The Global Code: How a New Culture of Universal Values Is Reshaping Business and Marketing

Marketing consultant Rapaille delivers a meandering study of the lives of an elite group of international travelers. Having explored (in The Culture Code) how one’s view of the world is affected by one’s local culture, here he looks at the prosperous, peripatetic group he calls the “Global Tribe,” who share the eponymous global code. At the top of its hierarchy is “the Court,” followed closely by their hangers-on, the Courtesans, and trailed by the well-traveled but less well-heeled Satellite Tribe, many of them “military brats.” This motley crew exercises great influence on standards for travel, beauty, and luxury around the world, a phenomenon Rapaille has observed in the course of guiding marketers to their targets. This “captain’s log from the exploration of the global mind” proves unfortunately choppy and superficial, particularly when covering any global trend or event more meaningful than luxury goods and accommodations (genocide and terrorism, for example, get one paragraph each). While Rapaille’s cantankerous tone can be entertaining, this is better read as a collection of fables for jet-setters than as a guide to truly understanding today’s tastemakers. (Sept.)