Over the last 6 months I have forgotten how many times I have recommended to my contacts in the conservation industry to watch the BBC series ’The Men Who Made Us Spend’ and in particular Episode 2. In this episode Jacques Peretti explores how fear has a powerful hold over our behaviours – and how this has been exploited by those who want to sell us products and services. He meets the men who sold us cigarettes, SUVs, soap, and even bottled water off the back of our anxieties – and our desire to have those anxieties banished. The strategies and techniques used to manipulate us to spend are the same ones that can be used to manipulate the users [...]

A lot is being done to save the rhino, yet poaching levels continue to increase and demand for rhino horn shows no signs of abating soon. With all the money going into protecting the species from possible extinction within the next 10 years, why aren’t we making inroads? From Breaking The Brand’s perspective there is a misalignment in funding between the strategies that are most likely to save the rhino if used in the right combination. To understand why this is happening and how it can be corrected, let’s begin by outlining the three strategies that we feel could work well together: Anti-poaching and security measures in Africa and Asia (Physical) Horn devaluation measures (toxin infusion) [...]

Based on the information Breaking The Brand gathered from interviewing the users of genuine rhino horn in Viet Nam, we know that status and belonging to a high-status peer group are key motivators for rhino horn consumption. This was also the conclusion of work done by TRAFFIC in Viet Nam - see here. The best way of stemming consumption in these primary user groups involves undermining the role of rhino horn as a medium for communicating prestige, both in general and more specifically within the user’s peer group or the peer group they aspire to be a part of. The primary user of genuine rhino horn – high status male: Analysis of the [...]

More targeted demand reduction campaigns are needed to change the purchasing decisions of the users of genuine rhino horn driving the current rhino killing spree. Breaking The Brand is delighted to announce that our campaign, focusing on the primary users in Viet Nam, went live on the 15th September 2014. This was made possible because supporters from around the world have helped make it happen. Since launching the idea in February 2013, donations of goods and services and fundraising $2,000, via pozible.com, enabled Breaking The Brand to create a series of 6 adverts by January 2014. These adverts were created to target the two motivators to stop buying rhino horn the users expressed when interviewed, namely: If using [...]

The South African government has around 16,437 kilograms of stockpiled rhino horn and a further 2,091 kilograms more is in private hands. In recent months the South African government has stepped up its pro-trade argument and undoubtedly there will be some private rhino owners who are pro-trade. Pro-trade requires the value of the horn to be maintained. Toxin infusion in to the horn is a devaluation strategy. Why would a government want a commodity devalued when it is pushing hard to legalise trade? Do you think this could be the reason the only rhino protection method which devalues the horn is being singled out for criticism? Well a lot of South Africans and people around the world seem [...]

The Breaking The Brand is delighted to let all our supporters know that our demand reduction campaign went live in Viet Nam 15th September 2014. Over the next 10 weeks, we are running 19 full and half page adverts in 5 magazines including 2 consecutive months in Heritage, The Vietnam Airlines magazine. Our first advert (shown below) is from a magazine called ‘Investment Bridge’. It is a weekly magazine targeted at businessmen and has a circulation of 65,000. To our supporters around the world, thank you for helping the BTB team in Melbourne make this happen. […]

South Africa is currently pushing a pro-trade agenda in rhino horn, in the hope of getting a trade legalisation decision at a CITES meeting to be held in South Africa in 2016. The stated objective is that only legalising trade will stop the poaching by driving down black market prices for rhino horn. This is being justified by claiming that all other anti-poaching and demand reduction measures must have failed since the poaching rate is still increasing. With a complex issue such as legalising the trade in a currently illegal wildlife product it pays to analyse the motivations of the various players involved, as the so-called ‘rational’ (economic) arguments put forward can be adjusted [...]

An unborn rhino foetus removed from its dead and dehorned mother. In this poaching incident a wildlife ranger was also killed. It is not good enough for Vietnamese businessmen to try to disassociate themselves from this killing spree by saying “We don’t do the poaching, we only buy the horn”. This destruction is carried out to fulfil their personal desire for status, bestowed through their ability to obtain a rare, expensive product – genuine rhino horn. It is common for the wealthy to feel the need to demonstrate their worth by the luxury goods they own, but there is a difference between buying Rolex watches and obtaining illegal wildlife products. The need to demonstrate status goes too [...]

Of the series of adverts created for the pilot campaign have been tested, one in particular has generated more comment than all the others put together: In this test advert we use the term “to medicate” and people feel that this may give the use of rhino horn legitimacy. As more campaigns are developed to target the consumers of a range of illegal or endangered wildlife product, we thought people may be interested in the psychology behind creating the advert in the way we have. We do want to capture the attention of users who do consider rhino horn a medication/supplement; and to get the attention of these users we [...]

The people of Viet Nam like many countries throughout Asia have developed an interdependent self-concept vs. the independent self-concept more typical in Western cultures. As a result, it is much harder to set yourself apart from, challenge or put personal preferences before the norms of your group. To do so would cause a loss of face and would likely result in rejection by your peer group. This is captured in a recent factsheet published by TRAFFIC which gives an example of a typical user of rhino horn in Viet Nam: http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/viet_nam_consumers_factsheet.pdf Mr. L a 48 year old property developer: He is focused on his social status and is therefore potentially vulnerable to outside influences He puts [...]