拯救地球不妨试试营销

    七年来，《财富》杂志坚持举办绿色头脑风暴大会（Brainstorm Green），旨在探讨如何拯救地球。与会者的讨论主要涉及立法、监管、科学和金融等主题。今年，一个意想不到的工具——市场营销成了环保行动的一个主题。

    从首席执行官们到倡导可持续发展的人士再到政策专家们，与会者一再强调，更好地与选民们沟通、向他们宣传我们每个人能为环保事业做些什么的重要性。他们表示，法律、政策和各种项目的力量有限，下一步的关键在于使人们真正关心环保事业。

    这就要看营销大师们的了。

    李•克洛可谓广告界的传奇性人物，他曾经帮助史蒂夫•乔布斯推出了包括“1984”和“不同凡想”在内的一系列伟大的广告。如今，克洛与非盈利环保组织保护国际（Conservation International）合作，将推出一系列令人动容的广告。克洛在本次绿色头脑风暴大会上展示了一些广告小样，其中一则十分激动人心。它以海洋的口吻进行叙事，由演员哈里森•福特配音。（福特是保护国际组织的董事。）广告语是：“大自然不需要人类。而人类需要大自然。”克洛指出，广告宣传活动需要有适合印在T恤上的标语。关键在于，以人们喜闻乐见的方式，使他们意识到我们人类需要爱护地球。克洛与保护国际设计的广告还吸引到了其它许多名人献声，广告将在今年晚些时候亮相。（关于克洛的讲话，《财富》的克莱尔•齐尔曼进行过更详尽的报道。）

    一则旨在制止杀戮濒危物种的宣传活动的广告制作也很出色。环保组织野生救援协会（Wildaid.org）理事长奈彼得展示了他们制作的移动电视广告，广告中汇聚了一大批名人，包括姚明、威廉王子和莱昂纳多•迪卡普里奥。有些国家的文化把象牙和犀牛角当作珍宝，奈彼得希望能在这些国家把购买象牙和犀牛角的行为变成一种耻辱。这些广告十分感人，观之令人心痛不已。他们的标语也很棒：“没有买卖，就没有杀害。”靠着微薄的预算，奈彼得请到了纽约和伦敦的顶级广告公司帮助制作这些广告。上述广告已经发布；点击此处观看。

    即便对那些更严肃的环保运动而言，营销同样不可或缺。本次绿色头脑风暴大会的最后一天，我参加了一个名叫“能效爆发”（ "Efficiency Explosion"）的早餐小组会，各路专家在会上讨论了公用事业公司帮助客户减少电力消耗的方法。一位与会者指出，目前我们掌握了许多提高能效的方法，许多公用事业公司有很好的项目，有些政府也推出了很好的鼓励政策。但问题在于，绝大部分用户对于节能漠不关心。然而，技术人员深知，假如人们都能省一点电，积少成多，就能够大大地降低有害物排放。“能效爆发”专家小组的成员一致认为，节能事业要想取得成功，最后的关键在于更好地宣传节能的好处。

    不过，一切都还有希望。绿色头脑风暴大会的与会者感觉，痛苦的环境战正在渐渐平息。没人再去理会那些否认气候变化的怪人。因此，政策制定者们能够专注于找到解决方案。（美国总统奥巴马计划于6月2日发布新的环保方案。）一旦我们离答案更进一步，如果之后的最大障碍不过是教育、说服、引导或使出现代营销的各种手段，使消费者做正确的事，那就好办了。

    不同凡想，确实如此。(财富中文网)

    译者：项航

    For seven years, Fortune magazine has hosted a forum, Brainstorm Green, to discuss ways to save the Earth. Attendees typically discuss legislation and regulation, science, and finance. This year an unexpected tool emerged as a theme for environmental action: Marketing.

    Over and over the "green" crowd -- from CEOs to sustainability advocates to policy wonks -- made the case simply for communicating better with various constituencies about what can be done for the planet. Laws and policies and programs can only go far, they said. Getting more of the right people to give a damn is the next step.

    Enter the marketing gurus.

    Lee Clow, the legendary advertising sidekick to Steve Jobs on epic ad campaigns including "1984" and "Think Different" has teamed up with Conservation International to release what promises to be a shoulder-shaking series of ads. At the conference, Clow showed some samples of his work, including a stirring first-person narration by the ocean, courtesy of Harrison Ford. (Ford is a board member of the conservation group.) The tagline: "Nature doesn't need people. People need nature." Clow, who cleverly noted that campaigns need slogans that fit on a t-shirt, said the idea is to sensitize people to the need to care for the planet without making them feel bad. The ad campaign, which features other famous voices, debuts later in the year. (Fortune's Claire Zillman covered Clow's talk in more detail.)

    Spiffy advertising also features in a new campaign to stop the killing of endangered species. Wildaid.org Executive Director Peter Knights showed his moving TV ads, which feature a host of celebrities including Yao Ming, Prince William, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Knights wants to stigmatize the purchase of elephant tusks and rhino horns in the countries whose cultures value them. The ads are moving and disturbing and heart-wrenching. They also have a great tagline: "When the buying stops, the killing can too." On a shoe-string budget, Knights has recruited top New York and London advertising agencies to create his organization's spots. These ads are out already; watch them here.

    Marketing is one of the answers even in wonkier realms of the environmental movement. On the last morning of the conference I wandered into a breakfast panel called "Efficiency Explosion," where various experts discussed how utilities can help their customers reduce electricity usage. One participant observed that efficiency methods are now well understood, many utilities have outstanding programs, and certain governments do a good job with helpful policies. The problem is that too few customers give a damn about saving a bit of energy. As the technicians know well, however, tiny yet widespread reductions in electricity usage translate into dramatic lowering of noxious emissions. The panelists agree that the last key to success is marketing these opportunities better.

    There's something hopeful about all this. There was a sense at Brainstorm Green that the bitter environmental wars are quieting down. No one much pays attention to kooky climate-change deniers. So those who remain in the policy arena can focus on solutions. (President Obama plans to release his latest efforts on June 2.) Once we are closer to answers, if the biggest hurdle after that is educating, convincing, cajoling and otherwise pulling all the levers of modern marketing to get consumers to do the right thing, then we'd be in a pretty good place.

    Think different, indeed.