Leaders and marketers are well aware that a strong brand strategy enhances customer loyalty, differentiates from competitors and drives long-term growth by aligning business goals with consumer expectations and cultural trends. But what truly defines a successful brand strategy?

Marcus Collins has spent his career exploring that question – from serving as Head of Digital Strategy for Beyonce to advising major brands and writing For The Culture, his acclaimed book on the forces shaping what people buy, do and believe. Here, he explains why culture remains the ultimate brand advantage.

Why is culture so central to brands?

There is an undeniable link between culture and brands. Brands are identifiable signifiers that conjure up thoughts and feelings in the hearts and minds of people relative to a product, person, institution, organization or company. So by their very nature, brands are vessels of meaning that evoke cognitions in the hearts and minds of people. Meaning is translated through our cultural lenses – that’s why for some, a cow is leather; for others, it’s a deity; for others, it’s dinner. Which one is it? It’s all those things, depending on who you are and your cultural subscription. So brands, by their very nature, are translated through cultural means. Therefore, brands cannot exist without a cultural frame.

Secondly, culture is the external force that is most influential to human behavior. And if marketers leverage the power of brands and their ability to evoke emotions and cognitions within people so that they might be more inclined to adopt behavior, then culture is the biggest cheat code ever. We want to create these vessels of meaning that allow us not only to make ourselves more differentiated but also distinctive in the market, such that people feel connected to the products. And we also want people to ultimately take action to move, so leveraging the power of culture is key to success.

Which brand best exemplifies this?

I think if I were to identify one case study, one brand who is an exemplar of using this idea of culture as a way to drive their business, it would be Patagonia. Patagonia sells outdoor clothing – fleece jackets, sweatshirts and things of that nature.

Patagonia operates at an ideological level. That is, it believes in mitigating the invasiveness of humanity on the planet. It believes in ‘climbing clean’, as Yvon Chouinard, the Founder of Patagonia, puts it. It just so happens to create outdoor wear. It creates the products that it does in service of a point of view, a way of seeing the world, an ideology.

And people consume from the brand not because of what it is, but rather because of who it is. Patagonia, as a brand, spends its resources, time and marketing efforts, preaching the gospel of its point of view, such that people go, “Yes, that’s exactly how I feel.”

It uses the brand to signify its identity. Patagonia operates based on how it sees the world.

And this is the takeaway for other brands as well: that brands are vessels of meaning. If we want to mean something in the minds of people beyond what we do, we have to transcend the category and operate at an ideological level such that people see themselves in the brand and use the brand as a way to project their identity.

Where should companies start if they want to harness culture more effectively?

So, how do we get started in culture? We start with ourselves. What do we believe? How do we see the world? What’s our ideological point of view in the world?

Once we identify how we see the world beyond what we do, we then identify the people who see the world the way we do. I call it our congregation, believers who see the world similarly, because it is the collective of the willing.

These are people who are most inclined to move because they adopt a behavior, not because of what you are, but because of who they are. This is where the magic happens. When they purchase, download or watch the thing you made, they are using your brand, your products and your marketing communications as a way to communicate their own identity.

Then they share it with people who are just like them, and it begins to reverberate. A network effect takes place because people want to be in community and therefore they adopt a behavior as a way of promoting social solidarity among themselves.

So you, as a brand, just have to be you and understand who you are beyond the products that you create. How do you see the world? What’s your point of view? Then find your congregation and preach the gospel to them.

Because when they hear it, they’ll think, “Finally, someone said it.” And they will take what you have said and done and evangelize on your behalf.

That’s how you benefit from the power of culture, not copying what other people have done but being true to who you are. Which begs the question, who are you?

How do you see the role of purpose evolving in business?

Purpose was considered self-evident, where business people said, “Yeah, my purpose for making products is to make money.” It was very much sales-oriented. But over time, business folks realized they have to connect with people. They have to be customer-centric if they are to drive their business forward in a sustainable way.

So, the purpose of brands has been about having product-market fit. As of late, there has been a lot of talk about brand purpose that is socially driven. And this has become a way by which we differentiate and get closer to consumers.

I like the idea of purpose, but I think that purpose alone is a bit passive. I think what we really need to focus on is conviction, because conviction, at its core, is active. That is, what are you willing to stand for if everyone is going to walk away from this thing? What are you willing to sacrifice to lose money, to lose market share, to lose customers because you believe in it so fervently?

When we have conviction, we stand for the thing. And when we stand for the thing, people go, “They’re about it.” It feels real in that way.

How do you think AI is going to impact marketing?

AI will definitely have an impact on marketing, much like any technology does. The question is, what will that impact be? We’re already using AI bots to do customer service, so this isn’t entirely new.

I think the debate is really around generative AI. The creation of IP through works that already exist. And for marketers, particularly on the creative side, we get a little scared about that because in a lot of ways, their job is to create IP, to find new solutions through creative means, and this feels like it infringes on that.

Marshall McLuhan often referred to technology as an extension of human behavior. It takes what we normally do and extends it, much like the wheel is an extension of the foot, glasses are extensions of the eyes, clothes are extensions of the skin and so on.

For me, social networking platforms are extensions of real-life networks. So the idea of generative AI becomes an extension of humanity. It takes what humanity has already created and helps create new things. What does this mean for marketers? Well, from a positive perspective, it’s like you have a good starting point. If you’re a writer now, you’re not looking at a blank page with a blinking cursor. Now, you’ve got something to start with.

This gets us to the negative part: I think our perspective of the world is that any new technology encroaches on what we already did, and therefore must inherently be bad. Well, the truth of the matter is that the world isn’t the way it is, it’s the way that we are. And if we see it as a place to give a positive boost to the work that we do, then we’ll apprehend it and we’ll perceive it as such.

But if we see it as an encroachment on our expertise, on what we do well, then we’ll always see it as a threat. Technology is always going to come and go, and our ability to adapt to it will be the difference in how it actually impacts the world that we live in. So, I suppose for marketers, AI will only be as good as we let it be, and it will only be as dangerous as we suppose it to be.

While Marcus Collins won’t be presenting at World Business Forum Sydney 2026, the event promises equally thought-provoking keynotes from other global leaders. Click here to discover the full line-up.