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Executive Summary
This study addresses two important global trends: protection of public goods, specifically the environment, and the emergence of multiethnic societies with influential minority groups. It tests the effect of a government proenvironmental demarketing campaign on the deconsumption behavior of minority groups and the majority population. The study suggests that minority consumers use consumption or deconsumption to manifest their social identity, beliefs, and goals as minorities in relation to the majority and that their motivation to respond positively to a government’s demarketing campaign is shaped by their national attachment levels. The study was conducted in Jerusalem, Israel, and involved a large data set (N = 66,272) containing household-level data on actual consumers’ behavior. The studied groups invovled the majority of non-ultra-Orthodox Jews and three minority groups: Israeli-Arabs, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Jewish Russian immigrants. The findings show that in a proenvironmental context, government demarketing is more effective on the majority group than on any of the three minority groups. In addition, the results suggest that minority groups with lower national attachment levels respond more negatively to the demarketing effort. However, higher education levels lead to a more positive response across the majority and minority groups. A central implication of the findings is related to the benefits derived from demarketing for different consumer groups (majorities versus minorities based on religion, ethnicity, and immigration status). The findings also provide a benchmark for demarketing efforts in an environmental context. Finally, they may imply that policy makers and marketers should consider making more use of demarketing to complement regulatory and economic tools.

Biography
Amir Grinstein is Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Guilford Glazer School of Business and Management at Ben-Gurion University, Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. He is a graduate of the Jerusalem School of Business Administration at the Hebrew University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics (1997), an MBA (1999), and PhD (2006). His dissertation in the area of firms’ customer orientation was guided by Professor Arieh Goldman. He continued to do research in this area as a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Business School (2006–2007). His main research interests include strategic orientations, new products, international/cross-cultural marketing, and marketing and public policy. So far, Amir’s work has been published in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, European Journal of Marketing, and Research Policy.

Udi Nisan serves as Director General of the Israeli Government Companies Authority. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Management and a master’s degree in Economics and Business Management from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. He wrote his doctoral thesis, guided by Professor Moti Perry and Dr. Momi Dahan, on Economic Regulation at the School of Public Policy, the Hebrew University. He continued to do research in this area at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Before his current position, Udi Nisan served as the chief executive officer of the Jerusalem Development Authority and worked for the budget department at the Israeli Ministry of Finance. He has taught economics and public policy courses in the Department of Economics and the School of Public Policy at the Hebrew University. So far his work has been published in Water Resources Research Journal.

Journal of Marketing, Volume 73, Number 2, March 2009
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