Brands can impact culture in several ways : 123

1. Aligned and integrated brand and culture can increase operational efficiency, accuracy,
and quality .1

2. 2. Brands and culture are shaped by stories . 2

3. 3. Successful brands integrate aspects of the culture into their core message, and/or
connect their brand to recent events or moments that reflect what they want to stand
for .
2

4. 4. Culture is about purpose . 3

5. 5. Culture attracts and engages the right people 3

6. .6. Culture is a differentiator . 3

7. 7. Culture creates a sense of shared values .8. Culture creates clarity

3

The cultural branding model uses cultural strategy as a potent tool for brand development. It encourages
brands to immerse themselves in the cultural discourse and decode the symbols, myths, and narratives
that dominate the popular zeitgeist. By doing so, they can embed these elements into their brand story,
making them more relatable and engaging.

සංස්කෘතික සන්නාම ආකෘතිය සන්නාම සංවර්ධනය සඳහා ප්‍රබල මෙවලමක් ලෙස

සංස්කෘතික මූලෝපාය භාවිතා කරයි. එය සන්නාමයන් සංස්කෘතික කතිකාව තුළ ගිලී ජනප්‍රිය
යුගවාදයේ ආධිපත්‍යය දරන සංකේත, මිථ්‍යාවන් සහ ආඛ්‍යාන විකේතනය කිරීමට දිරිමත්
කරයි. එසේ කිරීමෙන්, ඔවුන්ට මෙම මූලද්‍රව්‍ය ඔවුන්ගේ සන්නාම කතාවට ඇතුළත් කළ හැකි
අතර, ඒවා වඩාත් සාපේක්ෂ සහ ආකර්ෂණීය කරයි.
the most successful brands integrate aspects of the culture into
their core message Swarnamahal

Connect their brand to recent events or moments that reflect what

they want to stand for.
At the time, JetBlue had a clearly defined company purpose, which was to
bring humanity back to air travel. This coincided with a well-defined value
system that prioritized honesty and empathy and centered around providing
everyday consumers with a friendly, straightforward flying experience. Our
goal was to convey this in a way that felt credible and meaningful without
being preachy or saccharine.
At the end of the day, what becoming a part of the
culture really requires is authenticity, engagement, and an
appreciation of anthropology.
දවස අවසානයේදී, සංස්කෘතියේ කොටසක් බවට පත්වීමට සැබවින්ම අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ සත්‍
යතාව, නියැලීම සහ මානව විද්‍යාව අගය කිරීමයි. Sri lankan

In other words, if you’re going to try and tap into the culture of the moment,
you have to do so authentically.

That’s why Pepsi’s campaign with Kendall Jenner, for example, proved such a
disaster. The essence of the ad was to show Jenner quickly solving the
complex problem of police brutality by handing a police officer a can of pop.
But the messages conveyed in the ad were not founded upon any kind of
recognizable belief system, and thus they came off as cheap and shameless—in
addition to ham-handed and tone-deaf.

වෙනත් වචන වලින් කිවහොත්, ඔබ මේ මොහොතේ සංස්කෘතියට තට්ටු කිරීමට උත්සාහ

කිරීමට යන්නේ නම්, ඔබ එය අව්‍යාජ ලෙස කළ යුතුය. උදාහරණයක් ලෙස කෙන්ඩල්
ජෙනර් සමඟ පෙප්සිගේ ව්‍යාපාරය එවැනි ව්‍යසනයක් ඔප්පු කළේ එබැවිනි. දැන්වීමේ හරය
වූයේ පොලිස් නිලධාරියෙකුට පොප් කෑන් එකක් ලබා දීමෙන් පොලිස් කෲරත්වයේ සංකීර්ණ
ගැටලුව ජෙනර් ඉක්මනින් විසඳන බව පෙන්වීමයි. නමුත් දැන්වීම තුළ ප්‍රකාශ කරන ලද
පණිවිඩ කිසිඳු ආකාරයක හඳුනාගත හැකි විශ්වාස පද්ධතියක් මත පදනම් වූවක් නොවන
අතර, ඒ අනුව ඒවා ලාභ සහ නිර්ලජ්ජිත ඒවා බවට පත් විය - ඊට අමතරව හැම්-අත් සහ නාද-
බිහිරි. Ceylinco ad with kids and janashkthi

Culture is the cumulative concept that encompasses knowledge, belief, customs,

practices and any other habits acquired by people as members of society.
A culture operates primarily by setting loose boundaries for individual behavior.
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. Successful
brands have been able to adopt their branding strategies in line with this dominant
cultural philosophy and weave their brands into the cultural fiber.
One of the underlying premises of branding is its ability to reduce customers’
search cost and perceived risk by standardization of images, messages,
communications, attributes and features. As such brands generally strive to
maintain their defining brand identity, brand personality, brand images and brand
elements across markets. This standardization which forms the fundamental
building block of a brand itself poses the first challenge in cross cultural situations.
Many a times, brands will need to adopt their offerings to different cultures and
this violates the standardization principle. Therefore deftly handling the
standardization and adoption issue becomes extremely crucial.
One of the biggest implications of globalization for brands seeking to expand to
foreign shores is the task of balancing standardization with customization. When
some of the world’s biggest brands expand beyond their home markets, they are
tempted to repeat their tried and tested formula in the new market as well. In fact
this has been the path followed by many brands. The assumption in such a case is
that customers would be too eager to consume the great brand because of its
authenticity, heritage and associations. But this tendency is gradually changing as
global companies are learning about the unique needs of the customers in different
markets along with the pressures of lifestyle, economic and cultural conditions.
Consider the success of global brands in the Indian market.
One of the booming economies in Asia, India offers tremendous opportunities to
global companies. A brief look at the Indian landscape would prove why – an
estimated 1.2 million affluent households that is expanding at 20% a year, 40
million middle income households (earnings of US$20,000 to US$45,000 adjusted
for PPP) growing at 10% a year, more than 110 million households with earnings
of US$7,500 to US$20,000 (adjusted for PPP) and more than 70% of the
population below the age of 36. It is no wonder then, that global brands are making
a bee line to the Indian market to grab a share of the growing pie. This alluring
face of the Indian business landscape has another facet to it and that is the highly
discerning and demanding customers. In spite of the booming economy and the
increasing disposable income, Indian consumers are very cautious and clear in
their priorities. Consumers are still not ready to splurge on branded goods at
premium prices. Added to this is a growing number of Indian brands that offer
superior quality at affordable prices. In such a scenario, global brands can win only
if they attune themselves to the local conditions.

Unilever is a classic example of a global brand which has pioneered serving the
locals with products that address the local sensitivities. Unilever’s Indian
subsidiary Hindustan Level Limited (HLL) has been the leader in recognizing the
tremendous opportunity lying at the bottom of the pyramid – customer base that
aspires to consume products but in smaller quantities and at lesser prices. HLL
literally invented the shampoo sachets – small plastic packets of shampoo for as
less as INR 1 (USD0.022). This became such a rage among the rural consumers
that many other brands started offering products such as detergent, coffee and tea
powder, coconut oil and tooth paste in sachets. Even though the unit price was
higher, rural consumers were able to afford to purchase the smaller quantity at their
convenience.
Another example is the mobile brand Nokia. Nokia also recognized the growing
importance of rural customers in the Indian mobile telephone market which grew
from a mere 300,000 subscribers in 1996 to a whopping 55 million subscribers in
2004. Nokia introduced its dust-resistant keypad, antislip grip and an inbuilt flash
light. These features, albeit small, appealed to a specific target of truck drivers
initially and then to a broader segment of rural consumers. These features endeared
Nokia to the Indian consumer as Nokia displayed a genuine commitment in
responding to local customer needs.
Disneyland launched Euro Disney and maintained its standard tried and tested
formula with the assumption that customers would seek the authentic Disney
experience. But shortly into the launch, Euro Disney was declared a failure. Of the
many reasons that were attributed to Euro Disney’s failure, the one that stood out
clearly was Euro Disney’s lack of localizing the brand experience. Euro Disney
followed the brand policies to the word – English-only instructions, no wine
consumption on park grounds, high ticket prices, and standardized merchandise
and food items. This resulted in wide spread dissatisfaction among the customers.
But Euro Disney was just following the golden rule of branding – consistency in its
brand elements.
These examples illustrate the consequences of culture on brands. In all the three
examples, the brands were global brands with operations in multiple markets.
Nokia and Unilever recognized the different customer needs and adopted the brand
to the preferences of customers. Disney on the other hand followed the classic
branding rule of maintaining consistency across markets. As can be seen from
these examples, cultural differences mandate that brands be sensitive to different
cultural facets. Further, these cases offer some very important points that should be
fully appreciated by any brand manager that aspires to be successful in cross
cultural settings.
1. Cultural Differences Impact Branding: Cultural differences are indeed a
major factor that has an impact on the success or failure of a brand. As brands enter
different cultures, it becomes imperative for them to carefully tread the
standardization-customization continuum wherein they not only manage to retain
the inherent brand identity which is the very reason for their acceptance across
markets, but also adopt the brand elements (images, advertising, channels, and
others) to appeal to the local tastes and preference of customers.
2. Weave The Brand Into The Cultural Fiber: The increasing popularity of the
Internet offers brands a very powerful tool to involve customers and bring the
brands closer to the local culture by providing them a platform to interact with the
brand in their (customer’s ) terms. Creation of online discussion groups, and online
brand communities is a firm step towards co-creating brand value with the
customers. By weaving the brand essence into the societal fiber, brands can
leverage cultural differences to their advantage
3. Understand The Consumption Patterns: Individualistic and collectivistic
cultures tend to be the two ends of a continuum. Individualistic cultures support
customers to make consumption decisions based on their personal choice, at an
individual level. On the other hand, collectivistic cultures support customers to
make consumption decisions on a group level (family, extended family, network of
friends and even community).
These differences hold the key to many a branding strategy when entering new
markets. Even though globalization and integrated markets offer brands a very
lucrative deal in terms of untapped market potential, greater number of customers,
and broader reach, it also poses certain challenges such as cultural differences and
the resulting consumption patterns. To maximize the opportunities brands should
be sensitive to the cultural subtleties and adopt accordingly. Cultural differences
can be morphed from a challenge to an opportunity when brands learn from the
many best practices in the industry and adopt their branding strategies to
adequately reflect the consumer preferences.