Sustainable Marketing

By Ian Bevan

Social marketing has been defined as “the application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis, planning, execution, and evaluation of programs designed to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences in order to improve their personal welfare and that of their society” (Andreasen, 1995)

This article was originally created for my Sustainable Marketing course at Presidio Graduate School. However, the more I researched Denver Water’s incredible social marketing tactics, the more I saw the potential for similar marketing tactics to be used by student organizations to change the unsustainable behavior of fellow college students, family, and community members.

Believe it or not, we are all marketed to thousands of times every day. Thus, for any message to really resonate, it must cut through the chatter of all other marketing messages. How do you accomplish such a feat? Denver Water found many ways of doing so in the Denver community to reduce water usage by nearly 20% in a non-drought period!  While the below story does not directly apply to college campuses, it should inspire students to explore creative and sometimes shocking ways to turn heads for a cause.  Be sure to click the links in the article as they are quite entertaining and inspiring.

Local government rarely gets the chance to run social marketing campaigns, which employ tongue and cheek humor, edgy imagery, and guerilla marketing tactics to change unsustainable behavior.  For the last six years, Denver Water, Colorado’s oldest water utility along with social marketing firm, Sukle, have done just that and with impressive results. The campaign in concert with incentive based enforcement strategies have led to a 19% reduction in water usage in the Denver area over the last three years.

The campaign is called “Use Only What You Need” and is hard to miss around Denver as each component is designed to first shock and then make you think.  Both common and uncommon modes of advertisement were used in the campaign, such as viral videos, bus ads, printed ads, promotional give aways, an interactive website, bill boards, an online game called Wack-A-Sprinkler, conveyer belt ads, bench ads, elevators, funny lawn signs, shocking displays, and even seemingly naked men who mingle at events wearing a bright orange sign stating “Use Only What You Need.”   For more examples visit www.sukle.com.

In addition to Sukle’s bold and imaginative social marketing strategies, they also use community based marketing strategies to increase the Denver community’s exposure to the campaign’s message.  Teri Chavez, marketing and communications director for Denver Water described the community based marketing tactics of Sukle stating, “Its really more than just the campaign and this is what Sukle does well.  It’s all their guerilla tactics.  Take the sandwich boards or the running toilet.  They’re getting into the community at these large events.  They’re interacting with customers.”

Chavez went on to describe Denver Water’s mascot called the running toilet, which runs through Broncos stadium only to get tackled for wasting water.  ”You can hear parents say ‘look at that running toilet’ and you hear the little conversation they have with their family.  The kids say ‘that means we aren’t supposed to let our toilets run at home.’  It’s way more effective than a print ad in a magazine.”, Chavez noted.

It is also important to note that the campaign began in 2006, after a major drought.  Denver Water’s board of directors took a progressive stance and decided that rather than yelling all clear, they would instead continue to promote increased water savings to their customers.  They set the ambitious goal of reducing water usage by 22% of pre-drought levels by 2015.   The lighthearted Use Only What You Need campaign would be instrumental in reaching this new goal and thus the campaign’s budget for the first year was one million dollars.  However, after establishing their campaign’s presence in Denver, it was possible to scale back the annual budget to $650,000 for 2011.  Considering that Denver is much better prepared for an emergency situation, such as an extreme drought, the cost of maintaining water saving behavior is likely well worth the price and the fun.

Be creative!  There are many ways to turn heads on campus and you don’t need much money if any at all.  Mascots, displays, flash mobs, and other tactics can be used to change behavior.  Please send any shock advertisements your organization has created to greentowersustainability@gmail.com.  We will be sure to put them up in our student resource center so they can benefit other students.  Always be sure to document your successes and have fun!

Disclaimer: GTS would like to emphasize that it is important in a college setting to use common sense when using shock marketing tactics.  Nudity, other graphic images, or overly negative messages might turn heads but also might get your organization negative attention and even penalties from your higher education institution.  Large displays or events may need campus approval.

This document explores many sustainable marketing strategies for a variety of situations. Download part 1 of the ppt: GreenCampusMarketing1 Download part 2 of the ppt: GreenCampusMarketing2 Created by Green Tower Sustainability. Sorry for having to split the files. Make sure to read the comments for explanations of the slides.