Leveraging cultural advantage for brand strategy in India

By tapping into local insights, customs and beliefs, global brands such as Surf can leverage consumers’ sense of identity and of belonging to a collective, creating cultural advantage. 

Why cultural advantage matters

Winning brands are those that are able to cultivate cultural advantage through the use of levers such as subcultures, access and tech to resonate with consumers and create distinct memory structures to enhance recall and affinity.

Takeaways

• Cultural advantage – the ideas, customs and social behaviour of a people or society – is multidimensional and creates resonance.
• Culture is more about mindset than geography and tapping into it can gain cultural advantage without being part of the same region.
• Going local won’t negate a global brand’s advantage, as successful harnessing of culture often helps rather than impedes its cause.