Spotlight Exploring the cultural trends and issues impacting society today COGNITIVE DISSONANCE The assumption trap The EU referendum and the last general election betrayed a chasm in understanding between the mainstream population and the cultural elite. Elen Lewis investigates the role of market research in breaking down assumptions During the height of the Covid-19 restrictions, a market researcher working on a financial services brief was shocked to hear an advertising agency planner claim: Everyone seems better off in lockdown because were saving so much money. Even though the daily news forecast a global meltdown, the Hackney ad-land echo chamber was telling them something different. The research proved otherwise. Talking to taxi drivers, caf workers and event planners revealed another reality about some of the mainstream population their livelihoods had been devastated overnight and they were facing the breadline. Its more than four years since the EU referendum, and many of the soul-searching questions around echo chambers and filter bubbles remain crucial today. Has marketing forgotten the mainstream or are they being misunderstood and how can market research ensure assumptions are avoided? As one researcher says: People dont move outside their bubbles. But research can make the circles outside your echo chamber vivid. What does the mainstream look like? The most important, albeit obvious, thing to say about the mainstream is that its a large, powerful audience. Newspaper publisher Reach and research agency House51 define the 16 modern mainstream in commercial terms as the middle 50% in terms of household income (20k-55k), who represent more than 50% of brand buyers and constitute more than 70% of the population. Similarly, the ABC1 v C2DE measures favoured by the marketing and media industries show that 45% of the population is C2DE. This audience is the heartland of Britain builders, plumbers, hairdressers, says Steven Lacey, managing director of The Outsiders and author of The Age of Rage qualitative research, exploring the temperature of the mass mainstream (C1C2) in lockdown. They hold the keys to No 10 and well keep getting shocks such as Brexit and Trump if we continue to ignore them. But theyre not cool, theyre not linked to music, they wont necessarily change the world, so wed prefer to have a conversation about sustainability than the working-class community in Doncaster, he adds. Lacey believes the marketing industry finds it much harder to talk about class than other areas of diversity, such as race. This is the one group we find a bit embarrassing, he says. The white working class is the biggest audience with the biggest unconscious bias from the industry. Hes not the only person to note that socio-economic class is often absent in discussions about diversity and inclusion. People of working-class origin are rarely featured or celebrated in the rapidly expanding coverage of diversity in the trade and mainstream media. Lacey talks of prejudice in terms of prototypicality where people immediately think of a magpie rather than a penguin when asked to think of a bird. People think of stereotypes estates, teen mums, Benidorm, Brexit, football thuggery, or the far right. The only people whove really understood this audience is the Conservative Party. Understanding the red wall Deborah Mattinson, co-founder of Britain Thinks, believes we need to reassess what the mainstream is in our divided nation. Were divided by values by what we feel, as well as demographics. Perhaps there isnt a mainstream anymore? Mattinsons book, Beyond the Red Wall, examines the five million people forgotten by the political class in the former Labour heartlands of Stoke-onTrent, Accrington and Darlington. Its so striking how forgotten those places are... and its incredibly important for everyone not just politicians who have a duty, but also marketers to better understand them, she says. In October 2020, the north-south divide reared its head again with the governments handling of the Covid-19 tier system. Mattinson talked to people who were disappointed with the Tory government they had voted in. They felt their communities were being starved of cash. As Mattinson points out, the red wall in itself becomes a metaphor for this feeling of neglect. Talking to the mainstream Many market research agencies are based in the capital, but Andrew Tenzer, director