Culture Snippets: Brazil

‘Culture snippets’ is our way of sharing snippets of insights into different countries. If you want to chat about how you can use these insights to inform your product and business decisions, feel free to get in touch.

Brazil, the 5th largest country in population & size.

It's common for phones to be stolen or mugged in Brazil. One participant we spoke to had their phone mugged on the day of our interview for the third times in a month. Brazilian insurance is unique in its limited coverage of theft. They only protect against 'Qualified Theft', means you've to be threatened with a gun or knife when they took your phone. Common 'losses' of phones (e.g. pick-pocketed, simply losing a phone) are excluded.

Many Brazilians are still unbanked. Credit cards flounder due to consumer default, lack of infrastructure in the market and lack of trust in giving card details online. Cash and Boleto (ticket) Bancario are prominent payment methods on top of Parcelamento (payment in instalments). They pay in instalments even for grocery and small amounts (with the perception low monthly payment to be good deals and they're paying less).

Family relationships play a key role in social and business interactions. It is not unusual to have 3 generations living in a house.

Jeitinho Brasileiro (the “Brazilian way” of living) is an innovative problem-solving strategy where Brazilians use social influence combined with tricks to achieve goals (e.g. get access to free content) despite it means breaking formal rules.

Photos: Taken when we were on the ground helping our clients to understand more about their customers and markets in this country.