Archive for the ‘TipsAndTools’ Category

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.”

Here’s an interesting new approach to environmental awareness: It’s the Earth Cinema Circle, which is basically a “book of the month” club except it’s movies… about the earth and the critters that live on it. Here’s the deal – you sign up for $17.95 and Coop America will send you a DVD every other month with a bunch of environmental films on it.

Most are produced by independent filmmakers, but the company pre-screens them for you, so it’s not like wading through a bunch of junk on YouTube (Ironically, Earth Cinema Circle posts the trailers on YouTube). It’s also not like Netflix, where you have to mail them back. The DVDs are yours to keep.

Will this take off? It’s hard to say. There’s a glut of free video on the Internet, and some of it is pretty darn good. But if these movies are good, and the DVDs are dinner-party worthy, it just may stick.

Hat tip to the Girlie Girl for bringing this to my attention.

I’ll be honest that I haven’t yet read the advance company of Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought, that the publisher was so kind to send me. But that won’t stop me from blogging about it! I’m intrigued by this phrase on the cover: “permanent drought.”

We desperately need a word that conveys to everyday citizens that we just don’t have enough water to waste like we do. It’s a struggle. I often see nature protection and pollution control people using the phrase “running out of water,” but researchers find that it strikes the everyday citizen as apocalyptic and far fetched…

Running out of water is something that most people have not considered and do not believe — communicating something that is unbelievable is ineffective.

Source: Texas Water Development Board Focus Group Report, 2004

And when I’ve sat in on focus groups myself, I’ve noticed that many attendees actually can’t distinguish between water pollution and water supply issues. They tend to see that the consequence of “too much pollution” is “not enough clean water.” And they see water everywhere, but wonder if enough of it is clean to meet human’s and nature’s needs.

But that there’s just flat out not enough water at all? Even in places like Arizona, Colorado and Texas, that strikes many as preposterous.

Reflecting that, I’ve put the phrase “enough clean water” on the Words That Work list, but I recognize it’s a bit clunky, somehow.

So what do you think of “permanent drought?” Did the author nail it? How about “artificial drought?” or “man made drought?”

Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought was written by a Jamie Workman, a former Interior Department colleague of mine and all around good egg. Given the way he used to edit some of my earlier environmental writing, I’m sure this will be worth the time. I’ll get around to reading it soon, I promise!

American Rivers has published a free package of communications research and a multimedia tutorial for developing effective messages related to polluted runoff (they call it stormwater). Here’s how they bill it:

Have you ever talked to a local leader and had their eyes glaze over when you began to talk about stormwater? When you say “LID,” what do people hear? If either of these questions interests you then you will benefit from the results of American Rivers’ research on how to develop a message about stormwater to prompt local leaders to take action for smarter stormwater solutions.

Click here to check out this useful resource.