Brand Cultural Relevance: Why the Most Famous Brands Don’t Chase Culture. They Belong to It

There is a version of cultural relevance that brands chase, and try to buy equity. But it lacks one thing. Authenticity. 

It shows up in campaigns that borrow the aesthetic of a movement without understanding it. In brand partnerships that chase association rather than earn it. In purpose statements that sound meaningful in a boardroom and hollow everywhere else. In brands that see a cultural moment and sprint to be the brands that claims the moment, before really understanding why. 

This is not cultural relevance. This is cultural tourism. And audiences, are smart, and remarkably good at spotting the difference.

What brand cultural relevance actually means

A culturally relevant brand is one that has earned a genuine place in the conversations, values and moments that its audience cares about. 

It’s not a manufactured moment. 

Culturally relevant brand strategy starts with a simple but difficult question: what does our audience genuinely care about, and can we honestly connect our brand to it and add value?

The honest part is where most brands stumble. Cultural relevance cannot be engineered from the outside. It has to be rooted in something true about the brand, its founding story, its product, its people, its point of view. When that truth connects with something the culture is already moving towards, you have the conditions for genuine fame.

The brands that get cultural relevance right

Liquid Death in the US is the a good example of a brand that built cultural relevance not by following culture but by having a genuine point of view on it. They were selling water. The category was as commoditised as it gets. Their response was to reject everything the category expected of them; the health messaging, the clean aesthetics, the sustainability positioning, event to putting the water in a can- a can that doesn’t fit with the clean and refreshing category norm. 

And they occupy a different cultural space entirely. Heavy metal. Anti-corporate rebellion. Environmental conviction expressed through the spirit of a music scene.

The result was a brand that people talked about, and chose specifically because of what it said about them. They knew they wouldn’t be for everyone and they weren't scared of that. 

Greggs is a different kind of example, and in some ways a more instructive one. Greggs did not set out to be culturally relevant. They set out to make good, affordable food and be honest about what they were. The cultural relevance came from that honesty and accessibility. They refused to pretend to be something they weren’t. This has been extended out through fame moments like Greggs jewelry but also longer term commitments like The Greggs Foundation.

When the culture moved towards a more self-aware, less reverent relationship with food and class, Greggs already belonged there. Their famous vegan sausage roll launch didn’t manufacture cultural relevance. They just landed on a product and movement that was true to who they are. 

Why culturally relevant brand strategy is not about trend-chasing

Now, this may seem counter-intuitive. Cultural relevance is not about being current. It is about being connected. The brands that chase trends, jump from one hot take to another the following week, are, if working, achieving attention. Attention is not the same as relevance. Attention fades. Relevance compounds.

The culturally relevant brands, the ones that become genuinely famous — are the ones that identified a place in culture where they honestly belonged, planted their flag there, and built consistently towards it over time. They didn’t move when the trend moved. They stayed, and let the conversation come to them.

What this means in practice for brand strategy

Building cultural relevance into a brand strategy requires three things.

First, genuine cultural insight. A real, unfiltered understanding of what an audience deeply cares about. The values they hold, the conversations they’re part of, the things they’re moving towards and the things they’re moving away from.

Second, an honest view of the brand. What can you credibly connect to within a culture? What can you truly add value too? Can you truly commit to this? The instinct is always to reach for the most exciting cultural territory. The right instinct is to find the territory where the connection is real.

Third, the conviction to stay. Cultural relevance is not built in a campaign. It is built over time, through consistent action that reinforces the same position, again and again, until the brand genuinely owns it.

Fame is the destination. Culture is the engine. But you have to earn your place in it first.

We Are Thought helps ambitious businesses build brands that are genuinely rooted in cultural relevance. If that’s what you’re working on, get in touch at tom@wearethought.co.