This is one of a series of interviews by students and alumni from
the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) with
practitioners from the Sustainable Brands community, on a variety of ways
organizations can, and are, Redesigning the Good
Life.
Dr. Kate White is Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Science at the
University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. She is Chair
of the Ethics and Sustainability Group at Sauder and she holds a professorship
in Consumer Insights, Prosocial Consumption and Sustainability.
Dr. White teaches courses in consumer behavior, consumer insights and
sustainability marketing at the undergraduate, graduate and executive levels.
Coining the term "SHIFT" — Social influence, Habit formation,
Individual self, Feelings and cognition, and Tangibility — Dr.
White’s research examines how to encourage sustainable consumer behaviors, and
highlights actionable ways practitioners can influence consumers to care more
about sustainability issues and behave more sustainably. I spoke with her after she presented the framework at SB’18
Vancouver to learn more.
What is the story behind your idea for SHIFT?
Kate White: I had been thinking about this for a while. There is a lot of
literature in the behavioral science
domain
that has a lot to say about encouraging people to be sustainable. But there's
not a great review of sustainable consumer behaviors — one location where you
can get all of that information, this was the catalyst. As I started thinking
about the idea of bringing the information together into a more useful tool, I
began categorizing the factors or principles that can influence sustainable
consumer behavior.
I didn't start with the acronym, though I knew I wanted one to help make the
ideas more useful, I started by grouping things into categories and letting them
naturally fall together. While the categories are ones used in behavioral
studies, I also wanted people to catch onto the idea of gently shifting
behavior. So rather than being forceful or manipulative, the idea of SHIFT
suggests that by reframing how you phrase the question, pose the idea or change
the setting, you can more effectively shift consumer behavior.
You presented the SHIFT framework at the Sustainable Brands event in Vancouver. What are some of the top take-aways from your session?
KW: First, I'd like people to recognize there are five different principles
— like, buckets the ideas fall into — and within each bucket there are different
tools or strategies to apply the ideas. In the session, I gave examples from
each bucket of ideas that have been used and work well.
The second take-away comes from a question I frequently get from marketing
practitioners: "Which one idea works best." There really is no one "best"
answer. You need to know what your goals are; what the target market is; what
are that market's needs, barriers, benefits — you just can't go at it blind.
Efforts need to be thoughtfully gone through and analyzed by situation and
consumer, and then based on what your research indicates, you can determine what
factors are the most important. If there was an easy button, your competitors
would already be using it.
Lastly, this is a chance to consider what your organization is already about,
and seeing where you can leverage your unique value proposition. SHIFT, added to
your existing toolkits, will help make better decisions.
What additional initiatives are you looking at?
KW: In my research, I gravitate toward efforts that have larger impact. Like
the campaign in Canada to deal with plastic
straws
is great, but at the same time the government is looking to add another pipeline
to facilitate the extraction of more oil, which is many thousands of times
worse. Taking care of the smaller issues is important, but one can't ignore the
bigger systemic issues in the process. What behaviors can be changed to have the
biggest impact? What small scale ideas can be applied to big scale change?
A Canadian nonprofit called Our Horizon was started by
one guy who wondered what he could do with a small investment that would do
greater good. The group's idea is to put labels on gas pumps, like labels on
cigarettes, that talk about the negative functions of using gas — giving the
backstory, helping people understand the true cost of their consumption choice.
What does the "Good Life" mean to you?
KW: Part of the good life means not just offering products and services that
have sustainability in mind, but offer other things, too — such as societal
benefits. Along the line of what William
McDonough
and others talk about — not just doing less bad, but creating more good.
What are your ideas on to redesign for the Good Life?
KW: That's a huge question, but it comes back to the core idea of
considering multiple outcomes. Like not just focusing on, for example, how can I
save the most money, but how can I also offer the most to the consumer, and what
are the environmental and societal impacts? Also important is creating ways to
help consumers make more positive choices.
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Wendy Jedlička, CPP, ISSP-SA is an IoPP Lifetime Certified Packaging Professional, a certified ISSP Sustainability Associate (ISSP-SA), adjunct faculty at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), and president of Jedlička Design — a packaging design firm specializing in sustainable design and business strategies.
Published Jan 24, 2019 7pm EST / 4pm PST / 12am GMT / 1am CET