Lindy,

You wanted more information about a Carrotmob. Well, I am here to help. Here we go:

Carrotmob is a form of consumer activism where a community buys a lot of goods from one company in a small time period to reward a business's commitment to making a socially responsible change to their operations. Often the changes are of an environmental nature, such as energy efficient upgrades.

The name Carrotmob is derived from carrot and stick. This is an idiom that refers to a policy of offering a combination of rewards (carrots) and punishment (sticks) to induce behavior. Carrotmobs are often explained as a reverse boycott and are thus known as "buycotts."

Carrotmob is a project of Virgance, a start-up founded by Brent Schulkin, who also manages 1BOG.

The first Carrotmob took place in March 2008 in San Francisco. Carrotmobs are currently active in eight countries in North America and Europe.

Now, why do you suppose a Carrotmob requires competition between businesses? After all, that means only one business can win and have its own Carrotmob.

Here's the answer: The folks who started this believe that in an ideal Carrotmob campaign, several businesses will compete, but only one will win. This isn't a rigid rule, but the originators think it's ideal for several reasons. First, competition is good because it results in stronger commitments from the businesses, and results in a bigger overall impact for the campaign. It also helps those who planned it understand what sorts of changes are practical for different types of businesses. Competition also makes the process more democratic by providing an opportunity to let the mob vote on which of the businesses should win.

Now, some people ask why all of the businesses can't win? If five businesses all offer to do good, why not just mob all five businesses? Well, first of all, that undermines the whole idea of the competition. Secondly, it IS a meaningful thing for a consumer to decide to support ONE particular business. It is NOT a meaningful thing for a consumer to decide to support ANY of several competing businesses. Thirdly, and most importantly, it needs to be understood what the "carrot" really is. There are two parts to the carrot - cash and reputation. Some businesses will be more interested in winning because they will make a lot of cash on one specific day. But many businesses will be more interested in winning because they will get a good reputation that will give them a big boost in profits over the long-term. Nearly every business will benefit from this reputation boost because it gives them a competitive advantage over their competition. The reason they will decide to participate is to win this very valuable carrot. But, if you allow all of their competitors a chance to win as well, then the value of the reputation boost goes to zero. You have not given this business much of a carrot if you give the same thing to their competition. You must not dilute the carrot.

Some people worry that if everyone in a town starts shopping at the one responsible grocery store then the other three stores might go out of business and hurt the local economy. That would be an extreme situation, and maybe Carrotmob could be rather destructive in a situation like that. But the way things work is that some businesses succeed and other businesses fail. This has always been true. Historically, the businesses who succeed have been those who are most talented at the art of business, whether or not they care about saving the world. What the folks behind Carrotmob want to do is to change the market so that a business' success or failure is connected to how socially responsible they choose to be.

Now, would a Carrotmob work in Australia? I bet it would. In fact, I bet it would work better in a major metropolitan Australian city than it would in Middletown, CA. What do you think? Need a little more insight? Watch the Carrotmob animation. It's short, clever and makes what I believe to be a valid point about our society and its sense of priorities.

Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
(707)709-8605
Need PR?...Call Lamar!

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