Beware of the “Snackwells Effect”

March 2, 2009 – 7:09 am

I’m afraid I can’t take credit for coining this phrase — and I don’t actually know who to give credit to — but it’s the perfect way to describe how most Americans approach energy efficiency, so let’s roll with it.  The idea is that Snackwells are low fat…”so I can eat ALL of them!”  The same phenomenon happens when consumers purchase energy efficient products.  “Hey – it’s a high efficiency furnace, so I can turn it up to 73 degrees.”  Or, “They’re compact fluorescents, so I can leave my lights  on all the time!”

Then, of course, those same consumers are frustrated when they don’t see the monthly utility savings they were promised.  In fact, in our soon-to-be-published Utility Pulse study, about a third of the population says they’ve undertaken efforts to be more efficient and have not seen the savings they expected…which will make it that much more difficult to motivate them to take additional action.

This is a fundamental problem with how we market efficiency now.  It’s the American way really:  we focus on the product they should buy — not the behavior they should change — as if buying the product will magically cure everything and the consumer wont be inconvenienced in any way.  It’s the same thinking that brought us drive-through windows and remote controls.  And, yes, some products will go a long way to making a home more efficient without any behavior change — i.e. insulation.  But, in the end, we must employ a one-two marketing punch of product purchases and behavior changes.

As a proof point for this argument:  61% of the population told us in our Energy Pulse® study that they’re not using more electricity today than they were five years ago, yet, as a nation, our consumption increased 10%.  In Utility Pulse, a little over 70% tell us that they think their homes are efficient…but about the same number also told us their homes are over 20 years old.  So it’s unlikely those homes are, in fact, efficient.

So motivating consumers to buy efficient products and change the way they use energy first requires helping them see their own part in the problem.  Most of the population blames somebody else for rising energy costs — they don’t see the laws of supply and demand in effect.  So we’ve got a ways to go.  And therein lies the challenge.  To create a long-term solution to our energy issues, it requires a combination of technological innovations as well as education at the consumer level, presented with compelling, motivating messages.  Think of Crispin Porter’s “Truth” anti-smoking campaign or the classic anti-littering campaign with the Indian crying.  That kind of imagery — that kind of moving, can’t-look-away messaging — is what’s needed to truly move us along and to stop us from eating all the energy cookies in the bag.

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