Charity campaigning based on peoples’ unconscious motivational values
TL:DR — there are three unconscious personality types that people tend towards — Settlers, Prospectors and Pioneers. Each share different versions of ‘common sense’ and you have to convince them for their own reasons, rather than yours, if you want to be successful in campaigning. Large scale change is best to begin with Pioneers and can then be adopted across Prospectors and Settlers once it becomes the ‘norm’.
All data and images © CDSM (British Values Survey 2014)
Chris Rose held a fantastic session at the Chartered Institute of PR about how to run campaigns based on peoples’ unconscious value sets as described by the Values Modes framework. The first thing to do was see what our own Values Mode was by filling out this short questionnaire.
Taking people from Awareness to Action
Within campaigning, most organisations are trying to get people to travel through this journey:
Awareness -> Alignment -> Engagement -> Action
Despite what many think, it’s very unlikely that you are unable to take people straight from Awareness to Action. You need to focus on trying to get a member of the public to Align with what you’re saying and then they are likely to move themselves towards action.
One of the main barriers in moving people across these stages in the unconscious barrier that what you’re asking them to do doesn’t fit with their motivational / emotional values. Much of these behaviours don’t fit within the logical framework which many think people act — they use intuitive and emotional rationalisation for their decisions. Comms campaigns have to tap into this if they are going to land with people and change their behaviour.
People need different things, and if you want to communicate with them effectively, you have to match your messaging to their way of viewing the world.
Based on their research, the CDSM and Chris have concluded that there are are 3 versions of ‘common sense’ in the world. This does not mean that people act in this way 100% of the time, but it is a framework to help understand how others feel.
Settlers (20–30% of UK)
Security driven and want to feel like they belong. Keep things small and avoid risk. Need to maintain control. Fear, uncertainty and doubt really resonate with these people and are key messages to get them involved in a campaign or cause.
These people always think the past is the best, because we can eliminate uncertainty because we ‘know’ what happened then. Fewer friends, mostly stick with family. Reduce risk by being thrifty — no matter how much money they have. Can X make the world safer?
Always looking out for the next bad thing to revalidate the view that it’s a dangerous world we live in. Alan Sugar. Pessimistic. Low sense of self agency which means you can’t start a future facing campaign with them. High Shangri-La (means there was a golden time which we should get back to). Focussed on their own tribe.
Best way to drive change is to pitch it as ‘learning the lessons of the past’ and it’s our duty.
Target Safety for behaviour change.
Prospectors (30–40% of UK)
Want to show their success to drive their self esteem. Right and wrong is based on what works — pragmatism that avoids the need for a real moral compass. Does X work?
Showing off their material success symbolises their achievements — doesn’t mean they have more of it, just that they’re more likely to show it. Always want to make things bigger and better for the family, organisation or country.
Comes across as disregarding the past to the Settlers, and being too one dimensional for Pioneers.
If you want to attract these people you have to compete with other ways of looking good and tap into this eg Wear Pink for Friday.
Target Success if you want to change their approach to things.
Pioneers (30–40% of UK, more than 75% of Charity Comms people)
More interested in new ideas.
People focussed innovators who tend to drive new projects and ideas. If successful then these can trickle down to Prospectors and eventually Settlers.
These people want to discuss the issues and talk about ideas. They believe that “Now is the time where everything is the best” and are excitedly optimistic about the future. They have a high sense of self agency / action. Universalist.
If you want to change their behaviours, then you should speak to their ethical motivations.
None of these are related to intelligence and vary wildly across the world — eg China has 80% Prospectors. USA is now > 50% Pioneers due to influx of Hispanic youth.
So how does this relate to charities and our campaigns? Firstly there are natural cause fits for each personality type:
The problem comes, when people try to use their own ‘common sense’ when talking to people that share a different value set in their own language.
People and ideas can change
The groups can be seen as a stadium, with movement taking place between the certain areas:
As such, new ideas have to start with the Pioneers if they are going to be adopted across the rest of society — moving across ‘the stadium’ faster than people do.
How to drive change
The core wrappers and messages to drive change for each group:
E.G. different ways of getting the groups to use solar power:
Further reading:
