Yes, you can design ideas . Mister Dieleman, phd at Erasmus University in the Netherlands was teachting master students about environment issues. The problem of the course was how to change the idea of environment and sustainability so it can appeal to a broad public.
I was the ‘designer ‘ from the course, someone the students had to talk about image and how to create a public image. We designed toghether logo’s, invitations, and posters.
There is some more information on artopie.info, a online community I conceptualised and made a website for.
Other:
Exerpt of an article about sustainable buzziness on the O2 magazine:
” What if we sell indigenous products coming from Brazil or Indonesia, and we provide information on who actually produced the product, where the producers live, under what circumstances, how they look like and what their names are? This creates a -for real- “story-behind-the-product” and adds the experience of being a world citizen and closer related to the producers of a product (an example of this approach (in design stage) can be found on the website from tatibrazi. A common way of adding experience to a product or service is by means of issuing “limited editions” or limited number of participants to a service. What for instance if we indicate who used to be the previous owner of a second hand product: “this jacket belonged to …. George Bush, Osama Bin Laden, Mick Jagger or Madonna? Or what about the strategy: “this jacket belonged to the anonymous Maria in Peru, Li in China or Youssou in Senegal while the product gives you the email address of these persons so you can contact them? This strategy works as a marketing tool but is more substantial than that. It potentially brings people together and creates unique experiences.”