The communication and perception of sustainability in the healthcare industry in France through social media

: a case study of the Aboca brand

Abstract

The current internship report is a result of a curricular internship at Aboca. This research aimed to analyze the sustainability communication strategies used by Aboca and its main competitors on social media, and also to measure the impact of these strategies on consumer engagement and perception. The relevance of this problem is linked to the fact that sustainability has become an important issue among consumers and professionals, but it is still not so deeply studied and through a social media communication perspective. For the aim of the study a mixed approach was used combining both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative methodology guided the majority of the analysis and consisted in a descriptive, comparative, and thematic analysis of the contents published on social media by Aboca and its main competitors. Results showed that having different social media accounts represents a competitive advantage for brands, promoting a higher engagement rate than competitors. Also, the use of videos (e.g. Reels on Instagram) are associated with a higher number of likes than images. The combination of informational, emotional, and promotional tones, in particular the use of the emotional one, seems to represent a competitive advantage. It became clear that the frequency of sustainability messages published by Aboca on social media is higher than its competitors. Regarding the tone, Aboca employs an informational and promotional tone for its messages, generally aligned with the tone of competitors, but less emotional. Concerning the type of sustainable content, Aboca publishes mostly images which deal with not wasting water and generally promoting the reduction of the environmental footprint through good practices. Also, the engagement level of sustainability-related posts from Aboca is lower than the one of its competitors. Despite the fact that sustainability seems to be a competitive advantage, once there is more engagement in these posts than the other ones, sustainability is not enough to be an advantage for Aboca in terms of engagement. Indeed, other factors seem more relevant, such as the number of social media platforms, and number of followers, for example.

Date of Award	27 Mar 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Anna Carolina Boechat Chaves Fernandes (Supervisor)