The Values Modes tool is based on the premise of twelve discrete psychographic types, under three umbrella groups.
Values Modes is therefore used by some organisations to design policies, behaviour change strategies and social marketing campaigns.
It has been deployed in areas including [public health, recycling and road safety, and has particular usage among local authorities looking to build relations with residents.
[17] The tool has also been used in the media to analyse Barack Obama's victory in the 2012 U.S. presidential election,[18] to explore messaging in the film An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore,[19] and to inform the debate about the possibility of a UK Brexit from the EU.
[25] Values Modes were used as part of a Labour Party strategy on 'Beating UKIP on the Ground',[26] which was incorporated into the Fabian Society paper, "Revolt on the Left".
[27] This shift usually takes the form of a move from Settler to Prospector to Pioneer, as immediate, sustenance-driven needs are replaces with more abstract concerns.
Since the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the survey describes a return, by some of the less optimistic Prospectors, to Settler values, perhaps as a result of resources being scarcer.
Pat Dade, according to the blog, responded by saying that such an approach would "alienate many, perhaps even most of the UK population, who don’t enjoy the feeling of being lectured in worthy-sounding Guardian-esque language, and rarely if ever change their behaviour as a result of it."