The Future of Meaning

Welcome to Why Meaning Matters. A Story Studio Network podcast hosted by Erin Trafford with MotivBase cultural anthropologist, Ujwal Arkalgud and MotivBase president, Jason Partridge.   Our hosts wrap up season one with the question, “Where to next?” With the world opening up to the deeply academic study of anthropology as a way for them to get outside of their own preconceived notions and ideas of how something should work or how something works, where does the conversation need to go next? The team at MotivBase calls it looking through the ‘industry lens’ versus the ‘consumer centric lens’.   UJWAL [00:02:33] “When we talk to companies, we always contrast the industry lens from the consumer centric lens, because they're fundamentally different sometimes so dramatically different that it makes all of us in the room kind of feel stupid for not having thought it, but that's why the anthropologists, that's what we need to keep in mind.”   It’s really a conversation that any corporation or business can start to have.   JASON [00:03:51] “And this idea that we can act without emotion, this idea that we can act purely based on logic with actually decoding the human condition and thinking about the role it plays in creating a stronger connection with people, whether that's through that is through kind of the thing you sell, whether that's through the messaging that you use right down to just what the actual company stands for.”   When Motivbase’s team steps back they realize how much perspective they have accumulated through the work they do across areas they didn’t understand previously.   UJWAL [00:09:04] “You know, the other day my wife was asking me something about a particular brand of tampon she was using and I gave her advice on something else that she could try only because we had done three massive projects on this because she wanted to consider the whole sustainability game and the whole gut microbiome game.”   MotivBase’s understanding of people runs as intricately and as deeply as Meaning does through our daily lives.   JASON [00:10:22] “I mean, even if we're talking about a movie that they went and saw the night before, it's a completely different understanding of why choices were made or what it's actually saying to people or how it's going to be received because they have their finger on the pulse of where culture is going and what is going to resonate with people… .”     Coming soon! In season two of Why Meaning Matters hosts Erin, Jason and Ujwal share some funny examples and also some very serious examples of issues that may not seem obvious or considered traditional insights but are extremely relevant and are driving a lot of innovation in various industries. Why Meaning Matters is a podcast produced by Story Studio Network and iContact Productions for MotivBase- Decoding implicit meaning behind what people talk about.   If you want to contribute to the conversation, make sure you drop us an email at hello [at] storystudionetwork [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to SHARE it, RATE it, and SUBSCRIBE to the show!