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Sune L. AlmkvistConstructive Criticisms of Promotional Material Used in European Lighting Campaigns Kommunikator Almkvist & Westman AB, Sweden Abstract The campaigns discussed in this paper are mainly directed towards households as consumers of illumination. When illuminating a home, however, people's first interest is the quality of the light, the possibilities to create comfort, atmosphere and well-being. As the quality of the CFL-light is more or less equal to incandescent bulbs, it is therefore difficult to explain the premium-quality-price of the CFLs (except for special uses). The long-term economic gain argument put forward in nearly all the campaigns will hardly be accepted, the possibility for a household to save from perhaps XEU 50 to a maximum of XEU 100 in several years time, is too small a sum for such a long period. Besides this economic and other rational arguments, several campaigns concentrate on moral arguments, appealing to the consumers awareness of environmental problems and loyalty to the society. This will be effective up to a certain point, but most rational and especially moral appeals will only convince the already convinced. Arguments about saving the environment will be increasingly more important towards the end of the century, but presently a recoil in people's interest in questions of the environment can be noticed. The fact that sales until now have been satisfactory must partly be ascribed to the support of environmentally conscious consumers, partly to the substantial rebates. To reach other and larger segments of the public, something else will thus be needed. With present pricing the CFLs must be more attractive, meta-qualities must be added to their actual properties, emotional appeals must be combined with rational appeals. And extremely important; the possibilities of dividing the markets into submarkets - each segment independently approached - must not be overlooked. Especially when working with direct marketing, it is absolutely necessary to take advantage of the possibilities of market segmentation and target group adaptation. The use of symbols and metaphors not understood and/or accepted by the consumers must be avoided; pre-tests of campaign themes are recommended. it is also important that the rules of perceptional psychology and the legibility of text are taken into consideration. When planning future campaigns, the credibility problem of who should be the communication - the electricity utilities, government agencies and/or the lamp manufacturers - must be looked into (research indicates that non-utility communicators give better results). The CFLs still being in the introductory stage of their product life-cycle, they must probably, to enter into the growth stage, also benefit from the competition of several producers. It should, finally, be discussed to which extent mass communication campaigns can at all do the job. It might be necessary to reduce the price and to further develop the CFLs (and specially designed luminaires) before larger market shares can be won.
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