Cultural Researcher and Strategist Gemma Jones says, if brands are to be a guiding light in a messy world, they must acknowledge the complexity of people through research

Marketers are in the business of holding a mirror up to the world and finding strategies, customers and brand identities somewhere in the reflection. As we find ourselves thrust into sharp focus by a pandemic, a civil rights movement and climate collapse, it’s time for some serious reflection on the how and the why behind what we do. For too long, too many of us have been walking a hall of two-way mirrors, reflecting a warped reality that obscures the bigger picture.

The explosion of context

The world is incredibly complex and as John Sterman says “there are no side-effects, only effects”. With any marketing question, there is a web of context to negotiate - finding out about say, laundry behaviours, implies a whole set of cultural, economic and symbolic cues subtly informing consumer preference and brand loyalty. This is because consumers are people and they are...