Which Pair Belong Together? – Agitator

How do we foster connection?  We need to dig deeper in our understanding of the humans we’re asking for money.  And we need to undo our segmentations.

We instinctively start grouping people based on what’s available, convenient and intuitive – income, age, gender, internal donor flag or status (active, lapsed), channel.

The minute our grouping starts with these generic categorizations we’ve got bias and assumptions.  Those assumptions include the segmentation 101 variety:

• There is probably as much or more difference within your biased segments (active, old people, young people, channel) than between the biased segments

But the biggest failed assumption?  That the attribute you grouped donors by matters to their reason to be connected – and it rarely does.

Instead, we get to segment/group by starting with the individual.  If the young black woman and the older white man are both caregivers for someone with cancer, adopted animals from the same shelter or consider themselves activists for the same cause their “why” has them belonging together.

You regular Agitator readers know these are Identities and we all have lots of them.  And as reminder,

• Identities are contextually and automatically activated.
• Each Identity has different values and goals attached to it.
• And when a given Identity is activated, we make choices to reinforce those values and goals.

We are what we choose.

Kevin