Getting It

Why we all need to care about Green Marketing

Environmental awareness is nothing new.

. But until recently the business of saving the planet was a flag flier for only a tiny proportion of organisations – usually those with clear environmental mandates, particularly zealous ownership or management, or a consumer base with strong identification with environmental issues.

All of that has changed over the past 2-3 years, with an increasing number of businesses finding ‘green’ issues suddenly impacting their internal processes, and becoming a significant part of their marketing planning

Fat Smokers

For a whole bunch of reasons (work related, I hasten to add, but none of which I'll bore you with) I've done a lot of thinking about Fat Smokers lately.

I love that expression. I stole it from David Maister - the professional services guru I won't be able to get to Wellington to see next week, darnit - who uses the expression in the title of a forthcoming book.

Maister's premise is a gob-smackingly simple but sound one: why do we keep hammering fat people and smokers with facts? When was the last time facts made a difference to anybody's unhealthy behaviour? Just ask the nearest smoker or tubster whether they know they're damaging their health. Of course they know. But knowing doesn't make a dot of difference to what they actually do. The only thing that changes is what they know.

The health sector has led the way in understanding why we behave the way we do and the impact it has on our health. Every GP in town knows you need to talk to those Fat Smokers at their point of readiness in the quit-smoking process: in case you missed the lecture, it's right there on a poster on the waiting room wall. Even 'thinking about it' counts as a step toward quitting.

Yet so many health related messages barrel right on in there with and bombard us with facts and figures we know already in a one-dimensional, dumbed down single message approach that is so massed out that it's diluted to nothingness. They also forget that messages alone are not enough - and that  all the marketing in the world won't shift real world impediments to change.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that we're sophisticated thinking machines that go through a series of steps before we make a move. Wheedling the message in at one of those key decision points is a no-brainer - especially with the vast availability of ambient media options and the acceptance of non-traditional tactics.

If only more health promoters would think like marketers, maybe we'd see health promotion campaigns that had a shot. Like this one in the UK where a pilot found that health warnings on flights of stairs led to a 190% increase in stair usage.  Works for selling soft drink at the supermarket: so why not healthy behaviour?

Now if only we could find a way to match the soft drink companies' budgets...

Letting the turkeys get us down

It  had to happen.

That sneaky old Bird Flu virus had to free itself from the shackles of Eastern Europe and Asia and leap across the channel into the Turkeys to freak out people Just Like Us.

Wait for an upsurge in Bird Flu headlines. That sense of relatability, that uneasiness that It Could Be Us (they speak English and they're culturally Just Like Us) is just what the media needs to inject new life into the Killer Virus story. It's sad but true that an entire Indonesian family could be extinguished by the virus and it would garner  fewer column centimeters than a single UK Turkey.

We could talk about how wrong it is for hours. But that's another whole post.

Whether You and I believe bird flu will make the leap to become the next pandemic virus or not is sort of immaterial, since not even the egg-heads at WHO seem to be able to predict where it's headed, when, or how long it will take to get there (sort of like waiting on the bus).

But it's hard not to have an opinion - especially in a world where independent thinking, egalitarianism, decline of authority and a quest for alternative perspectives (especially in health) is rightly valued. Blind trust is oh-so-very mid-to late last century, and a highly unattractive trait in anyone under 60.

Let's face it, this whole pandemic business is a scary one, anyway. Should it all turn to custard like it did in 1918 we could be talking widespread societal disruption for maybe a year, school and workplace closures, hospitals overwhelmed to the point of overflowing, and empty supermarket shelves. Dire stuff.

Plus it's just not a 'today' threat. Societally we're so into instant-gratification, so used to only worrying about the worries of the next 24 hours (just ask the Retirement Commission!), so accustomed to always having a safety net in the form of some welfare initiative or another. So used to Social Workers (even if we do set up websites abusing them) and people in woolly jumpers just itching to get their hands on our woes and apathy.

And there's a lot to worry about today. Kids back at school Tuesday, one doesn't have the right hat or sports uniform, frankly I have no idea what the other has. Dog needs a walk but he'd prefer a run, I need a run but I'd prefer to crash on the couch and watch another 4 hours solid of Lost (catching up on season 2, MySky-ing season 3, tell me what happens I'll have to kill you/lock you in a small space with a Turkey). Credit card maxed out so pandemic supplies are the last thing on my to-do list, how long does Tamiflu keep, anyway? Four big work projects (one of which pandemic related) bearing down on me and it's a short week. Apprehensive about new office space - lease with lawyers. Hope I get it. What if the world falls apart and I'm carrying 2 leases? Do I need to spend another night in Auckland next week, or can I get away with 1? Don't want to go at all, hate those long days. Lunch to talk about some esoteric but interesting idea involving Melbourne later this week. Melbourne?! I love Melbourne. Hate Auckland. But love Melbourne. New client in Wellington. Like him. Like Wellington. But more time away from home.  What if Sawyer manages to scuttle Jack and Locke? Where IS that remote control, anyway?

You get the picture. Bottom line: it can't happen this year. And if it does happen this year, it needs to happen on one of the pay-days where the mortagage doesn't go out, the kid doesn't need a new $50 hat and I've got the best part of a season of Lost up my sleeve.

How is all of this relevant to the wonderful world of comms?

Well, that's what we're dealing with, folks. That's what those of us in the public-education/information realm are up against. It's the reality of the world we're communicating in. And we have to stop ignoring that.

Communication never happens in isolation. There are always at least two people, only one of which is on the 'sending' end. There is always a social mileu. There are always trends, attitudinal swings, events that change and shape and morph where our messages fit and how they sit.

It's the age of neuroplasticity - and nothing's more plastic than the attitudes of whole communities.

As communicators, it's time we respected that and time we Got it. Maybe then we'd be as adept as the people at Coke are at getting people to do stuff. At Coke, they Get It.

But then again, we couldl too - if only somebody would give us a tenth of their budget.