What motivates you to help the air?
When you think about air pollution, what gets your attention most? Is it the effects on your own health, the impact on the environment or what air pollution, and how you might be contributing to it, are costing you in dollars and cents?
Yup – air pollution is proving to be costly to our environment, our health and our pocketbooks.
Check out this air pollution website created by The School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong. This innovative calculator shows the various ‘costs’ air pollution has on individuals in that country and the cost of collective health.
But air pollution is a problem that impacts us all – 100 per cent of the time – no matter where we live or the state of our health. And in order to improve anything, we have to be willing to change. Starting with our own behaviour.
So we want to know – what makes you care most about the quality of the air we share? Is it a healthier body, bank account or community?
The question of personal motivators is one we think about a lot when we’re developing social marketing campaigns about the outdoor environment and its effects on health. Our goal of making people more aware of an issue, helping them understand it and see how it is relevant to them personally, is the precursor to motivating people to take action – to change their own behaviour.
Not unlike other social topics, people feel connected to issues in different ways – and these connections are what motivate them to do something.
When it comes to air quality, parents who have kids suffering from asthma are more likely to be motivated by health concerns. Others may be motivated by their passion for the earth and all its species. What about you? Maybe it’s only relevant when the day comes that you are asked not to drive to work because of high health risk from particulate matter in the air. Or the cost of gas is so high you realize it’s not worth it to idle your car unnecessarily. Will it be the financial considerations that are the kicker to making you care about the air?
Protecting our air for environmental and human health reasons is a continuous challenge. Behaviour change is a slow process. The more we know about what motivates people to think about air quality, the better able we are to shape these conversations about our most vital life sustaining resource – air — in a way that will get more people to sit up and listen.
Can you help? Leave a comment on what your top motivator is, and tell us what country or province/state you are from.
So Much Strategy Behind “I’m Sorry”
I have always driven my family nuts by analyzing the strategy behind various marketing communication programs or products.
I can’t watch TV without devoting too much analysis to the commercials. I often say aloud whether or not I think an ad worked or how it was made or what creative technique was used to get my attention. So basically, I don’t watch TV anymore. And I am in good company because stats suggest less and less people are watching TV and more are searching for both information and entertainment online. Which is why I feel compelled to give huge kudos to the marketing minds behind the Johnson & Johnson “Triple Sorry” campaign for O.B. Tampons.
OK fellas, bear with me. Sometimes, I see something that reminds me of why I love this business. And this week, it was the “Triple Sorry”. But as is my folly, instead of just appreciating it, laughing, and wanting to share it with my women-folk, I analyzed the strategy behind it. I have no inside information on the success, but I do have 25 years of thinking about marketing communication strategies and based on that, I think it’s brilliant.
Here’s the short of it. Johnson & Johnson failed to provide adequate stock of O.B. tampons, retailers could not stock the shelves, and loyal customers could not find the product for a period of time. What is clearly a marketing and sales crisis that likely resulted in a decrease in sales, frustration and loss of trust among retailers and customers turning to other products, the “Triple Sorry” addresses crisis management, brand loyalty, incentive marketing and will probably result in increased sales — all through an online, personalized apology.
But its not just an apology. It’s everything many women would want — being serenaded by a handsome fellow (wearing white pants no less), showers of rose pedals, white doves and the expression of commitment tattood on your guy’s bicep. This comes all as a way of expressing an authentic apology directly and personally to each and every customer and offering to earn their trust again through a plea to give “O.B.” another try.
It’s the kind of brilliant that makes me wish I could have been part of the team that went through the strategic planning process of knowing what they needed to accomplish, what the customer needed to respond and how to deliver it in a way that is consistent with the company / brand equity. I know once these key questions had answers, the creative brainstorming would have been both free and intense. And to have a client that put the problem on the table and did not restrict the marketing experts from creating a solution — it’s what all of us in this business dream of every day we come to work.
Visit obtampons.ca/apology — type in your name or that of your favorite gal — and be patient while it gets up the nerve to say “I’m sorry”.