Cross-cultural research methods are recommended by newfocus as the ideal methodology where an understanding of cultural beliefs is required.
It is increasingly important to learn how and why people use certain products – or fail to do so. Inattention to the cultural context within which products are used can result in some costly mistakes. We have all heard stories of campaigns and slogans that fail miserably when placed in an international context. ‘Come Alive Pepsi’ became ‘Bring your ancestors back from the dead’ in the Chinese version, while a major ad campaign launched in Malaysia did not sell because it used the colour green – a symbol of death and disease for local people. While some stories may be amusing, all are costly in terms of money, reputation or both.
To assist clients in understanding how cultural variables influence consumer behaviour, newfocus can include cross-cultural research methods in the various stages of product research or can identify how you can extend your brand to reach different cultural groups.
We use this method with clients for:
Cross-cultural brand understanding
- Research can identify how to increase the appeal of different cultural groups at any stage of the marketing process.
- Research can identify if your brand is appealing to a wide cross section of cultures.
- Increase the competitiveness of your products with specific cultural groups.
Cross-cultural new product development
- Ensure your product achieves strong market penetration across cultural groups.
- Cross-cultural research can identify the attitudes, knowledge and behaviour patterns of multicultural target segments.
Cross-cultural market segmentation
- Cross cultural research can identify if your brand, products or services are appealing to a broad cross section of cultures or if it is missing major segments.
- You can target an increase of sales within a cultural group.
Benefits
- Provides up to date information about the values, behaviour patterns and beliefs of different cultural and ethnic groups
- Target merchandising or point of sale to raise sales in specific cultural groups
- Ensure sales people are trained to recognise the different purchasing approaches of different cultural groups
- Target an increase of sales within a cultural group.