Communicating Sustainability Fashion in Marketing Advertisements on the Context of Malaysia: Stimuli Development and Pre-Testing Results

Although awareness of sustainable fashion in Malaysia is present, it is growing slowly. Consumers may find it challenging to understand messages or communicating advertisements on pro-environmental actions. Accordingly, stimuli development was designed in this study using regulatory focus theory for the structural development of an advertisement message. The advertisement content was generated based on promotion and prevention regulatory focus messages. This pre-testing study involved 30 university students who were randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions: promotion or prevention regulatory focus message (n = 15 per group). The data were analysed with an independent samples t-test. The advertisement with the promotion-focused message was more persuasive than that with the prevention-focused message. The findings suggest guidelines for practitioners to devise effective strategies when designing advertisements that will not only help firms obtain personal benefits but also benefit society and the environment.