The Culture Segments algorithm was originally created with data from a large-scale, fully representative survey of over 5000 cultural consumers across the UK.

Using the respondents’ demographics, motivations, values and preferences and advanced statistical analysis and segmentation techniques, our data scientists identified eight clusters whose behaviour, preferences and motivations were sufficiently distinct to be classed as a specific segment.

We identify someone’s Culture Segments using 10 ‘Golden Questions’. You can see them in action here. The simplicity and speed this offers brings big benefits to organisations looking to segment their audiences without adversely affecting the visit/online experience.

But can only 10 questions really determine someone’s deep-seated values and attitudes to culture? Simply put: yes! When creating the segmentation algorithm, we arrived at the eight segments using many more questions than 10. But an iterative process of robust statistical analysis and experimentation enabled us to arrive at the smallest set of questions necessary to ensure accurate segmentation.

Segmentation – as a process and a tool – is pragmatic. It offers a useful compromise between talking to everyone (inefficient one-to-ones) and assuming everyone is the same (ineffective one-size-fits-all).

We’re not suggesting that there are only eight types of people in the world. But people in the same Culture Segment do share huge amounts in common and there are many factors that make them distinct from other segments.

People’s deep-seated cultural values are much slower to change than demographics such as age, family circumstances or pay grade. You may have had a baby or moved house but the reason you want to engage remains relatively stable.

For example: 92Y in New York segmented 4.4k people in their database. They repolled them five years later and found that just 10% had changed segment: and it’s possible these 10% were on the cusp between two segments in the first place.

Our research consistently shows that most people are significantly more like one segment than another. But occasionally someone is on the cusp between two segments. It takes more than a small change in answers for the algorithm to move segments – but this can happen and someone may find they get different outcomes from the questions.

We like to think of Culture Segments as constellations. The Golden Questions allocate people into the Culture Segment with which they are most aligned. If they share characteristics with more than one segment – double bonus – your targeted communications for either of their segments is likely to resonate with them at some level.

Our knowledge of the Culture Segments is always growing. Since the initial segments were devised they have been comprehensively tested and retested in the field. Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands of people in dozens of countries have completed the golden questions. In addition, we regularly add nuance to our understanding of the segments with questions on evolving issues such as digital habits, the environment and approaches to Covid risk.

We are acutely aware of how a community’s history, politics, religion and social structures can influence how culture is created and experienced, and how different locations may face unique and different barriers to cultural consumption.

In our experience, while the proportion of the population in each segment may differ from country to country (many more Americans than Brits are Expression, for example), the values the segments are based on remain true no matter where in the world you are.

Our evidence is based on large scale Culture Segments studies carried out across the world – including in the UK, USA, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, China, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, South Korea, Jordan, Malta, Turkey and Israel.

We are confident in saying that the Culture Segments are universal.

We take a very broad – as broad as we can make it – definition of culture. For MHM, culture is a video game. It’s a football match. It’s standing on the mounds and ditches of a motte-and-bailey castle and imagining the past. It’s engaging with a zoo’s conservationist vision. It’s the buzz of waiting for the curtain – any curtain – to rise.

We know that cultural engagement is a discretionary activity. We choose to do it. That’s as true for a visit to a gig, a castle or a stately home as it is to a theatre performance or museum. Culture Segments is, at its heart, all about people’s deep-seated motivations for taking part in discretionary activity.

So we could have called it ‘Culture/Arts/Heritage/History/Music Segments.’ But that was a bit of a mouthful.

Your organisation may be unique but you share your potential audience with every other venue or activity in your market. Culture Segments works in two ways to help you understand that audience: 

1. It evaluates the whole culture market for your area, giving you essential insight into its size and your opportunities for growth
2. It characterises the needs and motivations of those within the market who are most likely to connect with your brand or cause – your audience –  enabling you to reach out to them more effectively.  

Sometimes, an organisation may decide to use a different name for the segments so they are more recognisable to their internal stakeholders. This can be a useful, cost effective compromise that feels bespoke without the need to duplicate the market research we’ve already undertaken 

It can be tempting to seek out a segmentation system that defines audiences by their demographic characteristics, particularly if it promises to tell you where they live and what social media channels they use. But, there’s an obvious problem with this type of segmentation. Even siblings often have different cultural needs so why assume neighbours, or class mates or work colleagues will share theirs? These hypotheses are worryingly broad brush.

Instead, Culture Segments advocates looking first at WHY your audiences engage with you and using that to identify who within your target demographic might also be a potential audience for you. Additional research and Audience Atlas data can pinpoint barriers to engagement specific to your organisation.
For a more detailed explanation take a look at Lorna’s article here.

Absolutely. Just as with in-person experiences, we found the different Culture Segments approach digital content with a specific purpose or mindset. We have clients whose web navigation and content has been tailored specifically to the segments they know use those parts of the site most.

Culture Segments has mirror segments in the huge TGI consumer dataset. In fact, we created Culture Segments using a large number of TGI attitudinal statements, with advice from Experian (which owns TGI) as we were doing so. This means that if you, or your media buying agency, are using TGI for marketing placement, then Culture Segments works natively within it.

However, Culture Segments doesn’t work with geo-demographics or household-typology-based systems like Acorn or Mosaic. We firmly believe that the size of your house (or your household income) does not determine what culture you engage with.

Using Culture Segments can help your team work more effectively, with greater confidence, and for better results. So the short answer is no.

Most clients find Culture Segments simplifies the creative decision-making process. They get to know their target segments really well and find it easier to know what engagement techniques work best.

Even clients such as Tyne & Wear Archive and Museums, who create tailored copy for all eight segments, can increase engagement across the segments with something as simple as changing the email title.