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There is perhaps no one as immediately recognizable and unifying as Dolly Parton. Unsurprisingly, Parton can teach everyone—including the energy industry—the value of not just staying true to yourself, but in using that compassion to build rapport and educate her audience on the most important things.
So what can Dolly Parton’s music teach us about utility customer engagement? Education is key, and that requires humility, transparency, and diligence to pay off.
World on Fire: The Value of Customer Education
Part of Dolly Parton’s long-term success involves sidestepping controversial topics like politics. Parton uncharacteristically broke that facade in 2023 with “World on Fire,” a fiery screed that can equally apply to climate change and sociopolitical upheaval. In the song, Parton sings “Do we just give up, or make a change,” a question punctuated by repeated imagery of fire and burning. Parton’s ultimate message here: let’s work together through kindness and compassion.
While open to broader interpretation, World on Fire is a powerful comment on effecting change through kindness and community, meant to wake up her audience and call them to action to be a voice in their community. Again, Parton is leading with that benevolence that has so defined her career, not by denigrating any one group or casting blame, but in addressing a serious problem through the perspective that we work better together than apart. That she interweaves religious themes implies a reverence and appreciation for nature, furthering the idea that World on Fire is as much about climate change as anything else.
Utilities can learn that encouraging broader community participation is an effective path to energy security and decreased electric costs. By sharing this message, utilities can break down barriers to participation and enrollment by educating customers on their opportunities to participate and contribute to demand flexibility initiatives.
Coat of Many Colors: The Power of Community Engagement
In 1971, Dolly Parton penned the song “Coat of Many Colors.” In it, Parton sings about poverty, specifically about making do with less. In this instance, Dolly’s mother found an opportunity to turn rags into something valuable, which Parton used as a biblical analogy to further drive home her point: ingenuity and perseverance are crucial.
Utilities can apply this same lesson to demand flexibility programs like virtual power plants (VPPs) or demand response, which aggregate otherwise disparate distributed energy resources (DERs) for use in load shifting strategies. Coat of Many Colors demonstrates that while individual elements may not solve a problem, pooling resources, no matter how big or small, can contribute to the greater benefit of the community.
– Amber Mullaney, VP of Marketing, Virtual Peaker
Likewise, Parton wisely couches these conceits in poverty, a reality facing approximately 10.6% of all Americans. As such, utilities can learn the lesson that appealing to cost savings and community effort can pay off in decreased energy costs for consumers and in terms of operational costs by shifting load to off-peak periods of demand and mitigating peak energy purchases.
Don’t Drop Out: Consistent Participation is Critical
Engaging customers to enroll in demand flexibility initiatives is but one step in the continued success of any demand flexibility program, where participation is key. For example, residential demand response programs suffer when participation lags: any program is stronger with consistent participation.
Parton spoke to that in her 1966 anthem, “Don’t Drop Out,” which speaks both to the dissolution of a (possibly) romantic relationship and the benefits of long-term education: don’t drop out of school. Here, Dolly can teach us the value of continued education as a powerful tool to engage your community, no matter how big or small, and encourage them to continue working together for the greater good.
One common practice in B2B marketing is the “rule of seven,” which suggests that a target audience needs a minimum of seven marketing touch points to effectively draw attention to your subject. As such, Parton’s commitment to education and community conforms with that concept, that patience and diligence are integral to building—and sustaining—community.
In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad): Learning From The Past To Inform A Better Future
At first blush, the 1977 song “In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)” by Dolly Parton is a reflection on the hardships of poverty. Throughout the song, Parton reminisces about the struggles and illnesses that her parents endured to help create a better life for their family, taking care to emphasize both the challenges and beauty of her childhood.
– Amber Mullaney, VP of Marketing, Virtual Peaker
A poignant reminder of the challenges of low to moderate income (LMI) communities, “In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)” also serves as a powerful reminder to learn from your mistakes, while appreciating where you’ve been. For example, demand response has existed for decades: first controlled via one, then two-way radio switches, and now mostly concentrated on aggregatable WiFi-enabled devices that can leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) to create a cohesive load shifting strategy.
Technology never represents a fixed outcome, but rather functions through long-term iteration: the longer a program is in use, the more data to inform strategic improvements. This is key to any customer outreach strategy, to be able to measure success and learn from those challenges, just like Parton first sang in 1977.
What Dolly Parton Can Teach Us About Utility Customer Engagement: Conclusion
For over 60 years, Dolly Parton has brought a little joy to the world through her voice, her unfailing charm, and her commitment to building up her community. As 80% of the U.S. labor force works first shift hours, songs like “9 to 5” demonstrate why and when peak demand hours most frequently occur in the late-afternoon to early-evening hours: that’s not only often the hottest point in the day, but when people get home and start preparing their meals. Meanwhile, the powerful “Jolene” shows us the value of humility: Parton’s supplication to Jolene, begging her not to take her man, inverts power dynamics by showing vulnerability: utilities can always address and learn from their mistakes to build customer rapport.
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