In today’s fast-paced world, brands are in a constant race to remain relevant. But true relevance doesn’t come from chasing every fleeting trend, it comes from understanding and engaging with the cultural undercurrents that shape how people interact and view the world.
At its core, culture is the spirit of the times – the shared behaviours, beliefs, and expressions of a society. For brands, this is both an opportunity and a challenge.
The most iconic brands understand that they don’t create culture – they’re invited into it. To succeed, brands need to build genuine connections with the nuanced and fluid worlds their customers inhabit.
This requires brands to move beyond superficial understandings of culture, such as food, music, and fashion, to engage with deeper, often more challenging, cultural notions like beauty, modesty, and family structures.
What makes a brand culturally connected?
Cultural connection is not about token gestures or shallow trend-hopping. It’s about identifying a core human truth that resonates universally and expressing this truth authentically across all brand touchpoints. When done well, this connection creates demand, builds loyalty and ultimately drives financial performance.
Take Red Bull, for instance. The brand’s human truth, ‘There’s a sense of adventure in everyone’ is woven into every aspect of its identity, from its extreme sports sponsorships to its famous tagline, ‘Gives You Wings’.
Similarly, Johnnie Walker has successfully built its identity around the truth that, ‘Humanity’s progress is the result of perseverance and resilience’, encapsulated in its timeless ‘Keep Walking’ campaign. These brands don’t just communicate, they live their truths, making them synonymous with the cultures they inhabit.
The risks of getting it wrong
However, failing to understand the cultural space a brand seeks to enter can lead to costly missteps. Bud Light serves as a cautionary tale.
When the brand partnered with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, the backlash led to a massive boycott under the hashtag ‘Go woke, go broke’. This misstep cost its parent company, ABInBev, over $1 billion. The lesson here is clear – cultural engagement must be authentic, relevant, and aligned with the brand’s core identity.
Brands getting it right
On the other hand, brands like Dove and Barbie demonstrate how powerful and transformative cultural alignment can be. Dove challenged long-standing beauty standards with the human truth that ‘beauty is diverse’.
By redefining beauty to include everyone, Dove has created campaigns that resonate deeply and inclusively, from ‘Real Beauty’ to ‘Courage Is Beautiful’.
Similarly, Mattel’s Barbie recently reconnected with culture by showcasing the diversity of femininity. Moving beyond selling dolls, the brand tapped into its iconic pink aesthetic to explore the many facets of womanhood.
The release of the critically acclaimed Barbie movie served as a bold vehicle to bring this truth to life, reigniting the brand’s relevance and appeal.
How brands can accept the cultural invitation
The key to cultural connection lies in authenticity. Brands must focus on two essential elements – identifying a human truth and expressing that truth in meaningful ways. But this isn’t merely about communication, it needs to be embedded at the brand level, shaping everything from product development to advertising campaigns.
Brands that achieve this are not just seen as relevant, they become iconic. They are the brands that not only participate in culture but also enrich it, fostering connections that stand the test of time.
So, as brand custodians, let’s remember, we don’t create culture, but we are invited into it. By engaging deeply, authentically, and meaningfully, we can make the most of that invitation – creating brands that are not only relevant today but truly iconic tomorrow.
Nolwazi Radebe is brand strategist at Silverbullet, the strategic brand consultancy arm of Sunshinegun, focused on delivering deep, intuitive insights into brand purpose and positioning. We specialise in brand architecture, naming and nomenclature, identity design criteria, tone of voice, and messaging frameworks. For more information, visit www.sunshinegun.com
