Know The Codes

Know the Codes ; Why We Act, Buy, and Love as We Do"

In order to obtain an accurate reference, the marketer needs to explore the consumer's perception of the product. For example in reference to the Jeep Wrangler, in order for Chrysler to understand the potential buyer's preferences they were asked about their first memories of a Jeep, not what they wanted in a Jeep.
This approach is contrary to traditional market research involving numerous focus groups with the answers to hundreds of questions. Despite having asked loads of questions, Chrysler just hadn't asked the right ones. They kept listening to what people said they wanted, not to what they wanted.

An interesting example to this line of thought is the "American Idol" reality show. During the progress of the competition, the viewers are asked to vote for their preference amongst the competitors. Based on the votes received, the least preferred contestants would be eliminated, and so on until only one remains; the winner. Now, interestingly enough, back in the real world comes the final test. What happened was that not the number one contestant received acceptance but the second ranked one raked in the success and made it on the charts, while number one faded into oblivion. This happened both in American Idol as well as Indonesian Idol.

This shows that one can not ask for what people want, but one has discover what it is that they expect. This perception will certainly not be the same when comparing people across cultures. Going back to the Jeep, it was discovered that Americans perceived the Jeep as a horse. Horses don't have luxury appointments, soft leather seats or a closed roof. They have tough leather seats and an open top, letting you feel the wind around you while driving, as if riding a horse. Since Chrysler's executives were not very impressed by these conclusions, a minor modification to the Wrangler was suggested : Replacing the square headlights with round ones. Why? Because horses have round eyes, not square ones.
The car was tested after the modification, resulting in an immediate positive response. The Wrangler's sales rose and the new "face" became its most prominent and marketable feature.

After Jeep's successful campaign in the US, it was Germany and France's turn to give up their code for the Wrangler. As opposed to the Americans who saw the jeep as a horse, the Europeans saw the Jeep reminiscent of the liberation from the Nazi's used by American troops during World War II. The people in these countries told stories; their first memories; of how the image of a Jeep gave them a sense of hope. This resulted in the code of "Liberator" for Europe for the Jeep. This resulted in the positioning of the car surrounded by its proud past instead of as a horse. This campaign resulted in marked gains by Jeep in Europe.

Using a similar approach, coffee was explored with respect to the Japanese market. In Japan, a country where tea is the national drink, people have a minimal imprint for coffee and thereby it required a from the ground up introduction to the Japanese.
This made it clear that imprints vary from culture to culture. If you could somehow "decode" elements of a culture to discover the emotions and meanings attached to them, you would learn a great deal about human behavior and how it varies across the planet.

An imprint and its code are like a lock and its combination. If you have all the right numbers in the right sequence, you can open the lock. Doing so over a vast array of imprints has profound implications. It brings us to the answer to one of our most fundamental questions : Why we act the way we do.

Quoted from "The Culture Code" by dr.Clotaire Rapaille
(http://changethis.com)