By Jenny Karubian
Ritanbara Mundrey brought us a fantastic example of how to use cultural frameworks to assimilate brands in her talk, “It Takes Many Notes to Make a Symphony.” She recounts her experience at Nestle and the challenge of making coffee culturally relevant in a setting that is dominated by tea. Whereas coffee is a foreign word, chai (tea) is part of local parlance and has a relevancy that extends to habits and practices central to the Indian way of life.
Mundrey makes a fantastic case for using cultural insights to assimilate brands into local markets. She argues that different forms of research have to be used in order to get the full picture of what is occurring at the local level. In her view, “what you get are individual notes from the different forms of research. When you put it together, you get the insight.” Rather than be overwhelmed or staggered by the sheer amount of data that is available, businesses need to get their data to “work harder for them.”
By bringing together the various data points and marrying them with the cultural knowledge that is needed, brands can gain a deeper understanding of the category and context.
Jenny Karubian is CEO, President & Research Lead at Lotus Research and ESOMAR Congress 2017 official blogger
