Recently I was briefed on a new project around some natural and organic food brands. One observation that was perplexing was that among the audience interested in these brands, 57% of them seemed supportive of Trump. Most might assume that all granola types are super hippie and left leaning. From my experience working in the natural foods industry for 20 years prior joining the tech world, sure that has felt mostly true, but let us look a little closer. I recall marketing research by this industry which identified customers into persona groups like Fitness Enthusiasts, Foodies and Conscientious Consumers. The Fitness Enthusiast are athletes who want only the best fuel possible to put in their bodies for health and performance. The Foodie wants the best quality ingredients to make the best tasting meals to please those with a discerning palate. The Conscientious Consumers are choosy over the purity and ethics involved of in each of the ingredients of the products they purchase. I would like to add another group I’ve observed that maybe we could call Antiestablishment Leaners. They are the next level of the Conscientious Consumer, who distrust conventional or genetically modified foods specifically and will spit in disgust when they hear the name Monsanto.
Vital Farms Audience
Over the years I observed shoppers who are afraid of being touched, handed money/receipts, being spoken to, having their food exposed to the low radiation emitting from the register scanners and force cashiers to ring an entire order of groceries by hand, and only wear natural fibers clothes without any pigment in them. I’ve seen shoppers who daily adhered to diets you’d never imagine:
- People who eat raw ground beef everyday straight from the butcher paper.
- People whose skin, hair and eyes are orange from consuming as much fresh made carrot juice as they can guzzle down.
- People who just eat pie for lunch everyday for who knows what reason.
- And there is what you would expect, people who want toothpaste without fluoride, and food without pesticides, GMOs, hormones and any other potentially toxic substances in their food or personal items.
Science and studies show clear evidence that organic foods are better for our bodies.
So imagine how shoppers who fall into this category think about the political landscape as it is now. The truth is they may not trust anyone, or any political party to look out for them or their interests. I’m going to go out on a limb and say they are not likely to take any news report at face value. They are reading between the lines of everything and forming their own conclusions. How does this lead to this group maybe being followers of Trump? If you asked me: “If I walked into a Whole Foods Market and needed to find a Antiestablishment Leaner in 60 seconds, what department should I beeline to?” I would say run to the Whole Body section right now and you won’t be disappointed. That’s the department where you find vitamin supplements, herbal remedies and yoga mats. Team members there are trained to belt out the “I’m not a doctor, so please don’t directly ask me for medical advice, but I can tell you about the products.” That is THE spot customers go to gush to team members there about their life stories, UFO experiences, and which intelligence agency is following them.
So when we look at the external influencers (which identifies accounts followed the most by member of the audience segment) of the Vital Farms audience it echoes what we see through the many levels of analysis People Patter offers. In addition to following organic natural food brands, Trump and the White House are at the top.
Vital Farms External Influencers
A Trump brand analysis within the Vital Farms audience shows more advocates than detractors.
Also among their external influencers was Gaiam with 2% of the segment following them.
We can gather further insight by looking at content from new-age video streaming service called Gaia TV, an offshoot of the Gaiam yoga lifestyle company referenced above. Gaia TV supplies videos on yoga, fitness, personal growth, spirituality, metaphysics, UFOs and conspiracy theory topics in over 120 countries. I feel like they have done a great job of identifying and targeting this audience with their marketing and service. Besides yoga enthusiasts and people who want to hear inspirational spiritual talks from Deepak Chopra, it’s the go-to place for those interested in the paranormal subjects. Probably the most popular show they have is Cosmic Disclosure in which David Wilcock (from Ancient Aliens) interviews whistleblowers who were allegedly involved in shadow government run secret space programs. A narrative among them is that there is currently a quiet behind-the-scenes civil war transpiring between a growing majority of white hats within the military and intelligence agencies and corrupt black hats embedded within by the Nazis at the close of WWII. The white hats objective is purported to be freeing humanity from the control of the elite by jailing those responsible, exposing their crimes and agenda to the public, and disclosing the truth of advanced technology being withheld from the public (that would eliminate any need for hunger, oil, power companies, war or current banking system).
Top Hashtags of Gaia’s Audience for Politics and Current Events
Feeding this narrative is the phenomena of ‘Q’ or ‘Qanon’. Qanon first appeared in October of 2017 on 4chan then later on 8chan and has been perceived by some to be a voice from white hats allied with President Trump within the intelligence community (or perhaps Julian Assange) sharing insights with those paying attention around their progress in this silent civil war with the deep state. The posts are cryptic and have YouTube channels filled with people speculating on and decifering their meanings. The popularity of Qanon has grown due to a perception of accuracy of predictions of specific news events well before they come out like many of the unexpected arrests, firings and resignations of those said to be corrupt. Recently Info Wars’ Alex Jones claims he knows who Qanon is and said that the account had been taken over by another party. Another hook pulling in audience members is apparently US courts are dealing with as many as around 24,000+ sealed indictments so far this year, whereas the average annual amount of sealed indictments is around 1,000. It is speculated that these indictments are to quietly round up corrupt deep staters. Sealed indictments can be found and verified by searching the U.S. government’s court documents access system, PACER. Other signs of possible behind-the-scenes white hat activity are that people are noticing waves of outings and arrests of formerly protected high level sex offenders as part of the #metoo movement, plus mainstream media channels and military have started to report and acknowledge unexplained flying objects suddenly now in the year 2018 (for the first time in 70 years).
#Qanon Posts of the Gaia TV Audience
Many of their posts mention @jerome_corsi with links to the following video.
Before claiming Qanon is no longer Qanon, author and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi claims Qanon was military intelligence, and Trump was approached by military generals and convinced to campaign for presidency to give the military the chance to clean out the deep state legitimately without having to first stage a coup.
Is Trump a sheep in wolf’s clothing? Our image of him is of someone defending bigotry and unkindness. Those are traits we would naturally associate with any enemy of free people (like the deep state). Is to simultaneously strengthen the public’s ability to get involved and demand better of our government (by protesting and running for office) while cleaning house of shadow actors the agenda all along? He certainly isn’t predictable to any enemy he may face. Is that Trump’s secret agenda to Make America Great Again? In human history and lore the trickster archetype proved to be very useful by both Hermes and Odysseus. Native American traditions teach of the clown and trickster bringing about great change.
It’s not all about Trump for them. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are big for this crowd too.
I followed a thread from the data using some instincts from experience in the industry that led to some interesting places as far as content consumption. Why do people who buy pasture raised eggs follow Trump? If we assume some of this content has influenced their views of current events we may have an answer. As much as they didn’t vote for him, or support his rhetoric, they hold onto hope that he really is an ally against the deep state.
Top Hashtags of Gaia Audience
Top Hashtags of Vital Farms Audience
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