Presented by Michael B. Griffiths, Global Expert, Cultural Insight & Strategy, TNS at Qualitative360 Asia 2013 19-21 November 2013, Singapore This event is proudly organised by Merlien Institute Check out our upcoming events by visiting http://qual360.com/

1. November 20-21, 2013 | Singapore
Twitter Hashtag #QUAL360

2. Platinum Sponsor
Media Sponsors
Association Partners

3. Cultural Insight and Strategy:
A Sociological Agenda
©TNS 2013

4. Culture is a toolkit
Culture defines us: it is the sum total of all our implicit
assumptions and expectations
But people are not
determined by culture
The strategies people adopt
are framed by the tools
available, but people use
the tools in unique ways
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5. Cultural analysis
Takes surface level phenomena as expressive of underlying cultural structures
and processes and interrogates these for their meaning
By analysing
phenomena in contexts
We can begin to understand
the underlying culture
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6. Not manufacturer-centric
Regards the consumer as
product user
Aims to isolate and freeze
cognitive meanings of product /
brand
‘How does my customer use/
feel about my brand?’
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7. Not consumer-centric
Aspirations, purposes,
problems, emotions – this is
still an individual psychological
focus
There is much that consumers
cannot articulate
How does my companyprovided resource fit within
this consumers’ mindset /
lifestyle?
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8. A different perspective
SOCIETY, HISTORY,
POLITICS,
ECONOMY IDEOLOGY,
INSTITUTIONS,
GOVERNMENTS,
MARKETS
TENSIONS
DRIVING FORCES
OF CHANGE
NARRATIVE DETAILS
OF EVERYDAY LIFE –
WHAT PEOPLE ACTUALLY
DO, GO THROUGH, HOW
THEY INTERACT AND
SPEAK TO ONE ANOTHER
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Consumer is cultural product
Brand / product meaning
generated in dynamic interface
of practices with broader social
discourses and ideologies
“How is the meaning of
consumption shaped by the
situated practices & forces of
everyday life?”
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9. Consumer ethnography
Observes practices in natural
settings & distinguishes between
what people do & what people
say (representations)
Listening &
asking; seeing &
hearing
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Looks to explain disconnections
between these in terms of the
constraints organizing people's
worlds – since this is often
where the communication
opportunity lies
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10. Semiotic analysis
What signs organize communication? What codes are
communicated in their combination?
Logos, symbols; protagonists; names, strap lines, keywords; non-verbal
communication; temporal context; technique; juxtaposition; narrative.
CHIVALRY
(Royal Imperial court and Arthurian knights
translated into contemporary modernity)
•
•
•
•
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Partnership: trust, reciprocity
Class / prestige: horses =
well-bred person, family,
background
Prosperity: dynamism, vitality
Romance + respect for
women (in the China context)
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11. Discourse analysis
We search magazines, news media, blog forums, TV, movies etc
for product category trends, relevant popular culture trends, and
broader target market trends
 Identify discourses influencing the
situation
 Look for codes evolving within each of
these discourses:

How are similar themes being communicated
across contexts?
 Search for correspondences and/or
discords between discourses

Social /
economic
shifts
Which are often evidence of cultural tensions &
imminent cultural change
 Generate hypotheses from these
findings
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Cultural
tensions
DISRUPTION:
THE DRIVING FORCE
OF CHANGE
Further
cultural
tensions
New
attitudes
and
discourses
New
forms of
practice
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12. Building insight = strategy
Metaphor Analysis - Procedure
Pose research questions
Finding metaphors
Discourse structure
Identification of linguistic metaphors
How parts of text or talk contribute to the whole
Building metaphor groups
Discourse topics or
themes
aggregation into semanticallyconnected groups
systematic metaphors
Metaphor clusters and absences
Local discourse action
analyse distribution of metaphors
across talk or text
analyse talk or text
Metaphor scenarios
infer narratives around metaphors
Answer research questions
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Adapted from MetNet meeting Milton 10
Keynes, 2006

13. An example
We look first to contradictions
In the Chinese cultural context, there exist many contradictions:
Pre-reform
Planned economy
Communist blocs
Rural migrant
Working masses
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
Post-reform
Market economy
Skyscrapers
Urban resident
Emergent middle class
Myths are created as a fallout
Myths resolve cultural contradictions
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14. “Romantic” rural tourism
New attitudes and
practices:
- Rural tourism
- Farming as leisure
New forms of
consumption
Social shift: boom
in car ownership
Urbanites explore
countryside
New cultural
representations
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15. Nostalgia for the “rural” in the city
Repurposing of
derogatory terms
for rural folks –
as cute / folksy
‘Hometown’ style
restaurants –
drawing on the
same symbolic
codes
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‘Chilled out’ /
‘Modern’ versions of
Cultural Revolution
imagery
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16. The same emergent code everywhere…
‘Ethnic’-style clothing in
fashionable markets
Repurposing of
derogatory term on
snack brand
Rural / nature codes
on water bottle
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17. Self/Other - Basic oppositions
(Adapted from: Griffiths et al. 2010)
Self
Rule
Order
Human
Culture
Controlled
Lawful
Clean
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:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
Other
Disrule (absence of rule)
Disorder
Animal
Nature
Uncontrolled
Lawless
Dirty
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18. Self/Other –Romantic Reappraisal
(Adapted from: Griffiths et al. 2010)
Self
:
Constraint (rule)
:
Predictable (order) :
Artificial (human)
:
Urban (culture)
:
Reserved (controlled):
Conventional (lawful) :
Formal Sterile (clean):
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Other
Freedom (disrule, absence of rule)
Unpredictable (disorder)
Natural (animal)
Rural (nature)
Impulsive (uncontrolled)
Creative (lawless)
Fertile (dirty)
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19. Ideological innovation
Desirable
Materialism
Consumption
Hedonism
New rural purity
Rural
Urban
Poverty
Ugliness
Disease
Pollution
Corruption
Impurity
Undesirable
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20. Strategic implications:
•
•
•
•
Consumer trends
Marketing and communications
Environmental management
China’s future
Real-world results:
• Two award-winning campaigns
• Sales +46% vs. +25% for the
category
• Brand as the #2 market player
versus #5
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21. Creative / political strategy – rural heroes








Poor rural boy
Real-life migrant story
Discovered by director
Cast as hardworking bumbling
country-bumpkin
In show about military unit
Which valorizes effort &
overcoming
Becomes accidental hero
Adopted by media as national
champion / icon
= redrawing of urban / rural
boundary
= new lines of inclusion & exclusion
= new form of social engineering*
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Implications for brands:
- Emphasize struggle not just
aspiration
- Equity vs. inequity
- Social conscience
- Poetic justice
*Source: Griffiths & Zeuthen (2014) ‘Bittersweet: Chiku Civilization’
- forthcoming
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22. Cultural strategy
Not just functional benefits + emotional territories but
grounded in society and culture
(1) A brand advances an ideology
(2) Expressed by myth + cultural codes
(3) That resolves a cultural tension
(4) Caused by a social disruption
(5) Via source materials repurposed from
subcultures, movements and media myths
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Source: Holt, D. and Cameron, D. (2010), 20
‘Cultural Strategy’, Oxford

23. Conclusions / Implications
Conduct research with a broader
focus - on culture and society,
rather than on narrow predefined markets
Shift the emphasis towards
method + strategic insight (i.e.
thinking, concepts, and the
application of tools)
Brand strategy not just tradeoffs over functional benefits +
emotional territories but
grounded in society and culture
Different priorities for sampling –
because focus is on meaning not
marketing objectives: flexible,
constantly reformulate frames,
deliberately sample outliers,
oppositional examples.
Rethink client-agency
interactions so that the holistic
ambitions of cultural analysis
have primacy
©TNS 2013
Ethnography should be reclaimed
as a mode of cultural analysis –
not abused as a term for on-site
interviews
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24. Michael B. Griffiths
Michael.griffiths@tnsglobal.com
+86 189 1817 5697
©TNS 2013
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25. Platinum Sponsor
Media Sponsors
Association Partners

26. November 20-21, 2013 | Singapore
Twitter Hashtag #QUAL360