The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream

Citation

Singh, R. (2009), "The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 461-462. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760910988292

Here comes a book from the master of polling himself who discusses with penetrating details and deep insights, the transformation of the iconic American dream in the present era. The book provides interesting evidence to substantiate the claim that polling, especially that related to electoral and socio‐political issues, is both an art and science, and certainly not necromancy, as claimed by its opponents. Zogby also claims that pollsters do not create the future by making predictions self‐fulfilling, but instead accurately predict it by asking the right questions and doing appropriate analysis of the numbers. It is here that pollsters depart from necromancers, since they do not try to “charm trends out of a jumble of dead numbers” (page ix).

However, the book is not about polling and pollsters, it is about something more important, i.e. how and why the American dream is getting transformed, explained in only seven chapters. In the first chapter, the author explicates in great detail how Zogby International carries out polling and accurately predicts the future by asking masked and indirect questions rather than merely obvious ones. The chapter is full of interesting examples of how asking direct questions has often led to inaccurate representation of present realities and future scenarios; and how indirect disguised polling leads to unveiling the non‐obvious and surreal soon‐to‐come future.

Chapter 2 discusses the details of the American dream and shatters the prevalent notion that Americans are best only in consumption and materialism. In what seems like a soon‐to‐be‐adopted marketing mantra for at least the coming decades, the author tells us that Americans care about their shared values, social responsibility and reasonable ideas. So big, over‐hyped, micro‐marketing, baser instincts‐driven consumption is out and reasonable, socially responsible and value‐laden consumption is in.

Chapter 3, interestingly titled, “Dematerializing the paradigm,” informs us that the American dream is now moving towards a more sensible, sensitive and personalized world. In this world, value matters, elderly opinion counts, and self‐determination and self‐reliance are on the rise.

Chapter 4 deals with shattering the starkly individualistic image of the American society. We are told that the 18‐29 age group cares more than just about themselves, and in general the youth in the society is more caring about social issues. Therefore, the average young American no more longs to possess, but is more possessive about an image that portrays that person about who he/she is and what he/she stands for.

Chapter 5, titled “ The new American dream,” actually reiterates the previous point when the author shows through gis organization's surveys demonstrating that for one in three Americans, it is not so much about acquiring, spending and possessing but about spiritual fulfilment. The American dream is also manifested in finding more meaning in jobs and careers, in spending within limits and in indulging in more charity.

Chapter 6 draws attention to the increasing craving of an average American to search for more authenticity in the reality. So hyper‐reality in the make‐believe world is slowly fading away and giving way to where people want to buy the steak without getting distracted by the sizzle. The author boldly claims that these days every one possesses a “bull shit detector” which can see through tall and hollow claims of marketers.

In the last and seventh chapter, which is titled same as the book, marketing mantras are given by beautifully segmenting the American population into the Private Generation, Woodstockers, Nikes, and First Globals in the decreasing order of their ages. The book ends with a snapshot of America's future. The author writes, “The America of 2020 will be a more tolerant nation … .we would have…embraced the Zen of more minimal lifestyles and consumption patterns” (p. 215).

The book is an interesting mix of insights, forecasting trends and story telling. It relies both on anecdotal as well as empirical evidence to support most of its claim, and this is where the tone of the book is not merely normative. Given the self claimed success of Zogby International in predicting the future accurately, it would not be surprising to see the marketers embracing this book as their next marketing bible.

Although most of the book is breezy reading, sometimes it drags us into too many details about polling questions, descriptive statistics, and methodological issues which are beyond the domain of interest of any ordinary reader who is neither a pollster nor a marketer. However, I would recommend this book even to historians, who can always check back after two decades to see if Zogby was right or if he missed the boat completely. The best thing about this book is that it is not claiming to be a second Nostradamus. Instead it is about convincing people that polling is a powerful combination of art and science, and not a black box or black magic, and can therefore help us see the future‐to‐be, and get prepared for it.