Summer Reading

One of my favorite parts of summer is the bi-monthly library raid.  I like to do this during the school year too, but since I really don't have time to lose myself in extraneous reading material during the semesters I try to limit that.  Sometime in April my resolve usually snaps and I'll end up skipping a class to pillage the library and return with a stack of contraband right before finals week.  Not that I actually read the books at that point.  They usually root themselves in a prominent spot on my desk/bookshelf/floor among tor-like mounds of their denser relatives used for research papers.  But their presence directs me to a horizon beyond finals week, and for that I am always grateful.

But then summer.  Summer, which I loath for the humidity, the necessary absence of sweaters, and the increased possibilities of contact with swimming pools and fresh-cut grass, but love for the family meals, the open road, and...the books.  During the school year, I am a student of history.  In the summer I become an arm chair psychologist- neuroscientist-linguist-archaeologist, albeit of a very passive kind.  I most recently read Clotaire Rapaille's The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy As They Do. 

 Rapaille, a cultural anthropologist, developed his method of understanding people and cultures from studying the idea of emotional imprints.  When he (with the help of an acquaintance) realized the potential for his ideas in the marketing world, the author left his work as a psychoanalyst in Paris to become a consultant for various companies, including Nestle, Chrysler, and L'Oreal. 

So what is this code?  Well, it's quirky, and companies were skeptical until it started boosting their sales, but it makes sense to me.  The code for a particular thing (concrete or abstract) is the emotional imprint a person or a society as a whole has of that thing.  For instance, Rapaille writes about his experience with Chrysler when he counseled them to stop making the Jeep prettier and and fancier.  Despite the fact that prospective customers seemed to ask for prettier and fancier, they weren't buying the Jeep.  It was only when the company took a different turn and followed Rapaille's advice to make the Jeep more accessible, free, and wilderness friendly that the sales went up.  According to Rapaille, this is because the code for Jeep is "HORSE."  For Americans, the Jeep is a ride into the wild.  It's not supposed to be a Lexus. 

Rapaille expands the "code" across cultures, for instance, what the Germans think of the Jeep (Liberator, dating from WWII days).  And what the French think of cheese (Alive vs. dead and moldy as Americans see it).  All of this is based on studies involving people who attend structured sessions where they tell Rapaille their associations and memories concerning different brands, objects, and ideas.  He then uses that information to determine what kind of advertisement would be "on code" for that particular group of people.  If the Jeep is supposed to be a horse, advertising it as a luxury vehicle isn't on code.  

My only complaint about the book is that I wanted more codes, more cultures.  Rapaille sets the book up with an element of suspense as he described his study on a particular object or idea (home, for example) and lets you guess a while before revealing his answer to the code.  And outside the USA he only covers a handful of European countries plus Japan.  Which is ok; I guess the guy can't know everything.  But it makes me want to go out and figure out codes for everything.  When I study abroad this fall I'll be walking around Bishkek saying to myself, "Hm, so what IS the Kyrgyz code for American College Student?" 

The Culture Code is an intensely personal twist on marketing, to the point of being scary.  They can read my mind.  At the same time, I firmly believe that humans are capable of self control.  I am not my buying impulses. I'm not really as interested in marketing as I am in understanding the world I live in.  And Rapaille makes it clear that the code does not just apply to marketing, but to how we understand the world around us.  This book is "on code" for me because it reveals the "secrets" to getting into people's brains.  Sneaky, I know. I don't know how much of my short life I've spent trying to figure out what people are thinking and what they meant with they said or did X, Y, or Z.  Of course, I've learned to curb a lot of the compulsive agonized fretting, but now that the fog has cleared a bit I've found that the advantage to this kind of bent is that you care about where other people are coming from.  That's a handy quality in this shrinking world, and The Culture Code is a handy tool to compliment it.