Energy Sector Progress: Why Behavioural Psychology Is the Key
The Transformative Power of Brand
NOTE: This article was written for Cornwall Initiative's Weekly Insight Feature, Nutwood, and published on 23rd December 2024.
It's the start of a new year, and as you sip your coffee or tea, and plan for the year ahead, I’d like you to pause for a moment.
How is your organisation achieving real change? Are you focused on the why?
As Dan Sullivan once said, “10x is easier than 2x.” Tinkering around the edges—making things just a little bit better—rarely leads to transformation.
Real change demands boldness: challenging norms, understanding behaviour, and making decisions that count.
If you don’t, well—bah humbug—next year may look rather like this one for your organisation, with similar challenges, slightly different headlines, and progress inching forward. The trouble is, real change, especially in a sector as complex as energy, is hard.
The good news is, taking the time to understand how people behave, and why, can make a real difference.
If you're working on your plans for FY2526 and beyond, see our top tips for energy sector marketing in 2025 - link here.
Ambitious businesses in the energy sector have the potential achieve transformation through applying behavioral psychology to their marketing. According to McKinsey, brands that align purpose and behaviour achieve much higher loyalty and growth.
In a sector where impact is a choice, the brands that choose better will be those that lead the change.
1. Why Behavioural Change Is Critical to Transformation
The energy transition depends on people to an even greater extent than it does on technology or regulation. Policy can only take us so far—progress requires action at every level, and people won’t act unless three conditions are met:
Trust: Is the message credible?
Relevance: Does it connect to their reality?
Clarity: Is the action simple and worth the effort? Clarity is foundational to enabling action.
“People act when expectations are clear, specific, and connect emotionally to a shared purpose. Without clarity, ambiguity takes hold, causing hesitation and inaction.”
Alex Draper, CARE to Win
Take the Theft of Gas campaign, which BH&P developed with the Gas Distribution Networks (GDNs) and funded through VCMA initiatives. Combining behavioral insights with emotive storytelling, the campaign achieved over 400,000 organic video views and widespread media coverage, including a BBC Morning Live exposé on 16th December 2024.
The campaign worked because it embraced clarity: highlighting risks people could relate to, simplifying the reporting process, and making action feel achievable.
Leaders and marketers must be aware of the Curse of Knowledge—the bias of assuming others see things as clearly as we do.
Testing messaging to ensure it resonates with the intended audience is essential.
We’re taking a similar approach for RECCo. By developing an influencer campaign featuring trusted electricians and gas fitters, we’re addressing meter tampering through authentic, relatable voices. When the danger feels real, and the call to action is clear, people are more likely to act.
Similarly, for a renewable energy marketplace, we’re building trust with B2B decision-makers through credible voices—stimulating growth and driving clear, measurable actions.
2. Brand Investment: The Catalyst for Trust and Action
If behavioural psychology is the engine, brand is the fuel. In the energy sector, trust is everything—especially when asking businesses, policymakers, or consumers to make difficult decisions. Investing in brand clarity builds that trust.
Take TradeBridge. Their EnergyAdvance solution positions refinance as an enabler of progress, addressing installer hesitancy by making the next step toward sustainability crystal clear.
Or consider Moorhouse Consulting, who translates data-driven insights into actionable strategies for energy transformation. By crafting a clear, purposeful narrative—whether inspiring boardroom leaders to act on AI opportunities or future-proofing operations—Moorhouse creates the clarity needed to move forward.
3. Progress Requires Decisiveness, Not Delay
The energy sector is brimming with ambition, yet frustration remains high:
• Policy paralysis persists, leading to investor hesitation and project delays.
• While encouraging signals on clarity are emerging, frameworks still need to translate into actionable policies.
• With 60 months – and counting - until 2030, the window for achieving net-zero targets narrows with every delay.
Recent announcements like life extensions for nuclear power stations, show what’s possible when leadership is decisive. Lower costs for consumers and market relief demonstrate that clarity of action drives results. But as recent Cornwall Insight analyses highlight, gains will only be realised through coherent execution—something the sector urgently needs.
Behavioral clarity + brand trust = momentum.
Simple in practice. Much harder to execute!
4. Actionable Brand Strategies for 2025: Leading Through Behaviour
For businesses navigating 2025, progress depends on understanding human behaviour. Here’s how:
Build Trust Through Authenticity In a skeptical market, people trust people. Use credible, relatable voices—whether influencers, engineers, affiliates or experts—to connect with your audience. Create video case studies and testimonials, and test messaging to ensure clarity. A question every leader and marketer must ask is: “Does the audience understand what we want them to do, and does it feel achievable?”
Make the Data Meaningful Data is only powerful when connected to behaviour. In the energy sector, this translates to:
• Greater awareness of legal and operational risks.
• Improved adoption of energy-efficient solutions. • Increased engagement through trusted, behaviour-driven messaging.
• Marketing built on insight and original first-party research by an independent agency
Inspire Decisive Action To make a real change in the sector requires leadership, not waiting for policy to catch up. Understanding those core values that underpin what you do, how, and why, and then articulating them in a way that stands out, will inspire the behavioural change you are looking for.
Marketing metrics and dashboards can give you a clear insight into whether your marketing is working, but I would encourage you to look to the real impact on people and planet, as well as your bottom line, as an indicator of how good you are at removing friction and tapping into human psychology.
5. A Thought for the Year Ahead
As we charge into the office for the start of the new year, (or perhaps trudge wearily in) here’s a challenge for decision-makers in the energy sector: Are you driving transformation, or waiting for someone else to act?
At BH&P, we believe in brands' power to make a positive impact. We work with brands that do complex and difficult-to-articulate things, like RECCo, Moorhouse Consulting, IDS, RedCompass Labs, and TradeBridge.
Our core belief is simple: In industries where impact is a choice, we help our clients choose better.
Whether you’re unlocking renewable growth, funding those that are transforming the energy sector, tackling energy poverty, unleashing the power of waves or reshaping markets, every brand has the potential to lead.
The pace of transformation can—and must—accelerate.
It requires behavioral insight, a clarity of message that inspires action, and the knowledge and understanding of marketing tactics that allows you to get the right message to the right person in a way that resonates.
The question is: will you take the leap?
Learn more about how BH&P helps brands in the energy sector here. Or see our recent work.
Sources & citations:
Dan Sullivan, 10x is easier than 2x,
BBC Morning Live Coverage of Theft of Gas: BBC Morning Live.
Alex Draper, CARE to Win
TradeBridge EnergyAdvance Product: TradeBridge EnergyAdvance.
Moorhouse Consulting Energy Insights: Moorhouse Energy Sector.
