make it public!

Making a commitment publicly, or to another person (ideally, someone you respect & whose validation matters to you) seems to reduce the gap between our intention and action, and help overcome the possible temptations that could detract us en route to our goals.  The more public our position, the more likely it seems we are,  to follow through with it.

We are all familiar with perhaps one of the oldest commitment contract, aka marriage, where people gather together to raise the stakes of the vows being made, and make it more binding for the involved parties to avoid easily ‘backing off’ from the commitment made. 

Wharton behavioral economist Katherine Milkman and her collaborators tested the efficacy of ‘pre commitment strategies’ in prompting people to get vaccinated. It turned out that specifying & committing to someone the exact time and place when and where they will get vaccinated resulted in measurably better follow-through.

Dean Karlan, a Yale economics professor, teamed up with his colleague Ian Ayres to create a online business based on the concept of making a public contract to achieve goals. They call their platform, Stickk.com and it gives people the option of making a public commitment, financial or nonfinancial. With financial commitments, an individual puts up money and agrees to accomplish a goal by a certain date, also specifiying how to verify that s/he has met their goal. If the person reaches the goal set, s/he gets their money back. If they fail, the money ether goes to charity, or is dsitributed amongst people who reach their targets, or is sent to the sports team the person hates (adding to the motivation of sticking to one’s goals). The nonfinancial commitments include peer pressure (emails to family or friends giving them details of your successes or failures) or making one’s journey public via a dashboard accessible to all in your circle of significant others.

Positive Labelling is another way through which commitments can be made public. Singapore, often called the ‘nudge nation’ uses  publically visible ‘labels’ to encourage people to adopt desired behaviours. A publically visible label that says ‘I am a part of the Kindness movement’, ‘or  I recycle’  or ‘I scrub my hands for more than 20 seconds while washing’  to not only adopt but also sustain the desired behvaiour change.  
 
Many marketers have the wherewithal to use this dimension of human psyshology to encourage behaviours that are both expressive of the brand’s purpose as well as bevaiours that would create a positive dent in culture.  Patagonia, for example, contributes $100,000 annually to The Conservation Alliance. They also work towards preserving lands and a life outdoors. Patagonia’s commitment is very public, and its activities to make that commitement an everyday reality, steadfast. Another favorite, REI, also walks the talk when it comes to issues of conservation, sustainablity, and equality. It publicly commits to goals, and thereby opens itself for scrutiny by the public at large.

On a more topical issue, the COVID 19 crisis, this week saws some brands getting it right. Brands like Coca Cola who have publically declared it would suspend all marketing activity in key markets in response to economic changes wrought by the pandemic, Diageo pledging 2 million litres of alcohol for sanitiser, to BBC Global News, freeing 20% of its advertising inventory for use by international health and government organisations wanting to promote public-health messages around Covid-19, Gojek CEOs pledging to donate 25% of salaries to drivers and other partners facing loss of income, or LVHM deciding to  use cosmetics and perfume manufacturing facilities to make free alcohol-based sanitizer amid global shortage.
 
As human beings, we seek to be consistent with our promises & love the applause and validation that comes from sticking to our course (and hate the flak that comes with being seen as deviating from what we committed to). Aided and abetted by various technologies that offer new ways of publicising and socialising commitments, brands should make the right public commitment to become more meaningful in the lives of people they want to build a relationship with. And stand the scrutiny of delivering against it, and be rewarded for it. Or bear the consumer’s wrath of falling short, and be held accountable for it.
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The lesson, in short? Make it public!