If there’s one thing I’ve learned while leading Journeys & Decisions , it’s this: people rarely make decisions the way they think they do. It doesn’t matter whether someone is trying to choose what to eat, where to travel, which product to trust for their health or what to buy for their home, people give us beautifully packaged stories about their decisions. But the behaviour underneath? A lot more tangled, emotional and instantly influenced than they realise. And for me, that gap the ‘say-do gap’ is where the real magic happens.
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.
Let’s be honest: most proposition development processes look fine on paper. Flowcharts. Stage gates. “Consumer-led innovation” posters. A workshop with too many Post‑its. Then… a launch that underwhelms, a price that gets “rounded”, and a product team quietly moving on to the next shiny thing. And the scary bit? The cost isn’t always dramatic. It’s silent. It shows up as: investment in propositions you can deliver (not the ones you should), pricing bolted on at the end, and consumer insight that arrives too late — or so early it gets forgotten. That’s when millions get quietly wasted and growth stalls. So, what separates the brands that win from the ones that “nearly” do?
