Are you thinking enough about culture?

Culture shapes how people think, communicate, shop and make decisions. A product, message, or marketing strategy that works well in one culture may fail, or even offend, in another.


Last week, the AQR hosted the Culturama event at Boxclever HQ, with inspiring talks from Jamie Oyebode (Davies + McKerr), Dr. Nick Gadsby (The Answer) and Oliver Sweet (Author / Ipsos) and some thought-provoking discussions around how culture is evolving and what that means for the way we approach research.


Here’s a quick round-up of some of the key insights discussed and how they can shape our thinking going forward.


A group of women are drinking tea and chatting at a table indoors .

01. CULTURE IS FRAGMENTED

One of the biggest themes was just how divided society has become. Historically, shared beliefs, values and behaviours tended to sit somewhere in the mainstream, with subcultures influencing and gradually shifting the middle ground over time. Now, many cultural subgroups exist at completely different ends of the spectrum, often with very little overlap. Unsurprisingly, the way we communicate and consume information through algorithms and attention-focused content is accelerating this fragmentation.

> WHAT THIS MEANS FOR RESEARCH

If more people are rejecting the mainstream and a generally accepted shared set of values, then we need to highlight those tensions and contradictions in our research rather than smoothing them out. We can’t assume there is one unified consumer mindset anymore. It’s important that we represent fringe or emerging viewpoints, as this is often where the most interesting and fresh insights are found.

A group of women are drinking tea and chatting at a table indoors .

02. RURAL VS URBAN IDENTITY IS A MAJOR CULTURAL DIVIDE

Something that stood out in the discussion was that an emerging predictor of young people’s aspirations, values and worldview is whether they live in a rural or urban environment. This shapes not only what they believe, but also the media they consume, the communities they engage with, and the cultural references that resonate with them.

> WHAT THIS MEANS FOR RESEARCH

We often segment our research samples by factors like household income and social class as standard, but we now need to think much more deliberately how to split the sample to ensure we capture different cultural outlooks to explore tastes and tensions across subgroups. This could be urban vs rural, political leaning or social topic viewpoints to ensure we tap into different perspectives.

A group of women are drinking tea and chatting at a table indoors .

03. ONLINE SPACES OFFER A CRUCIAL (BUT UNDERUTILISED) WINDOW INTO CULTURE

The online world is where cultural signals, ideas and behaviours often first appear, but what people see can vary hugely depending on the algorithms and communities they are part of. Such a vast amount of messaging is absorbed unconsciously online that, to get a true picture of the different cultural cues consumers are receiving, we need to step into their online world’s and communities.

> WHAT THIS MEANS FOR RESEARCH

There is a real opportunity to learn about culture from online spaces and to think beyond traditional social listening. Building immersive social profiles, engaging with online communities, and tapping into influencers and tastemakers will help provide an authentic window into culture. It is also important that we broaden where we look. Platforms like Reddit, Twitch, Telegram and Discord are increasingly important spaces for cultural conversation and community building.

A group of women are drinking tea and chatting at a table indoors .

If you would like to start a conversation about how to use a better understanding of culture and context or answer your research questions, or would simply like to brainstorm some initial ideas, please get in contact below.


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