The Audience of Everyone Else

By Justin Foster

Gone are the days when a marketing team could define a target audience using broad brushstrokes like age, income, and zip code. We’re now swimming in the aftermath of a seismic shift—two decades of digital explosion that splintered identity itself. Smartphones made the individual sovereign. Social media made attention a currency. Streaming made culture a buffet. That was all challenging enough for brands.

Then came the spiritual fracturing of America - what we used to call "politics," but now feels something darker and more dangerous.

With this fracturing, brands are no longer selling to demographics. They’re speaking into worldviews that are revealed in three massive psychographic currents shaping the modern marketplace:

1. MAGA – the most predictable audience group over the last decade. Rooted in a pathology of grievance and a compulsive need for tribal coherence, this group consumes a closed-loop media diet engineered for dopamine and outrage, anchored in identity markers. What looks like loyalty is, in fact, a deep denial of reality—a pathological insularism that resists contradiction at all costs. They are not confused; they are over-confirmed. Of course, they still buy from brands they disagree with, but they keep that to themselves.
2. The Apathetic – not necessarily disengaged, just self-protective. This group has grown weary from the noise, the outrage cycles, the endless demands to choose a side. They’re not trying to deny reality—they’re trying to stay afloat. They say things are “too political” not out of malice, but because they’ve learned to equate involvement with exhaustion. Some lean on distraction, others on detachment. Not because they’re indifferent, but because engagement feels like a luxury they can’t afford. It’s not apathy as absence. It’s apathy as armor.
3. Everyone Else – this is the soul of the moment. Diverse in background, fragmented in taste, fluid in identity. They move through platforms, cultures, and communities like water—shifting, seeking, and sorting. They don’t follow trends, they metabolize them. They don’t belong to a single ideology, but they carry a common instinct: to sniff out bullshit. They are skeptics with soft hearts—alert, curious, unfooled. What they share isn’t data—it’s discernment. They’re drawn to integrity like bees to nectar. They tune out noise. They remember how manipulation feels in the body.

The task isn’t to craft three different brand messages to speak to each group. That’s a fool’s errand. You’re not here to win over MAGA—they don’t want you. You’re not here to chase the Apathetic—they’ve already chosen the mute button.

The question is simpler, and harder:

Where does your brand belong?

If it’s with Everyone Else—the complex, evolving, hard-to-reach majority—then you have one non-negotiable responsibility: to take a stand.

This group, fractured as it is, still speaks a common tongue: dignity, accountability, humanity, intention. These words aren’t slogans. They’re signals. You can’t fake them. You can’t pivot into them. You can’t A/B test your way there. You either mean it or you don’t. And if you don’t, they’ll smell it before you hit “publish.”

You don’t need to be loud. You don’t need to be a crusader. But you do need to be clear. Because Everyone Else doesn’t need another pitch—they’re looking for signals. They’re looking for brands that reflect their lived experience, not try to explain it to them. They speak in values, not value props. In tone, not trend. In standards, not statements.

You can’t fake this. And you can’t let the market define it for you. You have to decide what you mean. Then say it. Then show it. Then keep showing it—especially when it’s inconvenient..

Look at Costco. In 2025, 98% of shareholders voted to protect the company’s DEI initiatives, despite a national climate of backlash and bad faith rhetoric. They didn’t grandstand. They just held the line. Marriott did the same. Their CEO recently stood firm in the face of political pressure, stating unequivocally: “We welcome all… and those values will never change.” Over 40,000 employees wrote to thank him.

Even the NFL, hardly known for moral leadership, has evolved. They’ve expanded DEI programming and doubled down on community initiatives around race, equity, and representation. Not because it’s trendy, but because the league finally realized: you can’t keep cashing in on culture without investing in the people who create it.

None of these brands are perfect. That’s not possible. The point is: they’ve picked a side. Quietly. Consistently. Intentionally. 

Here’s the mistake most brands still make: 

That is why to reach and relate to Everyone Else, your brand needs three things:

Clarity – Especially moral clarity. Know what you stand for and say it plainly. Clarity is now currency, and your currency isn’t your product. It’s your values. Most brands want the market to tell them who they are. They obsess over trends, algorithms, and cultural signals, hoping to extract a brand personality from the feed. But identity doesn’t come from outside. It’s built from within. You don’t ask the market what your values should be. You declare them. Then you live them—publicly. 

Consistency – Virtue signaling is dead (looking at you, Target). If your values only show up in marketing campaigns but vanish in boardrooms, hiring practices, or supplier choices, then they aren’t values—they’re tactics. And this audience can tell the difference. They don’t reward decibel levels; they reward depth. What matters isn’t how loud you are, but how real you are—especially when it costs you something.

Courage – Not optional. Clarity and consistency mean nothing without the spine to hold them when it’s inconvenient. If you want to serve Everyone Else—the seekers, the skeptics, the builders, the weary but still believing—you need more than a message. You need demonstrated courage. 

So the question for brands who are part of Everyone Else is no longer, “What are we selling?” It’s “Do our values vibe?”

Everyone Else doesn’t need you to perform. They need you to mean it. To show up with a clear spine and a real point of view. Not perfection—conviction. Not slogans—standards.

Because if they don’t—if there’s no felt alignment—then none of it lands. Not your pricing, not your copy, not your product roadmap. The people you’re trying to reach aren’t looking for another brand to admire. They’re looking for something they can trust. Something they can belong to. 

If that is you, make it crystal clear in every aspect of your brand and watch what happens.