Nudity, Jack Daniels and a Touch of Context

In 2008, I moved from the UK to the USA, swapping working life in London for New York.

The USA boasts a diverse population, with close to 14% (46 million people) born outside the country. I was joining the ranks of 0.7 million other Brits in the USA, though Mexico (10.7 million people), India (2.8 million), and China (2.8 million) have the largest expat populations.

As someone who works in international research, it always amazes me how many diaspora communities exist in the USA, often in areas you wouldn't expect. For instance, the biggest Somali population is in Minnesota, the largest Lebanese population is in Michigan, and the biggest Nigerian population is in Texas.

The top locations for Brits are a bit more predictable – New York and LA.

On my first day in the new office, when passing through the revolving door between the entrance and the lobby, I got a surprise. In a gap you only see for a split second was a life-size revolving statue of a naked woman! I was a little bemused and for years thought it was some kind of contemporary religious statue, a quirky slice of Americana. It was only in more recent years that I was told (allegedly) the building used to be a corporate office for Playboy.

As a researcher, maybe the lesson from this is the importance of context (or my naivety).

Contextual intelligence is a vital skill. Trying to universally apply findings across geographies can be a fool's errand, much as we would like to think otherwise. For instance, while doing qualitative research in Austin, Texas, a lot of respondents mentioned they had moved there from other parts of the USA. Looking at the census showed more than half of the population in Austin were not born there, making it very different from other similarly sized cities.

The UK and US are often thought to be culturally similar. We speak the same language for the most part (except at Starbucks where when you order a tall drink they mistake "tall" for "two" 😊). Many differences are fairly well known, e.g., around tipping culture (20% is the norm, with many people earning minimum wage and living off tips), the need for health insurance, tax being added when paying (not included in prices), and needing to drive (not much is within walking distance).

Some differences are maybe less well known, like a medium drink in the US is the same size as a large in the UK, drive-thru culture (not just for fast food, but for banking, coffee, pharmacies, groceries, and more), eggs being sold refrigerated, and the existence of dry counties (which I learned about in Tennessee).

The Jack Daniels distillery is based in a picturesque part of Tennessee called Lynchburg. The tour is great, but up until 2012, if you were looking forward to some free samples, you would be disappointed. The distillery is located in a dry county, which is an area where the sale of alcohol is prohibited. Their origins go back to pre-prohibition times when states allowed counties to ban alcohol sales.

Although you did not get a sample, you do get to smell the sour mash (a combination of grains used in the distilling process) and feel the burning sensation of the alcohol, but without the taste.

Whether visiting whiskey distilleries or conducting market research, a little bit of context can go a long way.