Birds of a feather flock together

In the months leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq hundreds of thousands took to the streets to protest at the prospect of military intervention in the UK’s largest ever street demonstrations. Those opposed to the invasion could not see the logic of war; others, including many members of parliament, were firmly in favour, seeing continued inspection and multilateral action through the UN as appeasement.

The tendency to seek out and spend time with those most similar to us goes some way to explaining this. This phenomenon is called homophily – literally meaning ‘a love of the same’.

Like it or not we are likely to befriend, work with and share our world with people who have common backgrounds. Without us realising it our opinions are often confirmed, reflected and reinforced – not challenged. This is important as we understand much of the world we live in indirectly, through what we hear about it, not what we encounter ourselves: it’s possible to miss all kinds of changes, trends and opportunities by talking only to those who agree with you. Had East Coast liberals widened their dinner party invite lists in the run up to the 2008 presidential election they might have understood what they found irritating about Sarah Palin – her being short on specifics and long on folksiness – was precisely what appealed to much of small town America.

So, what does the phenomenon mean for marketers?

First, re-examine your assumptions when planning.

There are 60 million people in the UK. 10 million of them have never used the internet. 52 million of them don’t live in London. 57 million don’t own an iPhone and a good 15 million couldn’t afford one.

Secondly, when you look at the right data you can see that people buy in a predictable manner.

Behavioural marketing used by Amazon and iTunes lets consumers know that “people who bought x also bought y” because consumers buy the ‘y’ they recommend. It works. Without need for demographic information this collaborative filtering turns our predicable tastes into pounds and pence. It doesn’t matter if you are a single mother in Aberystwyth or a fund manager in Chelsea, if you bought the latest Stereophonics album you’ll probably be into Coldplay too, God help you.

Thirdly, that technology can reinforce the trend, making routes into segments narrower.

Just thinking about news, the way we can customise iGoogle means we are imposing a filter right from the start compared to a viewing standard half hour TV bulletin. It’s the same with digital TV, music and culture. As J Walker Smith and David Bersoff of the Henley Centre write:

“Fragmenting technologies, and fragmented markets, have disaggregated the audience for marketing, and the mass market has splintered. But we’re still using models that were developed when mass media was dominant… People are surrounding themselves with input they have chosen. The result: people get more of exactly what they want, but are closed off to other ideas.”

Fourthly, the way we recruit our staff and build our teams reflects this bias.

We unconsciously seek similarity. Look around you and check for clones.

Lastly, that market researchers should have the courage of their convictions.

Be it a new product, campaign or packaging client teams quickly become close to ideas they have brought to life and lose perspective of what the marketplace will make of them. One of Market Research’s roles is to hold up a mirror to what people think. There is nothing like a group of disinterested strangers in a room to gauge whether an idea really works. If it bombs, don’t sugar the pill.

And for us all, as people? Perhaps, from time to time, to be prepared to try something even though it flies in the face of your preconceptions… Even if it is Jodi Picoult.