In the recent U.S. election, both major presidential candidates focused on winning over different groups of people based on things like race, age, gender, income, and where they live. That’s pretty common, right? Candidates try to figure out who they need to convince, and they go after those groups.
But here’s the thing: demographics don’t vote—people do! It’s easy to think that everyone in a certain group thinks the same way, but that’s not really the case. Sure, some groups might lean one way or another, but that’s an observation, not a cause and effect rule.
In practice, campaigns have learned to go beyond demographics and dig a little deeper. They try to identify what makes voters tick, like their values, interests, or those hot-button issues that trigger emotion.
At The Good People Research Company, we think there’s an even better approach— a way to connect with voters on a truly personal level. It’s not just about winning a vote; it’s about knowing how to deliver real value to people by understanding their vote.
Imagine this: What if candidates could figure out the key question that pops into a voter’s mind when they’re about to fill out their ballot and what produced that question? That one question that makes them decide who they trust the most? At the Good People Research Company, we call this question-answer combination a “decision code.” Our decision code comes from the story we tell ourselves about how the world works and how to survive in it – our Guiding Narrative®. The code itself determines whether internally we say, “Yes, this candidate understands me.”
Decision codes are different from values or “hot button” issues that candidates target in their ads and speeches; instead of the emotion we invest in group values and hot button issues, the decision code is a highly personal filter that we use individually, and intellectually to survive. It’s a question-answer combination that we determine for ourselves, based on our understanding of the world.
For example: inflation may be a hot-button issue. But if we’re emotionally triggered by that issue, one way or another, is it due to our views of the prices businesses charge or is it the result of a decision code?
- Does an individual believe that money is a zero sum game, that there are clear winners and losers in the economy, and the winners can manipulate prices?
- Does an individual believe that no one group or person controls the economy, and prices result from a multitude of often unpredictable social, political, economic, and structural factors?
These contrasting constructions of reality and therefore the view of inflation are not bound by demographics. Certain demographics may correlate with these constructions in some instances, but it is not one’s demographic that makes a choice feel a certain way; it is the Guiding Narrative® and the decision code the narrative produces that count.
If candidates used the decision code approach, they could be even more effective by inherently shifting the focus from who they are to who the voter is. Instead of assuming that everyone in a demographic group thinks, or should think, the same way, they’d focus on what matters to each person based on the story they tell themselves about the world.
And if marketers and managers took this same approach, they’d be able to connect with their customers and team members in much deeper, more meaningful ways.
In the end, it’s all about remembering that it’s people—not categories—who make choices. And when you tap into what drives them outside of their value to campaigns and products, that’s when you can make a meaningful difference in their lives instead of just yours.
What most often happens in politics, and in business, is that there’s a difference between the vote and the understanding of what is behind the vote; voters are often left disillusioned by what results from their vote because the candidate who then becomes leader may not understand what was behind the vote, so is not able, or willing, to work on the real reason the voter made the choice they did.
Like in business, if we focus on the transaction, and not the transformation the voter was hoping for, the voter, like the consumer, may very well make a different choice next time around. If we focus on the desired transformation, we get true alignment and gain a brand advocate, or, in the case of elections, a confident vote.
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