The Space Doctors approach is more culturally sensitive than traditional global branding approaches – for scaling brands across markets.
By understanding how cultures evolve we help you enter a new territory; be it market, category or consumer group, and get it right the first time without losing current customers or brand equities.
Semiotics is also useful in scoping out the cultural space in which consumer typologies live and how these spaces are evolving or differ across markets.
This technique helps our clients to:
- Develop new market entry strategies for current or new consumer targets
- Move a brand into new categories
- Understand the cultural space occupied by a new consumer segment
“Space Doctors semiotics work was incredibly inspirational for the Global Vicks franchise. The business teams, including Marketing, R&D, CMK and Design, were able to leverage the semiotics work for a number of different projects including landscape assessment, concept development, innovation strategy, etc."
Elizabeth Adkison, Research Fellow, Global Vicks R&D Procter & Gamble
Case Study - Procter & Gamble; Clean and Beyond for Fabric Care
Needs
P&G’s Fabric Care business unit were interested in understanding new and emergent codes and cultural themes associated with cleaning in 6 international markets across Western Europe, Asia Pacific and Central America.
Impact
We identified new and emerging ways of communicating ‘clean’ verbally and visually which could be deployed in a scaleable fashion across the target markets over a 2 year period.
Conclusion
The conclusions of this foundational study informed and inspired concept generation and naming generation for Ariel and value detergents across Western Europe, Tide and Bounce in NA and has been subsequently applied to stimulating new brand and product ideation in the Home Care and Oral Care business units.
Case Study - Procter & Gamble; Globalising the Vicks Brand
“Space Doctors semiotics work was incredibly inspirational for the Global Vicks franchise. The business teams, including Marketing, R&D, CMK and Design, were able to leverage the semiotics work for a number of different projects including landscape assessment, concept development, innovation strategy, etc"
Elizabeth Adkison, Research Fellow, Global Vicks R&D Procter & Gamble
Identifying global and scaleable innovation opportunities for the Vicks Brand.
Needs
The global Vicks franchise were interested in how to deliver against their architecture pillars in a way that would connect powerfully and distinctively with consumers.
Space Doctors were asked to identify global cultural themes and communications codes against each of the pillars. We conducted a thorough analysis of the Vicks brand, category, culture, and stretch categories in US, Brazil, Russia, and Australia to identify these emergent themes and codes.
Impact
We uncovered innovation opportunity routes for each of the pillars that could be used to inspire and direct global innovation strategy as well as communications, concept development, packaging etc.
Case Study - Cereal Partners Worldwide; The Changing Culture of Breakfast
"Working with Space Doctors really helped us to step away from our in-built category assumptions and to see the cereals business with new eyes. Fundamentally for us biggest benefit of the semiotic analysis was to get beneath the level that consumers can express themselves, and to understand the deep, unspoken, unwritten rules about how our consumers think about breakfast – it helped us discover the archetypal benefits that breakfast represents and showed us where our brands fit on those dimensions."
Giles Catcheside, Consumer Insight, CPW Worldwide
A study of the changing culture of breakfast, identifying NPD and communications opportunities for cereals in markets where they are not a familiar part of the breakfast repertoire.
Needs
Cereal Partners Worldwide wanted to understand why cereal consumption in France and Italy is so low, and how the changing culture of breakfast in those markets affects it.
Specifically, they wanted to understand what NPD and communications ideas could be developed to ensure higher purchase of breakfast cereals by younger mothers.
Impact
We showed how the portrait of certain cartoon characters and the role of chocolate as an illicit pleasure within the category was acting as a barrier to wider purchase of the products and preventing cereals from being seen as real food.
From our analysis of the changing culture of breakfast, we identified NPD and communications opportunities that could broaden the appeal of cereals, while not losing their current pleasurable associations.
Opportunities were drawn from – among other things - the need for breakfast to deliver a home made experience, breakfast as a time when everyone can tap into their inner teenager and the changing approach to nature in Southern Europe.