A Lesson in How to Change the Behavior of the Other Team

In "Officials Have Learned to Evacuate Fido, Too" (AP, 7/30/06) Brian Skoloff reports that The Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act has passed the House and is before a Senate committee. "It would require local governments to prepare to evacuate people and their pets or risk losing federal funds."

We’ll see what happens.

The crucial part of the article, for me, is a quote by Craig Fugate, Florida’s emergency management chief. He talks of the bond between people and their pets, and then he says, "This has now gone from being about pets to being about saving people’s lives." (Recall Katrina, where people stayed with their pets and died.)

This entire process has been an exercise in how NOT to change the behavior of other people. But let’s flip it and discuss how TO change behavior. I was recently enlisted to brainstorm with experts in marketing behavior change, so I’ve been a bit obsessed with this issue. 

Let’s deconstruct marketing behavior change, regarding this one topic of pets and evacuation.

• At first, footage post-Katrina was all people.
• After a bit, a few animal shots were released.
• Then a few more.
• Then there was the uproar about the animals, and I can personally say I cannot get the image of one black dog, drowning, out of my head. One of the "rescuers" in a boat wanted to try to get it, and the other said, "Nope. Just people." And they were like ten feet away from it, and could’ve easily picked it up and put it on a dry porch (it couldn’t reach), but they didn’t. But I digress.
• Here in Palm Beach County, a measure failed to pass that would have established several local public schools as shelters for people with pets (although later a recreation center was upgraded to shelter standards).

Here’s the problem:

• As long as you concentrate on the pets, you leave a gaping hole in your argument for someone to say, "Pets aren’t people," yada yada yada. And then you’re finished; you’ve got nowhere to go.

A more effective way to approach this (or any) topic is:

• In a way that addresses what the OTHER PERSON CARES ABOUT. We know you care about animals, but talking about doing anything for their benefit immediately alienates a huge population, namely, people who don’t care about animals.

Therefore, a more effective approach to this topic (which they sort of got around to, but definitely didn’t start with) is:

• It helps PEOPLE to help the animals. After all, who doesn’t care about PEOPLE? We’re God’s finest creation, right?

In conclusion:

• No one can argue when you say, "We need to plan for people to evacuate with their pets, because we have evidence that many people won’t evacuate without their pets. And when they stay at home, they all may die."

Win-win.