Precision Design Blog

If everyone felt composting benefited them, everyone would be composting. If everyone truly felt that conserving water was vital to their survival, everyone would be installing low flow shower heads and taking "navy" showers.

But everyone is not composting and like the old Seinfeld episode, when it comes to low flow, many people "don't like the sound of that!"

There are perceived barriers to increasing good green habits and many program managers believe they already know what these are in their communities. This coupled with the expense surveys can generate; many just "skip" this vital step to creating a sucessful outreach campaign that changes sustainable behavior. 

Any good marketer will encourage surveys, however most public outreach consultants will encourage either focus groups exclusively or perhaps a "survey monkey" written survey. While it's true that one-on-one surveys are more expensive, they are also more accurate and provide a greater return on investment. A well-crafted survey will tell you:

1. What people in your community feel are the barriers to a particular sustainable behavior (such as battery recycling);

2. What people in your community feel are the benefits to practicing that behavior

3. What makes it easy to do

4. What makes it hard to do

5. What would convince them to do it or what would convince them not to do it and who their opinion leaders are.

Only when you have objective answers to the above questions can you then begin to formulate a successful marketing campaign that will truly generate a good return on investment.

Depending upon benefit-driven campaigns is not enough. Flooding mailboxes or emails with informational messages deliver sketchy results at best.

Clarifying your campaign objective, researching articles and other community reports, observational studies, and well-crafted surveys are necessary steps to identifying the barriers that keep your community from practicing eco-friendly habits.