Killing Flies

There’s a lot of scary news out there.  A couple of months ago the New York Times ran a story about energy supply and consumption by country that not only made the US look pretty gluttonous, it made the future look pretty apocolyptic.  Earlier this month, I shared a speaking slot at Electric Power 2008 with Craig Lewis from Greenvolts.  He laid out a formula showing that a 1% drop in oil supply immediately results in a 20% increase in the price, and went on to explain that Iran produces 5% of the world’s oil and what an interruption in their supply from, say, a US invasion, would do to the already high price of oil.

Scary stuff.

At that same conference a gentleman in the audience whose name I didn’t catch also took me to task for my conclusion that consumers are generally driven to conserve energy by deeper feelings, like a desire to feel happy, have peace of mind or personal satisfaction.  His conclusion upon seeing some of the clips I showed from our Energy Pulse focus groups was that consumers are more driven by fear and a need to cling to their way of life.

I’ve thought about this a lot since then.  In our experience, consumers just don’t respond well to messages based in fear.  Not to disregard the very real threats and the potential for a bleak future based on our current energy consumption and source of supply…but most of us just don’t perform well when we’re freaked out.  As consumers, when we’re scared or confused, we just do nothing — we can’t make decisions for the added fear that we’ll make the wrong one.  Much better to go to market with a message of hope and empowerment — something that tells our friends and neighbors they can do the right thing for their families, their wallets and the world.

Again, not to be Polyanna and not to ignore the huge realities we’re all facing, but when it comes to encouraging consumers to change their energy consumption behaviors, we truly will kill more flies with honey.

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