The Lewis Model - Cultural Differences Simplified
I came across this while working on a global project. I'm sure anyone who's traveled outside the U.S. or spent time with people from outside the country will notice that there are distinct differences in how people behave. Do they tend to seem warmer? More emotional? Rational? Impulsive? Or respectful and hold tradition over everything else.
The New Imperialism
Over the last few years, I've seen a huge trend in quitting ones job and traveling around the world. This was first fueled by the economic crisis. We all heard not so woful tales about bankers being laid off only to use their presumably hefty severance checks to travel the world and find themselves. Next came the photographer, writer or website designer, inspired by Chris Guillebeau to hack their credit card airline miles and consider a laptop with wifi connection their office. Those of us stuck in our windowless offices could momentarily live vicariously through travel blogs with the occasional pang of envy hitting us, as new photos appeared on our Facebook feed. We clicked through photos of our friends or even an engaging stranger as they bussed their way through Asia - brave enough to navigate a language barrier and foreign country for the promise of deliciously inexpensive food and the experience of local culture. In between our slight jealousy - we learned something. They opened our eyes to how other people lived. We silently thanked them for being ambassadors, making the world just a little bit smaller.But after the major landmarks were visited, and famous, Asian street food consumed, there was a new frontier to be had. Enter our current day. In favor of reflective blog posts, used as an alternative to a travel journal - we have the more immediate - Instagram. In place of self-reflection, we have the outward attention grabbing hashtag. And with it, a move to newer journeys - venturing into Africa. A stunning, envy-inducing vacation within a vacation at a Travel & Leisure-worthy resort smack in the middle of a war-torn, third world country. Gone are the photos of local culture and attempting to experience the world that 99% of a country's population experiences. Instead, we have Americans from a first world country, wealthy even for American standards - taking advantage of their power and status in a country where few have any. What is fueling this new behavior? Is it narcissism? The impulse to self-promote? The last decade has shown an increase in the desire for experiences over the accumulation of stuff. Is this the Berkin bag of experiences?
Whatever it is - with great power comes great responsibility.
Keepin It Real
It's Throw Back Thursday so let us women all fondly remember the first time we got our periods. I'm sure our mothers gently took us aside and told us how to put on a pad as we looked on horrified that we'd have to wear this diaper-like contraption the whole day while feeling an unfamiliar ache coming from our ovaries. And forget tampons. "We put that where? Which hole mommy?" -As Orange Is the New Black's recent Episode 4, 'I Whole Other Hole' covers this confusion in depth.In two minutes, this mini-sitcom / online commercial, First Moon Party, manages to touch on an awkward subject using humor and honesty. Gone are the days of Full House, sappy sincerity and making a mother-daughter bonding moment out of every coming of age milestone. In this commercial, the clever, cynical, Gen X mother finds that the only thing precious about this situation is the opportunity to teach her daughter a lesson about lying. The commercial is refreshing and has struck a cord - gaining over a million views on YouTube in less than two days.
So advertisers take note. While the storyline is far fetched, the sentiment is real. Getting your period for the first time creates a mix of pride an embarrassment. While mothers love their daughters, the real exchanges are not a perfect display of sappy mutual love and affection. Perhaps the Gen X mother has learned to maintain her sense of humor in the face of motherhood.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEcZmT0fiNM]
Robin Thicke's Banned Video & Thoughts On Sexism
Taking a momentary digression from career advice and swinging back towards cultural observations. Just came across this video of Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines (NSFW) via New York Magazine's always entertaining newsletter, The Vulture. It's worth the watch ... probably from your phone, during your lunch break. The gist is that it features three fully clothed men (the singers) and a plethora of mostly naked models dancing around the set, being playfully chased by the men. The video is moderately entertaining and the women have beautiful bodies. Quite honestly, my first impression was that I wasn't overly offended, a bit confused and mostly wondering why they couldn't find models who were better dancers. The models reminded me of the very young, Eastern European women that come to NYC in order to make it in the industry - barely speaking English and at the mercy of their agents.
But what I really found interesting was their explanation for the song and choices in the video. Robin Thicke explained that he and Pharrell came up with the lyrics and song in a half hour and wrote it as a criticism of misogynistic lyrics we so often hear. He explained that the men in the video looked like idiots whereas the women were directed to act confident and in power by looking directly at the camera. He's referencing a concept from art history 101 - the "gaze" whereas a woman looking directly at the viewer is challenging him / her and asserting her power, most famously depicted in Manet's Olympia.
In a recent GQ article Robin explains:
"Women and their bodies are beautiful. Men are always gonna want to follow them around."
Even Thicke's wife points out in response to the outcry that "Violence is ugly. Nudity is beautiful."
A recent TEDTalk by Jackson Katz, an anti-sexism educator, echoes this thinking - showing that the conversation of violence against women needs to change to better understand why men are the perpetrators.
So where am I going with all of this talk about nudity, violence, power struggles and sexism, early on a Thursday morning? The video, Manet's Olympia and Jackson's TEDTalk all flip cultural norms on their head. Each make controversial statements because we view their statements through the eyes of a cultural norm so that their artistry become taboo. Both Thicke and Manet challenge the notion that women are not empowered by their own bodies. They show that women do recognize their bodies are beautiful and have the power to turn on both men, other women and even themselves. Jackson champions the empowerment of women when he proves that the discussion of violence against women is really not a "woman's issue" but rather, a problem men need to tackle as they ask themselves why they are the perpetrators.
So I for one am hopeful that the conversation is changing and I look forward to a time when a woman is no longer seen as a victim, but sees her whole being as the great source of power that it is.
Tipping Point
Last week, I stopped by a fruits and vegetable mini grocery store in my home town (suburban NJ) and was delighted to find veggie juice; i.e. kale, lemon, ginger, apple, etc. for only $4.50. I put it on the counter at the register and an older woman in her 60s said "What is that supposed to do?" And next to her was another older couple discussing their happiness at finding juice at Julio's (the store), mentioning that they were following some sort of diet by Dr. Oz. I explained to the woman that juice had tons of nutrients and that kale was awesome. It made me think, does this conversation mark what would be called a "tipping point?" Obviously healthy eating, juices and the idea of "alternative medicine" has been around since the 60s. It has gone slightly mainstream thanks to Whole Foods but could still be considered limited to a wealthier consumer or even younger demographic.My suspicions were confirmed a few days ago. The NY Times recently posted an article marking this shift. National food chains are offering healthier options at the demand of their consumers. We've reached a tipping point. Corporations are looking towards sustainability and even pharmacies are carrying fresh fruit. In the coming years, I believe there will be a societal pressure to eat healthy and live more sustainable just as we've pressured each other to quit smoking, wear seat belts, and not drink and drive. I'm hoping that the obesity epidemic, crazy weather and political strife around the world is one of those situations where it has to get worse before it gets better. Will everything will be uphill from here?
Trend Series: Caffeine Culture
This is the first of what I hope will be a regular series where I explore trends that I've captured mostly through my iPhone.
As you may know from following my Instagram feed and reading my blog, I have a love / hate relationship with caffeine. Mostly love, of course. Starbucks was one of the first companies to develop a brand around coffee, modeling their in store experience after sophisticated European cafés. But with the saturation of Starbucks, the last few years have seen a distinct 180 shift from the Starbucks aesthetic. Perhaps due to the sea of chain restaurants, plastic, disposable and mass produced everything, we're desperately seeking more permanence. Growing coffee companies like Stumptown and Kaffe 1668 use the dim lighting of incandescent bare light bulbs, candles and mason jars to hark back to a time where the General Store dominated, long before mass production and globalization. But with the added conveniences of wifi and elegance of a Dwell-worthy spread. Patrons are reminded of the craftsmanship, personal touch and ritual that goes into caffeine consumption through porcelain cups and latté art. Baristas have become artists, identifying themselves by wearing the uniform of newsboy caps, vests and the occasional bright red lipstick to remind customers that they are part of the creative class.
In New York, the four dollar cup of coffee has held its ground despite our stagnant economy. Perhaps we use this perfectly poured cup of coffee to escape the realities of our fast moving world, filled with constant email pings and chatter of always being busy? Ironically this escapism is often ruined by the compulsion to document and share our coffee experiences through social media channels like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
In the last few years, it seems that Brooklynites are nearly obsessed with this pre World War II lifestyle. Can you spot some examples?
Interview with Brand Anthropologist Richard Wise
Richard Wise is the resident Brand Anthropologist at the experiential marketing firm, Mirrorball. He received a masters at the University of Sorbonne in Paris and has spoken at various conferences, most recently the Future Trends Conference in Miami. You can follow him on Twitter @CultureRevealed or his Tumblr where he highights a plethora of interesting cultural trends and insights. As a cultural anthropologist, you approach planning from an intellectual, academic angle. How valuable is the study of cultural trends to brands?
Look at the list of problems brands bring you to solve. They almost always come back to cultural issues.
“Our franchise is aging and we’re starting to look dated.”
“People don’t talk about us as much as they used to.”
“People say we have an arrogant, out-of-touch image.”
“People don’t know what we stand for.”
So…you’re losing it with the group because what you stand for is no longer valuable to them – to their culture!
The thing about culture and brands that makes it so challenging is this; culture hides more than it reveals - and what it hides, it hides most effectively from its own participants. You can’t understand that fully unless you go live in another culture and, starting as an outsider, become an insider. Then you go back to the culture you came from and suddenly you can actually see all the hidden meaning. And this is true for people who work on brands and try to solve the cultural problems of the brands without actually understanding their own culture. They won’t get very far.
The opposite is wonderfully true. The more you make serving the culture your brand mission, the faster you will grow – and it will feed and feed on itself. While most companies have been stagnant or declining in the last ten years, Apple‘s revenues, profits and public valuation have grown vertiginously. It all started with the return of Steve Jobs and their publicly thanking their fans with the “Think Different” campaign.
There's a minor war in the advertising world between traditional agencies that tout their big idea thinking and a rigorous approach to research and smaller, digital agencies that are well versed in current digital trends. Who do you think will win the "war" and why?
Remember that pre-Internet classic, Ogilvy on Advertising? I always love to get free advice from Uncle David. He said in his charming book, published in 1985 by the way, that his best advice to young men and women in advertising would be to learn everything they can about direct response – because it’s the future of advertising. You can see what works and what doesn’t, you have to lean forward and sell, one person at a time, like Ogilvy did when he sold stoves door to door. He indeed saw it all coming and he was right.
So big agency, digital shop…everybody looks for evidence of what works, what’s surprising and fresh, what people really want to experience. And the only way to find that is to experiment. If you’re conducting meaningful experiments then you have as much of a chance as anybody of owning the future.
That being said, I like what Karl Marx said: “Every time the train of history goes around a corner, the reactionaries fall off.” The bigger you are, the more likely you are to be a reactionary. My heroes are guys like Ogilvy and Bernbach because they stayed humble and curious even as they got enormously successful. And I think Robert Greenberg is just like that too.
The race today goes to whoever likes to learn the most and is fast at it. But I like to think that, if you’re slow, but you love to learn, you may have an edge over the fast learner who’s arrogant.
What books, magazines and activities do you experience to remain on the cutting edge of cultural trends and developments?
The most important thing I do is read books that have nothing to do with marketing or brands but books about human nature and civilization. Most recently, I read two masterpieces of cultural anthropology: Becker’s [amazon_link id="0684832402" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]Denial of Death[/amazon_link] and Girard’s [amazon_link id="0826468535" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World[/amazon_link]. I saw King Lear at the Public Library. I walked through the Frick Collection. I do this because it’s one of the best things I can do with myself. It always pays dividends in my work – provided I don’t directly seek them.
OK, then there’s thinking about marketing, brands and culture. Tumblr by itself is more than enough to be endlessly enriched, stimulated and provoked. If you curate the right list of people to follow you will be in the kitchen of emerging culture where it’s all being made right before your eyes. I read the Wall Street Journal, the paper itself, every day – my God, it’s so beautifully designed and it has amazing trend info. If you don’t have time for it, though, follow me on Twitter, I always tweet out their best stuff. I also love a couple of key websites: sciencedaily.com and psychologicalsciences.org. And I live in Bushwick – there’s something about the experience of living there, not being a tourist, that’s very valuable.
At the recent Future Trends conference, you gave a presentation on two cultural phenomena, FameUs, and AnonymUs, showing how everyone wants to be famous while at the same time, wants to contribute to the greater good. Are these attributes just two different sides of the same consumer or completely different targets?
I don’t believe that trend work should be some kind of glossy PC channeling of the Zeitgeist. It should describe what is really going on. I also believe that for every trend, there is a countertrend. So here’s how I apply that with the shift taking place in our public and private selves.
On the one hand, FameUs describes the ever-widening sense of intimacy we have with our celebrities, the feeling of control we have over their self-expression and the growing conviction that we ourselves are going to be famous.
Its countertrend is AnonymUs - the growing conviction that so much of social media is communal narcissism, the impulse to unplug from a culture of celebrity worship, and the spiritual inspiration to lose oneself in pursuing a greater social good.
How we experience and live in these trends varies from one person to the next. You can be your own Lady Gaga 24/7. Or you can wear unbranded vintage clothing that you bought at The Cure while you volunteer at the Homeless Shelter. And, just to keep things interesting, you can try to live in both trends simultaneously like the cast of Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab. Same thing for brands – they, too, can go to Rehab like Domino’s Pizza did, to great success, improving their store sales by 10% in one year.
The recent New York article The Kids Are Actually Sort of Alright, shares some of your findings about Millennials thinking they'll be famous someday while focusing on their reality as unemployed and disillusioned with the system. How can brands target these consumers given our current economic climate?
OK, suppose we’re Westinghouse or Maytag. Why don’t we open stores for refurbished vintage home appliances? They did it with manufacturer’s certified “pre-owned” automobiles. Why not fridges and stoves from the different decades? Why not train people in all these stores on how to refurbish vintage appliances? That would create local jobs. The appliances would look great. And you’d be reclaiming, not just sending things to the dump. I think there’s a lot of opportunities like that if brands would ask: how do I create jobs, how do I distribute my brand idea and logistics locally, how do I own not just what I make but what I have made?
As advertisers, working in trend setting cities like New York, San Francisco, Portland, etc. how can we be sure that our observations on trends reflect the viewpoints of the rest of the country? Should brands look to be ahead of the curve or eye to eye with consumers?
Go live in your trendy neighborhood – you want to see what’s coming next. But here are some suggestions, based on my personal experience, on how to avoid becoming nothing but a snob. Truth in advertising: I am a snob but I am not JUST a snob. Sign up for thankless volunteer jobs. Go to a regular, old-fashioned church and listen and learn. Call your Mom and find a way to be of service to her. Try to avoid gossiping about anybody for one day. Take a cross-country drive and hang out at truck stops. These are all intrinsically good things to do but they will also help you in your work.
Finally, can you give young planners with varying backgrounds advice on how to incorporate cultural anthropology into their research and brief writing process?
Show respect for the dignity of your fellow human beings but try not to be so PC. PC is the sanctimony of our time. Sanctimonious people don’t make very good art nor do they write very good briefs. Be curious, humble and open-minded. Always give into your curiosity and don’t be afraid to admit you don’t understand why people behave a certain way or prefer a certain brand.
What English Sounds Like to Foreigners
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY&w=560&h=315]
A Little Review in Internet Pop Culture
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHxmRSYDazE&w=640&h=385]Via a San Francisco advertising agency called Venables Bell & Partners. For a behind the scenes company that most of us probably haven't heard of, this looked like a pretty expensive commercial to produce. Wow, must have been an interesting shoot.
Lunchtime TEDTalk
Just saw this while eating my lunch. It's an awesome talk that ties in consumer behavior, psychology, happiness, how we make decisions and the food industry.
