energy is human

2BRAND COOL | ENERGY IS HUMAN

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Energy efficiency programs continue to set increasingly ambitious savings targets.

But the tactics taken to hit those targets are slow to evolve, and more often than not,

programs are falling short. At Brand Cool, we’ve been working with clients for years

to solve this problem, and we see a core underlying issue: typical efforts to promote

energy efficiency focus narrowly on specific concerns—namely, saving money or

enhancing home comfort.

Many of these programmatic or marketing efforts are based on the assumption that if people received the benefits and savings, they would shift their attention and change behaviors. Our experience—along with emerging social science research—tells us that these approaches aren’t compelling for most people. They just don’t work.

This is because they’re based on the “rational actor model” from behavioral

economics—the idea that people make decisions based on rational and economic

reasons alone. At Brand Cool we (along with numerous social science researchers)

have found that the opposite is often true: residential energy consumption behaviors

are deeply loaded with emotion and are far from rational.

Decades ago, Charles Revlon said, “In the factory, we manufacture cosmetics; in the

store, we sell hope.” Since then, consumer brands have followed this opportunity to

drive everyday consumption, using deeply emotional messages to sell products. It’s

time we place energy within an emotional context, recognizing that it is something

that’s personal, intimate, and often below our consciousness. We need to be

applying this thinking to how we engage people around energy use, behavior

change, and consumption. In short, we need to think more like brand strategists and

social scientists, and less like utilities and engineers.

Purveyors of energy efficiency now have the opportunity to do this by crafting rich,

dimensional communications designed to appeal to the whole person—what we at

Brand Cool call a deeply human approach.


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ALL HEAD, NO HEART—THE PROBLEM WITH COMMON APPROACHES TO SELLING ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Energy efficiency advocates typically follow a three-pronged strategy to develop and

deliver programs to homeowners, commercial, and multifamily audiences alike:

1. Improve buildings. The crux of nearly every residential efficiency program

is some type of technological change, from measure-based initiatives that

save X% on energy consumption, to promoting smart meters or appliances, to

comprehensive programs that encourage “whole-building” improvements, etc.

2. Apply financial incentives. The focus on financial incentives relates both

to financial mechanisms that support funding energy efficiency upgrades

(programs like On-Bill or PACE, for example) as well as incentives offered to

property owners and managers to implement changes. The former focuses on

creating access to capital and creative funding to minimize the financial impacts

of deep retrofit work, such as using energy savings on the backend toward the

cost of the improvements. The latter includes programs that offer owners some

type of financial bonus for making recommended technological or structural

changes through incentives, rebates, etc.

3. Provide feedback technologies. There is an overwhelming focus on tools—

dashboards, usage mechanisms—to visualize data and provide people with

input on their energy consumption patterns and usage. The success of these

tools leverage a self-regulating capacity, which allows people to adjust and

automate changes in behavior.

There is a vital fourth strategy that is glaringly omitted, to our detriment:

understanding the actual relationship between humans and their built environments,

and how energy is deeply woven into those relationships. In other words, this relates

to what energy means for people in their daily lives and how modifications to these

practices have a direct impact on how they live and create meaning. It applies to

individual homes, multifamily structures, offices, and commercial and industrial

buildings.

At the heart of this strategy lie the psychological and social drivers of human

behaviors and decision-making. We as humans respond not only to new gadgets,

smart technologies, and incentives to stimulate the “reward centers” in our brains,

but we also respond to social influence, culture, the desire to belong, our needs for

comfort and security, and myriad factors that often get left out of strategies to shift

energy consumption behaviors.

The technology/incentive approach, when used exclusively, also overlooks

the emotional associations that energy-related topics can have for people. For

homeowners, energy is seamless and often invisible, illuminating and enabling


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intimate and cherished behaviors. Typical homeowners may never think about

energy or even consider what it does for them. But they care deeply about creating

warmth, health, and well-being for loved ones, ensuring that households run

smoothly and that they have access to entertainment and play. Energy makes all

this possible. When programs talk about “reducing” consumption, implementers

and marketers need to recognize that they are often venturing into territory with

emotionally unsettling implications. What we need to keep in mind is not what we

are asking of people, but how the asks are being experienced and perceived—

potentially as a demand to deny themselves basic human needs. People focus on

the “efficiency” part of the equation, which has been proven to be associated with

deprivation and loss. In other words, how people experience the topic of energy

efficiency may be unexpectedly emotional.

CREATING THE SHIFT TO A HUMAN-CENTERED APPROACH

Homeowners need more than a logical rationale for change. They need an emotional

connection to highlight the presence of energy in their lives, and only then can they

adapt to new ways of thinking about and using it. This requires energy efficiency

advocates to think systemically, in a deeply human way, about how people

understand and engage with energy. In this case, systemic thinking extends to

the human, psychosocial dimensions. We also need to use human insight in new

and more effective ways to market energy efficiency. Human insight is a deep

understanding of how people process information, manage change, rely on social

influences, and experience emotions.

What follows is our take on emerging insights from the social sciences and

industry—where we see the innovation heading in the field of energy efficiency

engagement.

Therms

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Watts

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INFORMATION CAN—AND SHOULD—BE EMOTIONAL.

“If only people knew how much they’d save and how much more effective this is,

they would just do it.” Or, “People just don’t really care about saving energy. How

do we get them to care?” Does this sound familiar? Recent research (Ehrhardt-

Martinez et al 2010; Malone et al 2013) shows that, when it comes to using energy,

consumption behaviors are rarely informed by rational, calculated information

processing, such as saving costs on bills or “doing the right thing.” Instead, they

are rooted in largely unconscious motivations such as the need to feel safe, secure,

accepted, loved, free, and in control. Many of these behaviors are far from rational,

and they are deeply influenced by cultural identity, social networks, relationships,

affiliations, and emotional needs.

When discussing energy efficiency, many people find it hard to get past the word

“efficiency”—which is often associated with deprivation, loss, or going without. Using

this messaging sets up a challenge from the get-go. Wearing sweaters and coats

inside, taking quick or cold showers—these associations aren’t far from the general

perception of efficiency as a form of austerity.

The answer is not simply to point out the benefits and ignore what is on most

people’s minds. People respond to candor, trust, and honest communications.

Our task is to address these concerns directly and not skirt around them. If people

bristle at the thought of “going without,” no matter how smart or informative a

campaign is, it will come up against resistance—until we hit these realities head-on.

In the real world, people rarely purchase goods and services purely on economic

considerations; instead, status, convenience, social networks, identity, values,

and culture all play large roles—and people may, in fact, purchase the most

expensive option and/or the least sustainable option. (Malone et al, 2011)

Putting it into practice:

Don’t rely on information to do the trick. Energy efficiency engagement

programs, tools, marketing, and messaging should avoid relying on information-

laden tactics such as bill inserts, emails, and one-dimensional awareness-raising

campaigns. Rather, more holistic approaches leverage underlying motivators for

behaviors: purpose, mastery, and autonomy (c.f. Pink, 2009). What this looks like in

practice is creating opportunities for people to genuinely engage: asking for input

TRUTH# 1


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and contributions, connecting with the larger context and objectives (i.e., being part

of an energy-smart future/community/state) allowing people to engage on their own

terms (more customizable packages and options), and speaking directly to where

people may be feeling most anxious, ambivalent, or aspiring (otherwise known as

the “Three As” [Lertzman, 2014]).

Communicate empathetically. Implementers of energy efficiency programs

should think more like ethnographers and psychologists than engineers and

technologists. That means designing and marketing the programs to connect directly

and viscerally with people, where it counts: the way energy use is felt, seen, and

experienced in daily lives. This means translating how people feel about these topics

into messaging, engagement strategies, and platforms. This also requires us to

conduct our insight and research differently. For example, more in-depth interviews

and rich, qualitative conversations have a higher potential to illuminate what is

unconscious—those human factors that impact engagement—whereas surveys,

polling, and straight Q&As primarily test already known assumptions about energy.

The “Irreconcilable Temperatures” campaign we developed on behalf of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) uses a sitcom format to tell the story of a young couple upgrading the efficiency of their home with help from a statewide program. The videos share need-to-know information in a way that’s relatable, funny, and drenched in real-life realities. The facts are there, but emotion comes first.


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INCENTIVES CREATE INSTANT GRATIFICATION, NOT LASTING CHANGE.

Incentives have long been a mainstay of energy efficiency programs. There is good

reason for this. Incentives can create short bursts of change—a quick uptick in

activity or sign-ups. However, the “reward” from incentives fades quickly.

The problem with an over-reliance on incentives is twofold.

First, as Daniel Pink points out in Drive, incentives can backfire in that they indirectly

suggest that whatever is being incentivized is so unsavory that people wouldn’t do

it on their own: it requires a reward or “prize” to sweeten the deal. Incentives play

on external motivations (driven by the pursuit of rewards), which are short-lived and

superficial, versus internal motivations (pertaining to individuals’ values, purpose,

or mission), which are deeply human with the power to engage, influence purchase

decisions, and ultimately create lasting changes in understanding, attitude, and

behavior.

Second, as Pink notes, the most powerful drivers for behaviors concern our needs

for autonomy, mastery, and purpose. How often are these drivers used within energy

efficiency programs? Rarely. For example, messaging that speaks directly to our

inherent desire to be smarter, wiser, more capable (as parents, caregivers, and

professionals), and part of a growing movement can actually unlock those innate

capacities and desires, and help bring in people along the way. An incentive may

help get us to do something, but it rarely changes the behavior. Why? Because it’s

an external stimulus that doesn’t target our motivation beyond the short-term. When

we appeal to aspiration while honestly acknowledging the challenges of change,

we are more likely to establish a solid connection and trusted relationship with our

audiences.


Present incentives as one of many perks. Incentives play an important role in

most energy efficiency programs but should be used and communicated about

judiciously and skillfully in the context of a more comprehensive engagement

approach. When we reach out to consumers, incentives should be presented as one

element in a tapestry of functional and emotional benefits programs have to offer.

TRUTH# 2


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ENERGY ISN’T ABSTRACT. IT’S WHAT MAKES EVERYDAY LIFE POSSIBLE.

The topic of energy is hardly on people’s minds until it’s either disrupted or in short

supply—so raising it as a focus of concern is immediately an uphill battle. For most

people, energy really is about “me.” That is to say, it’s about how “I” design and

enable “my” life to flow; it’s about what brings “me” pleasure and what enables

services that could involve life and death (e.g., hospitals, disaster relief) and the

conduit so “I” can meet “my” needs.

Connecting energy with the fabric of our daily lives through story, narrative, context,

and conversation makes it more real and tangible. How we talk about energy use

in the home (or multifamily building, office, or industrial site) needs to always come

back to the impact this has on people’s lives in a direct and down-to-earth way.

Making energy visible through energy-use dashboards and systems like Nest and

net metering are powerful but not enough. The data is only meaningful when we

connect the dots and ground it in the context of everyday life (e.g., being able to

control energy bills, using energy wisely by sharing what we don’t use, etc.).


Don’t talk about saving energy as “little things you can do.” It’s about

“everything you do.” Appreciating energy means acknowledging that it makes our

lifestyles, in their entirety, possible—a point brilliantly captured in this humorous BC

hydro Power Smart campaign. If we replace “energy consumption” with “how we

live,” we may be getting closer to the actual psychological meaning.

How we talk with people about “how they live” moves us from an abstract topic to

more meaningful engagement and stronger brand loyalty and relationships. When

we meet people where they are, we can bring it to the level of how lowered energy

bills directly relate to both the bigger picture and our own personal involvement and

contributions. Helping people make these connections and going beyond “the little

things you can do” arguably engage us as whole people, in the context of our lives.

TRUTH# 3


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SAVING MONEY IS JUST (A SMALL) PART OF THE PICTURE.

It’s time to rethink our assumptions about financial rewards being the top driver

of participation in energy efficiency programs. Mounting evidence indicates that

saving money is just one of many reasons why people change their relationship with

energy.

Based on a study by Lutzenhiser et al (2003), survey respondents in California

reported that their conservation efforts were motivated by a wide variety of factors.

While minimizing energy costs was among the principal motivators, respondents

also reported being motivated by their desire to avoid blackouts (82%), to use energy

resources as wisely as possible (77%), to do their part to help Californians (73%),

and to protect the environment (69%). According to the report, “qualifying for a

utility rebate was the least common motivation, and available utility rebates were not

relevant to most of the actions consumers took.”

Brand Cool arrived at similar findings with a comprehensive study of New York

State home-energy consumers, conducted on behalf of the New York State Energy

Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). We learned that of the 40% of

New York homeowners who were likely to invest in energy efficiency upgrades, all

cited core motivations other than financial savings for doing so. Topping the list:

making a positive difference in the world, enhancing home comfort, and taking

control over their environment. Given that homeowners also indicated they wanted

to take a phased approach to energy efficiency upgrades based on what they

could afford to invest in over time, NYSERDA found that it needed to reflect this in

its program and marketing efforts. By forming more lasting relationships with New

Yorkers and emphasizing deeper benefits, clearer meaning, and long-term value

versus short-term bursts, the agency is building a platform for more sustainable

results.


Tell a more nuanced story than “savings.” When energy efficiency programs

market themselves as money-savers, they compete with innumerable marketing

messages about savings that consumers are bombarded with every day. That’s

a difficult challenge. Instead, energy efficiency program marketers should craft

messages that reflect deeper benefits and meaning. Conserving energy helps

people do more than save; it helps them live better, richer lives. It might help to

remember what the word “save” actually means: “to keep someone or something

safe.” We all aspire to more than safety in life. Be mindful of the connotations and

associations with something as taken for granted as the term “saving.”

TRUTH# 4


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CONVERSATIONS CONVERT.

In Brand Cool’s work with energy efficiency programs, we’ve observed a simple

truth again and again: human interaction trumps all else when it comes to truly

shifting behaviors around energy consumption.

Initiatives that involve direct, interactive human contact are highly effective in

encouraging people to participate in energy efficiency programs. Human interactions

help us make sense of new information in ways unavailable by reading an insert

or a brochure. We actually process information more effectively through personal

stories, shared experiences, and conversation (Wheatley, 2014). This means having

the ability—live in person or otherwise—to ask questions, get immediate feedback,

and process all of those nonverbal cues that are so powerful when people come

together and talk, particularly about a new topic or behavior change. It takes energy

efficiency out of the abstract realm of attitudes, values, and beliefs, and into the

more tangible, emotional area of direct experience, allowing people to see how new

energy practices make sense in the context of their own lives.

While awareness-focused tactics like media campaigns are important (broad-

based awareness is critical when seeking to inspire a large group of people to do

something new), simple human interaction—engaging with people—can go a very

long way toward solidifying action.

This focus has profound implications for how we design and focus our energy

efficiency initiatives and programs. Specifically, it draws our attention to all points of

contact that customers have with the service provider and attending to those as key

areas of focus. This means a few things. First, it means investing in ensuring those

on the “front lines” are skilled and capable of managing the complicated nature

of energy efficiency communications. For us as energy efficiency marketers, this

means providing those on the “front lines” with the best possible training, support,

and communications strategies to ensure they can meet customers where they are

and develop relationships of trust and support. (Hint: these are requirements for

engaging people.) Second, it means recognizing those “front lines” as enormous

resources in terms of market and consumer insight by attending to the specific

needs, concerns, questions, and issues customers may be having.

This is about refocusing our attention on the quality and nature of the relationship

that people have with the specific program, utility, partner, or service provider as vital

for any effective energy efficiency program.

TRUTH# 5


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Energy efficiency parties pay off for PUSH

People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH), a community-based organization

(CBO) in Buffalo, New York, borrowed a tactic from Tupperware, using a

grassroots marketing approach to promote its residential efficiency program.

They reached out to the local community through energy efficiency parties,

where attendees could learn about the basics of energy efficiency, as well as the

financial aspects of PUSH’s programs—a key component that contractors had

difficulty communicating. Using this approach, PUSH overcame language and

informational barriers that had been stifling the success of the program, resulting

in a significant increase in completed projects just by having simple, one-on-one

conversations.


Don’t persuade. Engage. We are seeing a shift from a persuasion mindset—trying

to get people onboard through persuading or cajoling them into realizing the benefits

and reasons for acting—to a conversational approach. Opportunities for interactivity,

whether with service providers, contractors, customer care, or community

resources, are critical moments where energy consumers have the opportunity to

ask questions, be heard, and have their needs or concerns addressed. This type

of dialogue helps people achieve a level of understanding that a brochure or TV ad

simply can’t. Situations that involve a social aspect, like PUSH’s energy efficiency

parties, are even more motivating because they invite people to feel that they’re a

part of something important, something that their friends and neighbors care about.

If you want people to change, you’ve got to listen to them. You’ve got to

understand what stops them from making changes or engagement with issues.

And you find that happens through conversations. (Rosemary Randall, founder,

Carbon Conversations)


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CONSUMERS HAVE (AND DEMAND) MORE CONTROL THAN EVER

People are increasingly used to being in the driver’s seat of their lives. As

consumers, we have tremendous opportunities to make choices—in how or where

we shop, the media we consume, and the direction we take with our jobs and

careers. It’s no surprise that contemporary research continues to reinforce the

need to provide people with flexibility and control in their energy consumption as

well—and that new offerings are providing unprecedented energy choices. This

is particularly critical as the energy market continues to transform. It will need to

accommodate Millennials, who are increasingly accustomed to choosing all of their

consumption in all areas; utilities, which are being urged to move to distributed

generation models to adopt supply- and demand-side renewables into their

portfolios; and federal, state, and local mandates that establish requirements for

energy efficiency and carbon savings. This factor also relates to Daniel Pink’s point

about the three core underlying motivators for our behaviors: autonomy, purpose,

and mastery. Autonomy refers to our desire to have choice, options, and our own

terms. We need to leverage this factor as we explore ways to maximize the adoption

of energy savings.

This is not only unique to this time and place but a basic principle of human

psychology—the need for efficacy. One of the central underpinnings of motivation,

along with autonomy and purpose, is mastery. We need to feel and exercise creative

influence on our world—and our homes tend to be an intensified expression of this.

So when we come along and suggest people do something different, we need to be

prepared for resistance, which can take the form of ignoring, denying, dismissing,

or focusing on barriers to taking action. This is one of the greatest challenges in this

work—and why we need to shift how we approach and engage with people.


Show efficacy through feedback. Of the more well-known ways to show efficacy

is what’s referred to as “feedback”—devices, communications, and platforms that

make our specific energy behaviors visible. As many utilities have learned, feedback

mechanisms are effective—showing consumers their usage whether through a

device or icons on their bill, along with a comparison with their neighbors or others

in the region or state, can activate greater participation and flexibility. This allows

people to self-regulate, exercising considerably more autonomy over their behaviors.

Psychologically, this is hugely significant; we relate to practices differently when

being told to (think nagging) than when we are choosing on our own (creative

choice). Whether we are tracking our footsteps via FitBit or monitoring our energy

using a tool like Nest, feedback can be a powerful motivational tool.

TRUTH# 6


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When feedback is teamed with old-fashioned social comparison (i.e., “what the

Joneses are doing”)—referred to in social psychology as “social norming”—it

can become even more powerful. Among Opower’s “Five Universal Truths about

Energy Consumers” (summarizing insights gleaned from analyzing data from tens

of thousands of energy consumers globally) was the fact that when people see how

their energy use compares to others’, they’re much more likely to reduce it.

Provide options. Feedback mechanisms are not the only game in town when it

comes to tapping people’s need for autonomy and control. Programs and initiatives

can be designed far more flexibly to allow people to select, on their terms, how they

wish to participate. Allowing for more control lets people engage more freely, leading

to a far more positive emotional association (“This makes it easy for me. I am feeling

supported. This is on my terms.”) and higher levels of engagement.

Providing residential energy consumers with feedback is important because it

makes energy visible, allows for active participation of households in energy

management practices, and provides flexibility as to how energy savings are

achieved. Among the many potential actions that people may choose to engage in

to reduce their energy consumption, most people choose to make adjustments in

their everyday habits and routines. (Ehrhardt-Martinez, 2012)


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BRAND RELATIONSHIP AND ENERGY: WHAT A DEEPLY HUMAN APPROACH TO HOMEOWNER ENERGY EFFICIENCY MEANS

Can people come to love utilities and energy programs like their favorite consumer

brands?

Yes. But only if the programs are able to effectively connect, engage, and meet

people where they are.

(And yes, these are the basics of intimate and good relationships. And hence, good

branding.)

Imagine people feeling about their utility the way they may about their favorite

technology brand. It may seem remote, but that is because of how we are

approaching the way we think about energy, marketing, and branding. We are in

the midst of a paradigm shift when it comes to how we market energy efficiency

to homeowners. With growing insight into the psychological dimensions of energy

efficiency in the home, new opportunities are arising for shifting home energy

use. What this looks like is less information and inserts, and more interaction,

engagement, autonomy, and flexibility, and the need for utilities to establish strong

brand loyalty and relationships, and provide clear, actionable opportunities to shift

energy behavior.

It also means a strategic and tactical investment in the “front lines” of energy

efficiency programs—call centers, partner networks, and any place where

customers are coming into contact with the utility or program—to ensure these

are highly resourced and equipped to support people. Applying tools such as our

Energy Conversations™, informed by the well-established practice of Motivational

Interviewing (Miller and Rollnick, 2012), we can innovate and leverage the kinds of

conversations we are having about our energy practices. These conversations are

ideally based on listening, honesty, and transparency, and they take as a given that

energy efficiency can be a bit daunting and anxiety-producing for people.

A deeply human approach is also reflected in the style and manner of how we

market energy efficiency, through appealing to people’s innate and intrinsic

motivations to be better, more effective, and capable as humans. Our programs

ideally can enable people to see themselves as better versions of themselves. This

is a dramatic departure from a campaign focused on moralizing (“This is why it’s

good for you.” “Do the right thing.”), shame, incentives, or heavy information. It also

is different from trying to make efficiency “fun and games.” Sure, people like games,

but short-term competitions and games do not necessarily translate into longer-term

transformation.


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While we can use certain tools to “jump-start” actions, a strong program or

campaign also considers the long-view. What will support people to stay engaged?

What are the underlying motivations for participating, and how can we nurture and

enable those? How can we empower people to become creatively involved with

how we relate with energy in our lives versus being passive recipients of the latest

marketing blast?

The implications take us beyond the role of messaging and into creating cultures

of engaging with energy. When we design a deeply human approach into our

marketing, outreach, campaigns, and engagement, we begin with the questions of

how can we mobilize, support, inspire, and enable—not with changing or controlling

people’s behaviors. This comes through in every aspect of our design from language

to graphics and interactive platforms.

A deeply human approach appreciates that there are many factors that influence

how people choose to use energy and engage in energy-saving initiatives and

programs. It creates outreach and engagement that takes this all onboard without

singling out specific aspects such as financial savings or saving the environment.

It accounts for all that makes us who we are: our relationships, cultural influences,

social interactions, identities, roles, and responsibilities.

It’s a new way of approaching energy efficiency in the home.


how the world comes to love you

Energy is Human is co-authored by Sue Kochan, CEO of

Brand Cool, and Dr. Renee Lertzman, Brand Cool’s Director

of Insight. Kochan is a 20-plus year marketing veteran whose

career spans from brand consulting to agency executive

to nationally-known speaker on marketing, branding, and

corporate social responsibility. Lertzman is an internationally

recognized author, lecturer, and thought leader in psychosocial

research and sustainability.

Brand Cool is a marketing agency dedicated to bringing

humans and brands together to make the world a better place,

specializing in sustainability communications and engagement.

energy is human

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