The Clotaire Report: Cracking the Code

I recently read The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way To Understand Why People Around The World Live And Buy As They Do by Clotaire Rapaille. Rapaille is a French-born psycho-analyst, anthropologist, and marketing consultant. Rapaille is also a bit of philosopher in his latest treatise on culture. However, I don’t think that he’ll be celebrated in his home country among the pantheon of great French philosophers. Then again, I don’t think you’re reading this blog to discuss Camus, Sarte, Foucault, or Bourdieu. Although, Bourdieu’s “Language & Symbolic Power” is a great read and his work on symbolic capital is insightful, as we work to deconstruct what it means to live in a symbolically created reality.

Back to Clotaire Rapaille and Culture Code. I was intrigued by Rapaille after seing The Persuaders on PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/ Rapaille’s description of the reptilian brain is useful in conducting research and audience segmentation – essentially, we don’t need to over-think why one likes our dislikes something. The reptillian brain is why we have Humvees in Manhattan - you can't really explain it logically, but emotionally, well that's another story. For Rapaille it’s either on code or off-code. And the code is simple, or should be. In his opioinin, it should be one word. I feel that some of his descriptions are over-simplified and sound more like an opinionated drunk. To his credit, his discussions of different cultures (in his book he compares and contrasts Italian, U.S., French, German, and Japanese cultures) help illustrate key differences in how culture influences meaning, motive, and identity, as individuals make purchasing decisions.

Qualitative researchers may be interested in his research methods which are built around a three-tiered interview structure. Rapaille tries to get to the deep meaning and emotion behind products and services by structuring his three-hour, in-depth interviews around the following questions:
1. How would you explain this (product/service) to me if I were an alien from outer space seeing it for the first time?
2. Utilizing magazine pictures, which pictures depict how you feel about this product or service?
3. What’s the emotional code – what’s your first memory associated with this product/service?

Those questions, while not exactly novel, help cut to the emotional connection and code associated with a product or service. I dare say its too simple, and not in a good Occam’s Razor kind of way. But, it can be effective.

Overall, Rapaille is doing some interesting work, but his opinions cloud the value of the research.

Now, look back at our picture of the author, from the book jacket and the Random House page for the Culture Code, is that on code or off-code?

Publishing Plug

I wanted to let readers know that you can now subscribe to Sanctioning Agent’s Notes from the Field. If you’re so inclined, to subscibe, please do so. I’ve added publishing chicklets for Feedburner, Google, Yahoo, Bloglines, and Technorati under the “Field Links” section of the blog.

I hope it helps you keep up-to-date with Notes from the Field.

End transmission.

Lovemarks and agency as commodity

More on LOVEMARKS. Hoag Levins and Ad Age editor, Jonah Bloom, discuss Kevin Roberts, his book LOVEMARKS, and the ad agencies as commodities, in the lastest edition of Why It Matters.

Aww, coming up with ideas is hard, pouting is easy

Via AdAge, three ad agency creative chiefs last week criticized the account pitching and compensation models that currently govern their business relationships with advertising clients.

I don’t think it’s just the that part of the model that’s broken. How about the results? If you don’t move the dial and generate more income or sales for your clients, do you give the a refund?

Wize is Live

Wize.com is now live, simplifying product research. Check it out.

iTunes 7

I just loaded iTunes 7 and its new album-cover-art-view absolutely rocks!!! Kudos to the design team on the image presentation and the flywheel motion.

Design Issues and Problematic Polls

It’s primary day in a few states, including Minnesota. Seth Godin highlights the problem with ballot designs in New York.

While most readers of this blog are two to three standard deviations above the mean, where the tail is so thin it’s nearly transparent, not all voters are able to track the meaning and impact of their ballot. The design on ballots is like reverse on a car, you don’t use it that often, but when you need you really need it.

Breakaway Brands: Ten companies that boosted their fortunes by cutting down on hype and connecting with customers.

The subtitle of this recent article Fortune, by Ellen McGirt, (via CNN.Com) says it all. Less with the hype, more with the meaningful customer connections.

This study of “breakaway brands” (see article for methodology) by Landor Associates highlights three essential components when it comes to break away brands – 1) trust, 2) community, and 3) a knowledge sharing dialogue.

Three unmistakable themes bubbled up from this year's survey, and most of the breakaway companies are standouts in at least two of them. "Today it's all about trust, community, and creating a dialogue with your customer that shares real knowledge," says Hayes Roth, chief marketing officer for Landor.