Last updated: 25 Oct 07
Strategies A-Z: Environmental Communication

‘Ethical living - Smart Living - Safe Living’: how to target environmental communications

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There has been a lot of soul-searching in the environmental movement in recent years about its lack of real impact, a failure to actually change behaviours right across society. The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Postmodern Environmental World, an influential article by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, was one recent wake-up call to this troubling reality (extended in their book Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility.)

The ‘Values Modes’ approach
(see Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (+ beyond) – from ‘Tests’ section of this site)

Pat Dade, of Cultural Dynamics, and colleagues, have been using a very rigorous (nationally validated) model of adult values development rooted originally in humanistic/transpersonal psychology pioneer Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ to understand what has really been happening to people’s values (or ‘Values Modes’, as they dub them) within the green movement and beyond. And, importantly, they explain how to deliver green messages that will actually hit home with diverse audiences and encourage new environmental friendly behaviours.

As you perhaps already suspected, eco campaigners are often the last people who are able to craft environmental messages that work for everyday people. (This ‘Value Modes’ approach is currently in use with a consortium of UK local authories around Bristol, UK, specifically focusing on energy-saving/climate change behaviours).

‘Psychographic’ segmentation of audiences
This approach of ‘psychographic’ segmentation of an audience (ie by values, beliefs, motivations, and orientations - rather than age, sex, class, ethnicity etc) is used by big corporations day-in, day-out, because of its effectiveness. And – in Pat Dade’s approach – also offers a dynamic model of individual psychological change. It’s very promising to see the sophistication of this tried-and-tested approach being taken up in parts of the environmental movement (Dade and colleagues in fact decided in 2002 to focus their work away from the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector, and into more ethically focused areas). To give you an idea of the pedigree of the Values Modes approach, clients include: all three UK political parties, Greenpeace, the Environment Agency, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (1m+ members), Natural England, NHS, Unilever, Cisco Systems, Bedfordshire Police (fear of crime), Arsenal Football Club, Haagen Dazs, McKinsey & Co etc).

Interestingly, Ken Wilber himself, in A Theory of Everything - An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality, offers a sister model to Values Modes – the Stanford Research Institute’s influential Values and Lifestyles (VALS) – as an example of the “enormous influence” that Spiral Dynamics has had, due to its connection to VALS pioneer Arnold Mitchell.

Painting the Town Green’s vision
One recent UK attempt to overcome the ongoing problems with poor enviromental communication – and chart a way forward - was the report ‘Painting the Town Green: How to Persuade People to be Environmentally Friendly’.

‘Values Modes’ are a central plank of the solution offered within this report (which was produced in conjunction with Transport 2000, World Wide Fund for Nature-UK (WWF-UK), Friends of the Earth, Green Alliance and Sustain).

This extract from the report outlines this way foward, using the most basic 3-part division of values that is at the heart of Cultural Dynamics’ ‘Values Modes’ model (the full model actually includes 12 ‘Value Mode’ levels – from ‘Roots’ up to ‘Transcenders’):

A vision for finding a better way
There are a number of psychological models that can be used to segment the public into distinct categories. This report draws on the principles developed by Riesman and Maslow, and championed by Chris Rose and Pat Dade, which define three basic types of personality. Naturally many people might be a mix of all three or may adopt different roles in different company or circumstances, or at different times of life, but usually one of the types is recurringly dominant and is a strong determinant of response and behaviour. In a rather horribly impersonal marketing sort of way, we can therefore divide people very crudely, and with a necessary degree of fluidity, into three sets.

Inner-directed Pioneers are strongly motivated by ethical concerns and stimulated by new ideas and ways of doing things. When becoming aware of a problem, the action mode of inner-directeds is DIY: they are the activists and they most naturally accept campaigning messages. Inner-directeds start things, including social trends, and start change. Most of them have either already gone green or are contemplating it. Inner-directeds are likely to soak up ‘green language’ and eco-paraphernalia and be stimulated by it. Most people reading this report are probably Pioneers.

The dominant motivation of outer-directed Prospectors, on the other hand, is status and the esteem of others. They place a high value on success and wealth. Their action mode is to organise; they scale things up, build organisations, become managers and want to run successful things. They follow fashion, and big brands are natural message sources for them. It’s no good expecting outer-directed people to be primarily motivated by ethical or environmental concerns. They are more likely to ask “What’s in it for me?” or “How will that make me look good or be more successful?” There is a danger that outer-directeds will dismiss environmental or ethical campaigns as do-gooding and they are less likely to resonate with green language than inner-directeds.

Security-driven Settlers are more concerned with their home-base, tradition and belonging. Security-drivens don’t really have an action mode and in response to environmental problems might say “Someone should do something about it”, the ‘someone’ being those in authority. Hence they oppose most NGO campaigns by default but are more open to authority messages. When change does come, they follow on last and resist any departure from what they have been used to doing.

They are likely to be disinterested in environmental problems at a global level and might block messages based on this; they are much more likely to resonate with issues that affect their home ground or way of life. Green language might be unproductive here, unless it implies local rather than global significance.

Settlers are also more likely to feel uncomfortable with language that implies challenging authority or traditional values, such as pressure group, campaign or demo, and find other green language that implies instability or threat unsettling. There is a high risk that messages using Pioneer-style approaches might be blocked or dismissed.

Behaviour specialists subdivide these basic three types further but even this first level of segmentation is incredibly significant and useful. Campaigns to encourage and persuade the public to adopt green behaviours must be framed in terms that make sense to them, according to their own values and motivations. What this might mean in practice is that one campaign, with one approach based on one set of values, might not be enough. We must consider framing any public campaign in (at least) three different ways.

So a campaign to encourage the inhabitants of our Acacia Avenue (see Section 2) to go green, might be framed as follows:

Inner-directeds
Focus on Ethical Living
Key message: Do the right thing and feel good about it.
What it can offer you: Satisfaction, fulfilment, enlightenment, a sense of calm, well being.
What you stand to lose if you don’t take up Ethical Living: Personal peace of mind and self-respect because you know you haven’t done what you should have done.
Messaging: A focus on global concerns, fundamental ethics and altruism using global green language in abundance.
Campaign images: Global problems and people in action.
Campaign target media: Guardian, Independent, Observer.

Outer-directeds
Focus on Smart Living
Key message: Do the clever thing and feel good about it.
What it can offer you: Reputation, success, the respect of others, desirability, admiration, fashionability, influence.
What you stand to lose if you don’t take up Smart Living: The esteem of others; you risk looking an idiot.
Messaging: A focus on ‘what’s in it for you’, a ban on all green language as far as is possible, a play on the kudos gained by individuals taking part.
Campaign images: Successful, attractive, desirable people.
Campaign target media: Daily Mail, The Times.

Security-drivens
Focus on Safe Living
Key message: Do the sensible thing and feel good about it.
What it can offer you: Security, stability, tradition, consistency, fitting in, acceptance, continuity, reliability.
Messaging: A focus on the home ground, the local environment and everyday life activities, a ban on all ‘global’ green language but a focus on concern for the local and with a message that you could be left out if you don’t join in.
What you stand to lose if you don’t take up Safe Living: The way of life you have grown to love; you risk losing everything that’s important.
Campaign images: Nice homes, stable family life, pets.
Campaign target media: Daily Express, Daily Telegraph.

This framework might yield more success than running a campaign that pretends everyone thinks and acts in the same way. It’s naturally more work for us because it means segmenting out our audiences and addressing them separately but then changing behaviour is about the hardest thing to achieve and needs complex approaches.

The environment might still be seen as fringe but concern about something, anything, is not. It’s refreshing to note that TV gameshows reveal that nearly everyone has a ‘favourite charity’ and is therefore open to some sort of ethical concern. The challenge must be to extend this sometimes very focused concern to other areas.

Save Suffolk’s endangered beetle because...
Pat Dade and his environmental campaigner colleague Chris illustrate the basic three-way segmentation of messages with a hypothetical example about potential reasons to save a rare beetle that is found only on one site in Suffolk.

1. Because it’s a part of Suffolk’s heritage and it would be tragic if our grandchildren couldn’t discover the same wildlife as past generations of children always had
[Settlers – because of identity and belonging – and anyone with kids]
2. Because the County has a legal obligation to protect wildlife and it will damage our reputation if we don’t – we need to hit our targets and be successful – also the genes of many wildlife species have turned out to yield vital drugs
[Prospectors – success]
3. Because even a beetle has intrinsic worth, and X% of the world’s beetles are under threat from development – if we break the links of nature the whole world ultimately suffers, including in ways that cannot be predicted
[Pioneers – the bigger and ethical picture]

The Detroit Project – turning people against SUVs/4x4s
“Oil money supports some terrible things. What kind of mileage does your SUV get?"

One US environmental campaign to dissuade people from using SUVs avoided the typical NGO messages that work mostly for inner-directeds: damage to the planet and society. Instead it focused on ‘Settlers’ using the classic ‘FUD factor’ (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt): one TV ad told viewers that SUVs use lots of petrol (gas), gas dollars go to Arabs (pictured with AK47s), and Arabs with money means that some goes to terrorism.

This line of attack appears to have worked so well that leading figures – up to and including George Bush – have attacked the use of SUVs based on ‘national security’ reasoning.
EcoAmerica is another interesting organisational effort – it seeks to overcome the fallacy that the public will support issues, once they have all the right information (ie it argues that consumer marketing, and working with values research findings, is far more likely to be successful than ‘cause marketing’).

“We will effect change by making environmental protection relevant to people’s core values and daily lives”, states the group’s website.

The rotating banner on the site offers slogans/images that go beyond the usual ‘inner-directed’ messages we’ve grown used to: “I want our country to feel secure (ecoAmericans are everywhere)”.

Evolution of the environmental movement
Dade and Rose have also analysed the historical evolution of the environmental movement as a whole, and the action-modes it encouraged – basically Pioneers started the movement, Prospectors organised it and Settlers joined once it was safe – and ‘normal’ – to do so.
“In the 1960’s/1970’s it was a Pioneer-only answer. Simple: personal responsibility,” explains Pat Dade.

“By the 1980’s/Early 1990’s there was a Pioneer answer and Prospector answer. Both simple: Prospector answer was about group responsibility. But from the 1990’s to date we have a Pioneer, Prospector and Settler answers. The Settler answer is about making government responsible. All are still individually simple but the result is a logjam over how to move forward – a ‘violent agreement’”.

Chris Rose concludes: “Initial colonization by Pioneers meant environmentalists were mostly activist. Then they became activist plus esteem-driven (organisers, credibility seekers). Now there are lots of Settler environmenatlists who want no change. So the activist proportion has declined, and overall, activism has been smothered, first by managerialsim, then by pure caution. ‘Environmental revolution’ has given way to a movement which revolves gently in circles.”

Cultural Dynamics’ work with organisations including Greenpeace has sought to overcome some of these problems.

Further reading:
Climate action – 'West of England' project fosters behaviour change
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (+ beyond) – from ‘Tests’ section of this site
Using Values Modes, by Chris Rose and Pat Dade. 14 pages.
Research Into Motivating Prospectors, Settlers and Pioneers To Change Behaviours That Affect Climate Emissions, by Chris Rose (Campaign Strategy) with Pat Dade (Cultural Dynamics) and John Scott (KSBR). 34 pages.
A tool for motivation based communication strategy, by Chris Rose. 35 pages.
Climate Change Communications – Dipping A Toe Into Public Motivation, Chris Rose, with Pat Dade, and Nick Gallie and John Scott. 20 pages.
Becalmed In The Mainstream: How Psychological Colonization Has Put The Brakes On Environmental Action, by Chris Rose. 16 pages
Painting the Town Green: How to Persuade People to be Environmentally Friendly
www.cultdyn.co.uk (Cultural Dynamics Strategy and Marketing)
www.TheDetroitProject.com
www.ecoamerica.net
www.americanenvironics.com (founded by the authors of The Death of Environmentalism)

Copyright © 2007 Matthew Kalman