I just picked up, and am half way through, an awsome book that i would like to recommend to all here at DP. Title: The Culture Code: an ingenious way to understand why people around the world live and buy as they do. Author:Clotaire Rapaille Publisher: Broadway Books, a division of Random House 2006 The author is a psychologist that remains on retainer by 50 of the Forune 100 companies in America. He studies the cultural behaviours of people to determine the deep emotional associations with various products, or activities, to determine the "Code Words" that really tap into why people buy certain products, or do certain things. The cultural history of a nation or region has a massive impact on this and marketers who understand these cultural effects will be more successfull in trying to sell when using the proper code to tap into the emotions of buyers. For example, in the 1970's Nestle wanted to enter into the Japanese market to sell coffee. Japan is a tea drinking nation. Through studying groups of people in Japan and trying to find there emotional attachement to coffe and what it means to them, "when did you first taste coffe?", "what did you think the first time you tasted coffe", etc. They determined that Japan has absolutly no cultural connection to coffee. Hello, they drink tea. So trying to market coffee to them would be a complete waste of time and money. So they instead tried to create a cultural conection to coffee. They introduced coffee flavored treats and candies for kids and young people. This introduced them to the flavor at a young age and imprinted a pleasurable memory with coffee. Now, 30 years later, those kids are adults and coffee drinkers. The coffee market in Japan, vertually non-existant 30 years ago, is now worth billions. Another example, in the late 1990's Chrysler was struggling with the Jeep Wrangler as the SUV market was taking over. Chrysler had done a lot of focus groups to ask people what they want in a Jeep and they all said things like, it should be more luxurious, more like an SUV, have a hard top, not convertable, etc. Thats what people would say but, it is not really what they meant. If Chyrsler went ahead with this line of thinking the Jeep would become just another SUV. So the author was hired to do his own focus groups. He asks a lot of the same types of questions but ignores what they actually say. He looks for the underlying and subtle similarities. Then he asks about what peoples earliest memories of a Jeep were, and the recuring image was of being out on the open land, riding free of the constraints of the road. Many mentioned images of the American West or the open plains. So the code for the Jeep was HORSE. Chrysler then began to market the jeep using imagry of a horse out in the wide open. One commercial had a young boy walking his dog in the wilderness. The dog falls over a cliff and hangs precarioulsy in a tree. The boy runs to a nearby village for help. He passes sedans and SUVs until he comes upon a Jeep. The Jeep scales the treachorous mountain and the driver rescues the dog. The kid hugs the dog and when he turns to thank the man- the Jeep is already driving off in the distance, just like an old western hero heading off into the sunset on his horse. It was a great success and Jeep sales improved even in the face of SUVs. People said they wanted an SUV because everyone around them were buying SUVs. But, what they really wanted in a Jeep was the unique experience the Jeep offers. They then wished to market the Jeep in Europe. The european experience with the Jeep is far different. If they tried to market it as a "horse" people would not be able to associate with it. In France and Germany in particular, the Jeep invokes memories of World War II as the vehicle driven by American troops. In France it was the image of freedom from the Nazi's. In Germany, it was the image of freedom from their darker selves. Many in France and Germany told stories of how the jeep gave them a sense of hope, and represented the start of better days. The code for the Jeep in both countries was LIBERATOR. New ad campaings in both France and Germany stressed the Jeeps proud past and the freedom gained by driving a Jeep Wrangler. The campaigns were very successfull and sales rose in both countries. The book touches on the codes for health, beauty, sex, money, work, home, food, alchool, shopping, luxury, quality, and more. The focus is primariliy on American culture, but touches on other cultures as a comparison. Very fascinating stuff. Go get it! It will change how you think about things.
Thanks for the review. Sounds like an interesting and helpful read. Did you find any easy applications to ebiz stuff?
There is no direct mention of how it can translate to ebiz. But it gives great food for thought about how to approach your marketing to target buyers with ad copy that will really connect with them. Think more about what you are trying to sell and why buyers would actually want it.
The Nestle example is an example of segmentation and psychographics. Indirectly webmasters all follow the same principle, when one finds a niche and uses it.