Brands and Culture, Symbiotic?

When you need to urgently need to blow your nose in Germany and don’t have a tissue on hand, you might ask a friend “Hast du ein Tempo?” (Do you have a Tempo?)

Tempo, it turns out, is a brand of tissue, not the German word for tissue.

Substituting a brand name for a general product description is relatively common across a number of languages. How many times have you heard someone say “Just Google that” or “Can I have a COKE please”? Over the years, powerful brands have impacted our culture and slipped into our language. For a brand, this is the ultimate compliment and a big awareness driver. In fact, Coke and Google (the 2 examples above) are now the #1 and #2 brands respectively on Interbrands latest list of powerful brands. Tempo continues to be a very powerful brand in Germany.

As Corporations grow in size and influence (51 of the 100 largest economies in the world are corporations now) I’m wondering about the way in which Brands will deepen their influence on culture in the future. But before we get into to that discussion, let’s briefly touch on how culture impacts brands.

Culture –> Brand

Culture (e.g. music, fashion, morality, language, tech., law, spirituality) forms the shared values and beliefs of a society. Much of the discussion around how brands interact in culture centers around how brands need to deeply understand local cultural philosophies and consumption patterns when they enter into a new market. Often, we are told, brands work well in their home country, only to fail miserably when they don’t adapt their offerings to local cultures and traditions. Wal-Mart, for example, had to exit the German market due in part to a lack of understanding around the German everyday discount shopper.

Indeed, understanding culture is very important for companies and brands because culture provides the framework within which households function. Recently, Branding Insider pointed out: Culture, in effect, provides the framework within which individuals and households function. A major consequence of culture is its impact on consumption patterns of individuals and institutions. Depending on the underlying cultural philosophy consumers tend to follow certain consumption patterns.

Many big global companies have seen how their brands can fail when they don’t pay close enough attention to local culture, so they have adopted a strong “culture impacts brand” lens, whereby they take the consumer is boss perspective to ensure that the organization respects the traditions/norms of a culture. Local go to market teams are deployed around the world and organizational measures are put into place to help a product succeed across significantly different countries and cultures.

Brands–> Culture

Moving back to the impact of brands on culture, discussion…beyond language, when a brand introduces a new product with a new benefit that changes an entire consumption pattern or norm, what does this mean for culture? And, how will brands extend their role in a culture creation in the future? One interesting area to watch is the world of fashion. Fashion Brands definitely play a role in the development of a culture. Fashion brands tell us what is or is not acceptable to wear, shaping our values and norm…ultimately our culture. Google and Apple are also brands that some tout as culture shaping. Both brands are revolutionizing the way we work online – personally and corporately.

It does seem very logical for Brands to want to be a part of culture and, when they can, help to shape it. As James Hunter points out: Culture is a resource and a form of power.

So if you believe that brands are inevitably poised to impact culture in a deeper way moving forward, how should this responsibly be done? Bob Gilbreath offers an excellent approach where Brands are built “1 act at a time” via meaningful marketing that people choose to engage with. In this model, the marketing itself doesn’t intrude on people–it improves lives. It sounds idealistic, but Bob provides a couple of tangible examples: Nike has turned its entire marketing plan toward services for training athletes. T-Mobile is creating spontaneous events in London to give people an experience worth recording and sharing on their mobile devices. Procter & Gamble is teaching people in developing nations the importance of brushing their teeth and washing their hands.

Great points Bob, let 1000 meaningful marketing campaigns bloom!

[image by spencerholtaway a creative commons]