sources of our food in the United States, and corporate social responsibility. The research also gave us three key insights into what motivates Millennials to take action. Adzou’s work was particularly interesting because Millennials were essentially studying themselves. The Adzou students surveyed 440 individuals. Their focus group included eight University of Missouri seniors, ages 21-22 (five females, three males). And they interviewed four men and four women, ages 18-36. Of those surveyed, 53 percent said they had gardens or lawns. Sixty-six percent of the respondents knew what a pollinator was, and 55 percent had never read the label on their pesticides.
Three key insights
Key insight 1: Millennials support the environment.
Millennials care about environmental initiatives and are open to using more environmentally friendly products. They also value corporate social responsibility. One survey respondent wrote, “I think I would be more interested in pollinators if I understood the larger scope of what pollinators do. I know that they help us have flowers, but that’s about it. If I saw something on social media about it, maybe on YouTube or an Instagram ad, I would be interested.”
Key insight 2: Millennials want specific, realistic steps to take.
Millennials need to be told exactly what they can do in their everyday lives to support a cause. One survey respondent wrote, “Just now knowing that bats and butterflies are endangered pollinators is crazy. Knowing that the conversation extends beyond bees is important. So telling people that and putting together a rational and emotional appeal would affect me.”
Key insight 3: Quantitative data work best.
Millennials respond best to statistics and other quantitative data so they can draw their own conclusions after being given the facts. “To me, seeing a statistic makes the fact seem more believable and hits closer to home. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think seeing a statistic would be the same. So, if there was a statistic given on the extinction rate of population of bats, that would mean a whole lot more to me than just reading, ‘Bat populations are declining.’” VALS is a system that groups consumers according to psychological and sociological theories in order to predict their behavior in the purchase decision process. It gave us three Millennial personas that would be most likely to pay attention to and take action based on the Pollinator Stewardship Pilot campaign. Adzou also gave us a persona that we took into consideration as we developed our material.
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