It’s not about the product: How embracing culture turns customers from buyers to fans

Room 3 | 2:15 pm - 2:45 pm | Thursday, February 29, 2024

When a brand embeds itself into culture, that is when buyers become fans. But many companies are being burned by their experiences here, afraid of stumbling into a divisive conversation, and cultural polarity will only be accelerated as the 2024 presidential race draws closer.

In this session, we’ll share how to help brands navigate that risk and reap the rewards by being part of, but not necessarily driving or interrupting, culture.

Brands need to be prepared to navigate and embrace cultural insights to stand out. We continue to see that the only certainty is change and people increasingly understand how economics, politics or societal issues not only affect them but others. Brands also face this scrutiny and appealing authentically to your customer’s community is even more important. Of course, some brands like Nike or Apple have culture baked in, but all brands can be culturally relevant (or at least culturally tuned in).

This presentation will unpack how brands can leverage culture to make winning strategic decisions in the short and longer term. In addition to outlining the opportunity, we’ll share practical experiences, case studies and guidance about how to work with culture, with the talk hosted by Julia Smaldone, associate director, cultural insights for the award-winning global cultural insights and strategy consultancy, Crowd DNA: Culturally Charged Commercial Advantage.

Key Takeaways:

1. When to report on culture vs. act on culture.
2. How to position your brand within the wider cultural context.
3. Building cultural insights as a strategy within your business and understanding the difference between fast culture and slow culture and how to use it to navigate cultural change.

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