Brands can’t always be “culturally iconic”, though “they can certainly aspire to be”. That was the reality check dealt by Emma Gage, managing director of Crowd DNA Singapore, at the QUAL360 APAC market research conference.
“It’s about understanding your place – that’s your category, your consumers, your brand – in the wider world, in terms of what’s going on in culture,” she observed.
As she sees it, cultural relevance is “the most important brand health metric” brands should really aspire to – while cultural understanding can allow companies to gain a “culturally charged commercial advantage” over the competition.
Her...