The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Buy and Live as They Do

The author, Clotaire Rapaille, has fascinating insights into what makes groups think and act the way they do. His background in psychology mixes very well with his French origins and American inclinations. The book covers various code-words for products and people around the world. He loves America but has us pegged when he labels us, "adolescent".

The first time that I got envolved with cross-cultural marketing was with the Chevrolet Nova. Nova is, of course, an exploding star. A massive explosion with the underlying understand that this car was hot. It was inexpensive so should have done very well in Mexico and South America. It took a while to understand that 'no va' in Spanish means 'no go.' Not nearly so good a name for an automobile. And that was only a language problem. In this book, the author, who was trained as a child psychiatrist is looking at the base emotions of consumers around the world. He explains a lot about the different ways different cultures view products, people (such as how do the French view Americans, or the American President). It is kind of a rambling book, that left be both fascinated with the incidents he describes and with a desire for more. For instance he talks about the vision people have of the Jeep. Americans see it as a HORSE, as in riding off into the unknown back country. The French and the Germans view the Jeep as a LIBERATOR from the Nazi's. Obviously this calls for a different marketing approach in different countries. But how do the Japanese, Mexicans, Chinese, et al view the Jeep. And beyond the Jeep, how do they view other things. Still, I guess that he simply hasn't had enough time to research everything. This is a fairly small book and a fast read. It opens a series of doors that force you to think in different ways.

This is a brilliant book! It is extremely well written, incredibly interesting and tremendously insightful. I bought it after reading a page at random and was hooked. In "The Culture Code" Frenchman turned American, Clotaire Rapaille, an expert on culture coding and adviser to many of the world's largest and most successful companies, unlocks the secrets to understanding why people in America, Europe and Asia live and buy as they do. Everything centers around how each nation sees itself and others, especially America. These codes are important to companies trying to sell their goods and ideas abroad. But they also reveal a great deal about us. The French code for France, for example is Idea, while the code for America is Space Travelers. The German code for Germany is Order, while that for America is John Wayne. The English code for England is Class, while that for America is Unashamedly Abundant. And the American code for America is Dream. "Dreams have driven this culture from its earliest days," writes Dr. Rapaille, with a beauty and passion that lends much to his French roots. "The dream of explorers discovering the New World. The dream of pioneers opening the West. The dream of Founding Fathers imagining a new form of union. The dream of entrepreneurs forging the Industrial Revolution. The dream of immigrants coming to a land of hope. The dream of a new group of explorers landing safely on the moon." Rapaille shows that, while the Europeans fail to understand Americans and many even hope we will fail in the future, they admire our country and Americans for our boundless sense of youth, energy and hope. Rapaille, who arrived in this country penniless, due to a French law which froze the assets of any France citizen leaving the country, is clearly very much in love with his adopted country and has become more American than many born here, for he has pursued his dreams and prospered. His ideas and inspiring writing style certainly reflect this. But the author is unduly harsh toward his country of birth and the Europeans in general. Having lived in Europe and traveled throughout the continent for almost eleven years, I very much value and appreciate the culture of my French, German, and Dutch friends and neighbors. Yes, we live our lives by different codes, but in the end we are really not as different as Dr. Rapaille would have us believe. We all desire a better life for ourselves and, especially, our children. We all worry about a growing trend toward conflict in the world and insecurity at home. And we all dream of a better world. Indeed, we are witnessing both the convergence and clash of culture codes. "The Culture Code" is packed with ideas that will benefit everyone from the average American, to the businessman, to the politician. It is truly an insightful and uplifting journey.

Clotaire Rapaille reminds me a little of a somewhat softened, better educated and French version of the Jack Nicholson character in that pivotal moment of "A Few Good Men" where he blurts out: "You can't handle the truth!" The author is confrontive in the extreme, but in an intellectually assertive and nonviolent way. He has truly mined some of the cloaked messages going on as endless tape loops in the unconscious minds of individuals and their national cultures - especially, but not exclusively, Americans. I smiled knowingly when I read the Publisher's Weekly review at the top of this page. The reviewer roundly attacks the author for the statement about Japanese men and romance. I live in San Francisco and I have dated a number of Japanese women from Japan. I would have to say based on my experience that it is the PW reviewer who is looking at life through the preposterous prism of a Hollywood lens, and it is Dr. Rapaille who is right in touch with street-level reality. The book's subtitle overpromises a little (as subtitles are wont to do) in that this book won't give you an entirely new world view from which to understand everything about everybody. It won't. But the number of stunning insights (all of which resonated with me, as an experienced marketer) about: sex... seduction... men's view of women... money... food... alcohol... beauty... and being fat... ... will cause the thoughtful, inquiring and willing-to-learn reader to see things in a new way and understand parts of his world a lot better. This is a great book and well worth reading if you are interested in psychology, marketing, and/or the world the way it is and the way it is likely to be for years to come.

"The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way To Understand Why People Around The World Live And Buy As They Do" by Clotaire Rapaille examines how different cultures view products, events, and concepts. Rapaille argues each product makes a unique imprint on members of any given culture. This imprint can be described in only a few words. For example, Rapaille says the American code for cars is "Identity," while the German code for cars is "Engineering." For the last thirty years, Rapaille, a cultural anthropologist, has helped international companies learn and understand these cultural codes by examining how consumers really feel about products. Rapaille worked with Chrysler to discover the code for Jeep. The American code for Jeep is "Horse," a go-anywhere vehicle. Based on this, Rapaille suggested replacing square headlights with round ones, because horses have round eyes. Luxury interiors weren't part of the code. The Jeep was then successfully marketed as a "horse" in America. In France and Germany, Jeeps were seen differently. People there associate them with the WWII liberation of Europe. Chrysler marketed Jeeps in Europe as symbols of freedom. According to Rapaille, most cultural imprints occur by a very early age. In America, many people love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, because they ate as children. People associated the sandwiches with care and attention from mom. In other cultures the sandwiches might not have been imprinted at all. Cars also have a strong, positive imprint in America. Rapaille writes: "[Children] imprint the thrills associated with cars in their youth. Americans love cars and they love going out in them. Throughout the discovery sessions, participants told stories of their excited parents bringing home a new car, about the enjoyment and bonding that comes from families going out for drives together on the weekend, about the breathtaking first ride in a sports car. American children learn at an early age that cars are an essential and vaunted part of family life, that they bring joy and even family unity. When it is time for them to buy a car, this emotional connection guides them subconsciously. They want a car that feels special to them. ..." Based upon his understanding of the American code for cars, Rapaille helped Chrysler develop the concept for the PT Cruiser. Rapaille writes: "It became obvious to me that because the emotion associated with driving and owning a car is so strong, the PT Cruiser needed to be a car people could feel strongly about. It needed to have a distinctive identity to justify such strong emotions. To create a strong identity and a new car at the same time, we decided to tap into something that already existed in the culture, a familiar unconscious structure. The one we chose was the gangster car, the kind of vehicle Al Capone famously drove. This became the PT Cruiser's signature. It lent the car an extremely strong identity--there is nothing like it on the road today--and the customer r