Merging Green Initiatives with Behaviour Change
Posted by Marketing & PR on 3 Dec 2024
Sustainability isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a necessity. As businesses increasingly focus on eco-friendly operations, marketing plays a critical role in driving behaviour change that supports sustainable goals. This shift is about creating campaigns that inspire real action, both internally and externally.
So, how can businesses strike the balance between promoting sustainability and encouraging meaningful change? It starts with understanding people, leveraging co-creation and building campaigns that resonate.
Why Sustainable Marketing Needs Behaviour Change
Behaviour change is the foundation of sustainable marketing. People know sustainability is important, but knowing isn’t enough. To truly make an impact, marketing efforts must address the how and why behind behavioural shifts.
Let’s break it down:
• Habits: Many behaviours are automatic, driven by convenience or long-standing habits. If people are used to single-use plastics, it takes more than a green label to make them switch.
• Barriers: Often, there are real or perceived obstacles to sustainable choices. These might include cost, accessibility or simply a lack of understanding.
• Motivators: The key to behaviour change is tapping into what matters to your audience. For some, it’s the cost savings of energy-efficient products. For others, it’s the pride in contributing to a greener future.
For example, if you’re encouraging people to switch to reusable coffee cups, your messaging should reflect their motivators. Is it about saving money over time? Reducing waste? Avoiding the guilt of adding to landfills? Understanding these drivers makes your campaign relatable and effective.
Co-Creation: A Collaborative Approach to Sustainability
One of the most powerful strategies in sustainable marketing is co-creation. Co-creation is all about involving stakeholders, employees, customers, suppliers and even the local community in designing solutions that are both practical and impactful.
Why Co-Creation Works
• Inclusive solutions: People are more likely to support initiatives they helped create.
• Diverse ideas: Different perspectives lead to more innovative and effective campaigns.
• Shared ownership: When stakeholders feel they’ve contributed, they’re more motivated to follow through.
Co-Creation in Action
Imagine running a co-creation workshop with your employees to identify ways to reduce energy usage in the workplace. These sessions can reveal insights you might never have considered: small inefficiencies in daily operations, ways to repurpose materials, or clever hacks for saving energy.
Similarly, engaging customers in co-creation can deepen their connection to your brand. For instance, ask your audience to share their sustainability challenges and ideas through surveys, focus groups or social media. Not only does this give you valuable insights, but it also makes customers feel heard and valued.
Co-creation workshops don’t just stop at idea generation. They’re also an opportunity to address barriers head-on. If customers feel eco-friendly products are too expensive, involve them in brainstorming cost-effective solutions. If employees find sustainable practices inconvenient, collaborate on ways to simplify processes.
Making Sustainable Choices Easy and Appealing
Behaviour change is easier when sustainable choices are accessible and desirable. If the shift feels like a chore or sacrifice, it’s unlikely to stick. This is where marketing plays a crucial role—showing people how simple and rewarding sustainability can be.
Here are some key strategies:
• Practicality: Give people actionable steps they can take right away. For instance, a retailer could share tips on how to upcycle old clothing or reduce energy use at home.
• Relatability: Speak in a way that resonates with your audience. Avoid jargon and focus on how sustainable actions benefit them.
• Incentives: Reward sustainable behaviours, whether through discounts, loyalty points or recognition.
A great example is a supermarket encouraging customers to bring their own bags. Highlight the cost savings of avoiding single-use bags, offer loyalty points for eco-friendly behaviour and display visuals of the environmental impact.
Walking the Talk: Authenticity in Sustainable Marketing
Sustainable marketing starts within. Customers are quick to spot greenwashing, so authenticity is essential. If your operations don’t align with your messaging, your efforts could backfire.
• Audit your practices: Look at everything from supply chains to office operations. Are you practising what you preach?
• Be transparent: Share your progress, even if you’re not perfect. Customers appreciate honesty and a commitment to improvement.
• Lead by example: Encourage your employees to embrace sustainability, both at work and at home. This can amplify your efforts and create a ripple effect.
For example, a company focused on reducing waste could offer employees reusable water bottles, introduce office-wide recycling and showcase these efforts in their marketing.
Aligning Sustainability with Broader Goals
Sustainable marketing shouldn’t stand alone. It should be part of your business strategy. By aligning your campaigns with tangible outcomes, you ensure your efforts drive both awareness and impact.
Examples of Alignment
• If your goal is to reduce carbon emissions, highlight your eco-friendly logistics practices.
• For businesses promoting a circular economy, share stories of how your products are reused, repaired or recycled.
• If supporting local ecosystems is key, showcase partnerships with local suppliers or conservation projects.
These initiatives not only position your brand as a sustainability leader but also inspire others to follow suit.
The Role of Storytelling
At the core of every successful sustainable marketing campaign is a great story. Stories have the power to connect, inspire, and motivate action. Use storytelling to:
• Share the journey behind your sustainability efforts
• Celebrate customers or employees making a difference
• Bring abstract concepts, like carbon footprints, to life with relatable examples
When people see themselves as part of the story, they’re more likely to take action.
Sustainable marketing is no longer a choice; it’s an expectation. By merging green initiatives with behaviour change strategies and involving people through co-creation, businesses can make a genuine impact.
Our Expertise
We’ve been creating highly successful social marketing campaigns for our customers for over two decades. We love our work and use the latest marketing communication tools and most current segmentation and customer insight techniques, such as co-creation workshops.
This allows us to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviour that benefits individuals and whole communities – for the social good.
Within our team, we have leading nationally recognised academic professionals within Psychology, Mental Health and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy that advise what messages and mediums will deliver the best response when we scope out a communications campaign or deliver any targeted communications.
This provides our clients with the reassurance and confidence of knowing that their communication objectives are underpinned by recognised academic behavioural theory, executed with award-winning creative design and using the latest Marketing Automation communication tools, whether it’s on a local, regional or national project.
Perfect Circle has delivered social change for clients like schools, local government, not-for-profit organisations, the health sector and niche commercial businesses, and we’re really proud of what we’ve done so far.
If you’d like our help on your next Behaviour Change Marketing or Social Marketing campaign, we’d love to hear from you. Please visit our contact page and get in touch.
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