The Cultural Muscle Index
JWT | Planning-Ness Grant Application 2013
Team Members: Adrian Barrow, Mark Truss, Monica Gojman
Team Contact: Monica Gojman
Phone: 215.605.7252
Email: monica.gojman@jwt.com
Grant Project Title: The Cultural Muscle Index
Describe the grant project including any topic or hypothesis you will be researching?
In a world surrounded by a cacophony of brand voices screaming to grab our attention, how
does one manage to cut through the clutter? Not surprisingly, most of the brands today turn
to colossal amounts of media spend, mass media advertising, and retail promotions as
solutions to quiet the noise. Indeed, the rational side of marketing communications has
trained us to strive for category preference by consistently toning our “category muscle.” In
reality though, the real muscle brands should be focusing on exercising -is their cultural one.
Once brands transcend category boundaries, they become a social currency and symbol of a
consumer’s cultural identity. By doing this, brands are not simply embracing the physical but
interjecting themselves into the minds and the hearts of people, ultimately landing at the core
of their social interactions. The strength of these Superbrands comes from what we’ve coined
Phone:
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their “cultural muscle”: a direct and immediate relevance to people’s cultural lives. From their
conversations, to their passions, to the ideas that attract them, to the content they consume –
We believe that culture is the underlying thread to the narrative of successful brands.
However, despite the myriads of examples of brands exerting their cultural muscles, there has
yet to be a metric or measure of its existence. We have yet to document empirical proof to
support our hypothesis of cultural muscle being ultimately correlated with a brand’s success
(through mental availability, pricing leverage, etc). Hence, through this Planning-ness grant,
we would like to embark on the exciting journey of developing a Cultural Muscle Index. This
Index will ultimately test the strength of our hypothesis and stand alone as the reigning metric
to rival “brand equity” and “category preference” in the realm of marketing communications.
Why will this project add value to the Planning-ness community?
The development of a Cultural Muscle Index would easily transcend JWT and align perfectly
with the core values of the Planning-ness community. This project should appeal to anyone
within the marketing communications industry who has ever dared to dream of quantifying
the value of cultural traction when it comes to brands. Our goal is to insert a new dimension
into the role of Planning by crafting a tangible-yet-relevant cultural toolkit that can be shared
and implemented through various networks in the field. Though there has been previous
research on measuring brand attributes and shared cultural values of citizens, we want to
connect the dots between these two and find out how to measure popular culture as it
impacts existing cultural sensibilities.
How will you go about undertaking this project?
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In order to conduct this research project we would need to begin with extensive desk research
on the subject of culture. We would combine this with a thorough understanding of thought
leadership papers and consultations with experts on the field. Also, we would be able to
conduct an interrogation of cultural values data study and report (through something like
RoperReports). Finally, we would tailor a customized quantitative research study in 5 main
markets: USA, Mexico, China, India, France (which could potentially expand) and that would
feed into the bulk of our analysis.
Please detail an approximate project timeline as well as how you expect to use the grant
money?
For a period of 6 to 9 months, we would primarily utilize the grant money to conduct our
various stages of research and gain access to the top resources at our disposal. We have
decided to divide the research into three stages:
1. Month 1-3: Devoted to an immersive process of desk research, consultation, and culture
thought leadership.
2. Month 4-5: Designed for deep cultural immersion and the teasing out of cultural values
data taken from reports and studies.
3. Month 6-9: Proprietary quantitative research study conducted across five global
markets. While this study will have started from the beginning, we will use this time to
analyze, interpret and craft the data into the final product of our research. The extra
month for this stage will also allow us to present the Cultural Muscle Index in unique
ways through presentations and audio-visuals that are easily digestible for a broad
Planning audience.
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What does the final product look like? (How will you share this project with the Planningness community?)
The final product will be a Cultural Muscle Index tool or process available for the use of all
Planners in the JWT network and in the Planning-ness community. This tool will allow anyone
in the network to connect brand attributes to shared values of citizens to the impact popular
culture has on existing cultural sensibilities. Thus, this would ultimately maximize a brand’s
marketing efforts by leveraging culture. We will be able to share our results and interpretation
with the Planning-ness community in the form of a white paper, a presentation and in some
audio-visual form available online as well.