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When Everett Rogers introduced the S-shaped diffusion curve in the first edition of his book, he was directly following the data. Researchers like Elihu Katz had already begun studying how change spreads and noticed a consistent pattern in the adoption of hybrid corn and the antibiotic tetracycline. Yet it was Rogers who shaped our understanding of how ideas spread. Publishing more than 30 books and 500 articles, he studied everything from technology adoption to family planning in remote societies and just about everything in between. In doing so, he laid the foundation for an evidence-based approach to change. Still, while Rogers showed us how change works, he didnt offer much insight into why it works that way. This is where I think Michael Morriss book, Tribal, can be helpful. By exploring how our tribal instincts lead us to adoptor resistchange, we can learn to work with human nature rather than against it. Smart leaders dont try to override instinct. They harness it. The peer instinct: Connecting outside the community Humans instinctively learn from our peers in ways other animals do not. Research by Michael Tomasello at the Max Planck Institute found that while human infants can share intentions by pointing, apes cannot. In a similar vein, Esther Herrmann and her colleagues found that humans have evolved unique skills for social cognition such as social learning, communication, and theory of mind. This peer instinct shapes how we perceive and respond to risk. For the Iowa farmers in the hybrid corn study, their judgments were grounded in the concerns of their local community, such as rainfall, crop infestations, and other dangers. Most doctors were understandably reluctant to prescribe a new medicine that they were not familiar with. One of the first things researchers noticed in both studies was that the early adopters were more connected outside their communities. The Iowa farmers who adopted hybrid corn early also traveled to Des Moines, the nearest city, more often. The doctors who were early to prescribe tetracycline were also the ones that most often attended out-of-town conferences. David McRaney made a similar observation in his book How Minds Change. People who changed their minds about something important to them, like those who abandoned conspiracy theories or found the courage to leave cults, tend to have a change in their social networks first. Being around different people helped them see the world in new ways. Everett Rogers saw the peer instinct at work in his own family. Although his father loved new electromechanical gadgets, he was reluctant to adopt hybrid seed corn. But during a severe drought in 1936, he noticed that his neighbors crop thrived while his own wilted, and that finally convinced him to make the switch. The hero instinct: Spreading success One of the most interesting aspects of both studies is that the farmers and the doctors reported getting information from conventional sources. In both cases, about half said they first heard about the innovation from salespeople and nearly a quarter from direct mailtogether making up roughly 75% of respondents. (Radio and TV were still nascent.) Yet while conventional media introduced the innovation in both sets of studies, respondents reported being most influenced by someone they knew. Other research has shown something similar: Weak social ties tend to provide information, while strong social ties shape decisions. Morris calls this the hero instinct. When we see people who are successful and admired, we tend to imitate them. Its why kids not only want to wear their favorite players number, but copy how he walks up to the plate. These hero codes act as ideals we aspire to. And unlike the peer instinct, we dont need to know the person. Stories of success are enough to shape behavior. Hero codes act as models for behavior. In the Soviet Union, stories of miner Alexei Stakhanov not only served as a Communist ideal, but were featured on the cover of Time magazine and influenced HR practices in the West. In Latin America, soap opera heroes were shown to positively influence literacy and family planning. While the peer instinct drives adoption in the earlier stages of the S-curve, the hero instinct drives its acceleration. The ancestor instinct: Making change stick One of Rogerss most consistent findings was that the tipping point for change usually lies between 10% and 20% participation. Thats also the point of maximum resistance. Some innovations, like lean manufacturing and agile development hit that threshold and stay stuck there for decades, never reaching the steep part of the S-curve. Leaders often use precedent signals to leverage our respect for tradition. Its no accident that Abrahamic holidays often fall on the same dates as earlier pagan rituals. For many of the same reasons, when Lou Gerstner set out to turn around tech giant IBM in the 1990s, he frequently invoked the companys history and culture to support changes he made. Morris calls this the ancestor instinct and it can be incredibly powerful. We have a natural reverence for what has come before us and pass down traditions through the generations. These can be religious traditions, legal precedents like the U.S. Constitution, or, as in the case of Lou Gerstner and IBM, elements of organizational culture. Framing omething new as being rooted in old traditions can make it feel safer to adopt. Both hybrid corn and tetracycline eventually became part of the fabric of their industries. Today, we grow 20% more corn on 25% less land due to innovations like hybrid corn. Tetracycline represented a new class of antibiotics, but soon became a standard of care. What was once new, exciting, and even a little scary, became mundane, ordinary, and routine. Putting tribal instincts to work for you The S-curve has become so ingrained in the lore of innovation and change that we scarcely think about where it came from or what drives it. We know that change starts slowly, with a few enthusiasts experimenting with something new. If it gains traction, adoption can accelerate exponentially before the market saturates and levels off. Yet Michael Morriss work on tribal signals can help us understand the original research in new and interesting ways. Weve long known that early adopters tend to venture outside their communities to explore. But when we understand the peer instinct and prevalence signals, we can begin to see how the structure of our social networks affects what we can achieve. In a similar vein, understanding the hero instinct and prestige signals allows us to accelerate adoption by celebrating success stories and telling them well. Leveraging the ancestor instinct and precedent signals can help us frame new things in terms that honor and respect traditions that people already value. At its root, innovation is less about technology and disruption than it is about people. Good ideaseven great onesfail all the time. If you have an idea you care about and want it to succeed, you cant ignore the basic instincts that drive human nature. You need to harness them and let them work for you instead of against you.
Category:
E-Commerce
To play is human. Its how toddlers experience and learn about the world they just entered. Its also how we as adults rewire our brains and learn new things most effectively. In a world in which consumers are flooded with choices, companies are fighting ferociously to capture and maintain the consumers attention. The business leaders who are successfully steering their organizations in this digital-first world are using a secret weapon that taps into our most human desire to play: video games. Eighty four percent of all internet users regularly play video games. That comes out to 3.4 billion people globally that play video games almost dailya number that is projected to reach 3.8 billion by 2027. Contrary to the still far too common stereotype around what constitutes a “gamer,” gaming is the only medium that actually reaches all demographic cohorts. Yes, GenZ and Gen Alpha spend more time in games like Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox than on all social media channels combined. But according to a report from the Entertainment Software Association, over 35 million Americans over the age of 50 play video games for at least an hour a day. Video games are a multigenerational force. Companies are starting to wake up to this reality and leverage video games as a touch point in their strategies to engage consumers more effectively. Here are four strategies of how companies from any industry can leverage video games for their own business. Integrate with existing video games Identify an existing video game that offers your brand access to an already established audience youd like to reach and integrate with that game. Without a doubt this is the easiest jumping-off point to get into gaming and the best place to start for companies who want to dip their toes into the gaming waters to learn. In 2021, in search of ways to engage with a younger audience, casual dining company Chipotle integrated a Halloween-themed gaming experience into Roblox, a multiplayer online game that features a vast library of user-generated games spanning everything from racing to role-playing games. The collaboration allowed players to dress up their avatars in Chipotle-inspired costumes like Burrito Mummy or Guacenstein, visit the companys first virtual restaurant, and navigate the Chipotle Boorito Maze. The first 30,000 Roblox players to visit during the four days leading up to Halloween received a code they could redeem online, on the Chipotle app, or in a restaurant for a free entrée. In total, Chipotle gave away $1 million in burritosan investment that resulted in 5.2 million gameplays and over two million unique visitors, but also went beyond generating brand exposure. The collaboration delivered a top 10 enrollment day of all time for Chipotles rewards program. Create new video games This is a harder, costlier, and riskier approach that offers greater upside. This is a great fit for companies who are committed to making video games an integral part of their customer engagement strategy instead of using them for isolated marketing campaigns. Creating a new game from scratch means you get to shape the entire gaming experience so that it aligns perfectly with your companys brand and goals. This also opens up a path towards creating and learning from highly valuable first-party data you own about your customers. The New York Times Games offering is a perfect example. A key part of the NYTs digital subscription offering, Games, now includes nine different word and puzzle games that have been the primary driver of the companys digital subscription growth to over 11 million subscribers since the NYT decided to double down on video gaming in 2014. Subscribers that engage with both news and games in a given week exhibit the strongest long-term retention metrics among its customer segments. The Atlantic is now pursuing this strategy. Leverage Web3 games This strategy includes the previous two approaches, but offers distinct opportunities for marketing and monetization due to the underlying blockchain technology. For example, luxury fashion house Burberry partnered with game developer Mythical Games to launch its latest fashion line in their Web3 game called Blankos. Blankos is a multiplayer game that lets players play a variety of mini games with friends as well build their own levels. Burberry created limited-edition in-game characters for Blankos alongside digital clothing items from its newest collection. In just 22 seconds, the entire virtual collection sold out, generating $225,000 in revenue while giving Burberry direct engagement with a different audience. Make the video game the product This is the most advanced strategy where the video game itself becomes the product. Companies embarking on this path ideally have staff with game design experience. For example, fitness company Peloton created a video game called Lanebreak that riders of the Peloton bike can engage in as their workout content. Rather than following instructions from a trainer, the video game simulates a workout in the form of an immersive bike race. The results have been astonishing: 50% of all workouts done on Peloton bikes are now completed in the video game, and those riders tend to complete more and longer workouts in a given week. Video games provide business leaders with the unique opportunity to let their brand come to life in ways that are much harder to achieve in other channels such as social media. Business leaders who want to ensure that their organization is equipped to meet consumers where they are and drive engagement should consider gaming as a strategy. Games are fun, authentic, and most importantly highly effective at driving engagement.
Category:
E-Commerce
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. To conduct our first-ever real estate agent survey, ResiClub partnered with Zoodealio, a cash-offer platform and iBuyer-management software designed for real estate agents. Among the 238 agents who took the survey, half (50%) have been real estate agents for 15 years or more. The Zoodealio-ResiClub Real Estate Agent Survey was fielded between July 28 and August 24, 2025. Respondents included real estate agents spanning all regions of the U.S., giving us a ground-level view of buyer urgency, seller motivation, leverage shifts, commission structures, and expectations for the next 12 months. Heres what the results revealed. Buyers are gaining power Agents report that buyer urgency in their local market has cooled off compared with a year ago, while sellers have become more urgent. In the Southeast, Southwest, and West, agents say seller urgency is picking up the most, while Midwest and Northeast sellers are steadier. Many agents describe their local markets as more balanced, with leverage tilting back toward buyers as inventory builds. Buyer power is particularly strong across markets in the Southwest, with 96% of agents surveyed in the region reporting buyers gaining leverage in their local market over the past 12 months. Looking ahead: Agent expectations for clients and home prices When asked who they expect to drive business growth over the next 12 months, agents pointed to sellers seeking downsizing options. This growth is possibly downstream of todays strained housing affordability and aging demographics. Agents also expect the move-up buyer category to grow. On a relative basis, agents in the Midwest are slightly more bullish about local home prices over the next 12 months. In contrast, many agents in the Southeast, Southwest, and West anticipate slight home price declinesor even notable dropsover the next 12 months as affordability pressures continue to squeeze. National perspective on mortgage rates and NAR On mortgage rates, nearly half of our surveyed agents (49%) anticipate the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate will finish 2025 in the 6% to 6.5% rangelower than today but still well above the pandemic lows. More than a third of respondents (38%) still think the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate will be in the 6.5% to 7% range. When it comes to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), sentiment skews negative: 31% describe their view as very unfavorable, another 31% somewhat unfavorable, and 28% neutral. Only a small minority of surveyed agents expressed a favorable opinion of the organization. Bluntly put, NAR has an image problem. Commissions After the March 2024 National Association of Realtors settlement, many expected commissions to drop sharply. Our survey shows some change on that frontbut not a major one. On the sell-side, a dominant 92% of agents say their most recent commission was a fixed percentage, compared with 78% on the buy-side. Nearly 1 in 5 buy-side deals now involve either a flat fee, client-negotiated model, or other form of commission. Additionally, the majority of agents remain in the traditional 2% to 3% commission ballpark: 87% of sell-side agents and 78% of buy-side agents report their typical commissions fall within that band. Big Picture The Zoodealio-ResiClub survey results show a housing market in which buyer urgency is cooling, sellers are growing more motivated, and leverage is shifting back toward buyers. In the next 12 months, agents expect the most client segment growth from downsizers and move-up buyers. They also predict modest home price gains in the Northeast and Midwest; softer trends in the Southeast, Southwest, and West; and mortgage rates ending 2025 between 6% and 7%. Post-2024 settlement, sentiment toward NAR is largely unfavorable, while commissions remain fairly stable.
Category:
E-Commerce
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