GIM Cultural Brokerage™

A research approach to culture-sensitive interpretation

Topic
Cultural brokerage becomes necessary when companies, consumers and market research institutes, from different countries and cultures, come together in the scope of international market research projects. This encounter might lead to cross-cultural difficulties in understanding and misinterpretations that render international research projects even more challenging. In these cases, the need for culture-sensitive research consulting is particularly strong!

Areas of application 
As a company that conducts research on an international level, GIM acts as a “cultural broker” for you in this situation. This means that we mediate between culture-specific market particularities and your research interest in areas in which your company has not had any experiences yet. This might be, for example, the interpretation of ethnographic studies about lifestyle, moving patterns, shopping and leisure time habits, or the perception of gender-specific roles.

Cultural background knowledge is often an essential part of a well-tailored study design. Companies who want to be successful in “foreign markets” rely on culture-sensitive market research for both, the development of products that meet the consumers‘ need, and the successful marketing of these products.

GIM Cultural Brokerage™ offers you culture-sensitive and implementable insights into less known markets.

Toolbox 
GIM Cultural Brokerage™ is a consulting service. The essential “tools” that we provide are our extensive experience in the area of international market research (GIM has been conducting research on an international level since its foundation in the year 1987), our passion for foreign cultures, and our thriving to not only experiencing these cultures but to truly understand them. Many of our researchers have already acquired the skills needed for these tasks during their university studies (cultural anthropology, sociology, ethnology).

Culture-sensitive research is far more than just research in “other markets”, benefit from our experience!

References

• Gender roles and purchase decisions in Russia
  Sep 2011 | Ein Artikel von Dr. Sigrid Schmid und Godehard Wakenhut über den Einfluss des Geschlechts auf die Kaufentscheidung, in Russia' in p&a market research 2/2011
• West meets East: Market research in Asia
  Sep 09 | Eine Eigenstudie über Marktforschung in Asien, die bereits auf der ESOMAR erfolgreich vorgestellt wurde, in p&a Heft Market Research 2009
• Market research in Asia: Special challenge of business as usal?
  Sep 08 | Ein Artikel von Dr. Sigrid Schmid und Patricia Blau über typische Einflussgrößen auf Marktforschung in Asien basierend auf eigenen Erfahrungen und Resultaten aus Kulturstudien, p&a Special English Edition 9/08
• Rising values in Russia
  2007 | Ein Artikel von Dr. Kerstin Ullrich und Dr. Tatiana E. Nufferova über den Wandel der Gesellschaftsstruktur in Russland und daraus entstehende Chancen für das Marketing, in p&a Special English Edition 2007