In this Greatest Hits episode of Getting to Aha!, Darshan talks with John Zogby, Senior Partner at John Zogby Strategies, a marketing and political consulting firm offering opinion research services. John has served as an election analyst for networks like ABC Australia, BBC, CBC, and NBC News.

Together, they explore how John became involved in polling and opinion research, the role of online surveys in predicting voter turnout, and the value of yes-no polling questions. They also cover qualitative research methods like focus groups and interviews, the evolution of the American dream post-COVID, and corporate social responsibility. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation packed with insights!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

👉 In the last century, polling has come to be known as a scientific way of gathering public opinion. In the broadest sense, polling is the act of seeking public opinion. No matter who is in charge, it matters what people think. There are a multitude of ways to retrieve this information, but one of the best ways is to get ahold of people from all sorts of occupations and backgrounds and simply ask them what they’re thinking. 

👉 When John began his venture into polling, almost everyone had a landline phone; however, as time went on, technology evolved and grew into something completely different. Fewer people stay home nowadays, fewer people have landlines, and ignoring phone calls has become the standard among most people. This was why John put time and research into online polling, so that he could reach those people.

👉 Polling can offer fascinating insights into the political and demographic landscape of an area. It can tell them a lot about who is voting, where these people are in their lives, where they will be in the future, and how they got there; it helps them find out if there is a meaning behind a vote or if it’s random. It’s for this reason, polling is widely considered to be a science.

👉 In his book “The Transformation of the American Dream,” John identified that boomers are questioning if there is more to life than materialistic success, while Millennials are looking for ways to live authentically in order to feel fulfilled. This trend has been referred to as "secular spiritualism". Additionally, Gen Z and millennials are increasingly demanding corporate social responsibility from employers, as well as time to work in their communities or contribute to those suffering.

👉 In his new manuscript, John explains that it is a study of his work and projects that really worked - those aha! moments. It wasn’t just polling, it was also going into schools, finding the root of people’s problems, and figuring out a way to solve them.

👉 One of the biggest mistakes pollers can make is relying extensively on random probability sampling, which in election polling can leave skewed results - for example, too many democrats and not a lot of republicans, or vice versa, meaning the polls lack a sense of reality. 

👉 John says that anything can happen when it comes to elections, and predictions can change as time goes on. He says that if there were an election today, the Republican party would most likely win control of the house of representatives. This is due to the conspiracy of the “stolen election” and the Democrats’ sanctimonious and didactic attitude. But, the more the Republican party pursues this tactic of spin and scrutiny, the less chance they have of getting the next ten percent they need to win elections.

👉 Polling is important; however, John describes it as “small data”. It will never replace people talking to each other and finding out what’s important. A robot can read your bank transactions and your data, but humans can look into the heart.

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Episode Resources
John Zogby Strategies
John Zogby LinkedIn
Madden School of Business
The Transformation of the American Dream