Saving the planet with YouTube

President-elect Obama’s team has suggested that social media be employed as a tool to change consumer behavior about energy.  So how would that work?  What are the social drivers that will make people change their minds about energy consumption?  And what are the tools to use today to reach people?

First, don’t underestimate the power of “keeping up with the Joneses.” Though most consumers are loathe to admit it, several utilities have had phenomenal success with mailings that tell customers they’re paying more, on average, than their neighbors for their monthly utility bill.  Those customers are encouraged to call the utility to learn what they could do to lower their bills.  Many do.  Why?  Because nobody wants to feel like the odd man out or, worse, like the dumbest kid in class.  Peer pressure works…which is why the social media idea is a good one.

The way it must work – our advice to the Obama camp – is a one-two punch of the emotional play (feeling smart/in the know) with something cool/an event that people will want to be a part of.  What doesn’t work is trying to translate traditional marketing into social media.  Here are some ideas to consider:

1. A live event with an online counterpart. Think “Biggest Loser” where people go away to lose weight in a contained environment, but then the online component lets other users compete from home, track their results and so on. (http://www.nbc.com/The_Biggest_Loser/). Now take that a step further to the “Biggest Loser” for Green/Energy Efficiency…people who are wasting energy and spending more than they should but can’t seem to stop themselves and have no concept of what it means to be green.  There’s an at-home intervention and the participants are told by an expert how much they are wasting and offered easy ways to be efficient/green.  The online component supports this and people can upload photos of their newly green homes, there could be daily challenges on simple changes to do in your life to go green, and so on.
2. Top ten lists work…but the ones that work best are the opposite of what you would expect.  For example, people already know the Top 10 reasons to buy travel insurance (boring). What works is to instead show them the 10 worst mishaps by people who did not buy insurance – luggage open on the tarmac, a dingy, dirty waiting room in a rural jungle hospital, etc. The same can be done with green.  A top 10 list can be created of the Top 10 Worst Things To Do For the Environment…or the Top 10 Things Most Likely to Happen With the Planet in Fifty Years.  An interactive tool with Google Earth could be created to show visitors what a certain place on earth will look if nothing changes…and perhaps give them the opportunity to do things virtually that reverse/heal the situation.
3. Lastly, humor works.  There are a number of funny online videos and games that allow the visitor to personally engage in an online experience, that then takes him/her to a brand website and encourages viral sharing of the experience. The “Dog House” drives people (specifically men) into JCPenney to make jewelry purchases. It opens with a video about men being sent to the “dog house” and then allows users to upload photos of people they want to put in the dog house and so on. http://www.bestviral.com/video/19188/beware_of_the_doghouse_hilarious. It’s very funny, and it works.  The same could be done to encourage energy efficient and green behaviors.  In fact, Cotton, The Fabric of Our Lives, created a fun game show to test the user’s green acumen:  http://www.thefabricofourlives.com/cotton-green-quiz/?gclid=CJ-Js4mfoZcCFQikHgodeVF4JQ

The new administration has the right idea.  It’s just a matter of putting it into action.

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Seeing is Believing

“At least I’m not in Las Vegas.”

That was the TSA guy’s response this morning when I handed him my boarding pass and asked him how he was doing.

“What’s wrong with Las Vegas?” I asked.

“It’s snowing!  They’ll get three inches today.” As I passed by him he chuckled in that  “yeah, right” kind of way and said, “I guess it’s all that global warming.”

The truth is, according to our Eco Pulse and Energy Pulse 2008 surveys, 25% of the American population does not believe global warming is happening and caused by humans and another 15% is undecided.  Another trend we’ve spotted over the years is that most Americans have to see something to believe it.  That’s why utility Green Power programs don’t have the high participation their market surveys tell them they’ll have – people like the idea of green power, but since they can’t see it, they don’t really believe their $4.00/month is going to pay for it.

So the TSA Agent’s response was not unfamiliar or even surprising.  In the face of unusually cold weather (especially in places like the Southwest where it’s supposed to be hot), those who don’t believe in global warming or are on the fence about it point to the cold weather as proof that it’s not really happening.  In essence, “global warming” has a branding problem – it doesn’t make sense to folks that sometimes “warming” looks like “cooling.”  They have to see it to believe it.  And if scientists are saying the planet is getting hotter, then they need to see example after example of that to shift their long-held beliefs.

There’s a lot more that can be said on the subject of why people believe or don’t believe climate change is occurring and caused by man.  But, for this post, take away the lesson of tangibility.  Whether you’re marketing a green or energy efficient product or program, your proof has to be tangible and the benefits have to be obvious.  You’ve got to help them see it to believe it.

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The Silver Lining

So let’s put this out there right up front:  I’m not an economist.  Or an accountant.  And I’m an eternal optimist.

I’m also a student of human behavior.  Beyond all the ads, marketing plans and research work we do at Shelton Group, at our core, we pay attention to what human beings think, believe and do…and what messaging might lead them to think, believe and do something different.  So as I look at what’s happening with the economy, I see it through that lens.  And I see two opportunities for our utility clients and the utility industry as a whole:

1)  Many consumers are already scared/worried about their ability to pay their bills…and winter heating bills are just around the corner.  Based on years of past behavior, they’ll get angry.  They’ll blame the utility and blame the government.  But the wise utility can use this moment as an opportunity to revinvent its relationship with customers and help them begin to better understand their own consumption and how that drives their monthly bill.  Most consumers don’t see this.  They don’t understand plug load, they think they’re already doing everything they can to conserve and believe, in short, “it’s not my fault.” Right now, they’re looking for solutions.  Utilities can provide those in a way that subtly helps consumers take ownership.  And that will give them a sense of control they’re desperately seeking right now…which will improve their feelings about their utilities and build better relationships.

2) For years the utility industry has been worried about what will happen when a large percentage of its work force retires.  Though some utilities have worked diligently on recruiting a new work force, training programs for them and technology that makes all employees even more efficient, some have not.  Some of those would-be-retirees may now decide to wait an extra year or two to retire.  Not that this is something to be celebrated, mind you, it’s obviously very frustrating and scary for those involved.  But, again, the wise utility will turn this into an opportunity to use those soon-to-retire employee as mentors and trainers, and use this time to beef up recruiting efforts and technology implementation. Thus, when the migration of Boomers from the utility work force begins to happen en masse, utilities will be ready and can continue to do what they do seamlessly.

Just two possible positive outcomes from the turmoil around us.  Hopefully we’ll see even more good come from this situation in the long run.

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Saying one thing and doing another

This year’s Energy Pulse® will be out in a month, and we conducted some focus groups in mid-August to guide us in the creation of this year’s quantitative study.  The nut we were hoping to crack was:  Why is it people consistently say one thing and do another?

We know, for instance, the energy efficient products people say they’re very likely to buy often don’t get purchased (and our four years of tracking data bears that out), and we know that though 49% of the population swears a company’s environmental record plays a role in their purchase decisions, only 7% of the population can cough up a specific product they’ve purchased because of a company’s environmental record.

So why is that?  Past focus groups and quantitative work have led us to believe that it was simply a matter of trust and education.  If there were a believable green label, for instance, consumers could choose green products without fear of being ripped off — the kind of credibility the ENERGY STAR label brings for energy efficiency.  Or if someone would just come to their homes and show them exactly what investments would deliver the most energy savings in return, they could get unfrozen from the fear of making a mistake and make some viable changes to their homes.

Fear — of being taken advantage of and of spending money on the wrong efficiency item — are clearly still factors in the equation.  But the nastier truth is that basic human desires rule the day.  Comfort, convenience and personal freedom drive most efficient and green purchase decisions (or indecision).  Folks don’t carpool because they want to be able to jump in their cars and go where they want when they want to.  People don’t take shorter showers because they value their comfort more than they believe we’ll run out of clean water for our grandchildren.  And they don’t spend money on a higher efficiency HVAC unit because they’d rather just have an adequate unit and have the extra money to spend on something else.

The trick, as always, is to sell efficiency and sustainability in such a way that it promises these same benefits.  Simple screaming “save money!” or “go green!” just doesn’t cut it.

Stay tuned for more on this as we analyze and publish this year’s Energy Pulse® report.

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Armchairs and Cocktail Parties

We’ve just released our first in a series of Eco Pulse reports.  Though the study delivers multiple insights, it was designed to answer two key questions:  how do consumers define green in their minds and how much will they pay for it?

What we learned is that, overall, the American population the equivalent of a giant living room of armchair environmentalists — able to sit on the sidelines and talk about all that should be done but not actually doing much themselves.  And we learned that they understand enough about green to get through a cocktail party conversation and then quickly change the subject before it gets too deep.

Case in point: 49% of the population says a company’s environmental record is very important in their purchasing decisions.  But only 21% say they’ve actually chosen a product over another based on a company’s environmental record.  And only 7% of the population can actually name the product they bought.

So as we go about setting sales goals for green products, it’s important to remember that this market is still in its infancy and very much still in the beginning wedge of the adoption lifecycle bell curve.  And the products that win out in this space will be the ones with an intuitive, authentic enough claim that an average consumer can easily chat about while balancing on the arm of a La-Z-Boy, pinot grigio in hand.

For more about what else Eco Pulse reveals, check out the press releases in our Press Room:  http://www.sheltongroupinc.com/press_room.html.  To purchase the report, click here:  http://www.sheltongroupinc.com/ecopulse/index.html

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Killing Flies

There’s a lot of scary news out there.  A couple of months ago the New York Times ran a story about energy supply and consumption by country that not only made the US look pretty gluttonous, it made the future look pretty apocolyptic.  Earlier this month, I shared a speaking slot at Electric Power 2008 with Craig Lewis from Greenvolts.  He laid out a formula showing that a 1% drop in oil supply immediately results in a 20% increase in the price, and went on to explain that Iran produces 5% of the world’s oil and what an interruption in their supply from, say, a US invasion, would do to the already high price of oil.

Scary stuff.

At that same conference a gentleman in the audience whose name I didn’t catch also took me to task for my conclusion that consumers are generally driven to conserve energy by deeper feelings, like a desire to feel happy, have peace of mind or personal satisfaction.  His conclusion upon seeing some of the clips I showed from our Energy Pulse focus groups was that consumers are more driven by fear and a need to cling to their way of life.

I’ve thought about this a lot since then.  In our experience, consumers just don’t respond well to messages based in fear.  Not to disregard the very real threats and the potential for a bleak future based on our current energy consumption and source of supply…but most of us just don’t perform well when we’re freaked out.  As consumers, when we’re scared or confused, we just do nothing — we can’t make decisions for the added fear that we’ll make the wrong one.  Much better to go to market with a message of hope and empowerment — something that tells our friends and neighbors they can do the right thing for their families, their wallets and the world.

Again, not to be Polyanna and not to ignore the huge realities we’re all facing, but when it comes to encouraging consumers to change their energy consumption behaviors, we truly will kill more flies with honey.

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It’s your house, stupid.

Truly, when it comes to efficiency and sustainability right now, it is about the economy. Fewer consumers are willing to spend more on efficient and green products, regardless of the ROI, for fear they should probably hang on to that money.

However, 63% of Americans in Shelton Group’s Energy Pulse® 2007 study say they’re concerned to very concerned about global warming, and EEI’s Q4 2007 Power Poll reveals that 75% of Americans believe global warming is happening and 72% say it demands immediate, drastic efforts. So, it seems logical that the right marketing message now is about the environment, right?

Here’s the problem: only 1/3 of the population can name coal as our primary source for electricity and less than 4% name coal fired power plants as one of the leading causes of climate change. The number one cause of global warming in consumer’s minds? Their cars and trucks.

Thus, most Americans pull out of their driveways every day feeling guilty about what they think their cars are doing to the environment, meanwhile they left their thermostats set to 70 degrees and all the lights in their houses on. They are clueless that their electricity consumption in any way contributes to climate problems, therefore they feel no compelling urgency to change their behaviors. So telling them they’ll “save the environment” by decreasing their energy use is just a giant disconnect.

To make this point, Shelton Group is working on an ad campaign (see below) to quickly get across that, in fact, it’s your house, stupid. In the nicest sense of the word.

We think more education like this is needed to help consumers feel a more compelling reason to curb their electricity consumption. We think once they “get it” we’ll see a much greater willingness to participate in energy efficient activities and buy energy efficient products.

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Sparkly Green

OK…so it may not be a buzz-term yet, but we’re working on it. Repeatedly, we’re seeing that when consumers talk about wanting Green features, what they really mean is that they want pretty ones – products that save the planet and look beautiful all at the same time.

So if your product is a low VOC paint or carpet, bamboo floors or recycled concrete, don’t just talk about how environmentally friendly it is; give it a one-two punch. Lead with how beautiful it is and then close the deal with how it’s great for the environment.

A word of caution, though: we’re seeing a backlash to environmental messaging these days. Though generally folks say they’re interested in green products and certain segments of the population swear they seek them out, we’ve tested several green messages in focus groups lately and seen quite the eye roll. Consumers are on to greenwashing, and they’re tired of it. Further, they’re tired of being guilted into spending extra money to be green, and tired of being told they have to choose between their personal comfort and the planet.

So leading with an aesthetic message backed up by an “oh-by-the-way, it’s environmentally friendly” message is the best formula for success. In other words, don’t just be green. Be sparkly green.

For more information, go to http://www.energypulse.org

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