A while back I wrote a review of the book “The Culture Code, an Ingenious Way To Understand Why People Around The World Live And Buy As They Do. The book discusses how different cultures view same matters differently and tries to find the unconscious reason for people’s choices.

For example the culture code for shopping is “reconnecting with life”, the culture code for health is “movement”. The American code for cars is “Identity,” while the German code for cars is “Engineering.” If you haven’t read it, start reading it tonight.

While the book topics are simply amazing, since the first time I read the book (I’ve read it 3 times by now) I was anxious to learn how to find the culture code for other products/values/people that were not in the book. For example I wanted to find the American culture code for “Hookah” and see if it is any different than the Middle Eastern culture code for it.

I tried to understand how Clotaire Rapaille (the author of the book) found the culture codes that he did and tried to apply them myself. I surveyed customers, conducted study sessions with them, and analyzed the results. In the surveys and study sessions I asked three main questions:

• Try to remember the “First Time” you used the product in as much detail as possible.
• Try to remember the “Most Powerful Memory” of using the product in as much detail as possible.
• Try to remember the “Most Recent Memory” of using the product.