All insights spring from tension between or within ‘human truths’ (i.e. Maslovian needs that transcend cultural or geographic boundaries) and ‘cultural truths’ (i.e. motivations that differentiate) – Stephen King 

Cultural context is how brands achieve relevance and meaning; it influences how they tell their story and help people to identify with their brand and connect with it both emotionally and commercially. In a world of adblocking, ad-blindness, privacy fears and information overwhelm, brands are now expected to be fully accountable for the messages and images they put into the world. Brands must understand how they operate within their target audience’s cultural context and the role they play within it.

To do this well, brands need to understand:

• The cultural context in which they operate
• Its effect on their key stakeholders
• How to establish their cultural relevance

Each cultural context has its own recognizable values, ideologies, symbols, meanings, and influencers, as well as cultural tensions and contradictions.

To do this well, brands need to understand:

What does cultural relevance look like for brands?

The Covid19 pandemic, the impending climate crisis, and the accelerating pace of change is affecting global culture on a massive scale, changing markets and industries as we know them.

As a result of this volatility, complexity and ambiguity, more and more people are now demanding that brands play an increasingly proactive role in acknowledging and contributing to specific issues that affect their industry, society, and the health of the planet or risk paling into insignificance. As such many experts believe that cultural relevance may become one of the most important measures of brand success in the future, so what does it look like in practice?

Sports creative agency Ear to the Ground have defined six characteristics of cultural relevance for brands:

• Driving positive change

• Disrupting the norm

• Celebrating heritage

• Standing for something

• Instigating cultural collaboration

• Forming authentic partnerships

Interestingly, despite being the most important characteristic within the report, ‘Driving Positive Change’ had the worst average score and was generally the lowest scoring for most brands. This demonstrates a gap between what customers view as important, and what brands are delivering. This is a form of cultural tension – a consumer insight that resonates on a broad level.

Tensions are interesting as they can be opportunities for brands to emotionally connect with their audience in new ways.

What does tension look like in practice for brands?

Tension can usually be traced to three sources:

Cultural tension – A discomfort that arises out of an imbalance of our external environments and our internal selves. Apple’s “1984” spot harnessed the tension of the rise of the machines versus personal enslavement

Personal tension – A discomfort that arises out of dissatisfaction of where we are versus where we could be. Nike’s “Just Do It” campaigns are an ode to this tension. They inspire you to break out of your shackles and…just do it

Status tension – A rebellious discomfort against the rules of society. They challenge the status quo. Apple’s “Think Different” tackles this in a wonderful manner

What does cultural tension mean for brand strategy?

Brands are now being challenged to do more. They are expected to go beyond logos and messaging, through the layers of the business and have a meaningful impact inside and out. In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, brands are being challenged to be cultural.

“Culture is the ideas, customs & social behaviour of a particular people or society.”

This sets an ambitious objective for any brand development work. It means more than creating opportunities for associations, sponsorships or product placement; to create brand ideas and experiences that create and develop cultures, we have to interrogate brands for key elements of strength – timeliness, proximity, prominence, consequence, human interest and conflict.

• Timeliness: Why now? Context is crucial

• Prominence – What names or symbols can we use to help with recognition? E.g. Does the brand have famous clients/ambassadors, part of well-known associations?

• Proximity – How close is our brand to our audience? Are they aware of it? Does it have meaning for them?

• Consequence – How many people’s lives will be influenced in a positive way? The more people a CVP might affect, the more powerful it is

• Human Interest – What relationships are affected? How does this work at an industry, societal or environmental level?

• Conflict – brands get more interesting when they utilise a form of tension

Few brands have all of these qualities, but most good ones have at least two or three.

Brands that ignore their wider cultural context risk completely risk being heavily criticised or publicly denigrated.

To avoid this, brands need to do the

following things:

• Acknowledge and understand the cultural context of their audience: their values, ideologies, influencers, and cultural tensions

• Develop a value proposition that steps away from product features and benefits, and instead develop a narrative and positioning that acknowledges and contributes to the culture, and even resolves specific cultural tensions

• Produce creative content campaigns that are more culturally relevant: connecting with influencers and leaders, leveraging cultural values and ideologies, and making a contribution to the audience’s culture. This usually involves taking a stand on an issue that their audience considers meaningful which is also aligned to the brand’s essence

• Recognize that brands must be powered from the inside out through culture, capabilities and engagement as these are essential ingredients of relevance

• Track the perceived cultural relevance of competitors. This offers new ways and opportunities to engage current and potential customers

Creating a brand that stands out requires research and attention to detail, to develop a style that successfully meets the goals of the business and communicates with the target audience using their preferred language to build rapport quickly. At Hundred we analyze millions of digital profiles and conversations happening across social media to find what and who your key stakeholders read, listen to, watch, follow, share, and talk about. By tracking the shifting moods and opinions of these culturally connected audiences, we learn about their attitudes, their needs and expectations. This helps us to work out how to position brand effectively, ensure messages resonate, and provide recommendations for how to better cater to your current and prospective employees, customers and investors’ needs.

If this is something you’d like to understand more about, we recommend reading Douglas Holt’s “How Brands Become Icons”