Well ok, we weren’t the main driving force, but for the past 5 years the term “meh” has been a cornerstone of our Dance Floor Theory Leadership Training and with 200+ college trainings under our belt, I feel like we’ve done our part to help push the “meh” agenda.
In DFT we show student leaders how to segment their student population to allow for better target marketing of events. Our segmentation is based on Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” and Maslov’s Hierarchy of Needs.
The majority of students hang out near the bottom of the pyramid in the Neutral Zone. These are the students who will never show up to any college sponsored activity. According to the 2005 National Survey on Student Engagement, the Neutral Zone makes up 60%-84% of the total student body (60% for four-year colleges and 84% for two-year colleges).
To better help understand each stage, we attached humanizing characteristics. For example, the 3s, 4s, and 5s are your student leaders. They are the ones who are throwing the party instead of going to the party. The 2s are what we call your “Free Pizza People.” They will attend any event as long as there is something in it for them. The 1s go “hmm” because for the first time they are curious enough about something on campus to make them stop and think.
Then there are the Neutrals, which is just a nice way of saying zero. The Neutrals make up the biggest part of most campuses, but yet are the least marketed to. You can tell Neutrals from the rest because yesterday looks like today and it will look just like tomorrow. Out of all the words we tested to best describe this group, “Meh” stuck the best. Neutrals wake up in the morning and go “Meh,” they look in the mirror and go “Meh,” they head to class and go “Meh,” they sit in class and go “Meh,” and so on for the rest of the day. These are your apathetic students and our unofficial rally cry “Meh,” is now officially part of the Collins English Dictionary. Stay tuned for the “Meh” induction party… I just hope people show up.
