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In the recent “Utility Residential Customer Education” survey, conducted through a partnership between NTC Corporate and Utility Dive, most utilities (76%) reported that residential customer education is a higher priority than it was 10 years ago. In addition, 97% of utilities expect distributed energy to change the way they educate residential utility customers in the next five years. With so many changes taking place in the industry, it’s vital that utilities adopt proven customer engagement strategies and, like the survey report states, “explore the effectiveness of previously untapped resources.”
In terms of messaging and communications, the survey uncovered that, “Direct mail and emailed newsletters were rated by utilities as the most effective tools.” In addition, 72% of the industry believes that financial incentives are the most effective motivator.
In contrast, business leaders highlighted in The Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA), Award-winning Campaigns Geared Toward Changing Behavior, rely on very different communications strategies and messaging when it comes to customer engagement and impacting consumer behavior. These award winners invest in live events, cause-marketing, earned media and content marketing, along with traditional advertising. The messaging is more values based, humorous and focused on the future, which is more likely to affect a customer’s purchase behavior than financial incentives alone.
For instance, when Proctor & Gamble’s Ariel brand, a line of laundry detergents based in the United Kingdom, wanted to change consumer energy behavior, the brand launched a consumer education campaign, “Turn to 30°,” to show customers that by making a small change, they could contribute to important sustainability practices for the planet.
Consumers often believed only high temperatures were useful to achieve good results when cleaning their clothes prior to the start of Ariel’s “Turn to 30°” campaign. A dramatic paradigm shift would be needed to help consumers understand the benefits of using lower temperatures when it came to their wash cycles in order to not only conserve energy but adopt other sustainable practices.
“Ariel's challenge was not only to educate consumers that they could get good results at low temperatures, but to widen the context by creating direct links between energy saving and climate change (communicating the small steps we can take to make a difference) and thus generate a much stronger, more high profile call to action while still inspiring and empowering consumers,” according to the Marketing Society UK: Awards for Excellence.
The results of the campaign were astounding! Ariel’s customer education program led to a significant change in consumer behavior regarding water temperature use during a washing machine cycle. Data revealed that prior to the campaign, only 2% of wash loads in the UK were washed at 30°. But independent research conducted after “Turn to 30°” revealed a link between Ariel and 88% of users who washed their clothes at 30°C, as highlighted within the Marketing Society UK report.
How Proctor & Gamble brought this campaign to life:
Cause marketing: Created partnership with the Energy Saving Trust
Content marketing: Launched webisodes leveraging personal testimonials from well-known faces linked to energy saving initiatives to enforce call to action
Live events: Held at shopping centers and store events included the Ariel “Do a Good Turn” house with partnerships from the Energy Saving Trust
Pledge: Launched a “Do a Good Turn” pledge to create a community that promoted sustainability and energy saving practices
Earned media: Articles encouraging consumers to take the “Do a Good Turn” pledge
Micro-website: Launched the campaign’s website, www.doagoodturn.co.uk, further promoted a communal spirit by providing sustainability news updates and encouraging participating in the “Do a Good Turn” pledge
Another Game Changer: How Brita Challenged Water Bottle Drinkers
Bottled water consumption skyrocketed during the early 2000’s. Brita, filtered water pioneer, was concerned about declining sales and the effect of all the plastic water bottles making their way to landfills. “… a combination of marketing, distribution, bottle design and health had people drinking bottled water to the tune of 8.6 billion gallons a year,” according to the Jay Chiat Strategic Excellence Awards report. Brita had become a second rate option to its more convenient opponent, bottled water. Brita challenged the bottle water industry by partnering with Nalgene to educate consumers through its “Filter for Good” campaign.
Brita conducted a thorough review to reveal the disheartening facts on bottled water.
“…if Americans swapped just 10% of their water bottles for Brita water in a sustainable container, it would save nearly 12MM gallons of diesel fuel, prevent more than 100MM pounds of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere and keep 213MM pounds of PET plastic out of our landfills,” according to the report.
With these facts in mind, Brita and Nalgene had an opportunity to not only change consumers’ behaviors but also make an environmental impact for good by creating a community of Brita water drinkers compelled to make a difference.
Brita created this successful campaign with these elements:
Pledge: Enticing consumers to take a pledge to stop drinking bottled water
Earned media: Stories about Brita’s sustainability features versus bottled water
Micro-website: Launching FilterForGood.com, where consumers could take the pledge to stop drinking bottled water
Social media: Consumers taking the pledge worked well for social media sharing. Advertising also supported this
Live Events: Brita worked closely with The Sundance Film Festival, where the company encouraged people to stop drinking bottled water
The results were a complete business turnaround for Brita, including a 21% increase in sales!
Utilities can learn from these campaigns as each company spent considerable effort in getting consumers to emotionally connect to an issue while moving through the Marketing Hierarchy of Effects. For more information on the Marketing Hierarchy and how utilities can incorporate these marketing basics to improve their programs, check out Part I of this series.
In my final article, I’ll discuss how utilities can track ROI for their marketing programs.
For more information on how to improve your utility’s marketing programs contact Ward Eames at [email protected].
About NTC
NTC Corporate is an award-winning educational content provider for utilities who need to engage, educate and motivate students, their families and educators. We offer a full-range of unique, turn-key marketing programs that engage current and future consumers via the education space. We inspire young people – and their families – to explore important and timely curricular subjects including: wise energy use, electrical and natural gas safety, renewable energy, science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), financial literacy, health and nutrition and environmental literacy, among others. Founded over 37 years ago in the U.S., NTC is now international with operations throughout North America and Australia. Follow NTC on Twitter: @NTCenergy.
