EnviroLinkage
Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 9:38AM 
The ultimate measure of Green Homes is how many homes have been greened deeply.
Many programs deriving a sense of accomplishment out of interim steps are hardly ‘mission accomplished’. Steps like promo lit distributed, energy audits conducted, topical efficiencies accepted are incremental only when they add up to a completed retrofit. In fact, interim steps can give a false sense of accomplishment. The “Change a Light – Change the World” campaign that ran in Milwaukee did not go much further than the bulb change, the city’s sustainability officer reported, because people, apparently, felt that they had already changed the world.
Babylon kicked off its Green Homes program by distributing a CFL to 50,000 houses throughout town. Each bulb came with a coupon for more, tips on energy savings plus an announcement of the upcoming Green Homes program. It generated approximately 250 leads, or 200/CFL, which converted to approximately 50 completed jobs. We persuaded the realtor for a new box store in town to pick up the tab for the CFLs and our local carters agreed to distribute them door-to-door, so this promo cost the town virtually nothing. Had we picked up the tab for the CFL giveaway, it would have run around $100K or $2,000 per completed job averaging around $7,000. Clearly, this is way too steep a price to pay moving forward.
Since the program began, it has received substantial media coverage. Green Homes has been highlighted and editorialized about several times in Newsday, the Long Island paper of record, the New York Times, various local papers and trade journals, local cable coverage and a nifty feature on CNN. Green Homes was on the cover of the recycling calendar that went out to every household in the town and we’ve been speaking to all variety of civic groups and professional organizations in addition to flying the Green Homes banners over tables at trade events and concerts. A half dozen cute little Smart Cars are emblazoned with our logo and contact info. They are driven everywhere by our public safety unit. With our parks and beaches opening, we will be deploying seasonal employees to talk it up and sign folks up. Moreover, a number of neighboring towns are starting up Green Homes programs of their own which will certainly contribute to program recognition.
The expectation is that there will be no more effective ambassadors for the program than Green Homes owners. With great ease and no out-of-pocket cost, they now have a comfy, non-drafty house. The home’s value has been enhanced thanks to a green certificate of occupancy (C/O) certifying its efficiency. The Green Homes lawn sign in front of their retrofitted house announces that, like the tear-shaped Prius, this homeowner is Saving Money While Saving the Planet. Conceivably, as neighbors and friends take note, the effect will be viral, causing the market to take on a life of its own.
As a part of the customer intake process, we ask interested homeowners how they heard about the program – news, mailing, word-of-mouth? But the piecemeal sequence that heightens awareness, tweaks engagement and builds to a decision to contract for the work is something of a mystery, even to the decision-maker. A lot of smart people are trying to chart the vast sub conscience in decision-making. Like a pig-in-a-blanket, subjects are inserted in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tube and their regionalized responses identified. But these are single stimulus-response exercises; the convoluted chain that goes into decision-making would have to be logged over time and exposure. Though this sequence may one day be traceable, as of now, single bits won’t add up to a whole. We are left with the latest from consumer behaviorists, behavioral economists and our own behavioral expectations.
A few days ago in a Green Homes marketing meeting, we were evaluating what lures might work in hooking homeowners. One young member of our Green team touted the line, “How’d you like to get free solar panels?” Technically, that’s not misleading; after power company rebates, federal and state taxes, and town financing of the balance means the full cost of purchase is covered. The homeowner is not out-of-pocket; the power generated by the solar panels will, ostensibly, cover the amount they must repay to the town. But there are plenty of consumers who are wary of the claim of free and getting into details may well undermine the credibility of the Green Homes spokesperson. As this is a government program, we are obliged to hold to a more exacting standard.
The young marketer remained adamant on “free solar panel” line. His friends neither knew nor cared much about making houses more efficient. But free solar panels were cool (a sentiment that speaks to why so many public programs have gone with solar first). In many purchases ‘free’ is a strong motivator. Witness the ‘free shipping’ come-on from Amazon that drives so many purchases above the $25 threshold. On the flip side is the study that showed that those who purchased energy drinks at a discount performed worse on a given task than those who had paid full price. In another study, those who paid full price for a cold remedy rated it more effective. Conclusion? If it’s performance they’re after, make them pay for it.
Or, pay for performance. Our chief operating officer came up with a bonus system for our budding corps of energy counselors and counselors-in-training. When we send our seasonal counselors-in-training out to the parks and beaches, let’s compensate them a dollar for each lead they generate, i.e. verifiable info card. At each stage, provide a bonus all the way through tempering homeowner behavior post-retrofit. The necessary caution here is that our energy counselors, dollar signs in their eyes, don’t turn up the heat too much.
Regardless of what exactly we say, we should say it confidently. A study out of Carnegie Mellon reveals that confident advisers found more buyers for their advice and are more readily forgiven their mistakes. This explains why Jim Cramer still has his job. Cockiness trumps expertise. To paraphrase Machiavelli, it’s not who you are, it’s who they think you are.
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