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Problem: What type of messages can be used to make ‘saving the environment’ more appealing to individuals, in order to encourage them to act environmentally friendly?

Purpose: Our focus is the challenge of convincing consumers to save electricity in the Netherlands. Using two different types of messages, environmental and financial, our aim is to identify which characteristics of marketing messages are more effective when trying to encourage individuals to act environmentally friendly.

Method: Interviews with relevant organizations are held in order to see what professionals say about the environment and marketing. Questionnaires are distributed to see what the general opinion is and finally a case study is conducted to investigate the effectiveness of several messages on people’s electricity consumption.

Conceptual Framework: The theory of social marketing is being used, derived from nonprofit marketing. A communication model is applied to the findings, just as the concept of mental accounting.

Conclusion: Our research showed a clear preference for rational based messages that provide benefit claims, that are one sided messages, which are positively framed, focusing on the personal benefits resulting from the change in behavior and finally people should be able to draw conclusions on their own, but they should be given enough directions in the message to draw their conclusion.