Culture Clash – How We Can Learn From Each Other

            For the last week, Marketing Mindspace has been working with a group of Brazilian exchange students on the topics of Global Branding and Cross Cultural Management. Throughout this period, we have become acutely aware of just how powerful a fresh point of view can be.

            For example, during a lecture on the importance of universal values, the professor was depicting a personification of the respective brand. After providing a detailed explanation of the brands “age”, “appearance”, etc. a Brazil student raised his hand. The conversation went something as follows (paraphrased):

Brazil Student (B): Isn’t that a bit narrow?

Professor (P): Can you please expand?

B: Well, the targeted consumer of this brand is not limited to that description. People who purchase this product are more in line with a certain lifestyle, not a certain personality. Shouldn’t it then be more important that we define the consumer as a lifestyle (psychographics) as opposed to a narrow personification?

While this is a simple point, it caused an epiphany for us. Throughout our respected business degrees, we have all been taught the appropriate methods with which we should understand and highlight our targeted consumer group. However, few of us have ever questioned if this method is the most appropriate. It has become convention for us; a second nature thought that dictates our inclinations, yet perhaps has blinded us from the correct path of action.

            I am not saying that we should reanalyze the way in which we come to specifically understand our consumer group (personification). I am instead attempting to highlight the value of an alternative perspective, one that is not hampered by textbook definitions of right and wrong but instead reacts with an unperturbed mind.

            We will be spending another three weeks with our friends from Brazil. During this time, we are excited to continue to learn from their differences in perspective, and will continue to share what we discover. For this week, we challenged you to find an alternative perspective, and confront your own deep-rooted beliefs. We can learn a lot from each other… all we have to do is listen.