Learning from the margins

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As researchers, we are often called upon to represent and understand the cultural mainstream of society. This is natural enough, given that – for most big brands – this is where their audience heartlands reside; the ‘safe’ centre ground of shared consensus. 

It is more difficult to operate in the margins of society. Defined by those who deviate from social norms, the margins are made up of people and groups who are perceived as a threat to the values espoused by those at the centre. 

Yet it is where the values of the mainstream are challenged or brought into question that they are most sharply defined – which makes the margins an enormously generative space in which to operate. This offers a potent benefit to clients, who can build communications that have a great deal more creative space in which to play. 

While it requires sensitivity to operate in this area (the recent Pepsi ad is a spectacular example of what happens when brands get this wrong), it can tell us much about the direction of travel of a particular culture or set of values. BAMM’s recent work with truckers in Pakistan for Shell is a good example. 

Here, the challenge was to help to build better brand communications and campaign activities that would demonstrate a deep-rooted relationship with this group, beyond the usual blandishments of trucking being ‘a tough life’. 

Marginal to the point of being regarded as outcasts, Pakistani truckers are a group of perennial outsiders with a reputation as reckless troublemakers, drug addicts and sexual predators. Their job places them at the sharp end of Pakistani society and far outside what might otherwise be regarded as polite society. By speaking to this group, we got to the heart of a more uncomfortable – but also more grounded – view of Pakistani culture: a stripped-back reality, which was also the bedrock for Shell’s understanding of how to operate in this region of the world.   

Understanding truckers in Pakistan 

Pakistan has some of the most dangerous transport routes in the world. Roads such as the Razdan Pass, the Karakoram Highway and the Babusar Pass are as famous for their breathtaking mountain scenery as they are for their hairpin bends, lack of guard rails, and perilous 1,000ft drops. 

It is on these gruelling routes that truckers ply their trade. Their brightly painted vehicles are often more than 20 years old, and lacking even basic hydraulics or suspension. Most have ornate wooden superstructures built onto them, enabling them to carry far beyond the regulation loads for the vehicle’s class, putting their tyres at constant risk of bursting under the weight.

Carrying such loads has become a necessity as trade has dwindled. Deadlines have got tighter, leaving truckers suffering from frayed nerves and exhaustion, with little room for respite between jobs before they hit the road again. To cope with the pressures they are under, many turn to hard drugs, such as high-grade hashish or heroin, a pinch of which can be bought in a small bag for the equivalent of about 66p. 

Speaking to a mainstream audience would not have given us an indication that drug abuse is an issue in Pakistan, as this remains a taboo subject in a country that is deeply religious. Yet, among the truckers we spoke to, it was widely acknowledged as part of the everyday reality of the job. While it is potentially more widespread among truckers, drug abuse is by no means uncommon in Pakistan. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime calculates that, as of 2013, 6.7m people – or 11% of the population – were using illicit substances, with 4.25m of these drug dependent. 

If drug addiction is one issue that speaking to a mainstream audience would not have revealed, low literacy is another. If we had spoken to people in Islamabad, literacy rates would have seemed around the norm; in the city it stands at 87%. But few of the truckers we met could read or write. For many, their highest aspiration was for what little money they sent home to offer their children a better education. 

Getting to the heart of things

These are just two of the most striking examples of what our research among this group taught us. By avoiding the mainstream, we could get to the heart of difficult issues far more quickly, and establish tension points that might otherwise have taken weeks to uncover. 

For Shell, bringing these seemingly nebulous points together offered a clear commercial advantage in helping it to develop its campaign. 

Instead of offering them the usual folksy truisms that respectable people like to use to skirt around uncomfortable issues, we were able to offer a lens that was more gritty, but also more grounded. 

Jim Mott is a research director at BAMM.