Why We Conduct Research?
At The Culture Factor Group, we believe in unlocking culture with data. Our research advances the understanding of how culture shapes decisions, organisations, and societies. By analysing large-scale data, we refine existing models, challenge assumptions, and provide insights that drive better leadership, HR policies, and global strategies.
Why We Conduct This Research
In 2015/16, The Culture Factor Group conducted its landmark Consumer Culture Intelligence (CCI) study across 54 countries and more than 52,300 respondents, establishing one of the largest datasets linking national cultural values to consumer behaviour. That study laid the foundation for the CCI framework, which has since been applied by organisations in sectors ranging from FMCG and automotive to tourism, luxury, and healthcare.
A decade on, the consumer landscape has shifted. Generational change, digitalisation, and post-pandemic consumption patterns have reshaped how people buy, what they value, and which brands they trust. This new wave of data collection updates and extends the original CCI dataset with fresh data from 15 strategically selected markets, while adding new measures on consumer behaviour across five everyday product categories. The result will be a contemporary, category-specific companion to the original study, enabling direct comparison of how cultural orientations and consumer preferences have evolved over the past decade
Purpose of the Research
The study integrates two measurement frameworks: a set of consumer culture dimensions and the 6-D model of national culture, both measured at the individual level using validated CCI items.
The study asks:
- How do cultural dimensions relate to consumer decision-making in food & beverages, beauty & wellness, and travel & hospitality?
- Do these relationships hold across markets at different stages of economic development and with different cultural profiles?
- How do generational cohorts differ in the way cultural orientations translate into consumer behaviour?
- Can cultural segmentation provide actionable insights beyond traditional demographic segmentation?
The study covers 15 markets across Asia, the Middle East, the Americas, and Europe: Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, India, Philippines, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, for a combined target of approximately 24,500 respondents.
Anticipated Findings or Key Areas of Focus
As data collection is ongoing, detailed findings will be presented in forthcoming papers and reports. The dataset is designed to examine whether cultural dimensions moderate consumer preferences in:
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Food and beverages: shopping and cooking habits, dietary preferences, and openness to new products and cuisines
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Beauty and wellness: beauty standards, motivations and routines, product preferences, and purchasing habits.
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Travel and hospitality: travel motivations, planning and booking habits, and destination and accommodation preferences.
The study will also test whether individual-level cultural orientations align with country-level profiles from the original CCI dataset, and whether the relationships between cultural values and consumer behaviour have strengthened, weakened, or shifted since 2015/16.
Implications
For Researchers:
Extends the CCI evidence base with contemporary, category-specific data and enables longitudinal comparison with the original 2015/16 dataset across overlapping markets.
For Brand Strategists and Marketers:
Provides empirical grounding for culturally informed market entry strategies, brand positioning, and product/campaign adaptation decisions across diverse global markets.
For Educators:
Delivers a rich, applied dataset for teaching cultural frameworks and international marketing with real behavioural data.
For Policymakers:
Informs understanding of how cultural values shape consumption patterns, supporting evidence-based trade strategies and consumer protection policies.
Methodology
- Sample: approximately 24,500 respondents across 15 markets, with quota-controlled sampling by gender, generation, and within-country region or ethnicity where relevant.
- Design: cross-country online survey, with markets selected to represent global diversity across the 6-D cultural dimensions.
- Markets (sample sizes in parenthesis): Japan (1,500), South Korea (1,500), China (3,000), Hong Kong (500), India (3,000), Philippines (1,500), Thailand (1,000), Saudi Arabia (750), Turkey (1,000), United Kingdom (1,500), United States (3,000), Canada (2,000), Brazil (2,000), Mexico (1,500) and Argentina (750).
- Cultural measures: consumer culture dimensions and the 6-D model, measured at the individual level using validated CCI items in bipolar format.
- Consumer behaviour measures: category-specific items covering food & beverages, beauty & wellness, and travel & hospitality, new to this wave.
- Survey length: approximately 18 minutes.
- Recruitment partner: Kantar Profiles (respondent recruitment and panel access).
- Survey infrastructure: The Culture Factor Group's own survey platform, hosted on servers in Finland.
Research Limitations & Implications
- Data collection is ongoing; no results are available at this stage.
- Online panel recruitment may underrepresent rural populations in certain markets, particularly China and India.
- Self-reported consumer behaviour may differ from actual purchasing patterns.
- Quota targets for older age groups may be difficult to achieve in markets where online panel penetration skews younger.
- The 15 markets in this wave represent a subset of the 54 covered in the original CCI study; direct longitudinal comparison will be limited to overlapping markets.
Project Details
- Title: Culture and Consumer Behavior Study (CCI 2026)
- Partners: Michael Schachner, Head of Research, The Culture Factor Group; Janet Romero, Associated Practitioner, The Culture Factor Group; and Martin Karaffa, Practice Lead, The Culture Factor Group. Respondent recruitment by Kantar Profiles.
- Timeline: Ongoing (data collection 2026)