What political pollsters can learn at the ice-cream parlor

This event report outlines some of the failings of political pollsters during the 2016 Presidential election, drawing particularly on learnings from consumer-focused market research.

Pollsters contemplating their failure to predict President Donald Trump's ascension to the White House may find the answers they seek not at the ballot box, but with a visit to the ice-cream parlor.

"Jeb Bush is probably vanilla ice cream," Bill Doyle, VP at Performance Research, a research firm based in Newport, Rhode Island, told delegates at IEG's 2017 Sponsorship Conference in Chicago.

"Strawberry sorbet? That's probably Ted Cruz."

And what ice-cream flavor was Trump? "Broccoli," Doyle said. "A totally different candidate."

The seemingly oblique analogy, he argued, can help explain how Trump, a political novice, bested 16 rivals –...

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