City of Guelph:
Water Conservation Public Education Communications Strategy

 

 

The Challenge:
Help one of the most successful water efficiency programs in Canada develop a comprehensive communication strategy based on the principles of community-based social marketing.

 

The Project:

The City of Guelph in Southern Ontario has a mature water efficiency program that is already achieving good results. Designing a public education communications strategy becomes all the more challenging because so much of the low hanging fruit has been already been picked.

Working with our partners Ontario-based Metroline Research Group and Copp Communications, we started with a situation analysis that included a quantitative telephone survey and qualitative market research with focus groups. We also completed a communications audit that looked at branding and creative execution in existing marketing material.

Part of the work also involved targeting heavy water users - households that use much more water than average – to find out about their habits and the barriers that prevent them from conserving.

When it came to strategy development, we looked for ways to enhance program integration and to move to more differentiated and targeted marketing. We also recommended techniques to provide customized and comparative information to residents – a new frontier in demand management.

 

The Result:
The strategy we prepared is helping the City of Guelph take a more sophisticated approach to marketing communications. Implementation is now underway and Econnics continues to provide strategic advice to this nation-leading program.

More information on Guelph's water conservation program can be found at
http://www.guelph.ca/waterconservation