when where what who questions by collecting numerical data Hence its methods are quantitative Bush Ortinau amp Hair 2009 In this project an online survey is conducted chapter 4 4 1 Summarizing the research approach is mixed methods approach carried out in a sequential ma
76. earch is carried out in the form of an online survey Its objective is to assess the warm water consump tion behaviour of German families with children and what motivates them to reduce it The qualitative re search consists of five semi structured interviews with German families that tested the WaterGuide The objective of the interviews is to identify how the WaterGuide is perceived and how it should be marketed in Germany The findings from the online survey show that German families with children have a predominantly positive attitude towards warm water conservation and regard it as important However their intention to actually reduce consumption is only averagely strong Also their confidence in being able to do so is somewhat weak Furthermore the main motivation to actually reduce ones consumption is of financial nature only then followed by environmental concern The findings from the interview show that the WaterGuide is perceived as a helpful device to raise aware ness about ones consumption It is found to be especially advantageous for families because the visualisa tion can also be understood by children The device had positive effects on the motivation to reduce con sumption and in some cases even lead to adjusted behaviour and a change in previous showering habits The main conclusion drawn is that German families with children are a potentially profitable market for the WaterGuide It is recommended that the visualisation
77. ees Also here you get an acoustic warning and a flashing display before itturns red When your consumption is a bit heavy Picture Red display If you need more than approx 6 minute with the shower running at standard temperature you are care ful with your personal hygiene and wellbeing But you will not win any energy saving award and could probably benefit from some of the water saving tips below Too difficult Or too easy If you and your family find it either too easy or too difficult to obtain a green smiley it s very easy to change the default settings of the difficulty of the WaterGuide See details under Additional Settings Shower facts e In average 5 minute shower you will use around 6 000 kJ kilojoule This equals 1 6 kWh kilowatt hours e average 5 minute shower you will use app 45 litres of water Try checking on your Water Guide how much you use It is very easy to read out of the display Saving Tips How to cut down on your warm water consumption Regardless of how energy conscious you are you can almost always improve just a little bit And even small improvements matter both to the environment and to your private economy In fact many of us could save lots of energy and water and money by some simple and perhaps small adjustments When you shower with a Water Guide it is measur ing both water quantity and temperature of the water From these two values it is calculating how much
78. egree did the WaterGuide raise awareness regarding warm water consumption in the shower Which family members felt surprised by their consumption It increased awareness Especially time and litres used were helpful to see Raised awareness Family members tried to reduce con sumption Did the WaterGuide change your atti tude towards saving warm water No because we already were aware and had a positive attitude towards saving warm water We already tried to shorten our shower time A bit Did the meter influence actual behav iour Whose behaviour changed most Minimal Wife had ambition to shower shorter Overall were the different family members willing to reduce comfort in order to save money protect the envi ronment Yes because it made us even more aware Showering be came a task instead of please which sometimes was annoy ing The wife reduced comfort in order to shower faster However the husband wasn t willing to What would you adjust in order to im prove the product Kids shouldn t be able to accidentally change settings Option to lower the sound Display should be better to read for people with glasses Make sure single lever tap isn t in the way Who in the family would propose buy ing the WaterGuide and who would influence the decision Wife with technical interest And kids if they heard about it from friends Husband because of technical interest
79. en werden anonym erhoben Bei Fragen k nnen Sie mich gerne unter SchindlerNadine web de kontaktieren Vorab vielen herzlichen Dank f r Ihre Mithilfe Mit freundlichen Gr en Medine Shindler WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Appendix 2 Online Survey in German Language Masterarbeit Nadine Schindler Umfrage beenden Sehr geehrte Teilnehmerin sehr geehrter Teilnehmer im Rahmen meiner Masterarbeit an der Copenhagen Business School f hre ich eine wissenschaftliche Umfrage unter deutschen Familien mit Kindern durch Das Thema der Arbeit ist der Energieverbrauch deutscher Haushalte durch Warmwassernutzung Ich bin auf Ihre zahlreiche Teilnahme angewiesen und bitte Sie daher herzlich um Ihre Mithilfe bis zum 30 04 2012 Das Ausf llen der Umfrage wird ca 10 Minuten Zeit in Anspruch nehmen Jede Frage ist f r sp tere Ergebnisse u erst wichtig daher bitte ich Sie diese wahrheitsgem zu beantworten Alle Daten werden selbstverst ndlich anonym behandelt Als Dank f r Ihre Teilnahme haben Sie am Ende der Umfrage die Chance an einem Gewinnspiel teilzunehmen Sie k nnen folgende Preise gewinnen 1 Movie Park Bottrop All Inclusive unbegrenzt Speisen und Getr nke Tageskarte f r die ganze Familie 2 Aqua Park Oberhausen Wochenend Tageskarte f r die ganze Familie 20 Speisegutschein 3 Amazon Gutschein im Wert von 30 Sollten Sie Fragen haben oder an den Ergebnissen interessiert sein so konta
80. er product information evaluate if product is needed purchase use This shows that the decision process in the category is rather simple Thus not a lot of thinking is done when deciding whether to buy the WaterGuide or not This leads to the conclusion that this is a low involvement decision This conclusion is further supported by the interview finding that there is no risk involved in the decision 7 3 2 Positioning of the WaterGuide in the German Market Positioning is a core element of marketing strategy and hence of marketing communications Geuens Van den Bergh amp De Pelsmacker 2010 It is the unique position a product has in the target group s mind Hence it is also how the product is differentiated from its competitors Generally positioning is based on product attributes and benefits In order to decide on a positioning different from the competition it needs to be identified which benefits are the most important for the consumer within the product category Then the positioning must be based on an attribute important for the consumer at which the product performs superior Thus two steps must be carried out identifying the market and therewith the competitors and deciding on a positioning hence seeking a differential advantage Geuens Van den Bergh amp De Pelsmacker 2010 Percy Elliott 2009 The Market First the market in which the WaterGuide competes must be identified However this cannot be done from
81. er to answer the stated research question it is important to first understand the warm water energy consumption behaviour of German families with children Also it needs to be identified what motivates them to reduce their consumption Then it can be assessed how the smart energy meter in this case the WaterGuide is perceived This will lead to indications whether there is a market for such a product and how it should be marketed Thus the following sub questions arise e How is the warm water consumption behaviour of German families with children e What motivates them to reduce their consumption e Do German families with children present a profitable market for the smart energy meter Water Guide e How should the WaterGuide be marketed In 2008 not taking into account energy consumption for vehicles WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 In the remainder of this project appropriate theory will be identified based on which primary research will be carried out in order to answer the presented research question and its sub questions The structure of the thesis is shown in section 1 4 1 3 Research Objectives The problem identification and the research question with its sub questions implicate the following re search objectives for the study e Assess critically relevant theories and frameworks e Investigate the warm water consumption behaviour of German families with children e Investigate what drives the
82. es Summing up the two statements respondent s perception of being able to perform conservation behaviour has the overall tendency to be moderate Intention According to the Theory of Planned Behaviour introduced in section 2 3 the three constructs analyzed before attitude towards behaviour subjective norm and perceived behavioural control influence a son s intention to perform the behaviour in question Assuming that this is valid for the present case the three constructs have the following influence on intention as is also illustrated in Figure 12 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 1 Attitude towards warm water conservation was found to be mainly positive and therefore has an affirmative influence on intention 2 The subjective norm was found to be moderately strong Hence the social pressure to conserve does have a middling influence on the intention to do so 3 PBC showed that respondents have a rather mixed confidence in their ability to perform conserva tion Since the confidence is not very strong it will tend to weaken the intention to conserve Attitude towards saving warm water Subjective norm Perceived behavioural ce control Figure 12 Constructs Influence on Intention Source Author Together the three components indicate that the intention to save warm water is likely to be positive but only medium intense Question 9 assessed how likely it
83. etermine whether it can be relied on Reliability is the extent to which primary research would lead to the same results when repeated Validity refers to whether the research does what it is intended to do Carmines Zeller 1979 Concerning reliability it can be assumed that the undertaken research is reliable The detailed documenta tion of how the primary research was conducted enables its repetition If the survey would be conducted again it would most likely yield very similar results This is because it can be assumed that respondents would still hold the same opinions about conserving warm water However conducting the survey with a different and bigger sample of the target group could lead to differing outcomes Thus this limits the gen eralizability of the results The interviews can also be assumed to be reliable as conducting the interviews 41 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 again would not change the interviewee s beliefs and feelings about the WaterGuide However depending on the mood in the interview it could lead to less or more detailed outcomes It is assumed that the chosen research approach is appropriate for the present research and therewith is valid The quantitative data provided important insights into the warm water consumption behaviour of German families with children Together with the insights gathered in the interviews it is possible to answer the research question and establish valua
84. ets 1 e Quick guide e This User Manual What you need for installation A small screwdriver The included wrench And possibly a pair of pliers How to use the WaterGuide To make it as user friendly as possible we have chosen to have only one button Whether in daily use or when changing the settings the button works the same way One press at the button moves the cursor one place The symbol or value on which you place the cursor is chosen after app 2 seconds Installing your WaterGuide Step 1 Unscrew the lid for the battery compartment with a screwdriver Take off the lid including the battery box Insert the 4 batteries make sure they are mounted as shown on the box Now put back the battery box in the lid the box can only fit in one position so you cannot turn it upside down Put in place the lid and the battery box and tighten the two screws Step 2 Unscrew the shower hose with the wrench included Or if necessary use a pair of pliers you might want to protect the chrome surface with a cloth XII WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Step 3 Put a rubber gasket in the tap connector ofthe WaterGuide and use your fingers to screw it on the mixer tap Adjust the position and tighten with the wrench Step 4 Use your fingers to screw the shower hose on the exit connection on the bottom side of the WaterGuide If there is no gasket in the hose connector you should use the rubber
85. example Family 5 was quite happy with the product and said that it helped them reducing their consumption Never theless they would not pay more than 20 Hence even though they liked the product and its effect it might just not be that important to them Besides their price willingness the interviewees were asked where they would expect the WG to be sold All of them would expect it to be sold in DIY stores In addition sanitary retailers and the Internet were men tioned by most families Interestingly two of the families also mentioned that this is a product their water or energy suppliers could offer Perceived Risk Finally it was asked to which level the families associate any kind of risk with buying the WaterGuide All families said that they do not think there is a risk involved when buying the product However Family 1 and 3 pointed out that it can create stress for the children They might feel obligated to shower fast which could upset them Hence the parents should avoid that by telling the kids that it is ok to sometimes take a long shower Family 1 Minute 23 05 65 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 6 3 Summary of Qualitative Analysis Summarizing it can be said that the WaterGuide was perceived as a helpful device to raise awareness about one s warm water consumption in the shower The intensity of influence it had on actual behaviour varied mainly based on two factors the level of cons
86. f consumer motivation and values because they provide insights into the bigger significance consumer goods have 2 2 1 The Self The self concept is what a person thinks about his attributes and how he evaluates these Solomon et al 2010 A person can hold various selves which can be positive or negative and vary in time perspective Moreover each person holds three selves the actual self the ideal self and the expected self Thereby the 13 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 ideal self is who a person wants to be and the expected self is who a person thinks he might become The actual self presents the realistic assessment of a person s qualities Solomon et al 2010 Patrick MacInnis amp Folkes 2002 We are what we have and possess Belk 1988 is one of the most meaningful facts in consumer behav iour Humans chose specific products in order to present their actual self to others or in order to get closer to their ideal self Often this is related to managing how others think of us and trying to put ourselves in a positive light Solomon et al 2010 Belk 1988 goes even further with his definition of the extended self purchased objects that are perceived as meaningful become a part of the self Four levels of the extended self can be identified individual level family level community level and group level Overall possessions generate and maintain a person s self definition as well as their social i
87. families living in an apartment indicate to maybe want ing to reduce their consumption within the next 6 month However with an average of 4 06 respondents living in a house have a slightly stronger intention than families living in an apartment with an average of 3 89 Concerning the reasons why to reduce warm water usage results between the two sub groups show the same ranking In sum it can be concluded that families living in a house have a more positive attitude towards conserving warm water and also a slightly higher intention to do so In addition they perceive a higher social pressure to do so and feel less confident about the control they have over it 55 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 5 3 Summary of Quantitative Analysis At first it was found that respondents do have a quite positive attitude towards environmental protection in general The attitude of German families with children towards warm water conservation was found to be predominantly positive Especially beliefs were highly positive The feelings regarding the importance of reducing warm water consumption were quite positive as well Most behaviour was found to be positive with some exceptions Those exceptions were mainly found in situations which would require a reduction in personal comfort The overall positive attitude is assumed to have an enhancing influence on intention to perform warm wa ter conservation However a moderately strong socia
88. for the WaterGuide The survey found that German families with children perceive the conservation of warm water as important It also showed that they mainly lack doing so in the shower Furthermore the families believe that it is diffi cult for them to reduce their warm water consumption All these findings clearly indicate that there is a big potential for the WaterGuide This was furthermore supported by the results from the test families which showed that the WG has the potential besides motivating families to reduce their consumption to actu ally change showering habits How should the WaterGuide be marketed At first it was identified that the WaterGuide belongs to the product category products reducing warm water energy usage Based on that it was determined how the WG should be positioned in the German market The results from the primary data led to the conclusion that the WG needs to be differentiated from its competitors based on a unique benefit important to the target group That benefit was found to be the visualisation of consumption Thus any communication must stress that The WaterGuide visualizes consumption which creates awareness and therewith helps improving shower behaviour Furthermore the necessary communication objectives were identified Category need must be established as the WG is a new product This can be done by highlighting that the WG enables the family to reduce household costs and helps pr
89. for the shower it was decided to conduct qualitative data in the form of semi structured interviews The objectives of the qualitative research are to gain insights into how German fami lies with children perceive the WaterGuide to identify whether it has a market potential and to gather valuable insights that will help establishing recommendations concerning how to position and market the WaterGuide in Germany Therefore five German families were given a WaterGuide for a period of 6 weeks As an incentive to par ticipate in the product test and the interview the families got to keep the WaterGuide after the test period The initial contact with the test families was established through a private contact of the author However the author did not know the test families prior to this study In the initial meeting all families received the WaterGuide as well as the user manual Appendix 3 and quick guide Appendix 4 in German language Besides a brief description of what the product does no further explanation was provided This is due to the fact that one of the questions in the interview aimed at identifying the ease of installation and product usage An overview of each family structure is given in Appendix 5 Semi structured Interviews The interviewing approach used is in depth interviews An in depth interview is conducted by a trained interviewer and consists of a set of semi structured questions The objective of an in depth interview
90. frustrated when not being in the first spot Overall it increased the family s awareness Especially seeing the time and amount of litres used was perceived as very helpful Nevertheless since the family already has a very positive attitude towards conserving warm water and already tries to shower short it did not change their attitude Thus it only had a minor influence on their actual behaviour The change that did happen is that comfort was reduced as the WaterGuide makes you aware when you re just standing there letting the water drop down on you Minute 5 21 This led to a rather significant change in perception taking a shower turns into being a task instead of being something you enjoy 5 36 Hence even though the actual change of showering time was minor in this family since it was already low it had a major impact on the way they perceive the act of taking a shower Sometimes they felt that this change is something good but sometimes it also bothered them to feel obligated not to take a comforting and relaxing long shower 60 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Family 4 Family 4 had mixed feelings towards the WaterGuide It was perceived as helpful to see how long one showers However they feel that it is impossible not to get into the red level when carrying out more ex tensive grooming such as shaving Nevertheless the visualisation did help in order to be more aware and therefore helped tryin
91. g laundry when there is a full load they already behave very conscious In sum the finding is that it is important for families to conserve warm water The fact that they mainly lack doing so in the shower proves that there is a big potential for the WaterGuide The data also showed that a lot of families believe it would be difficult for them to reduce their warm water consumption Accordingly the WaterGuide presents a way to help them in doing so As became evident from the interviews all test families agreed that the WG raised their awareness and that the visualisation of their consumption enabled them to reduce it The survey also showed that most families have to some degree the intention to reduce their consump tion This furthermore supports that there is a market for the WaterGuide However there are families with little to no intention Also the interview with Family 4 showed that even though they thought the WG raised awareness the product is simply not relevant to families that have no willingness to reduce their consumption Thus there clearly is a market for the product but it will only be considered by families with the willingness and need to lower their warm water usage Finally the interviews clearly showed that all families found the visualisation of one s consumption as very helpful and that it raised their awareness The WaterGuide even helped changing behaviour and habits e Taking shorter showers became no
92. g to adjust ones behaviour No competition arose between the family members Besides trying a bit to shower less long the WG did not have a positive influence on the family s attitude towards saving warm water in general Only the wife was willing to reduce some comfort in order to reduce her consumption However the husband was not willing to whatsoever Family 5 Family 5 had an entirely positive perception of the WaterGuide They found it very helpful to know how long and hot one showers as it helps reducing consumption Hence the visualisation was highly helpful A competition did not emerge Overall it did raise awareness and helped shorten showering time Especially the mother was surprised about her consumption and tried to reduce it Interestingly the WaterGuide did not only change their attitude towards saving warm water in the shower we also adjusted our behaviour when brushing teeth and taught our son to turn off the water while brushing Minute 3 59 Overall the WG did lead to a change in actual behaviour The family was partly willing to reduce comfort in order to save money In sum it can be said that the WaterGuide was perceived quite positive All families indicated that the visu alisation of their consumption is very helpful and that it raised their awareness regarding how much they consume and therewith motivated them to lower it Even though the degree to which the families adjusted their behaviour varies all of
93. ges bitte angeben Zur ck atena Umfrage beenden WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Masterarbeit Nadine Schindler Umfrage beenden Liebe Teilnehmerin lieber Teilnehmer vielen lieben Dank dass Sie sich die Zeit genommen haben an meiner Umfrage teilzunehmen Ihre Angaben werden f r die weitere Analyse u erst hilfreich sein Gerne k nnen Sie die Umfrage auch an Freunde und Bekannte mit Kindern weiterleiten Um an dem Gewinnspiel teilzunehmen geben Sie bitte Ihre E Mail Adresse an Diese wird selbstverstandlich vertraulich behandelt und nicht in Zusammenhang mit Ihrer Beantwortung gebracht Die gl cklichen Gewinner werden kurz nach Ende der Umfrage 30 04 2012 benachrichtigt Mit freundlichen Gr en Nadine Schindler 17 Ihre E Mail Adresse WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Appendix 3 WaterGuide User Manual Congratulations on your new Water Guide WaterGuide is for families who want inspiration for better energy habits in the shower It is a practical tool that raises awareness about the time spent in the shower and how much hot water you use It is not intended that you should feel monitored by Water Guide The meter is deliberately designed so that it works with a twinkle in its eye We believe that by visualizing the water and energy consumption and by adding some fun and competition it can inspire people to cut back on co
94. greaves Nye amp Burgess 2010 Studies testing energy monitors show several important results It is highly important for the meter to be placed in a central place in the household and to look good in a way that it fits into the household More generally it must fit into daily life in order to have an impact The display must be user friendly hence information provided on the display must be understandable and clear Hargreaves Nye amp Burgess 2010 van Dam Bakker amp van Hal 2010 Furthermore depending on family dynamics the installation of an energy monitor can lead either to co operation or to conflicts between the household members Identifying whose energy usage should be reduced in which ways can lead to disputes Finally it was identified that there is a tendency that after a certain time period the usage of the monitor will drop excessively Hargreaves Nye amp Burgess 2010 It was found that the monitors do have a potential long term impact due to changed habits 12 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Contrary it was also found that the impact on consumption decreases over a longer time period Darby 2010 van Dam Bakker amp van Hal 2010 There are also studies focusing on feedback displays measuring water flow Kappel and Grechenig 2009 state that feedback is only effective if there is a minimum time gap between action and feedback If this is given feedback displays provide the user with goals and
95. gs by making another long press of app 7 seconds Level Sound Language XVIII WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Difficulty level Easy Choose this if you find it too difficult to obtain a green smiley during your shower Medium The default set level on your WaterGuide Hard Choose this if you re really good at making a green shower and need extra challenge Sound On Sounds are on default setting Off Choose this if you want to turn off the sounds Language English Choose English as your menu language German Choose German as your menu language French Choose French as your menu language XIX WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Appendix 4 WaterGuide Quick Guide Quick Guide Get started with your WaterGuide Requirements for your shower The shower mixer must have only one exit and it is to face downwards What is in the box e WaterGuide meter e AA batteries e 2pcs rubber gaskets 1wrench e This Quick guide e User manual What you need for installation A small screwdriver The included wrench And possibly a pair of pliers How to use the WaterGuide To make it as user friendly as possible we have chosen to have only one button Whether in daily use or when changing the settings the button works the same way One press at the button moves the cursor one place The symbol or value on which you pl
96. gt Wir f hlen uns durch unsere Nachbarn dazu unter Druck gesetzt Es ist ein gutes Gef hl etwas zum Umweltschutz beizutragen Wir f hlen uns moralisch dazu verpflichtet Damit uns wichtige Personen ein positives Bild von uns haben Sonstiges bitte geben Sie an aus welchen weiteren Gr nden Sie Warmwasser sparen T 71 Masterarbeit Nadine Schindler Die folgenden Fragen dienen der Erfassung haushaltsspezifischer Informationen 11 Bitte geben Sie Ihr Geschlecht an weiblich m nnlich 12 Bitte geben Sie Ihr Alter an WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Masterarbeit Nadine Schindler 13 Bitte geben Sie Anzahl und Alter Ihrer im Haushalt wohnenden Kinder an Anzahl der Kinder 1 Alter Kind 2 Alter Kind 3 Alter Kind 4 14 Bitte geben Sie das monatliche Nettohaushaltseinkommen an Masterarbeit Nadine Schindler 15 Bitte geben Sie Ihre Wohnsituation an Mietwohnung Eigentumswohnung Doppelhaush lfte zur Miete C Doppelhaush lfte Haus zur Miete Allein stehendes Haus Sonstiges bitte angeben 16 Bitte geben Sie Ihren h hsten Bildungsstand Hauptschulabschluss mittlere Reife Fachabitur Abitur Fachhochschulstudium Universit tsstudium Sonsti
97. gt 13 15 42 14 3 1 1 89 Wir f hlen uns durch unsere Nachbarn dazu unter Druck N N wo 19 62 89 XXVII WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 gesetzt Es ist ein gutes Gef hl etwas zum Umweltschutz beizutra 6 8 13 46 14 2 0 89 gen Wir f hlen uns moralisch dazu verpflichtet 4 1 5 10 49 17 3 89 Damit uns wichtige Personen ein positives Bild von uns ha 0 1 5 5 9 47 22 89 ben answered question 89 skipped question 0 XXVIII WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Appendix 7 Summary of Interviews Answers Family 1 Answers Family 2 Did you have any problems installing your WaterGuide Any technical trou ble while using it No problems at all It is very user friendly No it was very easy In general how do you like the Water Guide What do you perceive as posi tive negative about it Very positive There is nothing negative about the Water Guide The kids liked it a lot Raised awareness Display too small if you need glasses Motivates to shower faster Husband perceived it as stressful How do you perceive the visualization of your consumption Very good The additional sound is also helpful Fun To which degree did the family engage a competition and enjoy it The family especially the children engaged in a competi tion Only in the beginning To which degree did the WaterGuide raise awareness regarding warm water c
98. gure 6 WaterGuide Consumption Levels cccscccccsssececsesnececsecneeecseaeeecseaaeeecseaueeecseaaeeecseaaeeeseeaaeeeeseaas 26 Figure 7 WaterGuide Consumption Overview per Family 26 Figure 8 The Research Process 0 ee ne eine ne 31 Figure 9 Average Ratings Survey Question 3 unusuenessssssnnnnnnnennnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnan nn 44 Figure 10 Results SUPVEY QUESTION Alu leer 48 Figure 11 Results Survey QUESTION 7 nase leere 51 Figure 12 Constructs Influence on Intention uuuessesensensnnennnnennnnnennnnnnnennnnnnnnnnnennnnnnnnsnennnsennnnennennnnn 52 Figure 13 Results Survey Question 9 2 iin ae alien 53 Figure 14 Implementing the Strategic Planning Process uusessssnseenennnnnennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnennnnnnnennsnnnennen 70 Figure 15 Rossiter Percy Brand Attitude Strategy 74 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Results Mean and Standard Deviation for Question 6 50 Table 2 Decision Participants and their Roles cccccccceesssececsenececseaeeeeceaeceeseaaececeesaeeeeeeaeeeeseaeeeeeeaas 62 Table 3 Two Most Important Product Attributes Of the 63 Table 4 Three Steps to Effective POSitioning ccccccsscsssecsssecssecsessecseseeceeesssaeeseseeceeeeessaesesaeeseneessas 72 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 1 INTRODUCTION It was mainly due to the UN
99. h enable the household to reduce their warm water energy usage The Water Guide is found to be a highly interesting and innovative device It is the only energy meter aimed at reduc ing the energy used for warm water in private households more specifically its target group are families WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 with children Thus it is a unique product which is why it was decided to be used as a case in the present research Statistics show that 1296 of the energy consumed a German household is used for warm water That is the second highest after energy used for heating BDEW 2010 In total the highest amount of water with 36 45 litres a day is used for showering and bathing BDEW 2012 Overall these numbers show that the energy used for warm water and especially in the shower bathtub is a relevant source of a household s energy consumption in Germany and therefore worthwhile to be investigated in more detail 1 2 Research Question As identified above it is highly interesting to investigate the warm water energy consumption of German households The WaterGuide presents an especially interesting way to reduce energy used in the shower It was therefore chosen as the focus of this thesis With its target groups being families with children this leads to the following research question How do German families with children perceive awareness raising smart energy meters for the shower In ord
100. he first person to shower in the morning is not punished when emptying the pipes for cold water If you choose a wrong user icon If you accidentally select the wrong icon simply press the button again and choose your right icon If the water was already running it doesn t matter The WaterGuide remembers data from the start of the show er and will automatically put it on your right account when correcting it In this case just remember not to turn off the water before correcting your user icon Select user immediately after another person If a new user wants to shower immediately after another you obviously don t have to wait 5 minutes for the WaterGuide to shut down and then select a new user As soon as the first user has turned off the water and finished his shower you can press the button to make the user icons appear When a new user is selected the data for the previous user is automatically stored What you can see on the display Picture Green display drops falling e Drops fall when the water is running The screen will not turn green until the water temperature has exceeded 23 degrees And the data counter is likewise inactive below this minimum temperature e The Process bar shows how close you are to entering a new color red energy class will flash a full process bar however from start to finish e Here and now water flow is shown in liters per minute The current temperature of the water
101. hey would most likely not buy the WG Family 3 said that the most important to them in the WaterGuide is that it raises awareness and makes saving fun due to the visualization When referring it to friends and family they would mainly point out that it is interesting to see ones actual consumption in numbers Also the children told their friends that it is fun to shower with the WG When buying the product it would be because of the competition it creates within the family to save warm water However we would only buy it if it was recommended by friends Minute 15 10 The most important to Family 4 was that the different levels green yellow and red helped evaluating how good bad ones consumption is The family would only refer it if we knew how much we actually saved Minute 38 00 because they neither know how much money they saved nor how much they helped the environment Furthermore they would simply not buy the WG as saving warm water is not important to them Family 5 highlighted that the WG is especially helpful to raise awareness and that the visualization reminds you every time to shower more consciously Talking about it with family and friends they would mainly stress that it is good for families to reduce warm water consumption in a way that makes the children enjoy it The constant remainder how much one consumes would be their reason to actually buy the WG Summing up the most important product attributes can be
102. his limits the generalizability of the results and therewith the applicability of the con clusions 71 Market Potential Before developing marketing implications for the WaterGuide it has to be assessed whether there exists a market for the product Hence there must be a need for the product and its benefits First of all the quantitative data showed that German families with children have a quite positive attitude towards environmental protection and behave rather eco friendly This general finding is a first indication that a product helping them to be more eco friendly could potentially have the chance of succeeding in the market Investigating the attitude towards saving warm water also showed positive results Beliefs and feelings about the importance of conserving warm water were highly positive In general this was confirmed by the respondents behaviour as well Thus their positive attitude most likely also indicates that they are willing to save warm water Therefore a product helping them to do so could be interesting for them Especially results showed that when it comes to turning off the water while soaping and trying to shower fast in 67 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 order to save warm water people s behaviour is less consistent This shows that there is a big potential for German families to reduce their warm water consumption in the shower In other situations such as only doin
103. impact Nevertheless 57 are convinced that society has to decrease their consumption in order to improve the environment for upcoming generations Today the green consumer is in general a well known and widely used expression can be defined as an environmentally concerned person who behaves in consistence with his concern for the environmental consequences of his possession usage and disposal of products and services Furthermore he keeps the public consequences of his consumption in mind Hence the green consumer has to make a lot of difficult 1 He will be used for male and female consumers respectively throughout this study WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 choices However there are huge differences amongst consumers as to what they regard as environmen tally friendly behaviour and how they act accordingly Moisander 2007 1 1 Problem Identification It becomes evident that it is highly interesting to study what consumers can do to be green what they are willing to do and for which reasons Hence it is relevant to examine private household s environmental behaviour and how they can improve it As this is an extremely broad topic it was decided to first narrow it down geographically As the author s nationality is German and therefore has background knowledge it was decided to research the German market Between 1990 and 2010 the yearly energy costs of German households rose more or les
104. inen Raum verlassen Wir verwenden Einkaufst ten mehrfach Wir sammeln und recyceln Papier 2 Wir recyceln Glas Wir fahren auch kurze Strecken mit dem Auto Wir kaufen Bio Lebensmittel Wir trennen M ll Wir recyceln Pfandflaschen 21 Zur ck Weiter Masterarbeit Nadine Schindler ng Die folgenden Fragen dienen der Erfassung Ihrer Haltung zu umweltbewusstem Verhalten Konkret geht es um den Energieverbrauch durch die Nutzung von Warmwasser 3 Bitte geben Sie Ihre Meinung zu den folgenden Aussagen an Ich stimme nicht zu Ich stimme eher nicht zu Ich stimme eher zu Ich stimme zu Es ist wichtig Warmwasser zu sparen Das Einsparen von Warmwasser hilft der Umwelt Q Es ist nicht notwendig seinen Warmwasserverbrauch zu reduzieren Das Sparen Warmwasser eines jeden einzelnen hat positive Auswirkungen auf die Umwelt T 29 Zur ck Weiter Masterarbeit Nadine Schindler 4 Bitte geben Sie Ihre Empfindungen zum Einsparen von Warmwasser an Ich stimme nicht zu Ich stimme eher nicht zu Ich stimme eher zu Ich stimme zu Es gibt mir das Gef hl etwas Gutes f r unsere Umwelt zu tun wenn ich Warmwasser spare Ich empfinde es als wichtig den Warmwasserverbrauch zu reduzieren Es gibt mir das Gef hl ein besserer Mensch sein wenn ich Warmwasser einspare Q
105. ing independent of social actors In subjectivism social phenomena are created from the perceptions and consequent ac tions of social actors Due to the ongoing social interaction these phenomena can change constantly Lewis Thornhill amp Saunders 2009 In this research subjectivism will be the underlying ontology The author believes that the social phenomenon of environmental protection in this research more specifically energy and water conservation can only be understood if the subjective motivations of individuals are explored The individual s view of the world influences how he perceives a situation and affects his actions and social interactions Epistemology Epistemology is the study of knowledge and how it is acquired Steup 2005 The two differing viewpoints in epistemology are that only observable phenomena constitute acceptable knowledge contrary to the belief that subjective meanings such as feelings and attitudes are acceptable knowledge as well Lewis Thornhill amp Saunders 2009 The author believes that both observable phenomena and subjective meanings consti tute acceptable knowledge There can be cases in which collecting observable data is appropriate cases in which assessing feelings in a narrative way is appropriate or cases in which presenting data about feelings in a statistical way is appropriate In the present study the author believes that in order to generate knowl edge about German families warm wa
106. ishbein Ajzen 1980 Usually people tend to hold positive attitudes towards behaviours if they believe that important others think they should behave that way However sometimes a person s own attitude and the normative belief may contradict In that case the person s intention depends on the relative weight that person gives to each ofthe two factors and his motivation to comply with the normative beliefs Fishbein Ajzen 1980 As with attitude towards the behaviour the measurement of the subjective norm also needs to be consis tent with the measurement of intention Fishbein Ajzen 1980 Beliefs As shown above beliefs play a major role in Ajzen amp Fishbeins s theory They are the determinants of atti tude and the subjective norm A person forms beliefs through observation information from external sources and his own experience Over time these beliefs can be consistent modified or even forgotten Behavioural beliefs When forming behavioural beliefs a person associates the behaviour in question with a certain outcome According to the theory it is the salient beliefs about behaving in a certain way and the herewith associated outcomes that influence ones attitude towards the behaviour In order to assure that the measurement of salient beliefs provides an appropriate indicator for attitude towards behaviour the two concepts must be consistent Fishbein Ajzen 1980 Normative beliefs As stated before normative belief
107. isplaying the time water temperature and amount of water used Based on that the overall energy consumption is displayed in a bar which keeps filling Figure 6 Depending on the energy used the WG shows three different levels of how good bad ones consumption is In the first level the display is green and shows a happy smiley Hence the overall energy consumption is good 30 seconds before entering the next level yellow display and neu tral smiley a sound and the blinking display warn the user that he is about to leave the level in which his consumption is good For example when showering at a temperature of 38 C the green level lasts for about 3 minutes and until about 6 minutes the user showers in the yellow level Again before leaving 25 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 the yellow level the user is warned by sound and blinking Finally in the last level the display is red and the smiley is sad indicating a too lavish consumption The different stages are shown in Figure 6 Figure 6 WaterGuide Consumption Levels At the end of each shower the total amount of water used the total time and the average temperature are shown This is followed by a ranking that compares each users last shower data as shown in Figure 7 The comparison of each user s last consumption data is supposed to trigger a feeling of competition within the family However competition that is fun Most likely especiall
108. knowing that it is agood product Husband 120 Depending on cost benefit ratio between 50 75 How long should the maximum payback time be Where would you expect the product to be sold Payback time is not relevant DIY online sanitary retailers might also be offered by energy providers 1 years DIY sanitary retailers Which attributes benefits of the Wa terGuide are most important to you Ease of use visualization sound Simply liked everything about the product Easy to install self explaining use of product XXX WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 When referring the product to friends and family which characteristics would you point out Very good for kids to learn about water consumption The kids told friends about it and one of their friends even showered at their house to see and try the WaterGuide Potential to save energy Why would you buy the WaterGuide Because of the saving potential Potential to save energy How high low is your perceived risk when buying the WaterGuide e g financially social emotional No risk However risk that children feel forced to shower short and think they re not allowed to take a relaxing shower once in a while Parents have to point out in the beginning that it is ok to sometimes take a longer shower No risk How important are quality labels for your buying decision such as TUV
109. ktieren Sie mich gerne unter SchindlerNadine web de Ich bedanke mich vorab recht herzlich f r Ihre Teilnahme Mit freundlichen Gr en Nadine Schindler Masterarbeit Nadine Schindler Die folgenden Fragen beziehen sich allgemein auf das Thema Umweltschutz 1 Bitte geben Sie Ihre Meinung Wahrnehmung zu den folgenden Aussagen an Ich stimme nicht zu Ich stimme eher nicht zu Ich stimme eher zu Ich stimme zu Unsere Kinder werden in schlechteren Umweltverh ltnissen leben m ssen als wir heutzutage Die Politik muss im Bereich Umweltschutz aktiver werden Q Q Q Ein Gro teil der Bev lkerung verh lt sich nicht umweltbewusst Q Umweltprobleme belasten meine Gesundheit Ich mache mir Sorgen wegen der vorhandenen Umweltprobleme Umweltprobleme werden bertrieben Umweltfreundliches Verhalten ergibt nur Sinn wenn dies jeder tut Vom Aussterben bedrohte Arten zu sch tzen ist unn tig Es ist die Verantwortung eines jeden B rgers die Umwelt zu sch tzen SESE 14 ee Weiter Vi WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Masterarbeit Nadine Schindler 2 Bitte geben Sie an wie oft die folgenden Aktivit ten in Ihrem Haushalt durchgef hrt werden Immer Meistens Manchmal Nie Wir haben Elektroger te auf Stand by stehen Wir benutzen chemische Reinigungsmittel Wir machen das Licht aus wenn wir e
110. l Psychology vol 19 no 1 pp 1 19 Kappel K amp Grechenig T 2009 Show me water consumption at a glance to promote water conservation in the shower Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Persuasive TechnologyACM pp 26 Kuznetsov S amp Paulos E 2010 UpStream Motivating Water Conservation with Low Cost Water Flow Sensing and Persuasive Displays Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systemsACM pp 1851 Lewis P Thornhill A amp Saunders M 2009 Research methods for business students Financial Times Prentice Hall Harlow Madden T J Ellen P S amp Ajzen 1992 A Comparison of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Theory of Reasoned Action Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin vol 18 no 1 pp 3 9 Mar chal K 2010 Not irrational but habitual The importance of behavioural lock in in energy con sumption Ecological Economics vol 69 no 5 pp 1104 1114 McCracken G 1986 Culture and Consumption A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods Journal of Consumer Research vol 13 no 1 pp 71 84 Minton A P amp Rose R L 1997 The Effects of Environmental Concern on Environmentally Friendly Con sumer Behaviour An Exploratory Study Journal of Business Research vol 40 no 1 pp 37 48 Moisander J 2007 Motivational complexity of green consumerism Inte
111. l pressure was identified which can be assumed to have a middling effect on the intention Furthermore results showed that respondent s confidence in their ability to reduce warm water consumption is somewhat weak and will therefore have a debilitating effect on intention Finally it was found that actual intention is existent with the slight tendency to be likely The main reason to reduce the household s consumption was identified to be of financial nature followed by environmental concern In addition it was analyzed whether there are differences between differing family size and living situation For small and bigger families no major differences were found Merely bigger families tend to have a more positive attitude towards warm water conservation Regarding differing living situations it was identified that people living in a house have a more positive attitude and a higher intention to reduce their warm water consumption This is most likely due to them having higher overall energy costs and therefore a stronger need to reduce them 56 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 6 ANALYSIS OF QUALITATIVE DATA As described in section 4 4 2 five families tested the WaterGuide for six weeks and were interviewed af terwards A summary reducing the answers of each family to short but comprehensive sentences can be found in Appendix 7 These interviews will be analyzed in the present chapter The objective of the inter views
112. lanned Behaviour In this section the Theory of Planned Behaviour will be discussed This is followed by the discussion of an attitude concept that differs from the one underlying the TPB Based on that an adapted TPB will be intro duced 2 3 1 The Theory of Planned Behaviour It was decided to use the Theory of Planned Behaviour as the main theoretical framework for the quantita tive research The model has been widely used and it was found to be a good predictor of behaviour and intentions In addition it is found to be a helpful tool in order to identify how to develop strategies to change behaviour Madden Ellen amp Ajzen 1992 Ajzen 1991 Furthermore scholars found it to be useful in predicting and understanding ecological behaviour Kaiser W lfing amp Fuhrer 1999 Bamberg 2003 Jackson 2005 Hence it will serve as a basis to set up chapter 4 4 1 and analyse chapter 5 the online survey which aims at identifying the warm water consumption behaviour of German families with children and what drives them to reduce it The Theory of Planned Behaviour is an extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action TRA which is why the TRA will be introduced first The Theory of Reasoned Action shown in Figure 2 was first introduced by Icek Ajzen amp Martin Fishbein in 1975 The theory aims at predicting and understanding human behaviour The authors state that in order to change behaviour one must first fully understand it Fishbein Ajzen 198
113. m the analysis Overall this leads to 89 complete and usable answers Hence the response rate was 8 5 The complete questionnaire as conducted in German language can be found in Appendix 2 The survey except the demographic questions translated into English language is shown on the following pages 33 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 1 Please indicate your beliefs in regards to the following statements Disagree Slightly disagree Slightly agree Agree 1 2 3 4 concerned about the environmental condi 5 on tions our kids will have to live in Politics should become more active in protect ing the environment The major part of the population does not act environmentally way Environmental pollution affects my health worry about environmental problems Environmental problems are exaggerated Protecting endangered species is not necessary It is the responsibility of every citizen to protect the environment 2 Please indicate how often the following activities are carried out in your household Always Mostly Sometimes Never 4 3 2 1 We leave electronic devices on stand by O O O O We use chemical cleaning supplies O O O O We turn off the light when leaving the room
114. m to reduce their warm water consumption e Investigate how German families with children perceive the WaterGuide e Identify if there is a market potential for the WaterGuide e Develop recommendations on how to position distribute and market the WaterGuide These specific objectives will guide the design of the primary research 1 4 Thesis Structure 1 Introdu 2 TheoreticaFEf meworkg o pa 3 Case Company 4 Method 5 Analysis of Quant 6 Analysis of Qualitative s t 7 Managerial Implicatic 8 Conclusi WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 To illustrate the structure of this research the content of the different chapters will be briefly summarized in the following Chapter 1 introduced the topic of this thesis It highlighted the relevance of the chosen problem and devel oped the project s research question as well as sub questions Chapter 2 introduces the theoretical framework on which the primary research and the analysis will be based First it provides an overview of relevant current work done within the field of environmentally friendly consumer behaviour It then presents relevant consumer behaviour constructs followed by a thor ough presentation of the main theory the Theory of Planned Behaviour Chapter 3 provides the reader with information about the case company Smile Energy and their product the WaterGuide
115. mage of respondent feeling pressured by neighbours 45 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 5 2 Survey Discussion In this section the quantitative data gathered will be analyzed in depth taking the underlying theory into account In the first step each question will be interpreted sequentially In the second step the data will be analyzed with respect to potential differences within the sample Specifically it will be assessed whether there are dissimilarities between respondents differing in household size and living situation Both criteria can be assumed to have an impact on warm water consumption behaviour It can be assumed that families with more children have a higher consumption and might therefore be more focused on conserving Also families living in a house have higher energy costs than families living in an apartment and might therefore be more focused on conserving Hence it is reasonable to look for differences and similarities in the results based on those two criteria Attitude towards environmental protection The first two questions provide an indication about the respondents general attitude towards environ mental protection For all statements supporting or acknowledging environmental consciousness the first and second most frequent answer was either slightly agree or agree respectively For the two negated statements most respondents disagreed Overall this indicates that respondents hold highly positi
116. mpetition mainly between the children Overall the family thinks that the WG definitely helps raising awareness Since the family is already very eco friendly the WG did not change their attitude However it makes it easier because of the visualization of your actual consumption Minute 4 54 Therefore the WG did change their behaviour to be more conserving Especially the mother reduced her long and hot showers A highly interesting finding is that the WG actually helped changing her showering habits You adjust to it and after a while you do not notice it anymore Then it becomes normal to shower less long Minute 6 01 Thus the family was willing to reduce the comfort of a long shower in order to save money and protect the environment Family 2 Family 2 had mixed feelings towards the WaterGuide Asking what they find positive and negative about it the first comment of the husband was It creates stress You cannot shower relaxed if the device starts mak ing noises Minute 0 56 However they still believe that it helps raising awareness and therewith does motivate to reduce shower time Another drawback was that both parents could not read the display with 59 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 out using their glasses The mother indicated that she already showered no more than 2 minutes and there fore the WG did not make a difference for her Summing up those statements it can be said that Family
117. n of 0 93 shows that overall answers are rather wide spread The reason why most people do not try to shower bath less often is most likely due to personal hygiene Overall the behavioural component of attitude shows that in certain cases people behave very positive when it comes to conserving warm water In other situations which require a reduction of comfort most respondents seldom carry out the behaviour However also in these cases there are participant that an swered mostly and always Hence in total the behavioural component shows a clearly positive tendency After having analyzed each attitude component separately an overall conclusion for the attitude must be drawn In regards to the cognitive component it became evident that respondent hold highly positive be liefs towards saving warm water The affective component showed that participants predominantly have positive feelings towards conservation but these are less strong when it comes to the potential of their own positive impact on the environment The behavioural component showed that in most cases behaviour is highly in accordance with eco friendly warm water consumption behaviour In some situations mainly when scarifying some kind of personal comfort the behavioural conformity is lower Summarizing it can be concluded that German families with children have a predominantly positive attitude towards reducing warm water consumption with slight exceptions 49 WARM WATER CO
118. n section 7 3 3 which develops a commu nication strategy Thus in this section price and place need to be assessed Price As became evident in the interview analysis the test families indicated extremely differing price willing ness It ranged between 20 120 Hence a concrete recommendation cannot be given Obviously the price must enable the company to cover production and other costs as well as some surplus The only rec ommendation that can be given at this point is to communicate to the customer how much saving potential the WaterGuide yields in order to raise their price willingness Even though 3 out of 5 families indicated that the payback time is not important to them it is still recommended to also communicate it It can be assumed that it will have an effect on the customer s price willingness if he sees that he will have a return of in investment in less than a year Especially since the saving potential was found to be the most impor tant product characteristic Place Place refers to the distribution channels of the product Based on the interviews it can be recommended to distribute the WaterGuide online and in DIY stores In order to assure a quick and nationwide presence in Germany Smile Energy should start selling the WG in the three biggest DIY chains in Germany namely Obi Bauhaus and Toom Euromonitor International 2012 Obviously it could also be offered in additional Ger man DIY chains The online cha
119. nFakten GesellschaftStaat Bevoelkerung HaushalteFamilien Tabell en FamilienKindern html nn 50730 2012 05 24 Stern P C 2000 Toward a Coherent Theory of Environmentally Significant Behavior Journal of Social Issues vol 56 no 3 pp 407 424 Steup M 2005 Epistemology Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Available http plato stanford edu entries epistemology 2012 04 25 Thggersen J amp Olander F 2003 Spillover of environment friendly consumer behaviour Journal of Envi ronmental Psychology vol 23 no 3 pp 225 236 van Dam S S Bakker C A amp van Hal J D M 2010 Home energy monitors impact over the medium term Building Research amp Information vol 38 no 5 pp 458 469 Vantomme D Geuens M De Houwer J amp De Pelsmacker P 2004 Implicit Attitudes Toward Green Con sumer Behaviour Universiteit Gent Gent Willis J W 2007 Chapter 1 World Views Paradigms and the Practice of Social Science Research Founda tions of Qualitative Research Interpretive and Critical Approaches Homepage of Thousand Oaks SAGE Publications Inc Online Available i ualitative research n1 xml 2012 Willis R M Steward R A Panuwatwanich K Williams P R amp Hollingsworth A L 2011 Quantifying the influence of environmental and water conservation attitudes on household end use water consump tion Journal of Environmental Management vol 92 no 8 pp 1996 2009 Yin
120. ne communications as well as participation in fairs are planned 3 The information is obtained from verbal and written personal contact with Thorkild Rasmussen Furthermore infor mation is obtained from Smile Energy s business plan which can be provided upon request 24 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 3 2 The Product WaterGuide The idea for the WaterGuide arose from Thorkild Rasmussen s private life Consuming a lot of energy and water when showering he searched for a way to raise awareness in a fun and competitive way So far the product has not been launched However the launch in Denmark is supposed to take place in the end of 2012 It is intended to expand the business to Germany approximately one year after the launch in Den mark The WaterGuide shown in Figure 5 is a flow and energy meter installed in the shower between the faucet and the flexible tube It measures and visualizes the warm water consumption during the shower The amount of water used in litres the water temperature and time spent are displayed Based on these three measurements the WG calculates overall energy consumption Figure 5 The WaterGuide Each family member selects a symbol from the water world such as a fish or starfish as can be seen in Fig ure 5 Each time a member of the family starts showering the WaterGuide turns on and the person has to select his icon through pushing the button Then the WG starts measuring and d
121. nergy consumption and the costs of using warm water influence a person s motivation to conserve water Personal capabilities also influence environmentally friendly behaviour These are factors such as knowledge resources skills and time Stern 2000 Kaiser W lfing amp Fuhrer 1999 Gatersleben et al 2002 found that consumers only change their behaviour if it does not require too much change in comfort or too much effort Moreover they note that people may not always be aware of their consumption and the impact it has Especially energy consumption is not visible and therefore often not paid attention to For example it was found that moral obligation is likely to lead to environmentally con scious behaviour however only when awareness of the consequences of behaviour is high The fact that people are not aware of the consequences of their consumption may also be explained by habits Habits were found to play a major role in the field of environmental friendly behaviour Such behaviours as recy cling switching off lights taking the car to work or taking a shower are performed on a regular basis in nearly the same manner and without thinking about them hence they are performed habitually Har greaves Nye amp Burgess 2010 Stern 2000 Minton Rose 1997 Th gersen Olander 2003 Mar chal 2010 Habits usually represent short term benefits However long term rewards for changing the behaviour are often not considered Mar chal 2010
122. ng the mixer tap You can then select the user By pressing the button you jump between the six user icons The icon on which you place the cursor is chosen after app 2 seconds and displayed in the upper left corner XIV WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 If you don t wish to select a user icon e g if a guest takes shower then you just don t do anything The WaterGuide still shows the consumption as usual but the result is not included in the competition between the different users WaterGuide is designed to make it easy for you to turn off the water e g while shampooing or shaving legs You don t need to select user again You just open the mixer tap and the WaterGuide continues to count from where you stopped Every time you turn off the water you get a status how well you are doing saving water also compared to the others in the family The WaterGuide turns off automatically after app 5 minutes of inactivity When the WaterGuide is in sleep mode you can always refresh your memory on your latest shower data by pressing the button and selecting your user icon This allows you to see the consumption figures for your last shower If you want to do this just don t open the water e The WaterGuide does not register any consumption until the water temperature exceeds 23 degrees Until then the timer shows 0 00 and the color of the display is white This is to make the competition fairer so that t
123. nnel could be served by means of the web stores of the DIY chains and trough the companies own online shop 7 This information is obtained from verbal and written personal contact with Thorkild Rasmussen 69 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Furthermore interviewees also expected the WG to be found in sanitary retailers However in the begin ning this should not be the focus as it can be assumed that sanitary retailers have far less outlets and are most likely not organized in area wide chains Finally two interviewees mentioned that they would expect the product to be offered by their energy or water provider This could for the future be an interesting distribution channel Smile Energy should con sider and investigate whether there is a sales potential in it 73 The Strategic Planning Process In order to compass a communication strategy several planning steps must be taken as shown in Figure 14 Step2 Understanding Target Audience Decision Step4 Developing a Communication Strategy Step 1 Step 3 Determining the Step 5 Setting a Media Strategy Selecting the Target Audience Making Best Positioning Figure 14 Implementing the Strategic Planning Process Source Percy Elliott 2009 A main part of marketing communications is to first identify which groups of customers to target However in the present case the first step was already carried out by the case company The chosen target gro
124. nner Bergman 2008 This is in accordance to the pragmatic view underlying this project The overall research process is summarized in Figure 8 Research Strategy Exploratory and Descriptive Single case Study Secondary Data Contextual Background Primary Data Mixed Method Approach Qualitative Research Semi structured Interviews Quantitative Research Online Survey Figure 8 The Research Process Source Author 4 4 Methods of Data Collection In order to gain insights regarding the research problem and in order to provide managerial implications primary data will be collected using the mixed method approach Hence quantitative as well as qualitative research methods will be applied Both are described in the following two sub sections 31 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 4 4 1 Quantitative Research Design Quantitative research places heavy emphasis on using formal standardized questions and predetermined response options in questionnaires or surveys administered to a large number of respondents Bush Orti nau amp Hair 2009 In the present study quantitative research was conducted in the form of an online survey The objective is to gather insights that will help answering the research sub questions How is the warm water consump tions behaviour of German families with children and What motivates them to reduce their consump tion This is highl
125. nning process Here the communication objectives must be decided on Category need should be the first objective for the WaterGuide marketing communication Category need must be an objective when a product is first introduced into the market Also it is necessary when the tar get group needs to be reminded of their need for a product within the category This is usually the case when the product category is infrequently purchased Geuens Van den Bergh amp De Pelsmacker 2010 Percy Elliott 2009 Since the WG is a new product and it can be assumed that products reducing warm water energy usage are purchased highly infrequently it becomes evident that category need must be communication objective The quantitative analysis showed that the main motivations to reduce warm water energy consumption are in order to save money and to protect the environment Hence the benefits of being able to reduce household costs and help protecting the environment should be emphasized in order to establish category need Second brand awareness must be a communication objective According to Percy amp Elliott 2009 brand awareness and brand attitude must always be a communication objective Brand awareness is needed in order for the consumer to consider the brand There are two types of brand awareness recognition and recall Brand recognition means that the awareness of the brand reminds the consumer of his need Brand 73 WARM WATER CONSUMPTIO
126. nsumption When we sometimes use more water and energy than we need we are not necessarily aware of it It is rather be cause we are stuck in some old habits For adults WaterGuide can be a helping hand when trying to break any bad habits And for children it can help to raise awareness so that they create some good habits for life Content e Installation o Installation of Water Guide Water Guide in daily use Start the bath and select user Switch to new user or neutral user What you can see on the screen What colours and smileys mean Cleaning Water Guide Saving Tips How to save hot water 0000000 e Extra settings o Sounds on off o Level o Language Set up Installation The Water Guide is battery powered and ready to use when mounted on your shower mixer tap After that you can enjoy many years of good company with the little smiley who in his own funny way reminds you and your children about your hot water saving skills XII WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Requirements for using a WaterGuide The shower mixer must have only one exit and it is to face downwards If your shower mixer has two exits e g both up and downwards you can mount the WaterGuide on the downward exit But in this case the WaterGuide will not necessarily register your total water consumption as one of the exits is bypassing the meter What is in the box e WaterGuide meter e 4pcs AA batteries e 2pcs rubber gask
127. on evens out with their slightly lower confidence in it being their own decision Thus the perceived behavioural control is predominantly the same for the two groups Concerning respondent s intention to lower their warm water consumption within the next 6 month the majority of small families answered maybe 38 7 and the majority of big families answered likely 35 7 Nevertheless overall their intention is quite alike with an average of 3 92 for small families and an average of 3 79 for big families meaning that the tendency is to maybe wanting to lower consumption When ask ing for reasons to save warm water the ranking is the same for both sub groups Hence not matter how big the family the main reason is to save money Overall besides big families having a slightly more positive attitude towards saving warm water no signifi cant differences between families with more or less children could be found 54 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Comparison based on different living situations As mentioned before it is interesting to assess whether there are differences in the warm water consump tion behaviour between households in different living situations Therefore families living in an apartment and families living in a house will be compared Though the number of families in the sample living in an apartment is lower than the number of families living in a house 27 and 48 respectively Hence this dis
128. onsumption in the shower Which family members felt surprised by their consumption Especially seeing the water amount used shown in litres helped raising awareness The mother was most surprised because she thought she consumed less Had a positive effect on awareness Especially husband and son were surprised by their consumption Wife al ready took short showers and was always in the green level Did the WaterGuide change your atti tude towards saving warm water Already had a positive attitude towards saving warm wa ter But WaterGuide makes it easier to translate it into action Yes Did the meter influence actual behav iour Whose behaviour changed most Definitely You adjust your behaviour over time and after a while taking shorter showers feels natural The Water Guide helped change behaviour and led to new habits Mother changed most Kids changed their behaviour a lot as well However sun is annoyed because he wants to win the competition but also loves taking long showers To avoid this dilemma he started wanting to take bath instead Yes we are more aware now Change stop water while soaping Overall were the different family members willing to reduce comfort in order to save money protect the envi ronment Yes Yes but not always XXIX WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 What would you adjust in order to im prove the product Offer differen
129. otecting the environment Furthermore brand awareness must be created in the form of recall awareness This can be done by linking the name WaterGuide to the category need in any chosen communication 77 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Finally brand attitude was identified as a communication objective and the attitude strategy was found to be low involvement informational This implies that in the communication the problem should be pre sented first followed by being solved by the brand Thus it should be pointed out that household energy costs are high and can be reduced with the help of the WaterGuide Overall the message should be kept simple and it is recommended not to claim more than two product benefits How do German families with children perceive awareness raising smart energy meters for the shower Initially an online survey was conducted to get an understanding of the warm water consumption behav iour of German families with children This lead to the insight that they believe that reducing ones warm water consumption is important However it also showed that they believe it is rather difficult for them to do so These results are a first indication that an awareness raising smart energy meter for the shower has the potential to be perceived as highly helpful for German families with children in order to reduce their warm water consumption The interviews conducted with the 5 test families supported that
130. ow s hierarchy of needs Solomon et al 2010 14 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 According to Maslow human needs can be put in a hierarchical order He identified five types of needs which is shown in Figure 1 The order is fixed hence if a basic lower level need is not satisfied the next higher one will not be activated However this approach must be seen critically as one product can poten tially satisfy different need levels Also the order of needs could be perceived differently in between cul tures Nevertheless the important key point is that consumers most likely have different priorities in which order to satisfy their needs Solomon et al 2010 Upper level needs Lower level needs Figure 1 Maslow s Hierarchy of Needs Source In accordance to Solomon et al 2010 2 2 3 Values A value can be defined as a belief about a desirable end state that guides behaviour They are general be liefs that apply in various situations In each culture a set of core values can be found However in this pro ject it are the consumption and product specific values that are of interest Hence the values a consumer receives through consumption These could be such as status efficiency and ethics The ongoing develop ment of people going green can be explained by the value they hold pro environmental behaviour Solo mon et al 2010 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 2 3 Theory of P
131. rch and interpreting its results Hence it needs to be clarified which research philosophy the researcher belongs to The research philosophy one adopts holds certain assump tions about how the researcher sees the development of knowledge and its nature This supports the methodological decisions the researcher makes Besides determining ones research philosophy it needs to be identified which ontology and epistemology the researcher belongs to Lewis Thornhill amp Saunders 2009 Research Philosophy The research philosophy underlying the present study is pragmatism In this view it is not the philosophical stance of the researcher which influences the research approach Rather it is about finding the research approach appropriate to answer the particular research question Hence the researcher can have varia tions in his ontology and epistemology Furthermore this implicates that quantitative and qualitative re search can be mixed and are seen as supplementary This is also called mixed methods and has the advan 28 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 tage that a phenomenon can be researched in depth and breadth Lewis Thornhill amp Saunders 2009 Alasuutari Bickman amp Brannen 2008 Armitage 2007 Ontology Ontology is the nature of truth the belief of what can be real and what cannot Willis 2007 There are two differing aspects objectivism and subjectivism In objectivism a social entity is seen as exist
132. rent products that can help households to reduce their water and energy consumption However none is like the WaterGuide The WG is the only device that raises awareness about the consumer s consumption in the shower and therefore influences and changes behav ior Thus it is unique and no direct substitutes exist 5 The information is obtained from verbal and written personal contact with Thorkild Rasmussen 27 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 4 METHODOLOGY As mentioned in the introduction the objective of this research is to investigate the warm water consump tion behaviour of German families with children It will be investigated what their attitudes towards reduc ing their warm water consumption are and how they perceive feedback from smart energy meters The aim of this chapter is to describe the applied research approach in order to address the identified research ob jectives First a brief outlook on the philosophical stance will be given This is followed by an outline of the research approach and research strategy Then a detailed description of the chosen methods of primary data collection will be provided as well as how the data will be analyzed Finally validity reliability and limi tations of the chosen approach will be discussed 4 1 Philosophy of Science All research develops new knowledge Therefore it is important to specify how the world is perceived by the researcher before conducting resea
133. rm water has a positive effect on the environment It is not necessary to reduce ones warm water consumption Reducing warm water consumption helps the environment It is important to save warm water 4 1 Disagree 2 Slightly disagree 3 Slightly agree 4 Agree Figure 9 Average Ratings Survey Question 3 Source Author based on survey results shown in Appendix 6 44 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 For example in sum 94 4 of the respondents either agree or slightly agree that it is important to save warm water as well as that it helps the environment This is in accordance with 61 8 disagreeing with the claim that it is not necessary to reduce ones consumption In regards to their feelings the majority of respondents slightly agree that it gives them the feeling to pro tect the environment when saving warm water as well as that it feels important to do so However a total of 62 9 either disagree or slightly disagree that it gives them the feeling of being a better person When it comes to actual water conserving behaviour 78 7 always turn off the tap when brushing teeth 87 6 always wait to turn on the dishwasher until it is full and all respondents either always 68 5 or mostly 31 5 wait doing laundry until the machine is full With regards to showering the results are less consis tent Only 31 5 always turn off the shower tap when soaping With 44 9 the majority of the respondents mostly trie
134. rmal Family 1 e Now the water is turned off while soaping Family 2 e Taking a shower is now a task instead of pleasure Family 3 Spill over effect now water is turned off when brushing teeth Family 5 Hence the interviews proved that the WaterGuide serves its purpose and leads to the promised and hoped for results Summarizing it can be concluded that there is a substantial market potential for the WaterGuide in Ger many within the defined target market families with children Conserving warm water is believed to be highly important and it was clearly identified that a main opportunity to do so lies in the showering behav 68 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 iour The perceived difficulty to lower warm water consumption and the rather high intention to do so thermore prove that there will be a need for the WaterGuide 7 2 4 P s of the Marketing Mix Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception pricing promotion and distribution of ideas goods and services to create and exchange value and satisfy individual and organisational objec tives Geuens Van den Bergh amp De Pelsmacker 2010 This citation describes the traditional instruments of the marketing mix the 4P s product price place and promotion In the present case the product is already developed the WaterGuide Hence price place and promotion still need to be planned Promotion will be discussed i
135. rnational Journal of Consumer Studies vol 31 no 4 pp 404 409 Olson J M amp Zanna M P 1993 Attitudes and attitude change Annual Review of Psychology vol 44 no 1 pp 117 Patrick V M D J amp Folkes V S 2002 Approaching What We Hope For and Avoiding What We Fear The Role of Possible Selves in Consumer Behavior Advances in Consumer Research vol 29 no 1 pp 270 276 Percy L amp Elliott R 2009 Strategic Advertising Management 3rd edn Oxford University Press Oxford Pooley J A amp O Connor M 2000 Environmental Education and Attitudes Emotions and Beliefs Are What Is Needed Environment and Behavior vol 32 5 pp 711 723 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Siemens Elektroger te GmbH 2012 Elektronische Durchlauferhitzer DE1821555 Homepage of Siemens Elektroger te GmbH Online Available http www siemens home de produktsuche warmwasser durchlauferhitzer elektronische durchlauferhitzer DE1821555 html 2012 08 07 Solomon M Gary B S ren A amp Margaret K H 2010 Consumer Behaviour A European Perspective Ath edn Pearson Education Prentice Hall Harlow Statistisches Bundesamt 2011 Staat amp Gesellschaft Bev lkerung Familien mit minderj hrigen Kindern 2011 nach Zahl der minderj hrigen Kinder und nach der Familienform Homepage of Statistisches Bun desamt Online Available https www destatis de DE Zahle
136. rod ucts Bamberg 2003 Willis et al 2011 Another opinion is that attitude towards behaviour itself is the only direct influence on specific behaviour in this case specific ecological behaviour Bamberg 2003 Fishbein Ajzen 1980 Costarelli and Colloca 2004 found that people with ambivalent attitudes towards the environment i e holding a mix of positive and negative attitudes at the same time tend to have low intentions to behave environmentally friendly Additionally it is assumed that people only convert their attitude into action when this involves minor monetary time or comfort costs Bamberg 2003 2 1 3 Real time Feedback Meters In general real time feedback meters can be described as technical appliance that provides the consumer with just in time information of their consumption and therewith helps them understand and interpret their consumption These meters can measure different types of household consumption such as overall household energy consumption consumption of separate appliances or water flow van Dam Bakker amp van Hal 2010 Kuznetsov Paulos 2010 Until now different studies with different types of real time feedback displays have been conducted Stud ies explored how smart energy monitors as well as water flow displays are perceived by households The general assumption is that consumption feedback will increase an individual s awareness and thereby en courage them to reduce their consumption Har
137. rt e You can also buy small flow restricting disk to put in your existing shower It limits the amount of water that can pass and works a bit the same way as water saving shower head Cleaning of the WaterGuide Water Guide meter is designed with a smooth surface to make cleaning easier The best way to keep it nice and shiny for many years is by drying it with a towel after each shower to avoid limescale build up If this is not done the lime can be removed with a universal detergent with lime removing effect Or you can use a solution of limescale agent never use it non diluted Never use scouring pads or abrasives on the WaterGuide as it would scratch it and make it dull Tip You may want to use car wax on your dry and clean Water Guide It makes it extra water repellant and easier to keep clean Additional settings We have tried to make the WaterGuide as easy as possible to get along with in daily life Therefore you find only one button and all you have to do is to select user However if you make a long press more than app 7 seconds you get some extra menu options where you can change the difficulty level turn sounds on and off and change the menu language Simply move the cursor to what you want to modify and some options appear When you have finished your selection you can either scroll down to Back at the bottom of the screen making you jump back wards one by one to the other menu options Or you can exit the settin
138. rt of this research it should be mentioned that for recall brand awareness and low involvement informational brand attitude the following media is usually recommended television radio newspaper magazines and sponsorships Geuens Van den Bergh amp De Pelsmacker 2010 Percy Elliott 2009 75 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 8 CONCLUSION In the beginning of this thesis it was highlighted that even though consumers are becoming more and more green there still are major differences in which areas they are trying to behave environmentally friendly and how intensive they are trying to do so The energy consumption for warm water was found to be a potential area for a private household to reduce their consumption and therewith their impact on the envi ronment Based on that the main research question and its sub questions were developed The purpose of this thesis was to answer these questions through conducting primary research The answers derived will be presented in the remainder of this final chapter How is the warm water consumption behaviour of German families with children The warm water consumption behaviour of German families with children was assessed with the help of the Theory of Planned Behaviour based on which the online questionnaire was set up Results showed that German families with children have a predominantly positive attitude towards reducing warm water con sumption Their behaviour was mainl
139. ruct consisting of three components namely cognitive affective and behavioural component Hence all three components must be assessed when investigating a person s attitude Kaiser W lfing amp Fuhrer 1999 Solomon et al 2010 Geuens Van den Bergh amp De Pelsmacker 2010 Olson Zanna 1993 Bush Ortinau amp Hair 2009 Dembkowski Hanmer Lloyd 1994 Pooley O Connor 2000 The cognitive component comprehends person s beliefs knowledge and evaluation of the object in question The affective component refers to the feelings a person holds towards the attitude object Finally the behavioural component represents the person s intention to be have with regards to the object Geuens Van den Bergh amp De Pelsmacker 2010 Based on the fact that the multi component view of attitude is the most widely accepted amongst scholars it was chosen to adopt that view into the assessment of the attitudinal component of the TPB It is impor tant to understand all three components of attitudes in order to understand their impact on behavioural intention Geuens Van den Bergh amp De Pelsmacker 2010 Bush Ortinau amp Hair 2009 2 3 3 Adapted Theory of Planned Behaviour The author of this thesis decided to adapt the attitude component of the Theory of Planned Behaviour ac cording to the justification in the preceding section 2 3 2 It was shown that the multi component view of attitude is dominant amongst scholars Moreover it is believe
140. s are a person s beliefs about what he assumes spe cific others think he should or should not do However it are just the salient others that will have an influ ence As with behavioural beliefs it is important that the concepts normative beliefs and subjective norm are consistent Fishbein Ajzen 1980 19 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 From the Theory of Reasoned Action to the Theory of Planned Behaviour In 1985 Ajzen introduced an extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action the Theory of Planned Behaviour Ajzen recognised that there is one main limitation to the TRA people do not have volitional control over all kinds of behaviour There are behaviours over which people only have a limited control for example stop ping to smoke or losing weight In order to address that limitation one additional component was added Perceived Behavioural Control PBC Ajzen 1985 Ajzen 2012 The complete model is show in Figure 3 Attitude towards the behaviour Behavioural beliefs Normative Behaviour beliefs Subjective norm Perceived Control beliefs behavioural control a Figure 3 Theory of Planned Behaviour Source Ajzen 2006 In general the theory assumes that the more positive the attitude towards behaviour the more favourable the subjective norm and the stronger the perceived behavioural control the higher should be a person s intention to perform the behaviour
141. s continuously from 826 to 1 561 Hence the energy costs almost doubled within 20 years However this did not lead to a decrease in consumption which was rather stable throughout the years Bundesministerium fiir Wirtschaft und Technologie 2011 This clearly shows that the constantly high energy usage is a major prob lem for the environment and an increasing problem for a household s wallet Therefore it is highly relevant to find ways to reduce German households energy consumption Hence the focus of this paper will be on energy consumption of German households In recent years smart energy meters were introduced to the market and tested in various researches A smart energy meter provides the user with real time consumption feedback For example it could measure the total household electricity consumption or the electricity used for separate appliances The idea is that the provided feedback will raise awareness and therewith change the consumer s behaviour which will lead to a reduced energy usage Hargreaves Nye amp Burgess 2010 Darby 2010 Kappel Grechenig 2009 van Dam Bakker amp van Hal 2010 A highly interesting new type of energy meter was developed in Denmark the WaterGuide WG The Wa terGuide is a smart energy meter attached to the shower tap It measures and displays time water tem perature and amount of water used during a shower Thus its purpose is to raise awareness about ones consumption and therewit
142. s to shower fast in order to conserve warm water However 44 9 never try to shower less of ten Asking the respondents whether they believe their friends and family think they should conserve water as well as whether they would support it did not lead to explicit results as answers were rather evenly dis tributed A tendency shown is that asking about friends and families support respondents tend to agree Asking whether friends and family think the respondent should save more warm water the answer ten dency is to disagree With 56 2 most respondents believe that it would be rather difficult to reduce warm water consumption in their household However 31 5 think it would be rather easy A total of 84 3 either agree or slightly agree that it is their own decision to reduce their household consumption In regards to their intention to conserve warm water within the next 6 month 20 2 say it is likely and 10 1 that is it very likely Most respondents answered maybe 37 1 Another 19 1 indicated rarely 9 0 indicated unlikely and 4 5 very unlikely The last question asked the respondents to rank different reasons that would motivate them to reduce their warm water usage Cumulating all answers the following rank order resulted reducing energy cost reducing water cost concern about the environment good feeling contributing to environmental protec tion feeling of moral obligation to assure important others have a positive i
143. se indicate how likely the following statement is It is my intention to reduce my warm water usage within the next 6 month very unlikely unlikely rarely maybe likely very likely 10 Following you find different reasons for saving warm water Please rank the order in which they apply to your household 1 is the most important and 7 the least important reason to save warm water Each number can only be used once We want to reduce energy costs We want reduce water costs We are concerned about the environment We feel pressured to do so by our neighbours It is good feeling to contribute to the protection of the environment We feel morally obligated to do so Important others should have a positive image of me Other please indicate other reasons to save warm water 36 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 4 4 2 Qualitative Research Design Qualitative research is the collection of data in the form of text or images using open ended questions observation or found data Bush Ortinau amp Hair 2009 In order to answer the main research question How do German families with children perceive awareness raising smart energy meters
144. sed and not the object towards which the behaviour is directed Fishbein Ajzen 1980 Ajzen Fishbein 1975 In order to assure that the measurement of attitude provides an appropriate indicator for intention the two concepts must be consistent Also it is important to assess a person s attitude towards his own behav iour not the behaviour in general Fishbein Ajzen 1980 Overall the more favourable a person s attitude towards a specific behaviour the higher will his intention to perform that behaviour be Contrary the more negative the attitude the less likely will be the intention to perform Fishbein Ajzen 1980 Subjective norm In general the subjective norm refers to the degree to which a person feels under social pressure by impor tant others to behave in a certain way As can be seen in Figure 2 the subjective norm is a function of be liefs normative beliefs Normative beliefs are the beliefs a person holds about whether important others 18 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 think he should behave in a certain way However these perceptions might not be true Fishbein Ajzen 1980 For example in the present study a person may belief that family and friends think he should save warm water and therefore perceive social pressure to do so Furthermore it is important to note that the subjective norm can have an influence on ones behaviour independent of the own attitude towards that behaviour F
145. small and big families have highly confirmative believes about the importance of warm water conservation Regarding the emotional component the data shows that big families have slightly more positive feelings The behav ioural component shows that bigger families perform all assessed behaviours more often than small fami lies The cumulated average for small families is 3 03 compared to 3 37 for big families Overall that leads to the conclusion that bigger families do have a slightly more positive attitude towards warm water conser vation than smaller families Results concerning the subjective norm show no differences between the two groups Thus the perceived social pressure to reduce warm water consumption is the same for small and big families it exists but is not very significant The perceived behavioural control is quite similar between the two groups as well On average families with three or four children perceive their ability to lower their household warm water consumption a bit higher 2 43 compared to 2 35 than small families Nevertheless overall the tendency is that it is rather difficult to do so When asking whether respondents think it is their own decision to re duce warm water consumption big families agreed a bit less than smaller families 3 14 compared to 3 24 However the overall tendency to rather agree is the same Summing up the slightly higher confidence of big families to be able to reduce their consumpti
146. ssion of how the author understands the concept of attitudes which is contrary to the view in the TPB Based on that discussion the TPB will be slightly adjusted into how it will be used in the remainder of this thesis 2 1 Contextual Background In order to gain a preliminary understanding of the problem at hand it is important to sight already existing literature Therefore a literature review on the current findings in regards to ecological consumer behav iour will be conducted Relevant literature on attitudes towards energy and water saving as well as studies on energy meters will be assessed 2 1 1 Ecological Behaviour In general scholars research various drivers of environmentally friendly behaviour Main topics identified and researched in this context are values altruistic motivation beliefs monetary motivation intrinsic satis faction moral obligation social responsibility community influence personal identity and attitudes Stern 2000 Minton Rose 1997 De Young 2000 Kaiser W lfing amp Fuhrer 1999 Gadenne et al 2011 Gilg Barr 2006 Consequently it can be said that the field of ecological consumer behaviour is extremely broad Therefore only the findings relevant to the underlying research are presented in this chapter 10 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 In general ecological behaviour is found to be prone to various influences For example outside tempera ture influences the household e
147. t least 12 months in average When the small battery icon with the cross is lit it s soon time to change batteries Note that the battery consumption can vary greatly from family to family If you e g have a lot of light in the bathroom the consumption is bigger because the WaterGuide compensates by turning up the backlight And obviously the more showers the more power you use The meaning of the colours and the smileys of WaterGuide When you are really good Picture Green display If you manage to finish your shower with a green happy smiley you re really good to both the environment and your wallet The WaterGuide is set so you have approx 3 minutes with the water running if you shower at 38 degrees water temperature If you lower the temperature you can spend more time in the shower and still achieve a green happy smiley Conversely if the water is warmer than 38 degrees you have less time available To help you to shower more environmentally sound the WaterGuide warns you with a few beeps and a blinking display before you enter the yellow energy class XVI WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 When you are average Picture Yellow display If you are a yellow showerer you are fairly average You could do better But also you could definitely be worse and don t need to feel ashamed If you want to obtain a yellow smiley you have up to approx 6 minutes to enjoy yourself in the shower at the average 38 degr
148. t sizes of the WaterGuide It seemed too big for our shower Show cumulated water consumption in litres over time Who in the family would propose buy ingthe WaterGuide and who would influence the decision Husband Husband would propose purchase and then discuss with wife Who in your family would make the Both parents Husband final buying decision for the product Who would make the actual purchase Husband Husband Which steps would you carry out before actually buying the product Search for information such as saving potential and poten tial follow up costs Search for information Read listen to recommendations What kind of product is the Water Guide Into which product category would you classify the WaterGuide Hence which products do you consider as alternative substitute options Energy saving product Alternative products are such as water flow controller Energy saving product Water flow controller What are the two most important product attributes benefits within that product category on which you would base your buying decision 1 Ease of use 2 Price 1 Save water amp energy 2 Ease of use How would you rate the WaterGuide on these attributes 1 Very good Easy to use for every age 2 N A price not known 1 Good saving potential 2 Very user friendly Which price would you be willing to pay for the WaterGuide Wife 90 after
149. tegy in this thesis is the use of case study research which is the preferred approach when the research question is a why or how question Furthermore a case study is appropriate when the research strategy does not require control over behavioural events and when its focus is on a contempo rary event Yin 1994 As all these criteria are given in the present research the case study approach was identified as appropriate In general a case study allows an investigation to retain the holistic and meaningful characteristics of real life events It is defined as an empirical enquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context relies on multiple sources of evidence and benefits from the prior development theoretical propositions to guide data collection and analysis Yin 1994 common criticism of the case study research is that no scientific generalization can be made based on a single case Yin 1994 This limitation needs to be taken into account Hence the goal is to get a broad and deep understanding of the chosen case and not to generalize the results to the whole population A single case study design was chosen because the present case is unique The case company s product WaterGuide is the only one of its kind Hence the case in the present study is the product WaterGuide with the unit of analysis being German families with children As highlighted in the cas
150. ter consumption behaviour it is appropriate to assess their feelings and attitudes in a statistical manner Furthermore in order to create knowledge concerning how German families perceive smart energy meters for the shower a narrative approach seems appropriate 4 2 Research Approach There are two research approaches the researcher can adopt The deductive approach develops hypothesis based on a chosen theory and then designs the research strategy to test the hypothesis In the inductive approach data is collected first and then theory is developed based on the gathered data Deductive re search often implies the collection of quantitative data whereas inductive research usually implies the col lection of qualitative data Bush Ortinau amp Hair 2009 Lewis Thornhill amp Saunders 2009 29 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 The present research does not completely follow either approach However it is closer to the deductive approach In chapter 2 an extensive review of relevant theory and literature was given Based on that the ory the quantitative research design is developed Nevertheless it was chosen not to establish hypothesis Instead of proving or disproving specific hypothesis the aim is to gain general insights providing answers to the research question and its sub questions Therefore in addition to the quantitative data qualitative data will be collected as well 4 3 Research Strategy The overall stra
151. terarbeit Nadine Schindler 7 Bitte geben Sie an inwieweit Sie die folgende Aussage f r umsetzbar halten Schwer Eher schwer Eher leicht Leicht Den Warmwasserverbrauch in unserem Haushalt zu reduzieren w re 8 Bitte geben Sie an inwieweit Sie der folgenden Aussage zustimmen Ich stimme nicht zu Ich stimme eher nicht zu Ich stimme eher zu Ich stimme zu Es ist meine freie Entscheidung den Warmwasserverbrauch in unserem Haushalt zu senken Hk mn 57 Zur ck Weiter VIII WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Umfrage beenden Masterarbeit Nadine Schindler Umfrage beenden 9 Bitte machen Sie zu der folgenden Aussage eine Angabe Es ist meine Absicht in den n chsten 6 Monaten meinen Warmwasserverbrauch zu reduzieren sehr unwahrscheinlich unwahrscheinlich kaum O AN m glicherweise J wahrscheinlich C sehr wahrscheinlich Masterarbeit Nadine Schindler Umfrage beenden 10 Im Folgenden sind m gliche Gr nde zum Einsparen von Warmwasser aufgelistet Bitte geben Sie an in welcher Rangfolge diese auf Ihren Haushalt zutreffen Dabei ist 1 der wichtigste Grund Warmwasser zu sparen und 7 der am wenigsten wichtige Grund Jede Zahl kann dabei nur einmal vergeben werden 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Wir m chten Energiekosten sparen Wir m chten unsere Wasserkosten reduzieren Wir sind um unsere Umwelt besor
152. than 30 Depends on actual costs Husband checks his water costs and starts calculating how much he pays for one year of showering Based on that he calculates how much money his estimated saving potential of 10 would be 20 Based on his calculation the husband says he would be willing to pay 20 How long should the maximum payback time be Where would you expect the product to be sold Not important DIY online electronics retailer Payback time important 1 2 years Online DIY Which attributes benefits of the Wa terGuide are most important to you Raises awareness its fun not just numbers The different levels showing how good bad consumption is When referring the product to friends and family which characteristics would you point out Kids like it because of the smiley and the sound also talked about it to friends It is interesting to see actual numbers about consumption Wouldn t refer it to friends until they know how much they can do actually save Why would you buy the WaterGuide Recommendation of friends competition it creates in the family Wouldn t buy it because saving warm water isn t impor tant to them They would rather save elsewhere How high low is your perceived risk when buying the WaterGuide e g financially social emotional No risk But depending on age of children it can create stress for them No risk How important ar
153. ucts When asking about the two most important product attributes the one mentioned most is the saving potential Other attributes mentioned were price ease of use and functional technology In regards to the price willingness interviewees differ highly with answers ranging from 20 up to 120 Two families mentioned that it de pends on the cost benefit ratio They also said that a maximum payback time between 1 2 years is impor tant to them while the other families classified a payback time as irrelevant There are several distribution channels the interviewees would expect the WG to be sold in mainly DIY online and sanitary retailers as well as electronic retailers and energy water providers Further questions aimed at identifying what the interviewees see as important product characteristics The following were mentioned visualization ease of use saving potential teaching tool for children fun raising awareness interesting to see consumption in actual numbers Final questions identified that none of the families sees any kind of risk when buying the WaterGuide However Family 1 and 3 mentioned that it can create stress for the children as they might feel forced to always shower fast Family 3 Minute 15 35 also points out that it can create additional conflicts with teenagers in puberty because too long grooming time is already a topic of discussion Concerning quality labels only Family 2 believes that it would increase the
154. uencer Wife Both Decider Both Husband Both Wife Both Purchaser Husband Husband Wife Either Husband The wife with a technical interest homosexual marriage Table 2 Decision Participants and their Roles Source Author based on interview answers shown in Appendix 7 Furthermore it was asked which different decision steps the family would carry out before buying the WG All families would search for information about the product and then evaluate if it is needed In addition two families said they would read listen to recommendations Hence the following decision stages can be assumed to be valid need arousal gather product information evaluate if product is needed purchase use Product Category and Positioning When asking into which product category the interviewees would classify the WaterGuide all of them gave the same answer energy saving products Some mentioned products such as a water flow controller as an alternative product within the category Hence the result is clear without ambiguity 62 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 In order for the researcher to later on recommend a positioning the interviewees were asked to indicate which two product attributes or product benefits are most important to them and how they think the WG performs on these two characteristics Table 3 shows their answers regarding which are the two most im portant attributes Family 1 Family 2
155. umption before using the WG and the importance assigned to saving money and protecting the environment The most impressive result is that it actually has shown the potential to change showering habits Furthermore different questions relevant for the marketing strategy were asked The managerial implica tions of the results will be assessed in detail in the following chapter 8 At this point it can be summarized that the main finding is that saving potential and ease of use were the two most important product charac teristics on which a buying decision would be based and hence should be used in the communication 66 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 7 MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS In the present chapter the findings from the quantitative and qualitative analysis will be combined in order to provide managerial implications for the case company Smile Energy and their product the WaterGuide At first the market potential of the WG will be discussed Hence whether there is a justification to intro duce the product on the German market This will be followed by a brief discussion of the 4 P s in section 7 2 Subsequently a recommendation about how to position the product in the German market will be provided Finally an adequate communication strategy will be developed For all provided recommenda tions it is important to keep in mind that the sample size of both the quantitative and qualitative research are rather small T
156. undry until there is a full load The mean value is 3 69 with a standard deviation of 0 47 indicating that responses are very simi 48 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 lar with the high tendency to agreement Furthermore the same is valid for only turning on the dish washer when the load is full Here the mean value is even higher 3 87 with a standard deviation of 0 38 Overall these three behavioural statements indicate highly eco friendly warm water consumption behav iour amongst participants Nevertheless the remaining three statements show a less positive picture Turning off water in the shower while soaping has a mean value of 2 65 with a standard deviation of 1 12 This shows that on average respondents vary between sometimes and mostly In addition answers are highly dispersed This shows that there lies a big saving potential for the families Most likely people s be haviour is due to habits and there is an opportunity to change it Trying to shower fast in order to save warm water shows mixed results The majority of respondents 44 9 mostly do so However there is a total of 34 8 never or sometimes doing it The reason might be that showering faster lowers the comfort and relaxation experienced and people might not be willing to give that up 44 9 answered that they are never trying to shower bath less often On average the answer tends to be sometimes mean of 1 89 The standard deviatio
157. up are German families with children in the age group 30 55 There are 8 08 million families with under aged chil dren in Germany Statistisches Bundesamt 2011 This clearly shows that the chosen target group is sub stantial enough to be profitable Thus at this point steps 2 to 4 of the planning process will be carried out Step 5 will not be considered as it is not the objective of this research to develop a specific media strategy 7 3 1 Target Audience Decision Making Marketing Communication is aimed not just at individuals but at individuals in a role Percy Elliott 2009 Therefore it must be identified who is involved in the buying decision which role they play and which deci sion stages they undertake There are five potential roles initiator influencer decider purchaser and user Percy Elliott 2009 In the case of the WaterGuide the whole family is the user Therefore only the other roles need to be identified This was already done in the interview analysis and is shown in Table 2 Results showed that mainly the father initiates the purchase and both parents make the final buying decision 70 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Hence marketing communication should aim at both parents The actual purchase is carried out by the father which implies that the point of purchase communication should be aimed at men The decision process was identified in the analysis as follows need arousal gath
158. ve beliefs toward environmental protection The numbers support this conclusion When calculating the average re sponse cumulated for all statements the result is 3 29 With 3 being the code for slightly agree this shows that overall respondents have a rather positive opinion about the topic at hand Two statements are worth being highlighted separately In total 92 1 agree or slightly agree that a majority of the population does not behave environmentally conscious and 98 9 agree or slightly agree that every citizen has the respon sibility to protect the environment This strongly shows how aware German households are regarding their own and others responsibility towards the environment Taking a look at how respondents actually behave in regards to different eco friendly behaviour the aver age response cumulated for all statements is 3 25 This means most respondents carry out the activities mostly with a slight tendency to always This points out that the respondents behaviour is quite eco friendly However two statements stand out 68 5 sometimes and 11 2 never buy organic food implying that overall organic food is purchased seldom 62 9 sometimes and 24 7 mostly use the car for short distances meaning that the tendency to use a car for short distances in total is rather high The reason why most people rarely behave eco friendly in these two situations might be because it causes them higher costs and lessens their comfort respectively
159. wever this is only due to the fact that they already have a very low consumption and consequently can not save much more Family 4 criticized that they do not know how much they actually saved and therefore could not rate how well the WaterGuide performs Regarding the ease of use everyone pointed out that the WG performs very well on that attribute USP s Three questions were asked to identify which product characteristics are important to the user and there fore should be emphasised in the marketing communication 63 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Family 1 simply liked everything about the product However they pointed out that mainly the ease of use and the visualization sound were the most important about the product When recommending the WG to friends and family they would especially point out that it is fun for the children and teaches them about their warm water consumption All the friends of our kids know that we have the device One even show ered here to try it Minute 20 16 This clearly shows how engaged the children are Overall the saving potential would be the main reason for Family 1 buy the WaterGuide That it is self explaining how to use and install the WG was very important to Family 2 The saving potential is what they would point out when referring it to friends and family and it would also be their reason to buy it Nevertheless as saving money is not very important to them t
160. y confirmatory However results also showed that the behaviour is less eco friendly when it involves reducing personal comfort such as reducing shower time Concerning the intention to lower the household s warm water consumption findings show only a slightly positive ten dency Finally no significant differences could be found between families with 1 2 or 3 4 children How ever families living in a house were found to have a more positive attitude towards conserving warm water and also a slightly higher intention to do so than families living an apartment In sum the results showed that German families with children do behave eco friendly in their warm water consumption but that there is still a great potential to improve it 76 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 What motivates them to reduce their consumption The questionnaire furthermore explored what motivates German families with children to reduce their warm water consumption Results showed that the main driver to reduce ones consumption is of financial nature Environmental concern was ranked third after saving energy and water costs This clearly shows that being green is to some degree important to German families but saving money is the main driver of eco friendly behaviour Do German families with children present a profitable market for the smart energy meter WaterGuide Both the survey and interview results showed that there is a big market potential
161. y relevant to explore because understanding behaviour of target groups is an essential element Geuens Van den Bergh amp De Pelsmacker 2010 Hence the insights gained from the quantitative research will help giving recommendation on how to market the WaterGuide Before conducting the survey it was pre tested Eight people were asked to participate in the survey and informed the researcher about comprehension problems and anything that came to their mind This led to the reformulation of questions in order to assure comprehension It also led the author to the decision to adjust the scale points from a 6 point scale to a 4 point scale It was chosen to conduct the survey in German language as it can be assumed that the respondents English language proficiency is likely to be insufficient The questionnaire consists of 16 questions out of which 6 are demographic questions Hence 10 questions aim at gaining insights into the respondents warm water consumption behaviour These questions were carefully constructed based on the theoretical framework presented in chapter 2 Question 1 and 2 address the general attitudes towards environmental friendly behaviour Questions 3 to 9 are based on the adapted Theory of Planned Behaviour introduced in section 2 3 3 Besides the literature about the TPB the online guide by Ajzen 2006 on how to construct a TPB questionnaire was found helpful for the questionnaire design The different constructs assesse
162. y siblings will have fun trying to be better than their brothers or sisters Figure 7 WaterGuide Consumption Overview per Family Member Overall the WaterGuide is a device that raises awareness about consumption while showering and makes it fun and easy to change habits of all family members The estimated saving potential varies by type of heat ing For example an average family of four with gas furnace can save approximately 124 and 81kg of CO2 in a year This is based on the assumption that each family member can reduce his shower time by one minute due to the raised awareness Another measurement for the saving potential is the actual outcome of the company s first product test with 20 Danish families at Energi Midt On average they managed to cut down their hot water consumption by a little more than 30 when comparing their before and after con sumption The information is obtained from verbal and written personal contact with Thorkild Rasmussen Furthermore infor mation is obtained from Smile Energy s business plan which can be provided upon request Finally the user manual to be found in Appendix 3 served as a source 26 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 3 3 Market Situation Before establishing a marketing strategy it is extremely important to conduct an analysis of the market conditions Hence potential competitors must be identified These can either offer the same product or products the
163. ying the WaterGuide hence in the present category involvement is low It was also identified before that the motivation is negative meaning that the con sumer wants to solve a problem In this case that is the problem of having too high energy and water bills In consequence the attitude strategy is low involvement informational This has several implications for the communication As mentioned before the problem should be presented first followed by being solved by the brand Thus it should be pointed out that household energy costs are high and can be reduced with the help of the WaterGuide It would even be possible to present the benefit in an extreme way The most important is to clearly communicate the benefit Hence overall the message should be kept simple As it is a low involvement situation it is recommended not to claim more than two benefits Percy Elliott 2009 74 WARM WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR IN GERMANY 2012 Thus in order to address all three communication objectives the following two product benefits should be emphasized in the communication visualisation of one s consumption which enables to change behaviour and therewith reduces the household s energy costs In the end it should be pointed out that all marketing communication must be integrated Thus all mes sages in all communication channels must be consistent That means the message and look and feel must be consistent Even though a media strategy is not pa

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