Understanding Cultural Insights: The New Next Consumer Battleground

Micro Culturalism is a weapon you need in your arsenal

The fight for consumers in today’s economic and social climate is like mixed martial arts (MMA) cage fighting–rough, bloody, urgent, no holds barred, fighters in full combat mode. The goal of mixed martial arts fighting is simple. It is to defeat opponents using a variety of techniques not unlike any other sport, except its full body contact. Understanding cultural insights, micro culturalism and the role they play in marketing is like having that secret mixed martial arts weapon that annihilates the competition.

Understanding cultural insights is a critical edge researchers and marketers should use to establish context and codes, as well as increase accuracy when interpreting and re-telling consumer stories, especially those of ethnic and social groups that form micro communities. Cultural insights will mark the new next fight and battleground post COVID, as researchers and marketers alike seek advanced tools to better understand changing consumer behaviors and achieve business objectives.

 

What is Micro Culturalism research?

Micro Culturalism looks deeper within existing dominant cultures at micro cultures, some of which germinate into full-blown game-changers that alter societal attitudes and behaviors on a local and global scale. Unlike macro cultures where behaviors and trends are more easily discerned, with microcultures it’s often the white spaces between the dots that tell the authentic story and provide important grounding context to data points. For example, people who experience systemic racism, having been consistently profiled or stereotyped, are far more likely to be hypersensitized to products, brand communications and messaging, and unwelcoming retail environments than those who are not. Often their concerns and hypersensitization are overlooked because they are not expressed for fear of retribution from others not of a similar marginalized culture.

Given the impact of COVID nationwide along with fast-evolving US demographics, businesses are being forced to find new ways to get a GRIP (growth, recovery, innovation, pivot-ability) on marketing. The pandemic along with global anti-racism and anti-discrimination protests have not only raised the profile of but spotlighted the effects of, systemic racism on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) and other marginalized consumers.

Social unrest and protests over the last decade, such as the Women’s Protest March in 2017, the single largest protest day in the history of the US, has catapulted into view the tectonic cultural shifts taking place in consumers’ lifestyles, mindset, and experiences. It is most interesting to note that before going global, many of these social uprisings started in microcultures of which the voices and contributions to society’s economic and social wellbeing were perceived as overlooked, ignored, and being drowned out by a predominantly, white male-oriented American macro culture.

Micro Culturalism research is probably one of the most underrated yet essential keys to unlocking stronger, more meaningful connections to new customers which can lead to increased brand awareness and revenue. It’s well known that culture shapes, defines, and molds identity–but more importantly it serves as a mental and behavioral rudder in unstable times like we’re currently experiencing. Think of culture a bit like a human circulatory system, connected and fed by blood vessels. Macro culture is similar to arteries and veins which are the big, dominant vessels filled with overarching beliefs and values that impact how we function whereas capillaries or smaller vessels that link the arteries and veins through networks in our organs are the micro cultures that provide the supportive, often adaptive, underlying codes and nuances that also influence attitudes and actions.

 

Micro Culturalism in action

Take, for instance, Japanese-American tennis phenom Naomi Osaka who grew up in New York steeped in Japanese, Haitian and American cultures.  At the recent 2020 US Tennis Open, she appeared wearing masks with the names of Black people who have been killed by law enforcement and spoke about her identification with the social justice movement and Black culture without abandoning any of the other sub or microcultures to which she ascribes.

This is the new reality as multiracial populations increase and the US hurtles toward minority white by the year 2045, according to a recent Census Bureau report.  All consumers, BIPOCs especially, are in flux amid current upheavals; building engaging connections and relationships with this new, next normal right now is similar to having to attend a new High School every day and trying to adapt and make friends quickly–it’s challenging. So, it makes good business sense to begin mining in the micro cultural sphere for more accurate, in-depth behavioral intelligence.

To mine successfully for cultural insights it makes sense to become a fluent “code whisperer” familiar with cultural codes (spoken, non-spoken, and written languages) used, especially, among micro cultures to communicate in ways that are unique and advantageous to them. An interesting example of this is the story of the Navajo code talkers who during WWll in 1941 and 1942 created an unbreakable, unique code, using a mix of native tribal words and animal references, to secretly communicate tactical information to the US military in the Pacific.

While not as complicated as that tribal code, micro cultural codes exist today and a higher level of familiarity and investigative skill is essential to detect, decipher and most importantly, interpret baseline assumptions and extrapolate how they might impact future behavior.

Understanding the micro cultural codes and utilizing the resulting cultural insights, where trends and global social movements often originate, have been proven to be integral to avoiding common communication blunders, such as the regrettable one Pepsi made fashioning supermodel Kendal Jenner in the Live for Now Ad campaign as a “protester” based on the iconic photo of a Black woman, Iesha Evans, during a #BLM protest in Baton Rouge where she faced down a line of heavily armed police alone. Pepsi was accused of trivializing the #BLM (Black Lives Matter Movement) in the campaign.

According to the YouGov Brand Index, it took nine months after the ad was pulled for Pepsi to recover with Millennials from all the online backlash. In today’s economic climate such unforced errors on the consumer battleground may be even more devastating.

 

To avoid the same pitfalls, here are three pivotal ways that researchers and marketers alike can start to become skilled at code whispering.

First, increasing awareness is critical.

It’s important to raise cultural awareness of other existing micro cultures before conducting research, since for those under 18–the post-millennial population–non-whites are projected by the Census to outnumber whites in 2020. For those aged 18-29–the voting age and young labor force populations–the tipping point is expected in 2027, only seven years into the future from today.

Elevating cultural consciousness through secondary research before conducting primary research can go a long way toward understanding the origins, as well as, historical underpinnings of beliefs, value systems, traditions that govern future attitudes and behaviors.  For example, were you aware of a long disturbing history of uninformed medical testing on Black people in the US that goes back to colonial times and slavery? Four hundred years later post-slavery, they remain skeptical of and conflicted about doctors, treatments, and the medical profession at large.

 

Second, identifying the right context lays the foundation for trust and more meaningful connections.

With heightened awareness, the cultural intelligence-gathering process is much richer because you’ll have a better handle on cultural codes to ask relevant questions in the right way. Whether conducting qualitative and, or quantitative research today, crafting the right psychographic questions, for example about identity and heritage, can give directional information about underlying values that are not readily accessed.

A simple example of this would be when conducting research among Millennials, determining heritage can reveal underlying emotional connections and motivations that act as unique psychographic markers. This is especially important as multi-generational households in the US are on the rise. According to a recent article in USA Today, the Census reports that one in three people between the ages of 18 to 34 lived with their parents in 2015. These households often share cultural origins, traditions, and generational experiences. Combining awareness with unbiased curiosity can lead to a more informed perspective, new conversations, and avoid overall tone-deafness.  Questions in the hands of a culturally conscious researcher and, or marketer can elevate trust and lead to the revelation of hidden truths and culturally relevant insights that provides a competitive business edge to attract more long term, loyal customers.

 

Third, distinguishing a cultural insight from a typical general population insight takes both skill and of course, cultural knowledge.

The old adage you don’t know what you don’t know still rings true today and every day. Securing the talents of a “mixed martial arts” level cultural strategist to help guide, inform and gut-check your research and marketing strategy can put you and your brand on a safer “autobahn” to growth. Marketing has become a growing minefield for the less culturally conscious or “woke” in today’s common parlance. The needs and fight for empowerment from the marginalized and others have been catapulted into the foreground and to ignore this, regardless of your target audience, is at your brand’s peril.

Current events have shown us that the smallest of cultures can have the biggest impact on the local and global stage over time. Understanding cultural insights is the new next battleground for the hearts and minds of consumers. Time and time again throughout history, while a lot of elements and sometimes serendipity goes into winning, it’s been shown that the leaders best prepared to take advantage are those who are the most well trained, employ smart tactics and positioning, as well as use the best weaponry at their disposal. To increase business success as the decade unfolds, why not start by reframing the post-COVID theater of consumer engagement using cultural insights to spark more innovative, pivotal, and profitable solutions.

 

About the author:

Roben is on the WIRe 2020 MRX Diversity Champion Award nominee shortlist for being a “fierce advocate for brands understanding the nuances of micro-cultures in the strategies to develop products, brand promise, messaging and advertising.”

 

Watch Roben’s IIEX North America presentation, “How Rising Social Movements & Cultural Trends will Impact Future Brands” for a deeper discussion on the way social uprisings, cultural shifts, and major events mold human behavior and impact brands.