To build an authentic connection to an audience, regardless of location, marketers need to dig deeper into elements that influence how their audience thinks, feels, and responds than mere demographic or statistical data.

Culture influences our values, beliefs, language, traditions, and social customs and also how marketers build trust with their audiences. If marketers don’t consider how their audience perceives their brand, campaigns, and communications within a cultural context, their marketing strategy can fail, even if it’s otherwise well-designed.

A marketing campaign that performs exceptionally well in one area may perform poorly in another if the culture of that area is not understood. A campaign that resonates with people in one region might be considered irrelevant or even offensive by people in another. Therefore, cultural insight is no longer just a nice-to-have; it’s essential.

Understanding the dynamics of culture enables marketers to create genuine, respectful, and relatable messaging.

Traditional targeting methods involve targeting people based on conventional demographic types such as age, gender, social class, and geographic region. However, while these categories provide a basic structure for the market, these traditional types can never fully explain the reasons behind consumer buying behaviour. Insights into cultural behaviours can uncover deeper, fundamental reasons for consumer choices, such as:

• Cultural behaviours based on the customs/traditions of a locality
• Social expectations/vulnerabilities
• Aspirational lifestyles/identity
• Nuances of language/symbolism

When cultural insights are incorporated into defining an audience profile, brands capable of reaching out beyond mass or broad communication can now reach out directly to create meaningful interaction within each of their audiences.

How Cultural Insights Create Deeper Relationships

Cultural insights allow brands to create targeted messages designed to evoke an emotional response. Rather than brands “talking at” consumers, brands now start to “talk with” consumers, thereby developing trust, engagement, and ultimately long-term loyalty between the two parties.

Research and market intelligence that incorporate an element of cultural understanding allow brands to:

• Segment audiences accurately.
• Create a regionally relevant campaign.
• Create and build emotional rather than transactional connections.

To avoid mistakes caused by dumb communication or cultural misunderstanding

Decoding Culture for Real Impact

At Quantish, we are firm believers that effective audience segmentation starts from cultural understanding. Our aim is not just to provide analysis and research on a particular market segment but also to decode the culture surrounding that market. By integrating cultural intelligence with research, analysis, and definition of audience profiles, we help brands connect with their target audiences in ways that seem genuine and, therefore, have a meaningful impact.

With so many sources of information in today’s marketplace, it is critical that marketers build a message that resonates with the relevant audience for the actual impact of that message to be meaningful.

Conclusion

Targeting your audience is not only about getting more followers but also about attracting the most relevant individuals for your business through your chosen method. When plans are created using cultural knowledge as a starting point, brands enable their campaigns to evolve into conversations and their audiences to grow into communities.

Knowing your culture is more than just a business strategy; it is also the basis for creating meaningful relationships.