The Cultural Muscle Index
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Funded by the Planning-ness Grant, a team from JWT new York set out to prove that brands that successfully embed themselves in culture are more valuable. This is the story of how they did it and what they found.
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The Cultural Muscle Index
- 1. Portland, OR • September 12, 2014
- 2. AGENDA 1. Mission 2. Journey 3. Results 4. How to Apply 5. Takeaways 2
- 3. 1. MISSION
- 4. OUR MISSION 1. Develop a metric to measure the degree to which a brand is leaning into or away from culture 2. Empirically test our hypothesis that brands that lean into culture are ultimately more financially successful than those that don’t 3. Detail and document the process 4
- 6. 6
- 7. THIS IS A NEW MUSCLE 7
- 8. 2. JOURNEY
- 9. OUR PLAN 1. Define culture 2. Test against consumers 3. Generate a summary Culture MuscleTM score 4. Correlate against financial success 9
- 10. THREE INITIAL QUESTIONS • What Is Culture? • What Is Financial Success? • How Do We Measure This? 10
- 11. WHAT IS CULTURE?
- 12. WHAT IS CULTURE? cul·ture ‘kəlCHər/ noun noun: culture 1. the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. 12
- 13. WHAT IS CULTURE? 13
- 14. 12 BUCKETS OF CULTURE TECHNOLOGY ARTS/ AESTHETICS LEISURE/ RECREATION ECONOMICS SOCIAL NORMS COMMERCE PRACTICES POP CULTURE RELIGION POLITICS/ MEDIA LANGUAGE FOOD/CUISINE GOVERNMENT 14
- 15. BUT CULTURE IS MUCH MORE NUANCED THAN THIS WRITTEN LANGUAGE LANGUAGE ITSELF LITERACY SPOKEN LANGUAGE LANGUAGE NON-VERBAL SLANG/ COLLOQUIALISMS SHORTHAND 15
- 16. MUCH MORE NUANCED. FOOD/CUISINE 16
- 17. MUCH MORE NUANCED. NATIONAL DISHES DIET TYPES STYLE OF EATING LOCAL/REGIONAL TOPOGRAPHY FOOD/CUISINE RELIGION & FOOD 17
- 18. MUCH MORE NUANCED. NATIONAL DISHES LIFESTYLE LOCAL/REGIONAL TOPOGRAPHY DIET TYPES STYLE OF EATING HEALTH DELIVERY DINING OUT TAKEOUT HOME COOKING ATTITUDINAL WEIGHT LOSS ILLNESS FOOD/CUISINE APPEARANCE RELIGION & FOOD 18
- 19. BUT THESE BUCKETS/DIMENSIONS ARE NOT INDEPENDENT 19
- 20. BUT THESE BUCKETS/DIMENSIONS ARE NOT INDEPENDENT DIET TYPES ATTITUDINAL LOCAL/REGIONAL TOPOGRAPHY FOOD/CUISINE 20
- 21. BUT THESE BUCKETS/DIMENSIONS ARE NOT INDEPENDENT DIET TYPES ATTITUDINAL LOCAL/REGIONAL TOPOGRAPHY RELIGION FOOD/CUISINE 21
- 22. BUT THESE BUCKETS/DIMENSIONS ARE NOT INDEPENDENT DIET TYPES ATTITUDINAL LOCAL/REGIONAL TOPOGRAPHY RELIGION SOCIAL NORMS FOOD/CUISINE 22
- 23. BUT THESE BUCKETS/DIMENSIONS ARE NOT INDEPENDENT DIET TYPES ATTITUDINAL LOCAL/REGIONAL TOPOGRAPHY RELIGION TECHNOLOGY SOCIAL NORMS FOOD/CUISINE CONVENIENCE 23
- 24. BUT THESE BUCKETS/DIMENSIONS ARE NOT INDEPENDENT DIET TYPES INCOME SPENDING ATTITUDINAL LOCAL/REGIONAL TOPOGRAPHY RELIGION TECHNOLOGY ECONOMICS SOCIAL NORMS FOOD/CUISINE CONVENIENCE 24
- 25. We started to question what we had signed up for 25
- 26. THEN SOMETHING DAWNED ON US. 26
- 27. YOU CAN’T REALLY MEASURE CULTURE 27
- 28. ...But you can measure shifts in culture 28
- 29. TRENDSPOTTING WITHIN CULTURE TECHNOLOGY ARTS/ AESTHETICS LEISURE/ RECREATION ECONOMICS SOCIAL NORMS COMMERCE PRACTICES POP CULTURE RELIGION POLITICS/ MEDIA LANGUAGE FOOD/CUISINE GOVERNMENT 29
- 30. DIMENSIONS OF LANGUAGE WRITTEN LANGUAGE LANGUAGE ITSELF LITERACY SPOKEN LANGUAGE LANGUAGE NON-VERBAL SLANG/ COLLOQUIALISMS SHORTHAND 30
- 31. CULTURAL SHIFTS IN LANGUAGE 1. A shift from more formal to less formal language 2. A shift to more visual communication 31
- 32. = 115 32
- 33. = 31 33
- 34. WHAT IS FINANCIAL SUCCESS?
- 35. Sales? Revenue? Market Share? Share Gains? Sales Growth? Stock Price? Stock Change? YOY Sales? Brand Value?
- 36. Sales? Revenue? Market Share? Share Gains? Sales Growth? Stock Price? Stock Change? YOY Sales? Brand Value?
- 37. 37
- 38. HOW DO WE MEASURE THIS?
- 39. HOW TO MEASURE 1. Select Brands to Study 2. Conduct Communications Audit 3. Conduct Consumer Evaluation 39
- 40. BRAND SELECTION CRITERIA Include: • A selection of brands that cover from the Top 100 brands, from all points on the list: top, middle and bottom • Various products and services • Many industries and categories • Aspirational as well as “everyday” brands Exclude: • Brands that do not operate in the US • Highly niche brands, though including both upscale and mass-market brands 40
- 41. ® OUR SELECTED BRANDS 41
- 42. COMMUNICATIONS AUDIT NONE LOW MEDIUM HIGH 42
- 44. Q. Listed below are a number of things that may or may not be happening today. To what degree do you, personally, see these things happening in your country today? (Select one across for each) This Isn’t Happening At All This Isn’t Happening Much This Is Happening Somewhat This Is Definitely Happening TREND STRENGTH 44
- 45. TREND STRENGTH Q. Listed below are a number of things that may or may not be happening today. To what degree do you, personally, see these things happening in your country today? (Select one across for each) This Isn’t Happening At All This Isn’t Happening Much This Is Happening Somewhat This Is Definitely Happening (Weight of 1) (Weight of 2) (Weight of 4) (Weight of 8) 45
- 46. Q. Assuming each of these were happening in your country, how much do each of the following matter to you, or not? There are no right or wrong answers, we’re only interested in your opinions. Doesn’t Matter at All to Me Doesn’t Really Matter to Me Matters Somewhat to Me Matters a Great Deal to Me TREND RELEVANCE 46
- 47. Q. Assuming each of these were happening in your country, how much do each of the following matter to you, or not? There are no right or wrong answers, we’re only interested in your opinions. Doesn’t Matter at All to Me Doesn’t Really Matter to Me Matters Somewhat to Me Matters a Great Deal to Me TREND RELEVANCE (Weight of 1) (Weight of 2) (Weight of 4) (Weight of 8) 47
- 48. CULTURAL SHIFT MULTIPLIER CULTURE STRENGTH SCORE CULTURAL RELEVANCE SCORE X Is It Happening? Does It Matter to Me? 48
- 49. CULTURAL SHIFT MULTIPLIER CULTURE STRENGTH SCORE X CULTURAL CULTURAL RELEVANCE SCORE SHIFT MULTIPLIER Is it Happening? Does it Matter to Me? So, Is this Shift a Big Deal? 49
- 50. SYSTEM 1 SYSTEM 2 50
- 51. BRAND ASSOCIATIONS Cultural Shift: Written communications are getting shorter and shorter these days Personified Cultural Shift: Is someone who would answer your text with just the letter “k” 51
- 52. BRAND ASSOCIATIONS Q. Now we’d like you to think a little differently. Imagine for a moment that each of these brands were “people” that you knew. For each statement below, please indicate which of these “people” you feel each statement describes. You can select none, one, some or all of the “people” for each statement. (Select all that apply for each brand) 52
- 53. BRAND CULTURE SHIFT SCORE CULTURAL SHIFT MULTIPLIER BRAND X ASSOCIATIONS So, Is this Shift a Big Deal? Do Consumers Associate Brands with this Shift? 53
- 54. BRAND CULTURE SHIFT SCORES Which Brands Are Associated with which Shift? BRAND CULTURE SHIFT SCORE CULTURAL SHIFT MULTIPLIER BRAND X ASSOCIATIONS So, Is this Shift a Big Deal? Do Consumers Associate Brands with this Shift? 54
- 55. CULTURE MUSCLE SCORE BRAND CULTURE SHIFT SCORES Which Brands Are Associated with which Shift? 55
- 56. CONSUMER EVALUATION Your Brand Value Your Brand’s Culture Muscle Score ? 56
- 57. 3. RESULTS
- 58. TOP 5 Cultural shifts leveraged by brands 1. Proliferation of Choices 2. Racial Tolerance 3. Move to Visual Communication 4. Democratized Voice 5. Age of Impatience 58
- 59. BOTTOM 5 Cultural shifts leveraged by brands 1. Overload Leads to De-Teching 2. Immersive Experiences 3. Public Apathy 4. Ethical Business Practices 5. Healthier Living 59
- 60. CULTURE MUSCLE: THE TOP 5 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 60
- 61. CULTURE MUSCLE: THE BOTTOM 5 30. 29. 28. 27. 26. 61
- 62. Brand Associations (Do Consumers Associate Brands with this Shift?) Redirect Efforts Against More Meaningful Shifts Don’t Worry About These for Now Keep Leaning Into These Potential Shifts to Lean Into Cultural Shift Multiplier (Is this Shift a Big Deal?) 62
- 63. STARBUCKS’ CULTURE MUSCLE™ 50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% FOMO Democratized Voice Age of Impatience End of Anonymity 0 10 20 30 40 50 Cultural Shift Multiplier (Is this Shift a Big Deal?) 63
- 64. REDBULL’S CULTURE MUSCLE™ YOLO Cultural Shift Multiplier (Is this Shift a Big Deal?) 50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 0 10 20 30 40 50 64
- 65. COLGATE’S CULTURE MUSCLE™ 50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Racial Tolerance Proliferation of Choices Main Street vs. Wall Street 0 10 20 30 40 50 Cultural Shift Multiplier (Is this Shift a Big Deal?) 65
- 66. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURAL SHIFTS AND BRAND VALUE Your Brand Value Your Brand’s Culture Muscle Score ? 66
- 67. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURAL SHIFTS AND BRAND VALUE Very Strong Positive Relationship Strong Positive Relationship Moderate Positive Relationship Weak Positive Relationship No/Negligible Relationship Weak Positive Relationship Moderate Positive Relationship Strong Positive Relationship Very Strong Positive Relationship 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 – 0.1 – 0.2 – 0.3 – 0.4 – 0.5 – 0.6 – 0.7 – 0.8 – 0.9 – 1.0 67
- 68. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURAL SHIFTS AND BRAND VALUE GOAL 0.3 Culture Muscle™ Index Very Strong Positive Relationship Strong Positive Relationship Moderate Positive Relationship Weak Positive Relationship No/Negligible Relationship Weak Positive Relationship Moderate Positive Relationship Strong Positive Relationship Very Strong Positive Relationship 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 – 0.1 – 0.2 – 0.3 – 0.4 – 0.5 – 0.6 – 0.7 – 0.8 – 0.9 – 1.0 68
- 69. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURAL SHIFTS AND BRAND VALUE ACTUAL GOAL 0.3 0.54 Culture Muscle™ Index Very Strong Positive Relationship Strong Positive Relationship Moderate Positive Relationship Weak Positive Relationship No/Negligible Relationship Weak Positive Relationship Moderate Positive Relationship Strong Positive Relationship Very Strong Positive Relationship 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 – 0.1 – 0.2 – 0.3 – 0.4 – 0.5 – 0.6 – 0.7 – 0.8 – 0.9 – 1.0 69
- 70. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURAL SHIFTS AND BRAND VALUE ACTUAL –0.03 Communications Audit Very Strong Positive Relationship Strong Positive Relationship Moderate Positive Relationship Weak Positive Relationship No/Negligible Relationship Weak Positive Relationship Moderate Positive Relationship Strong Positive Relationship Very Strong Positive Relationship 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 – 0.1 – 0.2 – 0.3 – 0.4 – 0.5 – 0.6 – 0.7 – 0.8 – 0.9 – 1.0 70
- 71. 4. HOW TO APPLY
- 72. STAGE OF PLANNING COMMS CAMPAIGN STAGE BRAND STAGE Where do you implement this? 72
- 73. THINGS TO THINK ABOUT • Is your brand already leaning into culture in a meaningful way? • What are your competitors doing culturally? • If you did choose a cultural shift to lasso, would it appear authentic to your brand’s DNA? • Beyond communications, how else might you express your brand’s connection to a cultural shift? • Would you need to back-engineer aspects of your brand to achieve this? • Is leaning into culture a growth strategy, a differentiation strategy, or a way to stem declines? 73
- 74. THE EIGHT STEP PROCESS
- 75. THE EIGHT STEP PROCESS 1. IDENTIFY CULTURE BUCKETS (AND DIMENSIONS) WRITTEN LANGUAGE LANGUAGE ITSELF LITERACY SPOKEN LANGUAGE LANGUAGE NON-VERBAL SLANG/ COLLOQUIALISMS SHORTHAND Within your market(s), begin by mapping out AL of the culture buckets that exist, regardless of how relevant or irrelevant they may initially seem to your product or category. Continue by mapping out all of the various dimensions that exist within each bucket, ignoring the fact that some dimensions in one bucket will overlap dimensions in another bucket. 2. IDENTIFY CULTURE SHIFTS WITHIN EACH BUCKET With your long list of cultural buckets and dimensions, identify all of the cultural shifts (trends) happening in your market. Once listed, you will notice that many of the shifts overlap across buckets. With a critical eye, de-dupe the cultural shifts to come up with a master list. 75
- 76. THE EIGHT STEP PROCESS 3. PERSONIFY CULTURAL SHIFTS 4. COLLECT THE DATA Create two lists of cultural shifts: one that expresses the shift in consumer-friendly language, and one that expresses it as a personification of that shift. Develop a consumer survey that asks the following three questions: 1. Degree to which they see the shift happening (cultural strength) 2. Relevance of the shift to them (cultural relevance) 3. Personification of the shift against a list of relevant brands (brand associations) Cultural Shift: Written communications are getting shorter and shorter these days Personified Cultural Shift: Is someone who would answer your text with just the letter “k” 76
- 77. THE EIGHT STEP PROCESS 5. APPLY WEIGHTING Weight the responses to the cultural strength question and the culture relevance question using a simple weighting scheme of 1, 2, 4 and 8 from negative to positive to determine a Cultural Strength and Relevance Score for each shift. Cultural Relevance Scale: 6. DETERMINE CULTURAL SHIFT MULTIPLIER For each shift, multiply the Culture Strength Score by the Culture Relevance Score. This yields a metric we called the Cultural Shift Multiplier, which in essence tells us whether the shift is a big deal or not. This Isn’t Happening At All This Isn’t Happening Much This Is Happening Somewhat This Is Definitely Happening Cultural Strength Scale: 1 2 4 8 Doesn’t Matter at All to Me Doesn’t Really Matter to Me Matters Somewhat to Me Matters a Great Deal to Me 1 2 4 8 CULTURE STRENGTH SCORE X CULTURAL CULTURAL RELEVANCE SCORE SHIFT MULTIPLIER Is it Happening? Does it Matter to Me? So, Is this Shift a Big Deal? 77
- 78. THE EIGHT STEP PROCESS 7. CALCULATE CULTURAL SHIFT SCORE Then calculate each brand’s Culture Shift Scores by multiplying the Cultural Shift Multiplier and the percent of consumers that associate that brand with that shift in the personification question (Brand Asso-ciation). 8. DETERMINE CULTURE MUSCLE™ SCORE Each brand will have a number of Cultural Shift Scores, based on the master list of cultural shifts you identified in Step 2. Finally, take the sum of the Culture Shift Scores within each brand, and the result will be that brand’s Culture Muscle Score™. BRAND CULTURE SHIFT SCORES Which Brands Are Associated with which Shift? CULTURAL SHIFT MULTIPLIER BRAND X ASSOCIATIONS So, Is this Shift a Big Deal? Do Consumers Associate Brands with this Shift? BRAND CULTURE SHIFT SCORES Which Brands Are Associated with which Shift? 78
- 79. 5. TAKEAWAYS
- 80. TAKEAWAYS • You can’t measure “culture” – “culture” is largely invisible to consumers – what you need to do is measure cultural shifts • Culture is a messy thing – one cultural shift can impact many different aspects of culture • Brands with stronger Culture Muscles are leaning into many cultural shifts, some more broadly recognized, other less so • There is a strong relationship between a brand’s Culture Muscle™ and financial success • There is no relationship between a brand’s cultural communications and financial success, implying that leaning into cultural shifts requires a more holistic branding approach 80
- 81. OUR TEAM Adrian Barrow Head of Planning Amy Bailey Account Director Mark Truss Global Director of Brand Intelligence Robert Quinn WPP Fellow Karen Montecuollo Brand Intelligence Manager Monica Gojman WPP Fellow 81