Minimum wage supporters are who you think they are
Who do you think are the supporters and detractors of the minimum wage increase in Ontario? Not in terms of employment, income, or location but disposition. And more importantly, if you wished to have a conversation with one of these groups, what would be the most effective way?
Doing a quick analysis of those for and against, we saw a perhaps obvious distribution of disposition. Those for the increase were empathetic, self aware, and analytic in their thinking. Those against were power driven and not very generous.
The insight here is not just identification of these traits but the resultant actions. If I wanted to structure a message to those against the increase I might key my tone and examples off the following:
- To the point messaging.
- Playing off emotions of the people I’m messaging (not those receiving the minimum wage increase). Although not empathetic to others, they tend to make more emotional decisions themselves.
- Demonstrating how they have lost power.
Conversely, messaging to those supporting the increase could include:
- Images and messaging to elicit empathy in the target recipient highlighting the gaps between the haves and the have-nots.
- Statistics and logical arguments to support my position.
- Overall soft and friendly tone with frequent use of the word “we”.
Construction of marketing messages should give equal weight to both copy and tone while delivery should be driven by the behaviour of the target audience.