For a long time I’ve been hammering on the fact that academic “social science” is totally disconnected from reality. It operates on a standard set of weird preconceptions about ordinary people. The real social scientists are advertisers and marketers, who understand real people deeply and use their understanding for profit.
The rule seems to have failed recently. Especially this year, the Bud Light fiasco occurs repeatedly in all areas of business.
Now a marketing company is noticing the sudden failure and trying to detail it as prelude to fixing it. They surveyed marketers and humans on a variety of subjects, and the results are joyously predictable.
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While 40% of Consumers report that they’ve never heard of NFTs, that number drops to 0% for Marketers.
50% of all Consumers responded that they’ve never heard of an Aperol Spritz, and only 3% of Marketers reported unfamiliarity.
33% of Consumers have never heard of ‘charcuterie,’ while ALL Marketers are familiar with it.
62% of Consumers have never heard of the TV show “Succession,” while less than 5% of Marketers have never heard of “Succession.”
Almost 1/3 of Consumers have never heard of pickleball, while ALL Marketers have heard of pickleball.
“Cool” vs. “Cringe” looks different on Main Street vs. Madison Avenue, with ‘traditional American’ activities reported as “Cool” for Consumers: The Top 2 activities that scored the highest as “Cool” for Consumers were traveling around the U.S. and BBQs, while travel to Europe and going to the gym were ranked Top 2 for “Cool” for Marketers. And among the top choices for “Cringe” for Consumers were NFTs and being vegan or vegetarian, while the top choices for “Cringe” for Marketers were making a recipe using cottage cheese and watching NCIS, both of which consumers put in the “Cool” category.
Marketers are 4 times more likely than Consumers to drive an EV.
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The article doesn’t try to explain the reasons, but the specifics make it crystal clear. Marketers live entirely inside their own Twittersphere, while consumers have a life outside Twitter.
Batya has been painting the same picture about “journalists”. They no longer try to listen to non-journalists. They just rebreathe ideas inside their private worlds on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Not surprising that the rebreathers also enjoy wearing black muzzles.
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Later: Even DISNEY is starting to figure out that humans are alive! Disney STARTED the corporate culture war many years ago. Now Iger wants to quiet the noise.
Thanks, Jerome Powell! It’s amazing what companies will do when they have to SEEK PROFIT instead of bathing in an infinite flow of free counterfeit. Negative feedback is life.
Polistra's Mill 