Selling Social Change

Social activism is all about selling new policies, laws, regulations, lifestyle choices, technologies, values, and beliefs. Did I leave anything out? So, if you want to promote social change, any sort of social change, maybe you can imporve your results by thinking like an entrepreneur. That's a theme I'll return to again and again in this blog. For now here is what I have to say:

Why not try to adopt some of the rechniques that businesses use to generate interest in their products and services. You know what I mean! Businesses use all sorts of sales gimmicks and special offers to induce us to buy. Why not adopt some of those strategies to induce people to buy whatever you are "selling."

Can you really offer a rebate on teenage drinking in your community? OK, maybe not. Consider the concept of a rebate - I pay you for a product and get $X back now, or in the mail - and think about how the basic concept could be used to induce teens to stay away from alcohol. There doesn't even need to be money involved. People like money, but they also like self esteem, recognition, and fun. Maybe one of those things could be returned to the "buyer" instead of money. Maybe work of some sort is what the teens are being asked to supply in exchange.

In general, teens could exchange XXhours of work on community service projects for recognition in the local paper, a congratulatorty dance party, or something else young people care about. Part of their effort is repayed to them in some form. While this idea is hardly original, I did arrive at it by thinking about how rebates could be used to reduce teen drinking. (The trick, in case you were wondering, is to keep them pleasantly occupied and surrounded by peers who do not approve of drinking.)

Here are some other concepts that could be used for social change, social services, or activism in general:

1. Sidewalk sales
2. Coupons
3. Contests and sweepstakes
4. Buy one get one free
5. Red tag sales
6. Clearance racks
7. Pairing - "buy the perfume at regular price, get the body spray at 50% off"
8. Direct mail campaigns
9. Lunch specials

And last but not least...

10. Holiday-themed sales

OK, a Christmas sale for Darfur may seem ridiculous, but most new ideas do seem ridiculous until someone shows they can work.

Make a Wish, Change the World!

Reduce poverty, promote economic development that restores or protects the environment, fight substance abuse among young people, or promote democracy, or promote world peace. Wishing can make things happen.

Okay, so there is also some work involved. Perhaps lots of work. It all depends on how big a change you want to make and how fast you want the change to happen. Makes sense, right?

Part of the work comes in trying to create and implement ideas that will address the problem or opportunity that interests you. This is where, believe it or not, wishful thinking can actually be helpful. Sitting around wishing there wasn't so much hunger in the world is obviously useless. Wishing for, or dreaming about, an alternate state of affairs may actually have some value.

For example: I wish that civilization could provide a good material quality of life for everyone without any pollution problems. Crazy idea! What if I focus on one area of this rather substantial challenge? I could wish that we got all of our energy from the sun, just like plants do. While we obvuisly can't become like plants, we can do things to make better use of solar power.

My wishful thinking leads to the idea that maybe my advocacy group should focus on "selling" something called "passive solar" architecture. This would lead to wide use of buildings that rely on sunlight for heat and illumination. Such buildings can work even in cold northerly climes. Don't believe me? Just do a Google search on passive solar design or ecological desing or green buildings. (And selling is a full-time project for an organization. Ever notice how many commerical messages the average person encounters each day? Still think running some ads in E Magazine will do any good?)

What in the world am I talking about? I am talking about creative-thinking strategies that build useful ideas out of fantasies and wishful thinking. Michael Michalko outlines several such techniques in his book Cracking Creativity. You can probably pick up a cheap copy on Amazon.com and learn to use one of the techniques in a few hours. The techniques that you'll want to study are called "Fantasy Worlds", "Parallel Worlds", and "Wishes".

For now, I am going to have to leave you to your own devices when it comes to figuring out how much change is realistic for your group and on what timeline things could be made to happen.

A New Approach to Activism, Advocacy, and More

Social activists, environmentalists, and some nonprofits focused on public education tend to use reasonable tactics to get their points across. They use professional Web sites and direct mail materials, take out ads in newspapers, try to recruit celebrity spokespersons, and otherwise try to get into the spotlight.

Sometimes, the tactics do become ridiculous. PETA has had nude models painted like animals or wearing strategically placed lettuce appear in public to get attention. When I was in college I encountered one of the worst consciousness-raising exercises of all time. A student group at a university, I can't remember which one, wanted to draw attention to the problem of date rape on campus. Their tactic: They pulled some male names from the student directory and posted fliers listing those names under the heading "Potential Rapists."

I suppose these sorts of stunts are useful in a roundabout way because they can lead to serious discussion of an issue. The disadvantage is that people are schocked, offended, and/or angered by such "in your face" stunts. There can even be a backlash against what is really a pretty good point. Going back to one of those PETA examples, the environment probably would be healthier if more people were vagans or vegetarians. I am not sure that models who wear lettuce in public really get that message across.

What we need to do here is to come up with some tactics that are highly inventive (and so are more likley to get media attention), effective, and noncontroversial. If we want our actions to garner support for some policy or law, we need to back up our showmanship with things that make sense, e.g. stand up to logical scrutiny, science, and whatever "values test" the idea is likely to face.

Techniques for developing those tactics, policies, laws, or lifestyle changes, and seeling the changes we want to exist and do get overlooked. These techniques are designed to assist in brainstorming new ideas, evaluating ideas, understanding the true nature of a problem, and projecting the likely impacts of our actions. Some of the techniques are relatively simple pen and paper tricks, for individual or for groups. Many companies offer software that supports brainstorming, decision making, and general problem solving.

Some of my recent posts have been devoted to sources of information on the techniques and the software. I plan to continue focusing on those two topics. Next Sunday I'ill have a few words to say about using fantasy and imagination to create new ideas that you can actually implement. That post and probably the next two will use material drawn from Michael Michalko's book Cracking Creativity. You can order copies through Amazon.com and could probably get a decent used copy for under $10.

You may also be interested in reviewing my posts titled "Education and Social Change", "Thinkertoys and Social Change", and "Salesmanship and Social Change"

Finally - Do you have any stories to tell about how brainstorming techniques, creative-thinking software, or similar tools have helped your organization or group? Please post them as comments!