Stop Environmentalists Before They Stop You
Environmental article by Harold Hough 

            Everything is going on splendidly for your new mine expansion – the permitting process is progressing smoothly and the government officials, who give the final permission, like your reclamation plans.  Then, everything goes wrong - the radical environmentalists start to oppose your mine. 
Before you know it, anti mining letters to the editor fill the local newspaper.  Within days, everyone who has ever supported an environmental cause within a hundred miles of the mine site has risen up in arms, and flooded the internet and government offices with letters describing your operation as the greatest threat to the earth since the Great Flood.
            You quickly hire lawyers and send out PR men, but the damage has already been done.  Instead of presenting the positives of your operation, you are forced into a defensive mode, explaining to local residents why your mine is not causing the problems you have been accused of.
            Fortunately, you can preempt the opposition.  With modern computer technology, you can identify every potential opponent and ally within a hundred miles long before the environmentalists ever get wind of your project.
            The answer is “lifestyle segmentation,” a tool that is common in business decisions like building a new McDonalds or WalMart, but is only now being recognized for its uses in other fields.  With it, you can target locals who will stand with you against the eco-radicals.

TAKING ON THE ECO-RADICALS

            This may be hard to believe, but you can find pro-mining supporters just by looking at their lifestyle.  Marketing experts know they usually like Coors beer and college football, while anti mining voters prefer brandy and professional football.  They also prefer Hot Rod magazine to Car and Driver magazine.
            Starting to identify the lifestyles in the area of your mine only takes a few minutes and no money, thanks to the Claritas website (http://www.clusterbigip1.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Default.jsp), which will give you a free report of the five most common lifestyles in any zip code, along with descriptions of the lifestyles.
            Needless to say, the lifestyles you will find around potential mining sites are rural or small town in character.  One likely lifestyle will be “Shotguns and Pickups.”  This lifestyle is lower middle income, blue collar, family oriented, and in the 25 to 45 age range.  Needless to say, they are likely to welcome a mine because it promises a better paying job.  Of course, since hunting and outdoor sports are popular hobbies, closing land that was once open is one way to quickly antagonize this lifestyle.
            A quick look at the lifestyles in the area will help you quickly identify other lifestyles where well paying mining jobs might win broad based support.  And it might tell how you can find them and talk to them, because certain rural lifestyles are more likely to be members of veterans’ organizations like the American Legion.  Or, if they are predominantly gun owners, you might find them at a local gun show.  By deploying your PR people to the right places to talk to the right people, you can build up a great deal of support long before the environmentalists even know that you are coming.
            Of course, the same data base can find potential opposition.  Some rural lifestyles are households that are more affluent and more likely to oppose mining because they want everything to remain pristine.  “God’s Country” households are wealthy, college graduate professionals who moved outside the city for the view and open spaces.  They will not be swayed by a job and will be more leery of promises to protect the environment.
However, for the mine, the critical households are those who are in the middle – ones who might be swayed depending on who talks to them and how the mine is presented.  For instance, the “Red, White, and Blues” are lower middle income, blue collar workers, ages 25 – 45, who are likely to work in the mining and construction industries.  Yet, they are also more likely to support environmental causes.  If you plan ahead, you will probably make them supporters of your mine.  Otherwise, they may be an opposition lifestyle that can kill your project.
Of course, the investment of a little money will pay dividends.  For less than $100, a mine can get a report listing every lifestyle within a designated area.  This not only gives you a better idea of who lives there, but how many of each lifestyle there are.  This not only helps you gauge the opposition and those you can count on to support you, it can even give your human resources office an idea of how many potential employees you can draw from the area.  Such a report can also be shown to wavering politicians and bureaucrats to let them know that those voters who support the mine far outnumber those who oppose it.
If your mine is willing to spend more, you can identify specific households that are likely to be pro-mining.  These households can be targeted with mailers that explain what is happening and what benefits the mine will bring.  Even anti-mining or “on the fence” lifestyles can be targeted to give them the facts before the eco-radicals get to them.
It’s easy for a mine to think of the inhabitants surrounding its operation as a single stereotype.  And, it’s just as easy for them to make a mistake and allow the eco-radicals to define the issues surrounding your mine.  With marketing information like this, a mine can carefully plan its permitting strategy and build up support long before the eco-radicals even learn what is happening.