‘Culture Scan’ is a means of exploring the consumer cultures that exist within a specific context. These can be category, behaviour or consumer segment.
Why make use of it?
- It can help develop compelling thought leadership in a given sector
- It can inform communications strategy, product/brand development
- This requires a specialised set of research skills which are more prevalent amongst the academic community.
How does it happen?
- Academics with a relevant specific area of focus are identified and assigned to the project
- A range of methods can be employed to identify established or emergent cultures but they typically take the form of a literature review accompanied by some form of content analysis, eg. media representations, netnography, semiotics.
Case study: ITV
The demographic: ITV’s position at the heart of popular culture
The brief: ITV was in the process of rebranding. Intuitively they believed that at the heart of their brand was ‘owning’ British popular culture, but couldn’t articulate exactly how. Our task was to discuss the links between TV and popular culture and more specifically, the links between ITV and popular culture and come up with theoretical insights to help them re-think its programming and advertising revenue strategy.
Our approach: A focused and critical review of academic literature, market intelligence and contemporary case studies in relation to three broad themes: 1) popular culture and TV viewing, 2) popular culture and TV advertising and 3) ITV and popular culture.
The output: A report, insights and recommendations to develop a more culture friendly programming strategy to help increase advertising revenue.