Fostering Sustainable Behavior

Thomas J. Gardner                            Sunday, September 11, 2011

Public Information Campaigns

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Thought Piece

Fostering Sustainable Behavior

The highest revelation in this discussion is the effectiveness of community participation. The least revelation is how landline telephone numbers can be used to target a specific community. Still, McKenzie offered some inspirational insights into the concepts of behavioral changes. One that I found quite interesting was how higher education levels does not play a role in responsible behavior.

This would appeal to be a challenge in not only composting but in racist attitudes.  Enhancing information and attitude changes seem to be formidable upon sustainable behavior. I was relieved to discover many program choices whose instruments have the ability to affect behavior changes though social marketing.

Mackenzie’s sound perspectives 0n what affects decisions was encouraging.  Community based social marketing helps the actors to make sound choices. 

These choices don’t appear to be influenced by typical commercial marketing methods.  These methods were not designed to provoke behavior changes.  It’s easy for a consumer to switch from ivory soap to Dial soap in the same aisle at the grocery store.  But unrecognized barriers exist for a complete attitudes adjustment. 

Community based social marketing helps identify barriers.  The strategies to identify and effect behavioral changes involve a lot of manpower, after researching goal points organizing focus groups and phone call requires particular attention to statistical details. 

Unfortunately IBM brought out SPSS. The only free resource includes PSPP and other open source software.  Analyzing the data from these resources can be sophisticated.  The software may enlighten the surveyor about the income and education of the consumers.  But will it help to devise prompts that encourage all income and education levels to participate. 

According to the books author, forgetting is the number one trait that burdens sustainability goals.  As the author states, positive sounding uplifting slogans as well as community commitments will help induce the repetitive actions required for an on going task.  While prompts serve as gentle reminders, “no explicit prompts have little or no impact.” Effective prompts need to be near or nest to where the desired behavior is needed.

This manipulated behavior can be further enhanced by group participation. Solomon Asch concluded that people would act like lemmings walking off a cliff.

This inherit trait can be used to influence subject behavior Independent normative behavior mirrors the behavior of others.  The conformity of farmers, and athletics was successful because people observed positive examples.  I consider this approach a practical prompt   the consequence of not complying becomes social rejection because of the high participation rate by others.  Contact between people appears to be a good motivator for behavioral changes.

Securing their attention does persuading people to adopt behavioral changes that will lead to an alternative lifestyle. When you personalize your advice, people are all ears.  But not all of us have a vivid imagination that captures the subject’s attention.  Encoding technical messages into plain English requires training or a professional.  How do you decipher and organize information from a focus group into a coherent message.

This message must be transposed to appeal to all audiences.  Page 41 gives a good plan of attack.  Knowing the beliefs and behaviors of your intended audience is essential to forming a comprehensive message.  But replacing phone surveys requires attending the meetings of several audience types in order to get e-mail and all phone numbers for surveys.  Home landline phones are nearly obsolete in the 21^st century.

It may also be helpful to social media to gather as much information about your subjects as possible. You may also be able to find credible sources or allies who have the public trust. Endorsement from several sources is necessary to placate a varied audience.  Should the audience be given a threatening message to insure cooperation?  Sources may say this is most effective.  Then why don’t TV toothpaste commercials say your teeth will turn green if you don’t use us? I believe compassionate social responsibility; common sense messages are also effective.

The author claims several methods combined are effective. But he did include modeling from school children or co-working.  However using vivid images, threatening words, specific actions, personal contributions and an appeal to be normal are quite convincing.  Being normal in Oregon means being environmentally responsible.  Not only did deposit bottles reduce landfill, it meant less broken glass in streets and a way for the homeless to earn money.  These incentives help Oregon to be a beautiful state.

            But you have to drive to old growth forests and to pristine lakes. As author noted, the incentives for owning a car outweigh the nearly non-existent bus/train system.  If our government financed public transportation by charging more for the prestige of owning a car more people would take public transportation.  Another incentive to consider is bicycle commuting.        

His strategy for implementing the pilot program is complimentary of commercial product surveys.  But it is very pragmatic.  I would like to use a baseline survey to determine specific products used to clean boats from alien residue.  Store coupons could be used as incentive to encourage cleaning.

In conclusion, having four survey groups and having to try 6 attempts to construct a perfect scenario is quite a commitment.

Creating surveys, writing messages, monitoring participants, f9inding incentives is a lot of engagement.  Should we be starting now on class project?

Is the DNR our stakeholder? Will they be our resident experts? Will our public consultants be citizen groups such as fishing clubs, boat manufacturers, and lure shops?

Traditional marketing techniques cater to the monetary interest of advertising and business interest. The surveys they use are already in place. Can we use their capitalist tools for non-profit motives?