Leveraging Research in Consumer

Behavior

Generating Insights from Culture

Consumer Research is Maturing

What Drives the Behavior We Want?

Big Data helps us reach the high-hanging fruit

What Role Does My Product/Brand/Firm Play in Everyday Life?

Artifacts

Attitudes and Values

Underlying Structure

Cultural Analysis: What is it Good For?

Communications

Processes

Groups & Communities

Brand Communities

Social Media

Product Development & Design

Consumer Rituals

Diffusion

Insights from Branding

Coolhunting Cultural Strategy

Brands as Relevant to Socio-Cultural Identity

Brand as Cultural Artifacts

Finding and Analyzing Cultural Data

Classic Techniques

• Interviews

• Focus Groups

• Ethnography & Netnography*

Classic techniques capture “talk” in context

*These may include film, shot by researchers and/or informants

Finding and Analyzing Cultural Data

Brand-Focused Techniques

• Case Study/Brand Genealogy

• Miscellaneous Visualization Techniques

• Classic Projective Techniques

• Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET)

Brand-focused techniques capture symbolic language. What is “Mountain Dew”?

Case Study/Brand Genealogy

Iconic brands are cultural artifacts that perform “identity myths”

Case Study – Mountain Dew

Masculine Identity Myths

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cowboys, rock-and-rollers, beatniks, outlaw bikers, hillbillies, etc.

Social crisis threatens collective identity.

People respond with myth and ritual.

Case Study – Mountain Dew

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Case Study – Mountain Dew

Elements of the identity myth travel from real life to an idealized world

Case Study – Mountain Dew

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Case Study – Mountain Dew

Popular culture performs the myth

Case Study – Mountain Dew

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“Mountain Dew’ll tickle yore innards, cuz thar’s a bang in ever’ bottle.”

Brands perform the myth

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Case Study – Mountain Dew

A new crisis emerges and the Hillbilly Myth is

crushed

Case Study – Mountain Dew

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Mountain Dew “Does The Dew”

Redneck Myth (70s-80s) Challenges Inequality

Mountain Dew does “Country Cool”

American Dream Dies (late 80s-90s)

Slacker Myth (late 80s) Challenges

Death of the American Dream

Pop Culture Performs the Myth

Brands Perform the Myth

Leveraging Insights

For Marketing Communications

To be iconic, you must get the myth right

For Brand Strategy

1. Any brand can be iconic

2. Brands are historical

3. Consumers are authors

4. Narratives are about collective identity