Exploring Audience Segmentation: Investigating Adopter Categories to Diffuse an Innovation to Prevent Famine in Rural Mozambique

Abstract

Audience segmentation is a useful tool for designing effective campaigns. Further, the efficiency promised in diffusion science rests to some degree on the existence of adopter categories that can be identified and used to strategically disseminate prevention innovations. This study investigates the potential to identify adopter categories in potential recipients (n = 127) of an innovation to prevent food shortages in Mozambique. A 5-class model was found using latent class analysis, but it showed important differences from existing descriptions of adopter categories. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Acknowledgments

This project was supported by funding received from the McKnight Foundation Collaborative Crop Research Program (Eastern Africa CoP), USAID Dry Grain Pulses Collaborative Research Program, pilot funding provided by the Clinical and Translational Science Research Institute at The Pennsylvania State University, and Award Number P50-DA010075 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or the National Institutes of Health. The authors thank Luis Sevilla for his efforts on this project. Most important, the authors are grateful to the leaders and citizens of Mozambique, for sharing their information with them.

Notes

Note. Boldface type indicates the selected model.