While I’m editing my audio interview with Grant McCracken, I encourage you to visit his blog for a series he’s been doing entitled “Culture Matters”. As I noted in an earlier post, I’m with him on this point. Culture does matter and it’s important for marketers to “get” it or plan on becoming roadkill. It’s that simple.
He also makes some very persuasive and bracing arguments against such marketing luminaries as Clayton Christensen, Clotaire Rapaille, Kevin Roberts, as well as the Blue Ocean book. I’ve never read Christensen or Kevin Roberts. But I do have some familiarity with both Rapaille and the Blue Oceans book. So here’s my take:
While not the full story or the last words on branding, both books underscore an important point, even if their premises can be proved wrong. That is, how we perceive products, services and communications is predicated on how we frame them. More often than not, that frame is culture.
Nuggets from Rapaille’s “The Culture Code” can be found here.
My review of Blue Ocean Strategy is here.
Grant’s series, “Culture Matters,” is here in part 1, part 2 and part 3.
Stay tuned for my interview with Grant. It should be up in a day or so.
