How do you market something that is both invisible and ubiquitous at the same time? Something we really don’t think about until we don’t have it. Something we buy, but don’t quite understand how much we get. What is it? It’s energy--used in our homes and businesses. Although it manifests in the objects we depend upon every day such as lights, refrigerators, and all of the digital devices we love so much, we never see it, we don’t know that much about it, and we barely understand the environmental consequences of using it.
The intangibility of energy is a marketing challenge faced by utilities, governments, and businesses, but the real challenge is not marketing energy consumption – that happens through necessity; the real challenge lies in the marketing and education about how and why to use less of it.
How do you manage your energy use if you can’t measure it? Although we have electricity and gas meters, most of us don’t have a clue about how to interpret the numbers and dials. Instead, once a month we get our utility bill and unless there is a huge spike in cost from one month to the next we don’t give it much thought until the next bill.
Customer research has revealed that although we might be motivated to use less, we face significant obstacles that prevent us from doing so. What are some of these barriers?: 1. We can’t readily identify where energy is used in our homes unless it’s an active use—the radio blaring or the microwave zapping; 2. We need information about all the different ways we can save energy—did you know you can buy dimmable, three way and many other kinds of energy saving bulbs? 3. We are misinformed and need a myth buster—aren’t all new appliances more energy efficient? 4. We already do green things like taking reusable bags to the store--isn’t that enough?
Marketing energy savings and management is not new. Yet, companies and governments are realizing that traditional marketing approaches such as bill inserts, radio and TV ads are not motivating us to save more energy, and are ultimately not changing our behaviors.
How do we tackle these barriers to create more energy savings? This week at the Sustainable Brands ’11 Conference in Monterey, CA, Ascentium will be joining Efficiency 2.0, SilverSpring Network and Green Energy Agents to talk about using a combination of marketing techniques and innovative digital experiences, that when combined with behavior change theory, feedback and social networking result in a significant lift in energy savings in both homes and businesses.
The innovative digital experiences that we are creating at Ascentium are breaking down hurdles to inaction by making energy use visible and understandable. These innovative brands are using applications and tools to help consumers set goals, personalize recommendations, provide concise information on the range, cost and ease of taking action and explain the payoff both monetarily and in carbon reduction, reward engagement, use peer to peer energy use comparisons and community outreach.
The creation of tailored experiences to specific audience segments and delivering those experiences through trusted sources and innovative channels can help galvanize engagement and begin to educate consumers and ultimately change behaviors. Stay tuned for more on this topic as we summarize the highlights coming out of Sustainable Brand ‘11 in Monterey this week. The conference was inspiring and insightful. Major themes to increase brand sustainability and customer acceptance include using behavior change, technology and social networking. All things that Ascentium focused on in the clean energy space. View the presentation, to learn how we are working for a better planet.
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