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The Global Code: How a New Culture of Universal Values Is Reshaping Business and Marketing
For decades, Clotaire Rapaille's work focused on how people's relationships with the most important concepts in their lives―love, health, and money, for instance―are guided by subconscious cultural messages. But recently, he has uncovered a new a "global unconscious," or core values and feelings that are consistent worldwide―the result of our constant interconnectedness. He has also identified a new group who are paving the way for the future of the Global Tribe. These individuals are fluent in the language of culture, untied to any notion of nationalism or ideology. They are defining the key values driving our new world economy, with profound implications for how companies market their products and services.
Rapaille takes us on a journey through China, Brazil, India, England and everywhere in between to discover the new standards for luxury, pleasure, technology and education. How can elite brands compete in a world of knockoffs? How can universities maintain their prestige when a cheap master's degree or doctorate is only a click away? We must speak the language of the Global Tribe in order to succeed.
Building on seven years of research, Rapaille analyzes how this new mindset has taken hold in various regions, and how marketers and service providers can tailor their offerings and marketing accordingly. The Global Code is an invaluable glimpse at how our new multi-sphere world is affecting us all.
Rapaille takes us on a journey through China, Brazil, India, England and everywhere in between to discover the new standards for luxury, pleasure, technology and education. How can elite brands compete in a world of knockoffs? How can universities maintain their prestige when a cheap master's degree or doctorate is only a click away? We must speak the language of the Global Tribe in order to succeed.
Building on seven years of research, Rapaille analyzes how this new mindset has taken hold in various regions, and how marketers and service providers can tailor their offerings and marketing accordingly. The Global Code is an invaluable glimpse at how our new multi-sphere world is affecting us all.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published August 18, 2015
18 people are currently reading
316 people want to read
About the author
Clotaire Rapaille
16 books85 followersDr. Clotaire Rapaille began his career as an academic, studying political and social sciences at The Paris Institute of Political Sciences and social psychology at Paris-Sorbonne University.
One of Dr. Rapaille's students urged his father, a Nestlé employee to attend one of Dr. Rapaille's lectures. In his lecture, Dr. Rapaille covered Paul D. MacLean's theory of the reptilian brain and Konrad Lorenz's theory of psychological imprints. After Dr. Rapaille's lecture, the student's father convinced Rapaille that his psychological approach could help Nestlé sell instant coffee in Japan.
Skeptical, Dr. Rapaille took the challenge. Soon, he saw how Nestlé's approach had ignored imprints (the process by which people establish strong emotional connections at an early age, which affect the psyche and influence decision making into adulthood). Without any early association with coffee, the tea-drinking Japanese consumers were unlikely to buy Nestlé's instant coffee.
Dr. Rapaille's work has since revolved around the way psychological imprints and the reptilian brain inform consumer decisions as people develop these associations on a cultural scale. Rapaille refers to the basic metaphors consumers unconsciously adopt to see products and the world as "culture codes."
Rapaille has advised American presidential candidates and corporations worldwide, touting huge successes that improved the fates of Fortune 500 Companies and more.
One of Dr. Rapaille's students urged his father, a Nestlé employee to attend one of Dr. Rapaille's lectures. In his lecture, Dr. Rapaille covered Paul D. MacLean's theory of the reptilian brain and Konrad Lorenz's theory of psychological imprints. After Dr. Rapaille's lecture, the student's father convinced Rapaille that his psychological approach could help Nestlé sell instant coffee in Japan.
Skeptical, Dr. Rapaille took the challenge. Soon, he saw how Nestlé's approach had ignored imprints (the process by which people establish strong emotional connections at an early age, which affect the psyche and influence decision making into adulthood). Without any early association with coffee, the tea-drinking Japanese consumers were unlikely to buy Nestlé's instant coffee.
Dr. Rapaille's work has since revolved around the way psychological imprints and the reptilian brain inform consumer decisions as people develop these associations on a cultural scale. Rapaille refers to the basic metaphors consumers unconsciously adopt to see products and the world as "culture codes."
Rapaille has advised American presidential candidates and corporations worldwide, touting huge successes that improved the fates of Fortune 500 Companies and more.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 28, 2018
I read approximately two-thirds of this book before I gave up on it. ("Approximately" because at around the halfway mark, I started skimming.)
A decade or so ago, I read the first of Rapaille's books on this topic, The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Buy and Live as They Do. So, I had expectations of this book's contents. Specifically, I expected it to be (1) to the point and (2) full of anecdotes to demonstrate that point.
I am sad to tell you that this book is neither of those things.
First, it is the most repetitious book I've read in years. Every paragraph explains something just covered in the paragraph before. Words defined early in a chapter, would be defined again (in the same way) later in the chapter. Maybe Rapaille expects his readers to read only a few pages at a time, but surely he can't believe we'd read a PARAGRAPH at each sitting!?
Second, there are very few in-depth examples of anything. The intro included a vague bit about how different cultures view airplane travel and about how that research affected the Dreamliner 787's design. If you're thinking: "Oh, it's just the introduction. Obviously there will be a deeper dive later in the book", you would be wrong. This was possibly the most deeply discussed topic in the first two-thirds.
Moreover, I felt like this book was pushing its political agenda harder than the previous. Not just in terms of actual discussions of politicians (always a dicey proposition), but in its assumptions. For instance it's taken as obvious that "beauty" necessarily means of the female form and that New York is necessarily the center of American culture. In my experience, these two positions are FAR from givens. And choosing to treat them as such makes any conclusions suspect... as well as the motives of the author (who came across as a condescending European misogynist thanks to these unexamined assumptions).
Part of me wonders if this book simply needed a strong editor to thrash it into a cohesive narrative. Another part of me fears I'd have the same issues if I re-read The Culture Code with wiser eyes.
A decade or so ago, I read the first of Rapaille's books on this topic, The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Buy and Live as They Do. So, I had expectations of this book's contents. Specifically, I expected it to be (1) to the point and (2) full of anecdotes to demonstrate that point.
I am sad to tell you that this book is neither of those things.
First, it is the most repetitious book I've read in years. Every paragraph explains something just covered in the paragraph before. Words defined early in a chapter, would be defined again (in the same way) later in the chapter. Maybe Rapaille expects his readers to read only a few pages at a time, but surely he can't believe we'd read a PARAGRAPH at each sitting!?
Second, there are very few in-depth examples of anything. The intro included a vague bit about how different cultures view airplane travel and about how that research affected the Dreamliner 787's design. If you're thinking: "Oh, it's just the introduction. Obviously there will be a deeper dive later in the book", you would be wrong. This was possibly the most deeply discussed topic in the first two-thirds.
Moreover, I felt like this book was pushing its political agenda harder than the previous. Not just in terms of actual discussions of politicians (always a dicey proposition), but in its assumptions. For instance it's taken as obvious that "beauty" necessarily means of the female form and that New York is necessarily the center of American culture. In my experience, these two positions are FAR from givens. And choosing to treat them as such makes any conclusions suspect... as well as the motives of the author (who came across as a condescending European misogynist thanks to these unexamined assumptions).
Part of me wonders if this book simply needed a strong editor to thrash it into a cohesive narrative. Another part of me fears I'd have the same issues if I re-read The Culture Code with wiser eyes.
August 10, 2025
In essence, the author argues that the society is gradually dividing into two: the global tribe and the machines:
The global tribe is international, multilingual, multi-local and multi-cultural. They feel at home anywhere in the world. They’re constantly forward looking, using “domesticated” technology as a tool to navigate the world. The author argues that this tribe sets the tone for what the remaining humans (the machines) want.
The machines on the other hand, the author argues, are people who are stagnant in one single location. They’re hyper local, dwell on single location and single culture. Technology for them, the author argues, actually makes them “dumber” because much of the things could be outsourced to them. Thus, life to them feels meaningless thus they outsource the meaning of life to the global tribe, the global tastemakers. Because they can’t roam around, they look at the global tribe on platforms like social media and use that as an aspiration.
(Personally, I think the author’s point is valid, yet it’s hardly a new phenomenon. The world has always behaved this way. This is how the Chinese writing system was introduced to Japan, this is how Buddhism spread to China and - this is how the Japan fever centuries ago gave inspiration to European Impressionism paintings. The hyper mobile elite class always set the tone for what’s to come, it’s hardly anything new.)
The global tribe is international, multilingual, multi-local and multi-cultural. They feel at home anywhere in the world. They’re constantly forward looking, using “domesticated” technology as a tool to navigate the world. The author argues that this tribe sets the tone for what the remaining humans (the machines) want.
The machines on the other hand, the author argues, are people who are stagnant in one single location. They’re hyper local, dwell on single location and single culture. Technology for them, the author argues, actually makes them “dumber” because much of the things could be outsourced to them. Thus, life to them feels meaningless thus they outsource the meaning of life to the global tribe, the global tastemakers. Because they can’t roam around, they look at the global tribe on platforms like social media and use that as an aspiration.
(Personally, I think the author’s point is valid, yet it’s hardly a new phenomenon. The world has always behaved this way. This is how the Chinese writing system was introduced to Japan, this is how Buddhism spread to China and - this is how the Japan fever centuries ago gave inspiration to European Impressionism paintings. The hyper mobile elite class always set the tone for what’s to come, it’s hardly anything new.)
June 30, 2025
I’m halfway through it and I don’t think I’m going to finish it.
This book should be called “Hot chocolate for the author’s ego”. I don’t say this book is completely useless because you can still learn a thing of two from it, that if you can bear the authors insecurities. It’s repetitive, full of unnecessary self assurances by the author about his economic status. He keeps creating labels for society, putting himself at the top groups and sharing unnecessary information about his spending habits.
Every time I was about to stop reading it I would find something mildly interesting that kept me going in hopes for the book to take a different route. That until I got to a part, about half way through the book, when he starts rumbling for half a paragraph about a reference that was totally incorrect, and he talks about what the audience thoughts were about it which made me thing that was based on either a very poor marketing research or based on gossip, since that reference, I know for a fact is wrong. That made me question the rest of the book. I had already started to question it when at the beginning he sets as the foundation of the book a neuroscience theory from the 60’s that is highly questioned, outdated, and not being taken seriously since around the 80’s.
This book should be called “Hot chocolate for the author’s ego”. I don’t say this book is completely useless because you can still learn a thing of two from it, that if you can bear the authors insecurities. It’s repetitive, full of unnecessary self assurances by the author about his economic status. He keeps creating labels for society, putting himself at the top groups and sharing unnecessary information about his spending habits.
Every time I was about to stop reading it I would find something mildly interesting that kept me going in hopes for the book to take a different route. That until I got to a part, about half way through the book, when he starts rumbling for half a paragraph about a reference that was totally incorrect, and he talks about what the audience thoughts were about it which made me thing that was based on either a very poor marketing research or based on gossip, since that reference, I know for a fact is wrong. That made me question the rest of the book. I had already started to question it when at the beginning he sets as the foundation of the book a neuroscience theory from the 60’s that is highly questioned, outdated, and not being taken seriously since around the 80’s.
February 15, 2019
Fascinating, but not convincing.
April 24, 2019
Un bel libro per comprendere i meccanismi psicologici che stanno alla base del marketing e delle nostre scelte inconsce
May 19, 2020
A series of fascinating thought experiments. Totally missed e-commerce and internet but I’m sure he’s be able to rewrite that story. Recommended if you’re a marketeer.
February 16, 2020
I read Culture Codes which I found more practical in insights and action. This book makes extra effort to talk about a global or satellite tribe that sets trends - people that are creating a benchmark or global code by taking the best of all cultures. It’s a fair theory, I just don’t know how this transcends to the normal joe who lets face it, don’t have three homes, speak three languages etc. but are part of the global network and form the majority of the audience brands are targeting. Regardless, there’s some interesting thought bubbles here and worth a read if you read his first.
May 27, 2018
I found some value in this book, yes, but it came only after enduring the author's endless ramblings that did not add up to one coherent argument about anything. For example, the author routinely raises a subject only to abandon it in the next sentence, and the paragraphs do not follow each other in a way to constitute a coherent text. You can learn bits and pieces of interesting facts, but don't expect more. The author's shallow analysis of ancient and contemporary world politics, cultures, and leaders is especially disappointing, coming from a person who boasts a great education and has traveled widely around the world. However, a bigger problem is, why should the lifestyle and goals of a global parasitic ultra-rich class be the "global code" that would shape the future of our planet?
March 26, 2019
While there are many great insights sprinkled throughout, overall the book is very disappointing. Lacking any real data, the author relies on “this is what I’ve found” over and over, expecting tacit agreement to his opinion. About midway through the book it becomes clear those opinions are of the 1%, very conservative, and contemptuous of entire demographics of people. I began to skip entire sections, only skimming, due to the repetitiveness of his snark insults and general lack of supportive research. Heading into this book I was interested in reading more of his work, but the hollowness of this one has changed my mind.
May 7, 2017
Blinkist
Talking about the influence hierarchy in this globalization world. Every ambitious person wants to make an impact to the world. This books talk about the criteria/commonality of those global influencers, and "how" one may enter that social circle. The categorization is interesting, the "how" part not so much.
Talking about the influence hierarchy in this globalization world. Every ambitious person wants to make an impact to the world. This books talk about the criteria/commonality of those global influencers, and "how" one may enter that social circle. The categorization is interesting, the "how" part not so much.
May 13, 2016
not so good.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews