JKM News Jul 15, 2010
Using Emotion to Create Long Term Commitment to a Cause
I was invited to speak about public engagement at the Toronto City Summit Alliance Roundtable on Transit and Transportation Infrastructure Funding yesterday. It is a complex and often polarizing issue but I hope that as a marketer from the 905, I brought a slightly different perspective to the challenges and opportunities. Here are a few of the thoughts that I shared.
Among the public – informed does not equal engaged and engaged does not equal committed. Successful transformation of our city’s transportation system will require real long term public commitment to the cause.
There is a sound, rational argument and a logical value proposition for transit and transportation infrastructure as well but I believe that in order to engage people we need to connect with them on both a rational and an emotional level. Why? Because we shop rationally but we buy emotionally. Think about it – you’re buying a car – you need all the details…features, specs, fuel economy, safety ratings but it the end we pull the trigger because it makes us feel good.
Social marketing research shows that fear/negative appeals are most effective when the public is in a state of ignorance and you are trying to awaken the public to the issue. Alternatively, we tend to be more successful at achieving sustained long term behavior change with positive inspirational messaging.
As an example, we worked with Canadian Blood Services for a number of years following the Krever Inquiry. Although our early communications began with fear based messaging, over time, we evolved to more positive inspirational messaging.
Successful transformation of our transit and transportation system depends on securing long public commitment and in order to do that it we have to create a sense that people are part of something larger. We need to make it about more than simply “fixing a problem” because the public will lose interest and patience when it is not fixed quickly. We need to make it about an aspirational vision - about making our region a better place for our children and our children’s children to live and work in.
People “buy bricks” for capital fundraising of schools and churches because they want to be part of a positive legacy. If we look to our very own Sick Kids Hospital we see that people throughout the GTA regularly contribute because they want to be part of something great.
Further we know that all great social change is driven by youth so getting commitment from them is critical. We also have great online platforms to have the conversations that will galvanize the kind of commitment we need.
Let’s face it - no one is going to be happy about paying more taxes or tolls for this initiative but if we can appeal to both the head and the heart, we can successfully get people committed to this critically important cause.
Here's the Toronto Star article covering the event.
Chantel BrotenVice President / Chief Strategy Officer
- 12 people liked this.
- Like
