Flip sides of the same coin? A simple efficiency score versus energy bill savings information to drive consumers to choose more energy-efficient products

Together with our utility clients, Enervee is experimenting with behavioural intervention strategies to see which are most effective in nudging purchasing decisions toward more efficient products. This paper presents results on decision-making, preferences and online shopping behaviour obtained from a series of observational (utility-branded marketplace platform analytics) and experimental studies (randomized controlled trials). Within the trials, we tested potential direct and interaction effects of two distinct but related energy product attributes that improve market transparency: an energy score (a relative product model energy efficiency index) and energy savings (estimated energy bill dollar savings compared to a base model benchmark). The trials all show that the use of an energy score has a significant effect on consumer product choices, encouraging them to select more energy-efficient products, consistent with the observational data. These robust results make a strong case for leveraging heuristics-based nudges to drive energy-efficient purchasing behaviour at scale. Responses to the energy bill savings information varied across the studies, offering insights about the influence of buying context and decision styles on consumer choice. The simple-to-process energy score appears to elicit a hot/impulsive decision style, whilst the cognitively more complex energy bill savings information prompts a reflective/cool decision style. Overall, the studies provide intriguing and robust insights to inform the continued development of cost-effective and scalable interventions to drive more energy-efficient consumer product choices

No I won’t, but yes we will: driving sustainability-related donations through social identity effects

Shifting consumers towards sustainable behaviours is difficult, with an attitude–behaviour gap persistently reported. This study proposes a route towards sustainable behaviours that does not depend on individual attitudes or values: social identity forces within novel online brand-convened consumer groups. A field experiment using a fictitious fruit drink brand demonstrates that by assembling an online consumer group and providing it with sustainability objectives, consumers will engage in a sustainability-aligned behaviour, namely donating to social or environmental charities at the request of the firm, irrespective of their individual attitudes. Furthermore, this behaviour is accompanied by an improvement in brand attachment. As these effects are found within a newly-formed online group, practitioners may be able to achieve sustainability objectives through this mechanism even in the absence of well-established brand communities. The study contributes to social identity literature by demonstrating the impact of group identity effects in a consumer context, and by showing a mechanism by which the negative side of group identity – out-group derogation – can be avoided

All for one and one for all : encouraging prosocial behaviours through brand-convened consumer groups

Academic and practitioner interest in sustainable consumer behaviour continues to grow. Yet the focus remains on marketing appeals based on awareness raising, perspective taking and concern. Whilst such an approach may be suitable for an established niche of committed consumers, it continues to be inappropriate for the majority. Situated within the debates on consumer behaviour, prosocial behaviour, brand communities and social identity theory, this study proposes an alternative route towards sustainable behaviours. This study focuses on such behaviours via the brand's formation of 'pop-up' consumer groups, and the subsequent influences these groups can exert on group members. Adapting aspects of social identity theory and self-categorisation theory, the study uses a novel field-based experiment to manipulate consumers into specific group structures (high/low group salience; normal/sustainable group goals) and measures the effects of these manipulations on prosocial behaviours both within and beyond the group. The effects on the consumer brand relationship are also observed. The results show first that such rapid group formation can lead to prosocial behaviours. Second, the results show that social identification with the group mediates the relationship between group salience and prosocial behaviours, but does not mediate the relationship between group goal and prosocial behaviours. Hence, it is suggested that two distinct processes are at work: social identity influence and social norm influence. Third, the study shows that group manipulations increase the consumer brand connection. Fourth, the study proposes novel distinctions between money and time as tradeable consumer resources, and suggests how the context of the request for these resources may alter the propensity to give. This study is the first of its kind to create a novel, minimal and temporary group within a natural consumer context, in order to encourage prosocial behaviour. The creation of these ‘pop-up’ groups provides an original contribution to both theory and practice

Making efficiency visible – Insights on effective nudging across decision styles and choice models

Engaging consumers in energy efficient behavior is challenging. Despite most consumers consistently claiming to care about energy efficiency – and even in cases where reported consumer attitudes toward energy saving and its positive impact on the environment are high – these attitudes often do not materialise in terms of behaviour, giving rise to the “attitude behaviour gap”. This paper reports results from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) focused on behavioral levers at the disposal of utilities or other program administrators in engaging consumers in more efficient 1-time consumer product purchases. They are quasi-field revealed preference studies, in which participants reveal product preferences in an ecologically valid setting, namely what respondents understood to be a test version of a new consumer comparison and shopping platform for appliances and products for the home, and which they were accessing from outside of a laboratory or obvious test setting.The studies are based on a novel consumer-facing, utility-branded marketplace platform, which has been deployed in the USA and Europe by utilities serving 47 million households as of September 2017. These marketplaces integrate energy efficiency information in two ways. The first is a relative energy efficiency score, on a zero to 100 scale, assigned to each model in a product category, which can function as either a simple heuristic (just aim for the high number) or as a clear product attribute (concrete efficiency measure).The experimental results presented suggest that the Enervee Score works across both the “hot”, more impulsive, attitude-based (brand) and “cold”, more deliberative, attribute-based decision-making styles. The same is not true of the second piece of information provided on the marketplace, namely personalized energy bill savings, presented in dollars, for a selected product model, compared to a benchmark new product.This growing body of experimental results suggests that making efficiency visible (with the granular, daily updated Enervee Score, as well as personalized energy savings), and injecting these cues into the modern –  increasingly digital –  shopping journey, can nudge consumers to make more energy efficient purchasing decisions, paving the way for new data-driven, market based approaches

Making efficiency visible – Insights on effective nudging across decision styles and choice models

Engaging consumers in energy efficient behavior is challenging. Despite most consumers consistently claiming to care about energy efficiency – and even in cases where reported consumer attitudes toward energy saving and its positive impact on the environment are high – these attitudes often do not materialise in terms of behaviour, giving rise to the “attitude behaviour gap”. This paper reports results from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) focused on behavioral levers at the disposal of utilities or other program administrators in engaging consumers in more efficient 1-time consumer product purchases. They are quasi-field revealed preference studies, in which participants reveal product preferences in an ecologically valid setting, namely what respondents understood to be a test version of a new consumer comparison and shopping platform for appliances and products for the home, and which they were accessing from outside of a laboratory or obvious test setting.The studies are based on a novel consumer-facing, utility-branded marketplace platform, which has been deployed in the USA and Europe by utilities serving 47 million households as of September 2017. These marketplaces integrate energy efficiency information in two ways. The first is a relative energy efficiency score, on a zero to 100 scale, assigned to each model in a product category, which can function as either a simple heuristic (just aim for the high number) or as a clear product attribute (concrete efficiency measure).The experimental results presented suggest that the Enervee Score works across both the “hot”, more impulsive, attitude-based (brand) and “cold”, more deliberative, attribute-based decision-making styles. The same is not true of the second piece of information provided on the marketplace, namely personalized energy bill savings, presented in dollars, for a selected product model, compared to a benchmark new product.This growing body of experimental results suggests that making efficiency visible (with the granular, daily updated Enervee Score, as well as personalized energy savings), and injecting these cues into the modern –  increasingly digital –  shopping journey, can nudge consumers to make more energy efficient purchasing decisions, paving the way for new data-driven, market based approaches

Why your customers’ social identities matter

The article looks at the role of consumers' social identities in their purchasing decisions, and hence in the creation of effective marketing strategies. It says that people generally belong to multiple social groups, any one of which may have the most salience for them in a given situation. It reports on social psychology research on how a person's connection with a particular social identity can be triggered and discusses the idea in the context of marketing products including the Toyota Prius hybrid-electric automobile, Nescafé instant coffee, and the Jeep all-terrain vehicle. INSET: Lessons of the Stanford Prison Experiment