With more than 2,000 companies setting carbon targets and nearly every large corporation issuing a sustainability report, C+C decided to dig into people’s understanding of, and feelings about commonly used terms related to climate change. We just completed a national study looking at what terms are understood, how our communication makes people feel, and who they think should take action.
It seems everywhere I turn these days, I encounter news, conferences, discussions and opinions on the transition to clean energy and decarbonization of our energy supply. Across the country, energy offices are consumed with developing the infrastructure to distribute billions of dollars in federal incentives and tax credits to facilitate the transition to clean energy. Utility and energy efficiency programs are strategizing about how to leverage their program frameworks to help achieve aggressive goals for electrification.
In 1971 Social Marketing was introduced as a concept by Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman in an article in the Journal of Marketing. If you are wondering how Social Marketing could have existed 33 years before Facebook, this blog post is for you and highlights the crux of the challenge.
Social Marketing is the discipline of changing behaviors for the good of people and communities. It is built on a basis of behavioral science that shows that people do not change their behaviors simply because they become aware of an issue or because it is the “right thing to do.” Instead, people change their behaviors when the specific barriers to practicing the behavior are overcome by personally relevant benefits and motivators. Social Marketing has helped tackle problems around the world, including everything from condom use, vaccines, distracted driving, recycling, and energy efficiency, to pet adoptions and voter turnout. Fast forward to 2023 and there are seven global professional associations, more than 60 books, two academic journals and nine global conferences focused on social marketing. When it comes to helping people change behaviors for the good of society, Social Marketing is the most effective option.