Customers’ behavior is not always environmentally friendly or in line with the company’s mission. There are some techniques by which customers’ habits can be shaped, by a new product itself or by an intelligent campaign.

Smart products can influence consumers’ behavior in desired direction.

Example: Learning thermostat was developed by Nest Labs, a Silicon Valley start-up. This smart thermostat, thanks to Wi-Fi connection, can monitor and learn users’ habits, and thus help to adopt more eco-friendly behavior.

How?

Nest device: Sends emails to users with a monthly energy report about the usage of energy, which also includes tips like “Changing the temperature just 1º can cut your energy use up to 10%.”

Allows customers to control thermostat through a smartphone app. This application allows users to warm up selected rooms in case the user arrives earlier than planned. Offers “rush hours” rewards for moderate energy use. Nest thermostat inform owners that they can earn money if they reduce energy use at peak times. Such rewards are possible provided that Nest Labs co-operate with US energy utilities.

Shaping consumers behavior

Smart campaigns can help to adapt to new habits.

Example: in 2010 Toyota Sweden launched a campaign called “A Glass of Water” which was based on the assumption that calmer drivers use less fuel and this way reduce the emission of carbon. Toyota asked drivers to place a glass of water on the dashboard. The driving should be calm, so that the water will not spill out and the fuel consumption will decrease to 10%.

But what if the glass of water spills out on a driver? Because such experiment could discourage many drivers, Toyota Sweden proposed an iPhone app which shows the glass of water virtually. What is more, it is integrated with Google maps, and this way drivers can read reports how much water was spilled during the route and how much fuel could have been saved. The app was down-loaded 95,000 time making up 400,000 kilometers of calm and environmentally friendly driving.

Importance of prosumers

 We highly recommend that you read MODULE 4 on “New market development, human centered design and prototyping.” Interesting facts, important trends and examples of sustainable solutions were presented there.