Welcome to Now that's Significant, a market research podcast hosted by Michael Howard, the Head of Marketing at Infotools. This week, Dr. Anastasia Kārklīna Gabriel, an award-winning author and cultural theorist, joins the show to discuss the role of culture within marketing and her new book "Cultural Intelligence for Marketers."

Key points of discussion:

1. Cultural intelligence defined: Anastasia defines cultural intelligence as the practice of understanding culture and its trajectory to assess a brand’s role and opportunities within the cultural landscape. She stresses the importance of integrating cultural insight into marketing strategies to ensure inclusivity and resonance with diverse audiences.

2. Bridging academia and business: Anastasia shares her journey from academia to industry, underscoring the gap between academic cultural studies and its application in marketing. Her work aims to bridge this divide, providing marketers tools to understand and navigate cultural dynamics effectively.

3. Performative inclusion and missteps: The conversation covers common errors brands make, such as oversimplifying target audiences and neglecting cultural contexts. Anastasia explains how brands can avoid performative activism by thoroughly understanding the cultural nuances of their audiences.

4. Forces framework: Anastasia discusses her book’s "Forces Framework," which includes elements like culture, communication, critical consciousness, and community. This framework guides marketers in integrating cultural understanding into effective communication strategies.

5. Impact of fear in marketing: Anastasia argues that fear of missteps in cultural marketing, while understandable, should not paralyze brands from engaging meaningfully with cultural issues. Embracing this fear can drive brands to practice cultural intelligence more rigorously and authentically.

How can your organization better understand and integrate cultural intelligence into its marketing strategies to ensure meaningful and inclusive consumer engagement?

Thank you for tuning into this episode of Now that's Significant. If you enjoyed the discussion and want to hear more, please subscribe, share it with your colleagues, and leave a review. Check out our other episodes for more insights into consumer intelligence and market research.

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Infotools Harmoni is a fit-for-purpose market research analysis, visualization, and reporting platform that gives the world’s leading brands the tools they need to better understand their consumers, customers, organization, and market.

www.infotools.com

Established in 1990, we work with some of the world’s top brands around the world, including Coca-Cola, Orange, Samsung, and Mondelēz.

Our powerful cloud-based platform, Harmoni, is purpose-built for market research. From data processing to investigation, dashboards to collaboration, Harmoni is a true "data-to-decision-making" solution for in-house corporate insights teams and agencies.

While we don't facilitate market research surveys, provide sample, or collect data, we make it easy for market researchers to find and share compelling insights that go over-and-above what stakeholders want, inspiring them to act decisively.

One of the most powerful features of Harmoni is Discover, a time-tested, time-saving, and investigative approach to data analysis. Using automated analyses to reveal patterns and trends, Discover minimizes potential research bias by removing the need for requesting and manually analyzing scores of cumbersome crosstabs – often seeing what you can’t.

Discover helps you easily find what differentiates groups that matter to you, uncover what makes them unique, and deliver data points that are interesting, relevant, and statistically significant, plus see things others can’t. Add to all this an impending GenAI feature, and you have an extremely powerful, future-proofed tool.

On this episode of Now that's Significant, a market research podcast, hosted by Michael Howard, Wes Chaar, a former aerospace engineer turned analytics expert, discusses transforming data ownership from agencies and corporations back to individuals, promoting a paradigm shift in data management. The discussion posed some challenging considerations, which included benefits and incentives.

Key points of discussion include:

1. Personal Data Ownership: Wes introduces a revolutionary idea to transition personal data control from corporations to individuals, where data can be consented, controlled, and potentially monetized by individuals themselves.

2. Economic Impact of Personal Data: The conversation unveils the significant contribution of personal data to the economy, emphasizing the need for individuals to have control over their data, akin to managing financial assets.

3. Technological Enablement: Mike and Wes delve into how technology, such as blockchain, can facilitate new models of data ownership that ensure data authenticity and traceability, empowering individuals to control their data.

4. Ethical Considerations in AI and Analytics: Wes shares his concerns about the ethical implications encountered during his career in analytics and AI, particularly around emotion prediction and its potential for manipulation.

5. Future of Market Research: The discussion covers the opportunity for market researchers to lead this change by creating open, consumer-centric data management platforms that respect privacy and democratize data usage.

A question to consider...

How can market researchers facilitate the shift towards personal data ownership, ensuring ethical practices and empowering consumers?

Thank you for tuning into this episode of Now that's Significant. If you found this discussion valuable, please subscribe, share it with others, and consider leaving a review. Listen to our other episodes for more insights into market research.

***

Infotools Harmoni is a fit-for-purpose market research analysis, visualization, and reporting platform that gives the world’s leading brands the tools they need to better understand their consumers, customers, organization, and market.

www.infotools.com

Established in 1990, we work with some of the world’s top brands around the world, including Coca-Cola, Orange, Samsung, and Mondelēz.

Our powerful cloud-based platform, Harmoni, is purpose-built for market research. From data processing to investigation, dashboards to collaboration, Harmoni is a true "data-to-decision-making" solution for in-house corporate insights teams and agencies.

While we don't facilitate market research surveys, provide sample, or collect data, we make it easy for market researchers to find and share compelling insights that go over-and-above what stakeholders want, inspiring them to act decisively.

One of the most powerful features of Harmoni is Discover, a time-tested, time-saving, and investigative approach to data analysis. Using automated analyses to reveal patterns and trends, Discover minimizes potential research bias by removing the need for requesting and manually analyzing scores of cumbersome crosstabs – often seeing what you can’t.

Discover helps you easily find what differentiates groups that matter to you, uncover what makes them unique, and deliver data points that are interesting, relevant, and statistically significant, plus see things others can’t. Add to all this an impending GenAI feature, and you have an extremely powerful, future-proofed tool.

Welcome to Now that's Significant, a market research podcast hosted by Keri Vermaak. In this episode, Keri engages with Tikica Benjamin, a seasoned market researcher, to discuss her latest initiative, the VIBE Black Market Research Professionals Conference, aimed at empowering Black professionals in the industry.

The key points of discussion:

1. Inspiration for VIBE Conference: Tikica shares the inspiration behind launching the VIBE conference, highlighting the need for a dedicated space for Black market researchers to connect, grow professionally, and build a community.

2. Conference Objectives and Structure: The discussion covers the unique aspects of the VIBE conference, which focuses on networking, immersive experiences, and addressing topics relevant to Black researchers and the industry at large.

3. Challenges in Launching the Conference: Tikica discusses the challenges faced in organizing the conference, including overcoming fear and managing the logistics of planning such an event.

4. Support and Sponsorship: The conversation highlights the importance of sponsorship for the conference, with Tikica acknowledging the support received from various organizations and inviting further sponsorship opportunities.

5. Impact on Attendees: Tikica expresses her hopes for the conference to empower attendees, increase visibility of Black talent in the industry, and inspire action towards career advancement and advocacy.

A question to consider

How can industry events like the VIBE conference contribute to greater representation and empowerment of underrepresented groups in market research?

Thanks for tuning into this episode of Now that's Significant. If you found this discussion valuable, please subscribe, share it with others, and consider leaving a review. Feel free to listen to our other episodes for more insights into market research.

***

Infotools Harmoni is a fit-for-purpose market research analysis, visualization, and reporting platform that gives the world’s leading brands the tools they need to better understand their consumers, customers, organization, and market.

www.infotools.com

Established in 1990, we work with some of the world’s top brands around the world, including Coca-Cola, Orange, Samsung, and Mondelēz.

Our powerful cloud-based platform, Harmoni, is purpose-built for market research. From data processing to investigation, dashboards to collaboration, Harmoni is a true "data-to-decision-making" solution for in-house corporate insights teams and agencies.

While we don't facilitate market research surveys, provide sample, or collect data, we make it easy for market researchers to find and share compelling insights that go over-and-above what stakeholders want, inspiring them to act decisively.

One of the most powerful features of Harmoni is Discover, a time-tested, time-saving, and investigative approach to data analysis. Using automated analyses to reveal patterns and trends, Discover minimizes potential research bias by removing the need for requesting and manually analyzing scores of cumbersome crosstabs – often seeing what you can’t.

Discover helps you easily find what differentiates groups that matter to you, uncover what makes them unique, and deliver data points that are interesting, relevant, and statistically significant, plus see things others can’t. Add to all this an impending GenAI feature, and you have an extremely powerful, future-proofed tool.