Cultural Insights in Branding with Kalil Vicioso, the Principal Consultant at Tiny Hat Consulting

In this episode of Getting to Aha!, Darshan Mehta is joined by Kalil Vicioso, the Principal Consultant at Tiny Hat Consulting. A consultancy that empowers brands through cultural and consumer insight. He is also a Board Member of Insights in Color.

They discuss Kalil’s aha! journey, his career, bi-lingual, and multi-cultural projects in creating a more integrated marketing approach by highlighting the importance and influence of cultural trends.

Kalil has a twenty-year career distinguished by shifting research boundaries, challenges, and breaking barriers. He is a bi-lingual, multi-cultural expert in creating a more integrated marketing approach by highlighting the importance and influence of cultural trends.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

👉 Take Advantage of Every Opportunity

Business opportunities are all around us; sometimes, it takes a spark of inspiration to see them. Take a few moments to pause and look around you; a viable opportunity may pop up
Never underestimate the power of your curiosity and observation. Paying attention to how people live, relate, the flow of activities, etc., is critical for cultural insight
Something as basic as a vacuum cleaner can help you discover cultural changes around you

👉 The Place of Curiosity and Observation

Improve your curiosity and observation by a lot of reading, listening to podcasts, and other audio-visual resources
Deconstructing the flow of people's activities into roles, characters, and props that influence their actions and the motivation behind their actions will help you get a better cultural view
"Setting" affects the cultural structure

👉 Culture is very Sensorial

Culture is not all about food, music, and language; it transcends all these
We live in a "water culture" with every one of us swimming in it
Culture is very sensitive. We live and breathe in it. Culture expresses itself in language, food, interactions, music, etc.

👉 Three Things Every Company Should Know When Pursuing Cultural Insights

Focus on the lived experience. By doing so, you'll discover important nuances that help you connect better with different audiences
See culture as a lens and not the core identity. Culture is the lens through which people see the world.
Pay attention to trending words, songs, etc. These are important components that shape culture
In addition, "play" is important in your approach. By deconstructing it and seeing how the pieces interact and what happens if you switch one thing out versus another, you create ample space for the working parts to flow

👉 Play with the "Structure" Like a Puzzle

The structure is like putting together a puzzle. You disassemble it to learn how the various components fit together and interact
The problem is solved backward. When your audiences interact with your brand, you think about who they're with
In other words, you're dismantling it to find out how it came together. When done effectively, it almost seems like detective work

👉 Cultural Insights Versus Normal Insights

The key difference is foregrounding; the importance of culture, how it plays out, and where it is most useful
Cultural insights are very useful when developing communication that connects with a certain target
Cultural insights are essential when you're looking for inspiration for new ideas

👉 Research Barriers and How to Overcome Them

How to turn academic concepts into something that is both practical and approachable. This is all about making models and finding out how to make them more useful
Some of the ideas relate to culture and identity. Help individuals perceive culture in a multi-layered manner by perceiving it beyond an identity
Increasing the amount of representation. There hasn't been enough representation, and often the best understanding comes from a mix of what you're seeing, asking, and experiencing
Having a varied group of persons involved in cultural insights has hindered reaching a greater degree of cultural insight

👉 How to Communicate with People Not Immersed in Culture

Sharing narratives is beneficial, particularly when individuals share their personal stories
It's critical to take a break from your position
They are getting customers to actively participate in seminars and work with the insight rather than just accepting comments
Intentional disruption makes explicit things that were implicit or things that people just sort of hinted about
Having enough diversity within a group helps understand your audience

👉 Roles Cultural Insights and Diversity

More individuals have been promoted to diversity and inclusion roles in recent years
In addition, more individuals are becoming CMOs and other sorts of leadership positions
When you have a diversified senior leadership team, you attract a more varied pool of applicants
Food is one of the main ways new cultures are introduced, but once you have a relationship with someone, you get to understand and see that culture is way deeper
Data is key. Use different platforms to get qualitative. Find different ways to explore qualitative interviewing and whatever other methodology

👉 Influence of COVID-19

Increasingly hybrid work settings are becoming more popular
People like to work from home, but there is a point at which they miss having coworkers nearby
The co-working spaces workflow and design will be crucial in determining who succeeds in this sector
Science is essential for cultural understanding. Science impacts how it is created and disseminated, how people perceive it, and what cultural signifiers of legitimacy exist

👉 Qualitative Research in Cultural Insights

Examples of posts and search queries. Qualitative data can be used in the same way as quantitative data
The need for qualitative data has risen. Much of the data shows what individuals have done, but they don't tell you why they're doing it
Because work settings are changing rapidly, one topic that will need to be examined post-COVID is how people think and feel
Many brands seek it since it is the only option for a competitive advantage. When you think about it, the only way to grasp it is to understand why better

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