Thursday, June 16, 2005
Heat Wave
I’m in sweltering 128 degree heat, deep in the heart of Gujarat, India. Yesterday, my three-day Indian wedding came to an end, and as of today, I am, in the eyes of my parents, friends, and a new family of over a hundred amazing people, officially married.
What struck me most about my wedding, to which, as per tradition, I was a groom and spectator (the bride’s side does all the planning and work, and keeps most of the details a surprise) was that culture, no matter where you’re from, plays a significant role in our everyday economic decisions.
My in-laws have lived in the same town for over thirty years, and their social obligation to provide something of significant buzz was evident; culture and tradition dictated our decor and food; our different sub-cultures informed our choice of attire and jewelry; our heritage and mythology required specific expenditures.
All this, as a quick note to say that when I return to the US, I’ll be spending a signficant amount of time on this blog exploring the idea of marketing through sub-cultures. It struck me, as I sat in the midst of a panoply of Indian summer colors, that the answers to brand differentiation in our evolving world may have less to do with understanding the individual customer, and more to do with understanding the subtexts of the cultural ecosystems from which they all come.