The Collective Force Behind Every Purchase

Marketers have spent decades chasing the myth of the independent consumer, as if people make up their minds alone, unaffected by the context of their peers, groups, or what is happening all around them. But as behavioral science pioneer, Mark Earls, observed nearly two decades ago, “the dominant view of the consumer as an individual should be replaced with the more accurate model of the consumer as acting as part of the herd.” Evolutionary thinkers have made the same point. NYU professor and evolutionary psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, has said that we are about “90 percent chimp and 10 percent bee,” a reminder that our rational, self-interested side coexists with a communal, conformist impulse. It turns out that the most important characteristic of “humankind” is not lone independence but belonging to a group.

This truth plays out in our everyday choices. We like to believe we make personal decisions, which coffee to brew, which brand to trust, but studies show those decisions almost always carry a social echo. Tom Ridges 🐄, CEO of Herdify and author of Individualism Is Bullshit, tells the story of “Dave,” a man with a sacred morning ritual built around his cafetière. Dave had followed that routine for years, until his sister and friends casually praised a Nespresso machine. In a few weeks, Dave’s decades-old habit was abandoned in favor of the pod brewer. The shift had very little to do with personal reasoning. It followed the pull of those closest to him. These stories are common: an endorsement here, a trend there, and suddenly even staunch individuals bend to the herd.

Marketers have begun to catch on. In practice, however, many brands still act as if the customer were an island. We pour budgets into hyper‐targeted ads aimed at pixelated individuals. But this often backfires. Ridges notes that chasing each person separately creates bidding wars that saturate that person with narrow ads and diminish marginal returns. “Advertising as a whole would work better if people targeted groups instead,” he argues. Even if it costs a little efficiency on paper. By focusing on communities and clusters, marketers trade micro-precision for the insight that people make choices together. A slight sacrifice in narrow targeting can yield a large gain in real-world effectiveness.

History offers a lesson here. Communities have driven commerce for centuries. Early consumer culture grew around guilds, social clubs, even music halls. All group rituals and shared values. Look at Harley-Davidson in the 1980s. It teetered on the edge of collapse, then made a comeback by nurturing an ardent brand community around the Harley lifestyle. It was no accident that riders formed clubs, wore the logo as a badge of honor, and even traveled in caravan-like packs. This collective identity transformed Harley’s fortunes, proving that people banding together around a product can lift a business. In our terms, Harley’s leaders were practicing an old form of group selection. Building the competitive advantage of a tribe rather than chasing isolated purchases.

Even the most modern products trade on this instinct. In the beauty aisle, brands like Cult Beauty and Beauty Pie thrive by activating cultures of buyers. Validating each shopper’s choice by showing them it’s shared by others. In tech, device adoption often looks viral. Think how the iPhone became a social totem, or how the above-mentioned Nespresso pods became morning gossip. Adidas recently witnessed this with the humble Samba sneaker. Originally a soccer shoe, it shot back into the zeitgeist through street-style tribes, celebrity photos, and nostalgic word-of-mouth. Its resurgence was literally contagious. One person sees a friend or Instagram star wearing Sambas and suddenly dozens want them. Each sale feeds another sale because owning a pair signals membership in a trend. That is social proof. Herd behavior in action. And it works far beyond one-on-one ads (see Dr. Robert Cialdini's influence principle of Unity for a deeper understanding of this phenomenon).

The science supports these anecdotes. Behavior change, the heart of marketing, is rarely purely rational. By one estimate, 13 percent of all consumer sales worldwide come from word-of-mouth recommendations. And most of that happens offline. Over 80 percent in fact. Traditional marketing channels are only the tip of the iceberg. The bulk of influence flows through real social networks. Through chit-chat at coffee shops, online forums, neighborhood communities. Activating these clusters creates acceleration. Like a Mexican Wave at a stadium, a few sparks of interest will draw the whole crowd in. Once a product or idea crosses the tipping point in a group, loyalty builds. People trust what people like them trust (see Robert Cialdini’s influence principle of Social Proof for a deeper understanding of this phenomenon). This is why brands that lead with the herd tend to win bigger share.

Traditional segmentation misses this. Treating targets as atomized customers ignores how behaviors spread. Behavioral science makes the point emphatically. Humans are herd animals. We value the choices of those around us, seeking approval and safety in numbers. We buy what our peers buy and skip what they ridicule. Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK and one of the leading voices in behavioral marketing, puts it bluntly: “Marketing is not about individuals. It never has been. The real power lies in the herd.” His words echo a growing consensus. To truly resonate, marketing must acknowledge the collective social mind.

This shift is already reshaping audience strategies. Just as evolutionary biologists once considered how group-level traits evolve, modern marketers are learning to operate at the group level. Herdify’s approach is a case in point. Rather than chasing cookie-era tracking on random individuals, Herdify uses behavioral science and data to map communities of influence. Its BESeen engine identifies the postcodes and social clusters where advocacy is high, focusing spend on those hotspots. In practice this means throwing fuel on an emerging fire. Doubling down where a brand already has enthusiastic fans. Early results speak loudly. For one firm, community targeting via Herdify lifted response rates by nearly 200 percent. Others report finding hidden pockets of potential supporters that conventional models overlooked.

In effect, Herdify is doing group selection for business. It taps the self-reinforcing power of clusters. The very force that Darwin noted underpins moral and social instincts. Marketing campaigns aimed at these groups ride the wave of social proof. When neighbors see neighbors embracing your brand, it becomes irresistible. Trying to convert isolated individuals often fights against inertia and group norms. As the behavioral gurus at Herdify explain, “humans don’t like to change, but they do like to copy…so your marketing is working with the herd, not against it.”

CMOs facing rising costs and vanishing cookies don’t need another theory. They need something that works. Strategy works better when it starts from how people actually behave. In groups. In context. Rarely, if ever, alone. Communities amplify every message, make every dollar more credible, and turn customers into advocates. Think of it as twenty-first century group-level thinking. A modern expression of tribal marketing backed by data and insight.

In the final analysis, we are left with a simple, even elegant lesson. The herd is already moving. The choice for brands is whether to lead it or chase it.