Sometimes, Surprises are lurking in everyday data.
Take a category of consumers that doug rubin’s Startup, Northwind Climate, Calls “Climate Doers.” They’re Concerned about Climate Change and Tend to Prioritize Climate Friendly Purchases, The Sort of Identifiers That Might Be Stereotypically Associated With Things LIKEs Prioritizing Local Businesses.
“Turns out that the Climate Doers Category Actually are the consumers who most frequent fast food restaurants,” Rubin Told Techcrunch. What’s more, some 30% of Climate Doers are republicans, He Added.
Northwind Climate Evolved from Rubin’s work in the political world, where surveys are vital to undersrstanding shifts in Public Signment and Identifying Likely Voters. The Startup has raised a $ 1.05 million pre-seed round, it exclusively told techcrunch, with participation from Angel Investors Including Tom Steyer, Former MassachuSETTS GOVERNONOR DEVALICKK, And Alexander Hoffman of Susty Ventures.
Rather Than Divide People ITO DEMOGRHIC BUCKETS That Might Segment Along Political, General, Or Regional Lines, Northwind Climate Analyzes Survey Responses for Behavioral CLUES THE CAN BEESED Classify consumers.
In addition to climate dors, who comprise about 15% of all us consumers, Northwind climate has identified four other behaviorral groups, ranging from “ranging from“ CLIMATE DISTRESED, ” Slightly Less Concerned about Climate Change and ASS Financially Secure as the Climate Doers, to the Climate Deniers, Who Tend to Be Retrees Who Think the Meedia Isia Isia.
But, rubin adds, “even in that [climate deniers] Bucket, there are messages and ways that work with them. “
Take some analysis northwind did on electric vehicles. For Climate Doers and “Climate Distressed,” Two Categories of Consures who are most likesly to buy an evy an ev, the structup sugges that automakers frames frames the cars as matter of choice. “We’re providing choice for that who care about Reducing Pollution, Saving Money on Gas, and Helping Address Climate Change,” Reads One of Northwind’s Sugged Pitches.
But for Climate Doubters and Deniers, Who are Less Likely to Buy One, The focus of the pitch shifts from from choice to free Vehicles Clean, Affordable, and Practical for the Millions of Americans who Want One. “
The Startup has built a database that consists of 20,000 Survey Respondents Across Eight Surveys, and Rubin Says Its Its Its Growing by 2,500 Respondents Per Month. Every three months, northwind also runs a industry specific survey to Capture Deeper Insights for different customers.
Companies that subscribe to the service, which costs $ 10,000 per Quarter or $ 40,000 per year for a typical customer, can add up to four of their own questions Every Quarter, which rubin said is a least They’d shell out for one annual survey.
Within the Platform, Customers Get Access to the Data Northwind Has Colleted, Questions it has Asked, and Some Basic Analyses Like Cross Tabulations. The Startup is building a chatbot to allow users to ask for more specific analyses using plain language queries.
Concerned Consures Might Cast a Wary Eye Onst A Platform, Words that it might Help Companies Greenwash their businesses. But rubin isn’t concerned, Saying Surveys has shown that consumers are pretty savvy. “Our data shows there is a clear risk to brands and their reputations from making claims that are exaggerated or otherwise untrue,” Rubin said.
Rubin said that northwind is also developing what he calls a virtual focus group. It’s essentially an ai model, trained on survey responses, that can analyze a company’s marketing materials like tv spots or social media ads and provide feedback, just like a human forest Wold. The Startup Hopes to have available in the next four to five months, rubin said, think it will use new data to continually refine the model.
Rubin is convined that companies have been missing options to connect with climate conscious consumers. “If you look at the data and where consumers are – and it’s across the board, it’s not just democrats or independents – they really want this, and they will reward companies who are available to be Smart this,” He said.