There Is A Way Out Of This Mess

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December 9, 2020

by John, Ben, and Jeremy Zogby

The United States is right now a nation of tribes, each who appear to have entrenched insular beliefs, and who have shut their ears to anyone with a different point of view or opinion. To many it seems hopeless that there can be a national healing.

It really doesn’t have to be this way. Certainly, there is much that is working to tear us apart. Strategists and pollsters have contributed to this by having spent the better part of two decades taking advantage of those chasms and engaging in targeting a coalition of those who agree with one party and its candidate ALL of the time.

It is time to stop that. We really have an obligation to try to understand people on the basis of how they really see themselves. We at John Zogby Strategies call it “tribal analytics”. Our colleague Susan Fader of FaderFocus refers to it as “cognitive demographics” which focuses on how people self-define versus the categories that pollsters/researchers may fit people into. Whichever term is used, it represents what market research guru Joe Plummer sees as a “new mental model for understanding who people really are” by letting them define themselves on the basis of their life stories, the mottos that drive them, their aspirations for who they want to be, and the most important moments in their lives.

Our book, We Are Many, We Are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in 21^st Century America, and several subsequent articles are based on a decade worth of research including surveys of a total of 8,400 respondents. Our research identifies the main “neo-tribes” we have discovered. They have names like the God Squad, the Outsiders, the Persistents, the Creatives, the One True Path, and the Happy Hedonists to name a few. They cut across traditional demographic lines and their stories mirror how they express their goals, values, and behaviors.

But what has been so remarkable to us is how even the most seemingly opposite tribes have areas of commonality when it comes to what they want and how they see their world. In other words, even in these turbulent times, we can find things that can bring us together

For example, one of the tribes we identified is the Happy Hedonists who live in the moment and pay attention to group events like tailgate parties and live musical performances. But so too do the One True Path who seek guidance from God. Both groups are passionate about the environment, attacking global poverty, and finding fulfillment in their local communities. Political (and marketing) consultants might find short-term gratification in exploiting the differences and one-dimensional aspects of each of these tribes, but the opportunities for finding discovering messages and values are plenty.

The Adventurists are in a lifetime race to explore new experiences and gain new knowledge. The Dutifuls are a group that live on hard work and devotion to family, and never break the rules. But they both strongly oppose the use of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in food production – as do the One True Path and the “Don’t Tread on Me” Land of the Free. Generally, these groups can be found across the political spectrum – but we Americans are so much more than where we are found left and right.

When we first began the research that led to tribal analytics, we never would have expected to find possible connecting moments on the issues of gun ownership and football. The three most conservative tribes – God Squad, Land of the Free, and Dutiful – are among those least likely to own guns or another firearm. And, across the board, only about one in five of all tribes would not let their sons play football. Imagine children of the Persistents, who have survived and overcome terrible personal tragedies, playing on the same team with the offspring of the Self-Perfectionists who are obsessed with personal growth even at the expense

Across the years the same tribes keep recurring in the same numbers. There are “emerging tribes”, i.e. those who recur but have not made the cut with sufficient percentages to be statistically significant. Our methodology of Tribal Analytics is watching to see what develops.

Courageous consultants need to break the mold by not taking advantage of what separates us and not assuming we can do the categorizing of people as we sit in our comfortable bubbles.

It is not how we choose to define people that breaks the mold. It is how they see themselves, define what is most important to them, and tell their own stories.

Instead of micro-targeting individual voters and singling out their passionate stands on issues based on their voting and donor history, or packaging them by demographic or religious cohorts, we can use keywords that they have told us best describes who they really feel they are and build new coalitions based on similar keywords and shared aspirations – how they want to live and who they want to be.

Underneath all of the objectionable rhetoric and rage, there are millions of Americans who buy the same brands, subscribe to the same magazines, take stands on controversial issues, buy tickets for a barbecue dinner to raise funds for a sick child, and perform thousands of acts of kindness in their daily lives. This is who they really are and what they want us to know about them. It is time we recognized it.

Our next piece in this series will be titled, “Healing the Divide – The Bottom-up Revolution: From Tribes to Alliances”

John Zogby, founder of the Zogby Poll, is partners with his sons, Benjamin Zogby, Esq. and Jeremy Zogby, at John Zogby Strategies, an opinion research and marketing strategy firm.

For infographics on each Tribe, please follow links below