Archive for the ‘1. Begin with Behavior’ Category

Let’s take a fresh look at a couple of tired old sayings you’ve probably heard a million times, and examine what they mean when comes to raising environmental awareness and encouraging everyday citizens to do their part to preserve the planet for future generations.

“Which comes first the chicken or the egg?”

In our world, this classic dilemma could be rephrased as “Which comes first, environmental awareness or environmental action?” You could be forgiven for answering that environmental awareness comes first, because that it is how it appears to the untrained eye.

But social and behavior research often finds otherwise — small actions lead to big attitude changes, and then on to the big behavior changes. In his classic book, “Fostering Sustainable Behavior,” social marketing guru Doug McKenzie Mohr cites a number of cases where the simplest possible behavior — such as holding a flashlight for an energy auditor — becomes the first step in a journey that leads to major energy conservation efforts around the house.

I like to tell my clients that the smallest and easiest of environmental actions — replacing an incandescent lightbulb, making a $30 donation, signing an electronic petition — matter. They matter a lot if you see them as a kind of “gateway drug” for the person who does them. If you can make that person aware of how good it feels to make a little difference, some will come back looking for a bigger fix. Next time around, they might insulate their attic, make a large donation, or speak up for the environmental at a public hearing.

“A body at rest stays at rest, a body in motion stays in motion.”

In the world of behavior change psychology, that might be rephrased this way: “a body that pays lip service to the environment will probably pay more lip service, but a body that takes a first step for the environment is likely to take a second.”

When we set out to just raise environmental awareness, what we often end up producing is lip service, instead. If you want that awareness to lead to some action, it helps a lot to define that action and aim for that directly.

What both of these reinterpretations have in common, is that they point to the importance of beginning with behavior for your environmental communications. Set a goal of motivating your audience to take some small action, and follow up afterwards to lavish your audience with praise and gratitude — and suggest the next, more meaningful action they can take.

You’ve heard the phrase “look before you leap.” But what does that mean when it comes to environmental writing and communications?

First, a marketing urban legend about what can happen if you don’t look before you leap: Enjoying healthy sales of its Nova automobile in the U.S., Chevrolet introduced it to Latin America — where it bombed. As it turned out, “no va” — means “no go” in Spanish, and the name was turning potential customers away.

Environmental insiders make mistakes like this all the time, but you don’t have to.

When the stakes are high, savvy communicators pre-test their message before they commit to it. Ad executives invite customers to watch their latest commercial, before they spend millions to air it. Political campaigns test out slogans and speech lines with voters, before the candidates use them on the stump. Trial lawyers practice their arguments in front of pretend juries, before they head into court.

They use the pretesting to avoid mistakes — and to sharpen their message so they get what they want.

In my practice, I help nature protection and pollution control organizations pre-test their fundraising letters, petitions, brochures, webpages, and related materials. I see some mistakes come up again and again. So here’s a short list of our own “no va” moments that you should take care to avoid:

• Mistake #1: “If only they knew.” I hear this one from my clients a lot. “If only they knew they lived in a watershed,” “If only they knew they knew the storm drain went to the creek.” So they produce materials that are long on science education and short on action messages. As you might expect, these materials produce little action.
• Mistake #2: Weak photography.Nature protection groups use a lot of pretty nature pictures. Pollution control organizations show a lot of pipes and oil slicks. No problem there, but when we pre-test those messages, test subjects often ask for photographs that demonstrate what action they can take.
• Mistake #3: Professional jargon. Scientists, engineers, and lawyers tend to use professional lingo that sends the message to the public that your message isn’t meant for them. Pre-testing your materials is great way to uncover words that you thought were plain English, but aren’t.
• Mistake #4: Too depressing. Sure, you have to convince people there’s a problem before they will do something to help solve it. But if you go to far, you will demoralize your audience.
• Mistake #5: It’s all up to you. Let’s face it. Most of the things that everyday citizens can do to protect nature or control pollution make a pretty small difference — and they know it. But when we all do our part, it adds up to something big. So it’s very important to include in your message some words and pictures about the other people who are doing their part: donating, picking up after their dog, turning off their lights, signing that petition, etc.

Learning what the five mistakes are is a great way to avoid them. And another way to avoid these mistakes is to follow some writing guidelines like the Water Words That Work environmental message method. This 4-step method incorporates the findings from many environmental message pre-tests and opinion polls.

Finally, pretesting your environmental message isn’t just for those with deep pockets anymore. I have designed our forthcoming environmental message pretest service — the Due Diligence Test Panel — to make it easy and affordable for you to catch mistakes and sharpen your message, just like major corporations and candidates for high office do. When you simply can’t afford “no va,” pretesting is a “no brainer.”

It was a great pleasure to deliver the “Water Words That Work” presentation to the Watershed Action Alliance of SE Massachusetts yesterday. Thanks to you all for being so understanding about the need to reschedule due to the great DC area blizzard.

Click the links below to download the presentations in PDF form.

• Water Words That Work
• The 4 Step Environmental Message Method

I don’t know a damn thing about the Liberty Mutual Insurance company or its products, but I do know their advertisements around the theme “responsibility” are pitch perfect. They nail all four steps of the Water Words That Work method. Too bad they’re selling insurance instead of promoting environmentally responsible behavior. Here’s the rundown:

• Step One: Begin with Behavior. Check. Look at all that responsible behavior!
• Step Two: Find Foolproof Photos. Check. Look at all that responsible behavior!
• Step Three: Swap the Shoptalk. Check. No insurance jargon. And lord knows the industry has plenty. In fact, this piece barely has any words in it at all.
• Step Four: Insert the Words That Work. Check. Basically, the only word in the whole piece is “responsibility“

Nice piece! Nice job!