How well do you know the people you want to reach? Chief Marketer highlighted a fascinating excerpt from the new book The Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille. The excerpt tells the story of the early days of a Danish toy company named Lego, which as many of you know is famous for their interlocking Lego blocks. Strangely, Lego experienced great success in Germany but was surprisingly disappointed in their considerably weaker impact in the American market.

What happened? Well, culture happened. German children were raised in a culture of, as Clotaire Rapaille puts it, “perfected bureaucracy,” and therefore, they loved Lego’s innovative instructions and wanted more sets that offered new challenges. Across the Atlantic, American children expressed much more of an independent creativity and only needed one box of Legos to satisfy their needs.

Culture is everywhere. It comes in all sorts of groupings, levels, and lifestyles. It can be as precisely defined as one individual, or it can be labeled as broadly as eastern or western culture. If you are a pastor, your church is located in a community full of culture. What works for one church may not work for your church. It all depends on the cultures you are needing to reach. So how well do you understand the culture of the people you want to reach? And what do you do to learn more about them?