Skip to main content
    Description

    Before planning marketing and outreach strategies, frame your efforts by understanding your local market and how it operates. Many program administrators start marketing and outreach as soon as they can in an effort to create demand for their programs. While the desire to get started right away is understandable, your program stands to benefit from first doing the necessary research to shape your strategies for success. The market assessment and program goal setting you perform to begin program design will be critical in helping to assess the market for your program’s marketing and outreach efforts.

    A market assessment will support your marketing and outreach efforts by allowing you to:

    • Categorize target audiences to engage as customers of your program
    • Understand what drives these audiences to action
    • Identify what changes in behavior will help you achieve your program goals.

    Target audiences are individuals or groups of community members that your program needs to influence. Your program design might note that your target audiences are single-family or multifamily homeowners or renters in a specific geographic area. That is an important place to start in identifying whom you will try to influence to achieve the goals of the program, but more demographic or psychographic information about your audience might be needed to effectively target marketing and outreach efforts.

    This handbook describes the following key steps to assess the market for your program’s marketing and outreach:

    • Develop a market research plan to guide audience research
    • Conduct audience research to determine who should be the focus of your marketing and outreach
    • Categorize your target audiences to narrow the focus of your marketing and outreach efforts.
    Step by Step

    By researching who comprises your program’s target audiences, what their needs are, what motivates them to change their behavior, and what prevents them from undertaking home energy upgrades, you will be able to craft relevant messages and delivery approaches that will inspire them to take action.

    The following steps can help your program assess the market for home energy upgrades.

    Identify and prioritize potential audiences for their receptivity to energy efficiency services

    Before diving into audience research, take stock of available resources and research then outline your approach for conducting research.

    In Their Own Words: Understanding Your Market Through Research and Testing

    In Their Own Words: Understanding Your Market Through Research and Testing

    Source: U.S. Department of Energy, 2012.

    While market research approaches can vary, understanding your program’s target audiences involves research on potential consumers and their communities to determine:

    • Consumer values. What is most important to your target audience (e.g., saving money, comfortable home)? Note that values may differ by neighborhood.
    • Consumer demographics. What are the characteristics of your target audience (e.g., profession, age, nationality, income structure)?
    • Psychographics. Psychographics include personality traits, values, opinions, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles of consumers. Beyond the basic demographics that describe target audiences, psychographics aim to dig deeper into what makes people do what they do. For example, what does your target audience value most (family, free time, saving money)? What will motivate your potential customers to action (e.g., will they participate in your program if they know their neighbors are participating)?
    • Housing stock features, age, and commonalities. Do the homes in the neighborhoods you are targeting have common characteristics (e.g., all old, all newly built, serviced by the same utility)? Consider energy sources as well (e.g., oil-heated homes).
    • Available communications channels and networks. Is there a community newsletter, social media, or a well-respected organization that reaches homeowners in the neighborhoods you are targeting?
    • Potential community and other outreach partners. Are there opportunities to form partnerships with individuals and organizations within the community?

    A market research plan will help kick off your market assessment to understand your program’s target audiences. When developing a market research plan, you will want to define available resources, select research techniques, and draft your research plan.

    Define Available Resources

    Determine how much money, time, and staff you have to devote to audience research for marketing and outreach so that you can effectively allocate resources to collect useful audience information.

    • Not all research will require significant funding. If possible, use existing research from colleges and universities, research institutions, foundations, and other local sources, including city departments, state agencies, utility partners, and nonprofit organizations.
    • Because they have done research on their readership, viewers, etc., local media often have good data on target audiences as well. If you plan to advertise in any type of media, ask for their audience demographics and any surveys they may have conducted.
    • If staff resources are limited, consider soliciting university research partners, which might be able to offer students to support research efforts as part of their academic pursuits.

    Has Some Research Already Been Done For You?

    Market research can provide great insights into your potential customer base, but it can also become costly, cutting into the funds available for marketing and outreach tactics. Before taking the time and spending the money to conduct new research, see what information is already available about your local market and target audiences from partners and other sources.

    You can start with the following resources, but keep in mind, what works for a market in California might not be relevant for homeowners in other parts of the country:

    EIA Energy Profiles for 16 Selected States

    Energy profiles

    Source: U.S. Energy Information Agency, 2009.

    Select Research Techniques

    To better understand your target audience, you might decide to undertake both quantitative and qualitative research (see below). Based on available resources (e.g., money, time, staff), you can consider undertaking a variety of research techniques.

    Quantitative research includes numerical data from a large number of people, such as demographic information, opinion trends, or quantifiable responses to questions posed to your target audiences. Quantitative data sources can include census surveys; county and city tax records; or online, mail, or phone surveys.

    • Census data includes income levels and ages of residents.
    • Tax records have data on the households that have taken advantage of energy efficiency tax breaks.
    • Surveys can reveal trends of how respondents feel about the importance of energy efficiency and what might motivate them to pursue home energy upgrades.
    • Programs can review findings of previously conducted surveys, add questions to a quantitative survey a partner might be conducting, or conduct new quantitative research as needed to ensure specific questions about target audience are answered.

    Qualitative research involves the collection of information that is not quantifiable or data-driven, but can offer insights into your target audiences’ beliefs and motivations. Sources of this information typically include in-person, phone, or online focus groups and one-on-one interviews.

    • Email or phone surveys, targeted interviews, or online forums can be cost-effective ways to collect qualitative information, in comparison to in-person focus groups. Although, the latter allow you to observe people discussing your questions in a group setting.
    • Survey and focus group costs will vary based on the number of questions and participants.

    Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research

    Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research

    Source: U.S. Department of Energy, 2014

    Qualitative research can be used to guide development of specific strategies and messages; however, it should not be used to predict the behavior of your target audience. Sample sizes for this type of research are generally too small to extrapolate widely. If you want to validate whether the messaging, strategies, or materials you are planning will work with target audiences, and you have the budget to do so, a more extensive survey might be better for predicting audience attitudes and reactions to marketing efforts.

    The Market Research Considerations table below outlines various qualitative and quantitative research options, tips, and cost considerations. While many factors will contribute to the cost of each research type (e.g., number of respondents, number of interviewers, depth of analysis) they are listed in order of types that tend to be the least costly to the more expensive options.

    Market Research Considerations

    Source: U.S. Department of Energy, 2014.

    Chicago Employs Various Approaches to Market Research

    Research was helpful for Energy Impact Illinois (EI2) to focus its efforts among its large geographic region and population.

    To gauge attitudes toward home improvements and energy upgrades, EI2 conducted quantitative research using 1,600 phone surveys completed by mid- to high-income Chicago households. The surveys provided a number of insights into the target audience's decision process:

    • While most homeowners viewed energy efficiency improvements positively, they did not necessarily believe improvements were urgent or a priority.
    • When considering a home improvement, recommendations from personal sources such as family and friends were viewed to be very persuasive.
    • After hearing about potential financial incentive programs, 8% more respondents said that they would be very likely to make an improvement.

    EI2 used this audience information to inform the program’s marketing and outreach approach. This presentation provides a full summary of the research findings.

    To develop its communications and community outreach strategies, EI2 also used innovative ethnographic research conducted in diverse neighborhoods throughout Chicago by anthropologists from The Field Museum. The research was commissioned by the Chicago Department of Environment to recommend strategies for engaging communities in the Chicago Climate Action Plan. The research consisted of results from nine rapid ethnographic inventories which were used to identify community concerns and assets that could serve as springboards for climate action. Key takeaways from this research include:

    • While the majority of residents are aware of and care about global climate change, many do not connect it to their everyday lives in Chicago.
    • The cultural and social backgrounds of residents play large roles in shaping their attitudes and beliefs about climate change, nature, and the environment.
    • Most residents already engage in a range of green practices in their daily lives, from the mainstream to the creative and community-specific.
    • Climate action programs will likely be most successful if they are designed and implemented with networks of trusted community organizations and leaders, build on cultural values, and identify and scale up existing positive behaviors.
    • Most communities are interested in adopting climate action programs that provide recognizable, community-level co-benefits, including but also beyond cost savings.
    Learn more on The Field Museum's website.

    Draft Your Research Plan

    Once decisions about the type(s) of research to pursue have been made, you are ready to draft your research plan. If you plan to hire an organization to conduct research, this information will serve as the basis of your request for proposals. To develop a plan:

    • Document the types of research you plan to undertake. For example, will you perform online surveys, in-person interviews, or a combination?
    • Write down who will be targeted. Make a list of the types of people who you would like to target, and be specific (e.g., single-family homeowners with young children living in houses more than 20 years old).
    • Determine how and when you will conduct research. For example, will you have a team of researchers or just one researcher? Will you call people at home before, during, or after work, or approach them in person at an event during the weekend? If you plan to make calls, do you have the appropriate phone numbers? Do you need to reserve space for an in-person focus group?
    • Document the questions you will ask. To help you start to develop a list, questions about your audiences’ motivations and barriers generate the most useful feedback. Also aim to:
      • Ask open-ended questions
      • Avoid leading questions
      • Remember that the results of qualitative research should not be treated as quantitative research (e.g., do not extrapolate a focus group’s responses to an entire population)
      • Remain aware of self-reporting biases (e.g., when respondents give an answer that they think you want to hear or that they themselves want to believe).

    Do Not Reinvent the Research Wheel

    Check out the Toolbox tab to access resources Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners used to conduct their audience research, including sample surveys.

    With a research plan in hand, you are now ready to conduct audience research. Research will help you understand what motivates your program’s target audiences and what barriers prevent them from taking action.

    The table below shows some examples of motivations and barriers for typical target audiences of residential energy efficiency programs.

    Examples of Motivations and Barriers for Residential Energy Efficiency Program Target Audiences

    Source: U.S. Department of Energy, 2014.

    Your audience research will help determine the specific motivations and barriers of your target audiences. When audience research is complete, you will be ready to categorize your target audiences.

    The Survey Says...

    Taking advantage of potential customers gathered at workshops hosted by Connecticut’s Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge, the program distributed surveys to workshop attendees to learn more about the audience, including their local affiliations, energy efficiency areas of interest, and the type of home heating system installed in their homes. The program used the information collected through the surveys to better understand the target audience and create marketing materials that were geared to their needs. View the survey template used by the Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge as well as other program audience surveys in the Toolbox tab.

     

    Focus Groups Help Guide Marketing for Efficiency Maine

    Efficiency Maine conducted both qualitative and quantitative research to learn about its target audiences. Initial research consisted of focus groups involving residential decision makers of various ages, genders, and incomes to help the program:

    • Guide the development of a marketing campaign
    • Aid the strategic direction of Efficiency Maine with respect to identity, programs, and future initiatives
    • Gauge the level of awareness of Efficiency Maine
    • Probe their energy conservation behavior and intentions
    • Understand barriers to making energy efficient changes
    • Evaluate potential marketing messages. 

    The focus groups helped Efficiency Maine receive quick turn-around feedback that the program could use to craft additional audience research surveys and inform initial marketing program development. Learn more about Efficiency Maine’s audience research in the webinar presentation, Keeping Up With Your Audience So They Keep Up With Your Program.

    To ensure your marketing and outreach is relevant and effective, each marketing or outreach campaign effort you undertake should have a strategy to reach the customers most likely to respond. Simply targeting a broad audience (e.g., all of the homeowners in your city) is not a strategic approach. Define your target audience by determining your primary audience.  

    A primary audience consists of those whom you want to quickly act on messages and participate in your program. Within your primary audience, you will need to define priority audience(s) that will be the focus of various marketing and outreach campaigns, program offers, and delivery tactics. The process of identifying priority audiences is often referred to as market segmentation and is covered in more detail in Make Design Decisions.

    Identifying Your Primary Audience

    Based on your audience research, you should be able to group homeowners into categories. A comprehensive evaluation of over 140 programs across the United States found that the more successful residential energy efficiency programs had greater success when they identified specific target populations within their larger target area, then tailored their outreach to the target populations. Depending on the type of research you conducted, these groupings could be related to:

    • Attitudes/beliefs
    • Motivations
    • Income
    • Age of home
    • Other data you collected.

    It’s worth noting that location is not on the list; many of the residential energy efficiency programs evaluated found that restricting program outreach to a defined geographic area unnecessarily limited their program participation. To help identify your priority audience, you will want to consider the following steps:

    • Outline what you know about your target audience
    • Categorize your target audience based on common characteristics
    • Prioritize your target audience based on who would be most receptive to your message
    • Determine the appropriate communication channels to reach your target audience
    • Account for your target audience’s social connections (e.g., homeowner associations, churches, etc.) in order to identify credible messengers to engage them
    • Specify the primary audience, influencers, and gatekeepers for each audience category.

    Get To Know Your Audience Terms

    Target audiences are individuals or groups of community members that your program needs to reach.

    Primary audiences are those whom you will want to quickly act on messages and participate in your program.

    • Categorize your primary audience narrowly (e.g., recent single-family homebuyers with young children, retirees), and further define them by their likely motivation for wanting to take action (e.g., health, cost).
    • This is the group you will want to start with when determining where to focus your marketing efforts.

    Priority audiences are subsections of your primary audiences that will be the focus of your various marketing campaigns, program offers, and delivery tactics.

    Influencers are those leaders or groups who can influence the primary audience.

    • You will ultimately want to engage these groups to use their power of influence for your program. 

    Gatekeepers are leaders or groups who can facilitate or prevent access to the primary audience.

    • Get to know your primary audience’s gatekeepers and utilize them to access your audience. If gatekeepers are preventing access to your target audience, find out why and work around them or find ways to get them to open up access.

    The table below shows examples of primary audiences, their influencers, and gatekeepers.

    Examples of Residential Energy Efficiency Program Audiences

    Source: U.S. Department of Energy, 2014.

    Identifying Your Priority Audience

    Within your primary audiences, you will also need to define priority audience(s) that will be the focus of various marketing campaigns, program offers, and delivery tactics. The process of identifying priority audiences is often referred to as market segmentation.

    In Their Own Words: Benefits of Market Segmentation

    In Their Own Words: Benefits of Market Segmentation

    Source: U.S. Department of Energy, 2012.

    Market segmentation seeks to identify groups of consumers who have similar attributes or attitudes in order to make it easier for programs to determine how to effectively compel them to take an action. It typically makes sense to focus your marketing efforts on priority audiences who show the most potential for the behavior change that will help your program achieve its goals. Some programs start customers off with a simple online energy screening, while others begin with a full in-home assessment. Others might focus on specific energy efficiency improvements (e.g., insulation and air sealing, HVAC replacements, fuel switching).

    Community Power Works Selects Specific Market for Upgrades

    In Seattle, Washington, approximately 17% of homes are oil-heated, but owners of oil-heated homes are ineligible for city-sponsored electric and gas utility rebates. This did not stop Community Power Works (CPW) from using housing data to break through to this untapped market. Given the lower efficiency and high cost of heating oil, the program recognized the energy and cost savings potential for these Seattle homeowners and encouraged them to undertake home energy upgrades.

    Community Power Works purchased a mailing list of oil-heated Seattle home and, based on customer feedback from the program’s other campaigns, determined that direct mail letters were the best way to communicate with this audience. The first letter was sent in April 2012. More than 700 CPW customers who signed up for upgrades from April to August reported mailings as the way they heard about the program. Additionally, in the 11 months prior to the first mailing, only 20% of CPW’s upgrade projects involved oil-heated homes. However, during the six months following the mailing, 50% of the homes that started the upgrade process were oil-heated. Among those homes, nearly 75% switched from oil heating to high-efficiency electric heating or high-efficiency electric heat pumps by mid-December 2012.

    Source: Data-Driven Mailing Helps Heat Up Untapped Seattle Market, U.S. Department of Energy, 2013.

    Use the Audience Brainstorm and Categorization worksheet developed by the U.S. Department of Energy to identify and prioritize your primary and priority audiences. Note that you will finalize your priority audience in the Make Design Decisions handbook.

    With this market research and audience definition in hand, you will have the information needed to tailor marketing and outreach strategies to audiences that will be more receptive to the benefits and services your program offers. The research conducted to inform your marketing and outreach approaches can be combined with research you conduct in other program components to inform overall program design.

    Strategic Segmenting in Oregon

    In 2009, Energy Trust of Oregon, in partnership with Enhabit (formerly Clean Energy Works Oregon), conducted audience research to improve the effectiveness of residential marketing activities. They divided their residential audiences into six segments:

    • Main Street Oregonians: Non-urban residents who are receptive to green living.
    • Willing and Able: Financially capable, higher energy consumers with greener attitudes.
    • Hands Full: Large families with lower incomes and lower perception of the efficacy of energy efficiency.
    • Show Me: Eastern Oregonians who are less receptive to energy efficiency.
    • Strugglers: Renters in survival mode.
    • Maybe Later: Young renters with green attitudes.

    The program determined that two of these segments were more likely to participate - “Willing and Able” and “Main Street Oregonians” - and chose them as priority audiences. Recognizing that different market segments have different motivations, the program tailored marketing strategies to each segment's motivations.

    This research contributed to a successful pilot program conducted in Portland, Oregon, and subsequently served as the basis for the larger Enhabit program, which achieved more than 3,400 home energy upgrades as a Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partner.

    Learn more about Enhabit’s market segmentation.

    Tips for Success

    In recent years, hundreds of communities have been working to promote home energy upgrades through programs such as the Better Buildings Neighborhood Program, Home Performance with ENERGY STAR, utility-sponsored programs, and others. The following tips present the top lessons these programs want to share related to this handbook. This list is not exhaustive.

    Tips for Success

    Many programs found that market research can help identify, segment, and characterize audiences to understand how to prioritize them. A comprehensive evaluation of over 140 programs across the United States found that programs had greater success when they identified specific target populations within their larger target area, then tailored their outreach to the size of the target populations. Consider prioritizing audiences based on parameters such as demographics, values, housing type, fuel source, potential for savings, common problems with homes, property ownership structure, or program entry point (e.g., remodeling opportunities). For a starting point in your targeting efforts, look online for existing market segmentation data (e.g., municipal records, Zillow, a Nielsen segmentation system called PRIZM, U.S. Census Bureau).

    In Their Own Words: Benefits of Market Segmentation

    Doueck Video

    Source: U.S. Department of Energy, 2012.

    • The ShopSmart with JEA program in Jacksonville, Florida, purchased Neilson PRIZM lifestyle segmentation data, which included demographic, consumer behavior, and geographic information, to identify, understand, and reach potential home energy upgrade customers. The data divided consumers into 66 demographically and behaviorally distinct segments. Through this market analysis, ShopSmart with JEA discovered that out of those segments, one of the most promising demographics to market its program offerings was older people without children. ShopSmart was able to use this information to market the program specifically to this demographic, as well as identify and target new demographics that had not been active in the program previously.
    • In Seattle, Washington, owners of oil-heated homes are ineligible for city-sponsored electric and gas utility rebates. Community Power Works purchased a mailing list from Data Marketing, Inc., that identified all owners of oil-heated homes in the city so the program could reach this previously untapped market. Given the lower efficiency and high cost of heating oil, the program recognized the energy and cost savings potential for these Seattle homeowners and engaged them in undertaking home energy upgrades by focusing outreach on the potential dollar savings that could be achieved by replacing old oil heaters. More than 700 Community Power Works customers who received the mailing then signed up for upgrades between April and August 2012. In the 11 months prior to the first mailing, only 20% of Community Power Works' upgrade projects involved oil-heated homes, and during the six months following the mailing, 50% of the homes were oil-heated. Among those homes, nearly 75% switched from oil heating to high-efficiency electric heating or high-efficiency electric heat pumps, as of mid-December 2012.
    • California utilities provided several examples of market segmentation that targeted energy efficiency programs. The report “Market Segmentation and Energy Efficiency Program Design” by the California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) provides an overview of market segmentation purposes, examples, and methodologies. Another CIEE report, “Behavior Assumptions Underlying California Residential Sector Energy Efficiency Programs,” examines how to influence customer behavior and choice.

    Target program messages to what customers want, not what the program does. Although residential energy efficiency programs deliver energy efficiency services, customers are more likely to respond to offers of comfort, cost savings, increased home value, health, community pride, or something else they need and value.

    • The RePower program in Washington state customized its marketing and outreach strategies to reach the environmentally conscious residents of Bainbridge Island, Washington, and Bremerton, Washington, a neighboring community with a lower income demographic. In Bainbridge, messaging focused on environmental stewardship, and an Island Energy Dashboard displayed real-time energy use in public spaces, such as local businesses and commuter ferries. Messaging geared toward Bremerton residents, meanwhile, emphasized job creation and reduced utility bills. Each location had its own community-specific website, color scheme, print advertising, online promotions, and case studies highlighting local energy champions to drive demand for residential energy upgrades.

    In Their Own Words: Messaging to Motivate

    Kraus Video

    Source: U.S. Department of Energy, 2012.

    • In Florida, solar energy is in high demand, so the Solar and Energy Loan Fund (SELF) used this as a gateway to reach homeowners. Through SELF, homeowners could receive a loan for solar energy upgrades after meeting certain energy efficiency thresholds. For example, if a home energy assessment showed that the home's envelope was already sealed (or would be sealed as part of the work), a homeowner could qualify for a loan for solar panels offered by the program.
    Resources

    The following resources provide topical information related to this handbook. The resources include a variety of information ranging from case studies and examples to presentations and webcasts. The U.S. Department of Energy does not endorse these materials.

    Resources
    Author(s)
    U.S. Department of Energy
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    NeighborWorks H.E.A.T. Squad
    Building on its understanding of homeowners in Rutland County, Vermont, NeighborWorks of Western Vermont (NWWVT) enlisted respected local citizens and organizations to spread the word about home energy efficiency upgrade opportunities, an effort that helped drive demand for nearly 200 home upgrades in just six months
    Author(s)
    U.S. Department of Energy
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Efficiency Vermont

    In this video interview segment, Emily Levin of Vermont Energy Investment Corporation shares the importance of market research.

    Author(s)
    EnergySmart
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    EnergySmart Colorado

    This marketing plan describes a social mobilization approach that leverages social networking, including social media, and word-of-mouth marketing to raise awareness and drive customers to program services. It provides strategies and tactics to target audiences most likely to participate, building on market research and audience segmentation to develop a message platform specifically designed to address their key motivating factors and barriers.

    Author(s)
    California Public Utilities Commission
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Energy Upgrade California

    The goal of the Marketing Education & Outreach (ME&O) Program is to motivate consumers to take action on energy efficiency/conservation measures and change their behavior. The program strives to both increase consumer awareness and facilitate the ability to act and incorporate technological advances or behavior change using all available resources to reduce energy and choose clean energy options. This Five-Year ME&O Strategic Roadmap includes two main sections: (1) the objectives, strategies, and metrics for customer engagement and how these strategies will lead greenhouse gas reduction and energy efficiency goals of the California Public Utilities Commission.

    Author(s)
    Opinion Dynamics Corporation
    Publication Date

    This report presents findings from the Energy Forward Consumer Messaging Study. The purpose of this study is to assess
    whether Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance can deploy the Energy Forward mark as a platform or parent brand for all of its
    initiatives.

    Author(s)
    Kat Donnelly, Connecticut Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Connecticut Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge
    This presentation outlines the steps Connecticut's Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge program took to obtain and sort useful feedback from surveys and volunteer observations.
    Author(s)
    Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Energy Upgrade California
    This presentation describes California property owners' specific interest, awareness, and perceptions regarding energy use, energy efficiency, home energy upgrades, and related topics.
    Author(s)
    Los Angeles County, California
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Energy Upgrade California
    This report describes California property owners' specific interest, awareness, and perceptions regarding energy use, energy efficiency, home energy upgrades, and related topics. The study results were used for program design and to design and support marketing and outreach campaigns that encouraged energy upgrades
    Author(s)
    U.S. Department of Energy
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Cambridge Energy Alliance,
    Energy Impact Illinois,
    Enhabit,
    Energy Upgrade California

    This presentation summarizes the market research that was performed by various Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners.

    Author(s)
    Clean Energy Works Oregon (now Enhabit)
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Enhabit

    Clean Energy Works Oregon (now Enhabit) developed consumer profiles based on research the program conducted on its target audience.

    Author(s)
    Frank Rapley, Tennessee Valley Authority
    Publication Date
    This presentation describes the Kentucky Home Performance program and lessons learned on testing innovative approaches to engaging consumers.
    Author(s)
    Sustainable Home Initiative in a New Economy
    Publication Date
    This market research study identifies key stakeholders; builds and executes a survey to help determine the appropriate segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) strategy; and develops marketing tactics as part of an integrated marketing communications plan to help launch the program.
    Author(s)
    Booz and Company
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Energy Impact Illinois
    This presentation provides the results of a 1,600-person survey of mid- to high-income households conducted by Energy Impact Illinois (EI2) to gauge attitudes toward home improvements and energy efficiency upgrades.
    Author(s)
    RePower Bainbridge
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    RePower Kitsap,
    RePower Bainbridge,
    RePower Bremerton
    This presentation explores the community-based social marketing aspects of RePower Bainbridge and includes insights on knowing your audience, market barriers, and leverage opportunities.
    Author(s)
    U.S. Department of Energy
    Publication Date

    This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on using tailored messaging and approaches to meet the unique needs of families. Building Doctors is the featured speaker.

    Author(s)
    The University of Texas at Austin
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Austin Energy
    This presentation shares the results of the Austin Energy Poll, including insights on U.S. consumer opinions and attitudes toward energy efficiency, climate change, energy consumption, pricing, development, and regulation.
    Author(s)
    Connecticut Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Connecticut Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge
    Short survey for Connecticut's Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge workshop participants. The workshop allowed the program to share its energy efficiency offerings with homeowners.
    Author(s)
    Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)
    Publication Date

    Homeowner survey created by the utility to inform their whole home upgrade program.

    Author(s)
    Los Angeles County, California
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Energy Upgrade California
    Sample script Los Angeles County used to survey homeowners about energy issues.
    Author(s)
    U.S. Energy Information Administration
    Publication Date

    The State Energy Data System (SEDS) is the source of the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) comprehensive state energy statistics. EIA’s goal in maintaining SEDS is to create historical time series of energy production, consumption, prices, and expenditures by state that are defined as consistently as possible over time and across sectors for analysis and forecasting purposes.

    How to Design and Market Energy Efficiency Programs to Specific Neighborhoods

    Author(s)
    Michelle Leigh, County of Volusia, Florida,
    Andrea Petzel, City of Seattle, Washington,
    Lilah Glick, Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Community Power Works,
    Volusia County,
    FL,
    Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance (GCEA)

    This webcast offers information on successful marketing strategies, as well as design considerations and market research insights for creating and marketing successful projects in specific neighborhoods.

    Keeping Up With Your Audience, So They Keep Up With Your Program

    Author(s)
    U.S. Department of Energy
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Efficiency Maine,
    U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) PowerSaver
    This webcast discussed how market research can help spur demand for home energy efficiency programs.
    Author(s)
    Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    Multifamily Energy Efficiency Program,
    Energy Advantage Apartments Program

    The Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA) has prepared this assessment of the Southeast’s multifamily sector to better understand the current stock of multifamily units; regional and state multifamily construction trends; utility multifamily energy efficiency programs; and state and local policies and programs focused on the multifamily sector.

    Author(s)
    U.S. Energy Information Administration
    Publication Date
    These 16 state-specific fact sheets report on the results of the Residential Energy Consumption Survey. The fact sheets highlight: overall energy use, electricity use, and expenditures; residential consumption by end use (air conditioning, heating, appliances); main heating fuel; use of cooling equipment; housing types and year of construction; and numbers of televisions and refrigerators.
    Author(s)
    American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
    Publication Date
    Organizations or Programs
    NOLA WISE

    This report describes ACEEE's Deep South Ethnographic Project, which aimed to answer an overarching question: are end-users of energy in the Southeastern states interested in energy efficiency? This report includes the demographics of ACEEE's informants and responses to a set of questions about energy usage, bills, and money. The report also includes individual case studies from five different sites.

    Author(s)
    Danielle Sass Byrnett, U.S. Department of Energy
    Publication Date

    This blog summarizes how BetterBuildings for Michigan, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partner, developed a "readiness scale" to help target communities by determining the factors that indicate whether homeowners in a particular area are really ready to commit to energy efficiency upgrades.

    Back to top
    Last Updated