Adopting and sustaining responsible drinking: reconciling selves amidst conflicting messages

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on theories of identity to examine challenges that former excessive drinkers experience in adopting and maintaining responsible drinking. Narratives were collected using in-depth interviews and eight-week diaries from twenty-five formerly excessive drinkers. Findings indicate that participants’ attempts to sustain responsible drinking behaviour require them to engage in complex identity negotiations, which are compounded by confusing or easily misread communications messages from both the alcohol industry and social marketers. We suggest that communication initiatives to sustain responsible drinking should reflect a nuanced understanding of the inherent complexities of modifying and maintaining individuals’ selves within their social and relational contexts, rather than focusing exclusively on changing drinkers’ behaviour.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity
• sustaining behaviour
• responsible drinking
• communication
• alcohol
• social marketing

Acknowledgements

Appreciation is expressed for Nottingham University Business School (UK) for providing funding and support for this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. NHS digital news retrieved from https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/statistics-on-alcohol/2020 on 10 August 2020

2. Alcohol guidelines retrieved from https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/new-alcohol-advice-issued/on 20.09.20.

3. Emphasis added to highlight a specific point related to the discussion. Bold letters in participants’ quotations will have this purpose across the paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

H.P. Samanthika Gallage

H.P. Samanthika Gallage is an Assistant Professor in Marketing at Nottingham University Business School, UK. She completed her PhD from the same school in 2018. Her research interests are in the areas of transformative consumer research, social marketing and consumption and identity. She has published her work in Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Consumer Behaviour and Advances in Consumer Research and presented in multiple research conferences such as Association for Consumer Research, Academy of Marketing and Australian and New Zealand Marketing Conference.

Teresa Heath

Teresa Heath is an Associate Professor in marketing at the University of Minho, Portugal. Prior to this, she was assistant professor at the Nottingham University Business School, UK, where she also completed her PhD. Her publications and research interests focus primarily on consumption, sustainability and critical marketing. She has published widely, including in the Journal of Business Ethics, the European Journal of Marketing, Management Learning, the Journal of Marketing Management and the International Journal of Consumer Studies. Teresa is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Nottingham and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK).

Caroline Tynan

Caroline Tynan is an Emeritus Professor of Marketing at Nottingham University Business School in the UK, President and Fellow of the Academy of Marketing and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Her research interests focus on consumer identity, consumption meanings, value creation, experience marketing and luxury consumption. She has published in a wide range of journals including the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Management, European Journal of Marketing and the Journal of Travel Research.