Applications of VALS™
Policy
Federal, state, and local governments and other policy makers can use VALS™ to understand consumer acceptance of and resistance to current and future policy: Nonprofit organizations can benefit by better understanding contributors and volunteers.
Applications:
- Segmentation
- Thought-Leader Identification
- Campaign Ideation
- Theme Development
- Communications Design
- Donor Outreach
- Public Relations
Representative Projects:
- Using VALS in a custom research study, a municipal electric utility used VALS to segment residential customers, understand differences in attitudes toward energy use, and craft targeted communications for their energy-efficiency offers.
- VALS helped a State Department of Conservation increase residential recycling of bottles and cans through its custom research study. We surveyed residents to identify recycling attitudes and behaviors. Working with the department and its advertising/PR firm, we selected a target and developed communication themes. The agency designed a series of radio and print ads. The department piloted ads in a community with high target concentrations that it identified using GeoVALS™. Recycling increased 15% in three months.
- SBI conducted a campaign-development project for a nonprofit organization that was concerned that environmentalists "preach to the choir" but don't effectively communicate with "the rest of America." It identified underlying motivations of various pro and con environmental positions as well as relevant communication themes for specific consumer segments using a custom research survey. SBI conceptualized ideas for new environmental campaigns for targeted audiences.
- A nonprofit organization associated with the U.S. National Parks integrated the VALS questionnaire into an custom online survey of its donor base. Segmenting respondents by VALS enabled it to select the best target for future recruitment efforts. The improved target understanding informed strategic-planning decisions and led to a revision of donor materials.
