Encouraging Solar Panel Adoption: A Consumer Insight Marketing Report

This report examines marketing strategies to encourage Australian households to adopt solar panels and home batteries, addressing the problem that current championing programs targeting a general market have not been effective. It focuses on the middle-aged and adult homeowners as the target market, leveraging the self-determination theory to influence consumer behavior through intrinsic motivation and extrinsic appeals. The report proposes three marketing strategies: social media campaigns, creative video tutorials on platforms like YouTube, and the use of leverage influencers with established follower bases relevant to the target demographic. It concludes that while all strategies are valuable, social media marketing is the most cost-effective and widely accessible approach. The report references scholarly articles and industry reports to support its analysis and recommendations.

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1. Introduction
1.1 Overview of the topic
The need for domestic power is increasing day after the other, prompting households to
explore the most appropriate and convenient power sources. Solar power is one of the most
convenient sources of domestic power as compared to the electric power supplied by the
government in terms of cost and reliance. That is evident from the one purchase
distinguishing factor of solar power which is also easy to maintain and cheap to maintain.
According to (Rippetoe, 2016) “A massive solar energy boom is being predicted for 2018
after an unprecedented number of industrial solar farms were approved by the New South
Wales and Queensland governments last year” in Australia.
1.2 The target market
The target market for the solar energy is the middle-aged and adults who have homes.
Households tend to require a lot of power to run a couple of devices and thus targeting them
would be feasible.
1.3 Statement of problem
While solar power championing programs have been put in place for quite some time, they
have not been effective because of targeting a general market (Milne, 2016). As a result,
therefore, if the champions are directed to the most relevant audience, then they will
definitely succeed.
2. Literature review and framework
2.1Overview of literature on the topic
According to a research done by (Lin, 2015), “A record-breaking month of rooftop
installations and a flood of large-scale solar farms could almost double Australia’s solar
power capacity in a single year.” That has an implication that the industry has been down for

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quite some time but it has begun to boom and move towards maneuvering. One fact that
needs to be understood here is that the solar manufacturing industry has been putting efforts
into producing commodities that suit the user in terms of quality and quantity. However, the
target market seems to be shying away from taking this advantage to benefit themselves from
the availability of convenient power. However, Australians are beginning to settle on solar
panels and batteries as the source of their domestic power. This fact is giving a little bit of
hope that the industry is expected to do well in the near future and that almost every
household will go for solar energy to quench their power thirst (Delucchi, 2014). The same is
evident by the fact that Australians have been embracing the idea of the use of solar powers
to cater for all their power needs. A substantial research reveals that the number of solar
panels installed in different households in the country has increased by 69% in the year 2018
and that it is anticipated that the trend improves as time goes (Jamel, 2016). It is an
indisputable fact that a large number of households have begun seeing the sense that solar
power is an uncompromised source of energy and therefore all households should turn into it.
Interestingly, according to another school of thought “Solar is the cheapest way to generate
electricity in the world.” The writer argues that whether people turn to hydroelectric power,
coal, or any other sources of power, they will eventually come into the realization that they
have been wasting a lot of resources to get power. These resources could be channeled to
other income-generating activities. Another author explored the same field and came into
conclusion that the Australians majorly install solar panels during the month of January
which is usually attached to the warm weather during that time and the usual increase in the
price of power per unit (Cavusgil, 2017). He, however, advises that whether or not there is
increase or decrease in cost of power costs, households should opt for solar power. Therefore,
the fluctuations of power process shouldn’t be a determinant of whether or not to install solar
panels. Another author adds that solar power can be used to run any gadget. He says that is

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beauty is that it can run even fans without the fear of getting high power bills at the end of the
month.
2.2 Theory
Choosing the most appropriate framework for investigation is usually critical. After
consideration of the necessary factors, the theory that was arrived at is the self determination
theory. It is a theory that falls under motivational theories. The theory “represents a broad
framework for the study of human motivation and personality.” The theory holds that whole
intrinsic motivations are capable of sustaining innovativeness and passions they are not
necessarily externally rewarded. Overall, “The interplay between the extrinsic forces acting
on persons and the intrinsic motives and needs inherent in human nature is the territory of
Self-Determination Theory” (Fornell, 2015). The theory is believed to show a “meta-theory
for framing motivational studies, a formal theory that defines intrinsic and varied extrinsic
sources of motivation, and a description of the respective roles of intrinsic and types of
extrinsic motivation in cognitive and social development and in individual differences.” The
primary reason for choosing this theory is its relevance in the fields of investigation.
Researchers have proven that the theory is relevant and practically helpful in diverse fields
among the organizations and the power industry. The theory uses the motivational factor and
extrinsic appeals to influence human behavior and thus relevant to the study at question.
The study in this paper looks forward to taking back power home by encouraging households
to buy any use solar panels and batteries as a source of power. Encouraging people to buy
solar panels and batteries requires an approach that would enable people make decisions
based in their intrinsic motivations. That explains the reason as to why other theories
especially those associated with attitude as opposed to motivation would be less useful in this
case (Crook, 2015). As a result, therefore, the theory of self-determination theory becomes
the most appropriate in this case. The best criteria to be employed when trying to influence

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people to embrace a certain behavior or buy a certain agenda is to motivate them towards
having that thing. Motivation also improves performance and how receptive human beings
are as far as embracing new ideas is concerned.
3. Marketing strategies
Marketing, usually, has goals and objectives that have to be met at the end of the day. To
meet these set goals and objectives, a marketing manager would be required to use several
strategies to make goal attaining easy and quicker (Varadarajan, 2015). With regard to the
study topic, several marketing strategies can be employed to attain the marketing goals in
which the biggest of them is having households buy solar panels and batteries for domestic
power.
3.1 Marketing strategy 1
The first marketing strategy is the use of social media. Many business units have found their
way out through the use of social media to create public awareness of their business
regarding what they stock, how much they sell their products as well as the available after
sales services. The campaign for taking power back home will be made through social media.
The main advantages of this marketing strategy is that it is easy and convenient (Kanfer,
2017). There is no technical know-how needed to promote the same on social media. The
marketing strategy is also convenient in terms of cost. It is absolutely free not unless the
promoting feature is used. Another primary advantage is that it reaches a wider audience
since almost every is in a social media platform. This strategy is steered by the motivational
theory. It uses the idea of extrinsic environment to persuade the target customers to acquire
the marketed product (Jain, 2016). However, the strategy may be disgusting at the beginning
due to less traffic, it is absolutely one of the best since when traffic is acquired when it
becomes convenient to appeals to their behaviors and influence them to buy your ideology.

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3.2 Marketing strategy 2
Another imperative strategy that will be employed in encouraging households to begin using
solar power is the use of creative video tutorials. Research shows that YouTube is the second
largest search engine after Google. Whenever a person wishes to learn about something
visually, they go to YouTube and get everything necessary to solve their problems. The
research tells that people do that a couple of tines within a day depending on the amount of
problems they have. Overall, all over the world have gotten solutions of their diverse
problems using the same search engine while others have developed renowned brands by the
use of the search engine (Maddux, 2014). It is therefore, because of this reason, that it is
necessary to explore the possibilities of using this technology and turn it into a marketing
advantage. Creative videos and documentaries showing the importance of using power
energy as well as real-life situation comparison of using other power sources and solar energy
will be published on the search engine. The videos will comprise of explanations and logical
justifications of the vitality of using the solar power. In making these videos, practical usage
of the panels for supply of domestic power that can sustain all the domestic appliances will be
included (Rogers, 2017). When the message reaches the people through other means, say,
social media, mainstream media, etc., they will go to YouTube, get the relevant information
and see the essence of embracing the practice hence achieving the goal of the call. The
advantage of this strategy is that it is cheap and that it has more impact due to the audiovisual
capability (Jacobson, 2014). One of its major drawbacks is that it may only reach a lesser
audience if nit used in conjunction with other strategies. This strategy is linked to the self-
determinant theory since it leads to behavior change due to its audiovisual ability.
3.3 Marketing strategy 3
The third strategy is the use of leverage influencers. This strategy is one of the most workable
strategies and that explains the reason as to why it is embraced and used by almost all

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business organizations globally since it does bear good fruits. The strategy will involve the
use of peoples with already established followers base to turn them into buying the idea that
power should be taken back home. In this case, care shall be taken to ensure that the chosen
influencer has a followership that represents the target marketing. That is because there are
several influencers who have millions of followers but their followership is irrelevant to the
audience intended for the campaign. The chosen leverage influencer, therefore, will be the
ambassador of the project and thus this audience will not turn out to be the consumer of the
return power home initiative. Now, the advantage of this strategy is that it helps reach the
target segment with ease because only the influencer with the audience that suits the
segmentation category is reached (Rogers, 2013). It also increases credibility. Its
disadvantages are that it is costly. The strategy will appeal to the extrinsic motivations of the
individuals in target, the same thus relevant as far as motivation theory is concerned.
4. Recommendation and conclusion
Marketing strategies are very imperative for the success of any business and therefore the
selection of the best strategy is very crucial. While the discussed strategies are vital in
marketing, the use of social media is the most appropriate and recommendable strategy to use
in this case. The strategy is not costly as the rest may be. It also does not require technical
know-how how to become one of the best social media users. It is easy and friendly to use.
The strategy also reaches a wider audience since a lot of people use social media platforms on
daily basis. It is also cheap and takes a short period of time to pick.

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5. References
Cavusgil, S., 2017. Marketing strategy-performance relationship: an investigation of the
empirical link in export market ventures. The Journal of Marketing, 6(8), pp. 45-58.
Crook, J., 2015. Climate change impacts on future photovoltaic and concentrated solar power
energy output. Energy & Environmental Science, 67(76), pp. 89-95.
Delucchi, M., 2014. Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part II:
Reliability, system and transmission costs, and policies. Energy policy, 6(23), pp. 32-
43.
Fornell, C., 2015. Defensive marketing strategy by customer complaint management: a
theoretical analysis. Journal of Marketing research, 6(9), pp. 77-83.
Jacobson, M., 2014. Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part I:
Technologies, energy resources, quantities and areas of infrastructure, and materials.
Energy policy, 76(8), pp. 50-71.
Jain, S., 2016. Standardization of international marketing strategy: some research hypotheses.
The Journal of Marketing, 6(7), pp. 48-61.
Jamel, M., 2016. Advances in the integration of solar thermal energy with conventional and
non-conventional power plants. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 6(3), pp.
59-65.

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Kanfer, R., 2017. Motivation theory and industrial and organizational psychology. Handbook
of industrial and organizational psychology, 7(8), pp. 34-45.
Lin, K., 2015. Why people use social networking sites: An empirical study integrating
network externalities and motivation theory. Computers in human behavior, 7(8), pp.
67-73.
Maddux, J., 2014. Protection motivation and self-efficacy: A revised theory of fear appeals
and attitude change. Journal of experimental social psychology, 45(6), pp. 67-74.
Milne, S., 2016. Combining motivational and volitional interventions to promote exercise
participation: Protection motivation theory and implementation intentions. British
journal of health psychology, 6(7), pp. 45-56.
Rippetoe, P., 2016. Effects of components of protection-motivation theory on adaptive and
maladaptive coping with a health threat. Journal of personality and social
psychology, 56(7), pp. 56-76.
Rogers, R., 2013. A protection motivation theory of fear appeals and attitude change. The
journal of psychology, 6(7), pp. 54-56.
Rogers, R., 2017. A protection motivation theory of fear appeals and attitude change. The
journal of psychology, 8(9), pp. 43-55.
Varadarajan, P., 2015. Cause-related marketing: A coalignment of marketing strategy and
corporate philanthropy. The Journal of Marketing, 5(8), pp. 49-56.