OPOWER case profiles, energy efficiency software company that applies the principles of social influence Cialdini successfully encourage consumers to reduce their energy consumption. OPOWER was co-founded in 2008 by two young Harvard, Dan Yates and Alex Laskey, who were inspired by the behavioral science research by Robert Cialdini, showing that people in the normative beliefs - and messages with these beliefs - was powerful and measurable impact on their energy maintaining behavior. Yates and Laskey redesigned home energy bill to include regulatory reports, including feedback on how the consumer compares the energy use of their neighbors. Through earlier research program, the electricity industry began to see a 1.5% to 3.5% reduction in energy consumption, almost immediately. After the quick success of the first three OPOWER-ies, Yates and Laskey wondered whether their approach will produce consistent results: what strategy they should pursue to ensure that consumers continue to read and reply to messages in the statutory "Energy Bill 2.0" "Hide ?
by Maarten W. Bos, Amy Cuddy j.c., Kyle T. Doherty Source: Harvard Business School 6 pages. Publication Date: May 22, 2011. Prod. #: 911061-PDF-ENG
