Sayan's Revol[ve]ution

“Sir, did you need bottled water? I can give you a cup of water for free?”

This is how I respond to guests who come to my concession stand asking for bottled water (I work at a movie theatre). This line has an 80% diversion rate: 8 out of 10 people who initially wanted a bottle, will walk away with a cup. Even those who specifically asked for Dasani opt for tap water after being asked this question.

I wasn’t always this successful. It took me a good month of trial and failure to formulate the pitch, but I believe it’s now near perfection. Previous versions include:

“Did you want the Dasani or would you like a cup of water for free,” which later became “did you want bottled water or would you like a cup of water for free.” These statements however had little effect on people; around 90% would stick to bottled.

So how is it that a simple change in word choice, has allowed me to not just influence, but actually change what people want? Well it’s because I realized that what I was dealing with was just that, a manufactured want.

My first lesson in trying to change wants was to never mention the brand. When they asked for Dasani, and I replied with a choice between Dasani or tap water, the alternative I was trying to nudge them towards had no chance. In the customer’s mind, the generic tap, of “questionable” water quality, was being pitted against the powerful, globally recognized, and long marketed Dasani brand. It wasn’t a fair fight.

However even when I caught on to this, and started rephrasing the choice as one between bottled and tap water, my results didn’t significantly improve. Why do they want the more expensive option? Well for one thing it’s what they’ve been socially conditioned to ask for, but I knew they didn’t need bottled, they just wanted it. Then it hit me. The direction I had to point my question towards was their actual needs.

As such, now I ask “do you need bottled water,” to which the chooser will answer in their head, “well no I don’t really.” Then this is where I get real sneaky, instead of making it a choice between two options like before, I just ask another question before the chooser has a chance to verbally answer the first. When I say “I can give you…for free,” the chooser who undoubtedly has positive conceptions about receiving free things would answer, at least in their head, “sure why not!”

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Now you may be wondering why the heck I’ve tried so hard to “direct” my customers in this manner, especially given the risk to my employment (managers don’t appreciate me hindering the bottom line, but I’m helpful in other regards so they keep me around). Well it’s because the plastic water bottle market serves a manufactured demand that is extremely dangerous to the environment. I implore you to watch the following video, as it explains unequivocally what I mean by manufactured demand, and the resulting environmental effects. Even if you already don’t buy plastic water bottles this video presents an abundance of facts and arguments that might help you convey to your friends why they shouldn’t buy as well. Also next week I will dig deeper into this topic, so you can think of this video as required homework for us to continue our movement.

Have you watched the video? Awesome! You learnt a lot didn’t you? Most people don’t know all that stuff though and that’s why I try hard no matter where I am to nudge people in a more sustainable direction. We’ve got a lot of work to do. Don’t believe me? Next time you’re sitting in the library, look around and you’ll see so many plastic bottles that you’ll cringe, I know I do. But there’s no point looking down upon our peers, it’s not their fault, they don’t know any better. Their behavior is the result of successful marketing, but I hope by reading this entry you can see that we all have the power to counter market in our own spheres of influence. Spread the facts, share the videos, and join the revol[ve]ution! We’re going back to cyclical consumption, by ending this disposable lifestyle.

Note: If you liked the Story of Bottled Water, you should watch the Story of Stuff, that will blow you away even more! Also you can check out the documentary called Tapped, it’s very cheap on iTunes.

The human population is growing, exponentially. It is estimated by 2025, our species will number over 9 billion, a 22% increase in our population! That’s alarming – not because humans by nature are a threat to the environment, but because of our species’ current consumption patterns.  

Skeptics don’t have to look far; according to the City of Vancouver we have a 4-Plant ecological footprint. What this means is that if every human in the world, consumed (and disposed the resulting waste) like Vancouverites do, we would need no less than 4 planet earths just to provide for the resulting demand. What scares me is that we are considered one of the better cities in North America by this standard.

Relax, I’m not about to go on a rant condemning our consumer economy or antagonizing corporations. That is not what this blog is about.  My interest in marketing is not its role in creating this problem, but its unequivocal capability to amend it. My motto: marketing got us into this mess, so why not use marketing to get us out.

Now by this I don’t mean just spreading awareness. Everyone already knows that climate change is a problem. Basically when it comes to influencing consumer behavior through attitudes, environmentalists have covered the cognitive (think) component by providing information on why our environment is in danger, and the affective (feel) component by acknowledging what we may lose. The trouble now is getting people to act on the behavioral component (do), and I don’t think this can be achieved simply by further educating people on environmentally friendly behavior.

More emphasis has to be made on using social factors to curve behavior by creating green social norms. Majority of green marketing right now focuses on green as being the right thing to do, which it is, but this only influences a select group of people who are motivated by their needs for self-actualization. Instead green should be promoted as the cool thing to do! The sexy thing to do! The socially expected thing to do! This will influence a much larger segment of society, the part that is trying to fulfill their love and belonging and esteem needs, as described by Maslow’s hierarchy, and for these reasons the segment of society that consumes the most.

This misguided bunch should be our priority. If we can get them acting right, the entire system will adjust to please these dominant consumers’ shift in demand. In the coming weeks I hope to explore (with your help) how we can start reversing social perceptions and start making things like thrift and cyclic consumers something that is admired and looked up to again. It’s time we revolve our consumption.