Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches Turn Off the Lights: Reducing energy consumption through social marketing
Published July 19th, 2008 in Daily PostJohn Tierney writing in the Science section of the 3/25/08 NY Times made some interesting observations about recent efforts to convince people to use less electricity. This is of interest to me because it is an area that my Fall 08 marketing class will be working in along with the Indianapolis-based LLC, Service Concepts. I intend to incorporate concepts from the relatively new field of social marketing and conservative psychology into the course. Here’s what John stated:
A study in California showed that when the monthly electric bill listed the average consumption in the neighborhood, the people in above-average households significantly decreased their consumption.
Meanwhile, the people with the below-average bills reacted by significantly increasing their consumption — not exactly the goal of the project. 
That reaction was avoided when the bill featured a little drawing along with the numbers: a smiling face on a below-average bill or a frowning face on an above-average bill. After that simple nudge, the heavy users made even bigger cuts in consumption, while the light users remained frugal. Very simple feedback, and very easy to incorporate.
A glowing ball called the Ambient Orb, [see right] programmed to change colors as the price of electricity increases at peak periods, has been given to some utility customers in California, who promptly reduced their usage by 40 percent when the ball glowed red in peak periods.
Another gadget, the Wattson, which changes colors depending upon how much electricity a house is using, collects data that can be displayed on a Web site. Clive Thompson, a columnist for Wired, has suggested that people start displaying the Wattson data on their Facebook pages. For Purdue types, the Wattson integrates via wireless with the household computer system, and it shouldn’t be rocket science to pass the data on.
But there’s more.[Gotta love the late-night TV hawkers!] The Wattson, produced by DIY Kyoto, resulted in the three behind the idea [pic from their web site @ bottom] being voted one of the top startups in recent UK competition. All are industrial designers, NOT engineers. Furthermore, the Wattson is presently only being sold for EU use. Seems like the door is wide open for US apps. I’ll be chewing on this. Hank
I think making people aware of what they’re doing is an effective way to modify behavior.
This “awareness” approach is one that many of the “Online Productivity” apps are trying to do like rescuetime.com and 8aweek.com. They are essentially showing people their surfing habits, and I’m assuming by virtue of their continued existence that its working.
To take it out of the Web World, I just saw on CNN that a little boy was using a toy speed gun to clock people who drove by, and he was successful in getting some of the drivers to actually slow down.