Brand Culture vs Brand Cultural Relevance

What’s the difference?

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Metaphorward.Us has been empowering brands to leverage cultural intelligence in meaningful ways for decades...long before it was de rigueur.

There’s no free lunch. You gain elevated awareness or more sparkly perception through genuine impact. Period.

And if you want to simply play with culture...either to learn something from your audience or gain some fleeting attention...check this out. (underline to another post)

Before diving into the deep end...let’s clarify these two distinct pools.

Both are Deep.

Brand Culture is...

the shared values, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences that define a company...which is the living embodiment of the Brand's Identity...how leaders-employees credibly bring the brand's persona-mission to life in an effortless-daily way...for customers-the public. 

While a Brand is, ultimately, what its customers say about it...a Brand Culture is, ultimately, how it bridges its brand promise between BOTH its internal and external stakeholders.

That proof makes a brand feel authentic...which, in turn, fosters loyalty because it’s evident the company Does what it Says.

So this Do what you Say endeavor only manifests when Business Strategy + Brand Strategy are actually aligned to Regenerate each other, i.e., when customers and employees experience-perceive similar values-beliefs-vibes...your enterprise enjoys a robust-regenerative Brand Culture that’s much easier to sustain and grow...because it’s not a lie...it’s real!

Ntm brand culture is highly reflective of what the C suite does...not says...their worldview, vibration...embodiment of the formalized brand platform, or not.

Robust Brand Culture Ingredients

• aligned biz-brand strategies that actually support each other

• inspired leadership that gets the need for that

• 6 basic attributes an employee or customer should cite about your enterprise: trustworthy, responsive-supportive to my needs, inspired-inventive, greater good motivated, leadership savvy-disciplined/empathetic, inclusive.

• internal cultural literacy...consistency between what leadership-employees say and do...especially under scrutiny.

Brand Culture Examples

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• Positive Brand Culture

  Description text goes here

• Negative Brand Culture

  Description text goes here

How to Manifest Brand Culture

• 1. Core Values...Origin Narrative

  • how do you want customers and clients to talk about your company?

  • what does the ideal employee experience look like?

  • which behaviors are acceptable vs not?

  • why have we answered in these ways?

• 2. Set the Example

  • group define what culture fit means and help leaders walk the talk plus develop trust with employees.

• 3. Create Emotional Infrastructure

  • accommodate needs for authentic individual support or case basis snafus within a best effort framework

  • regarding the collective’s emotional experience regular opportunities for org-wide orchestrated ‘playing’ is essential. So many ways to afford this.

• 4. Trust your Employees

• 5. Build Resilience

  • so many ways...and flipping your failures is one of the best...so don’t be in denial of them as they’re an incredible opportunity for forging greater bonds and deeper org dimensions due to the journey of rescue-recovery. So, if you come up short on resources, relationship building, emotional support...whatever...Own It. Enterprise recognition of shortcomings plus action, aka demonstrable responsibility to right a wrong, will take you farther than by not ever screwing up, in the first place.

• 6. Proximity! Gather Feedback Regularly

  • Internal-External...including in-person.

  • Quantitative...Employee-Customer Engagement-Retention, Employee Performance, Net Promoter Score (eNPS)/Referral Rate, Training-Development Participation, Recognition Frequency

  • Qualitative...Employee-Customer Feedback Surveys, Psychological Safety DEI Metrics, Leadership Behavior-Communication Effectiveness, Collaboration Fluidity, Cultural Artifacts: Office layout, rituals, dress code, perks, Gossip Levels, Exit Interview Insights

A Brand that’s Culturally Relevant is...

earned through sustained cultural participation, not momentary visibility. It’s when it exhibits sustained discipline grounded in depth, accountability, and long-term committed behavior around a specific issue or worldview.

It’s not when a brand uses culture as a marketing backdrop...or simply reacts to or adopts a trend for a campaign run. Brands can have fun with trends, if handled correctly,(underline to another post) but usually fail when they approach culture transactionally...extracting symbols or language without understanding the communities that generate them.

True relevance requires proximity: listening, collaboration, and a willingness to be shaped by culture rather than merely commenting on it. Time spent!

True relevance requires timelessness not timeliness: while trends move quickly, Cultural Meaning accumulates over time.

True relevance requires full-scope organizational involvement: Cultural Intelligence cannot be outsourced or isolated to marketing teams; it must be embedded across leadership, strategy, and operations. Without commitment to structuralizing culture, mere cultural gestures are superficial...performative.

Examples
Real Cultural Relevance

• ExtraSpecialTeas

Fake Cultural Relevance
Marcus Collins example

Summary

Both a Brand’s Culture and a Brand’s Cultural Relevance are centered around continuity of focused responsibility, not tactics.

Culture take cues from stakeholders while Relevance takes cues from the big wide-world.

Both are about respect, contribution, and coherence...literally, cultivating how a body of diverse people can participate meaningfully in something greater than themselves...company-community-society...in a way they people can actually thrive within that participation process over time.

And almost without exception...you’re either in good or bad shape regarding both...they go hand in hand.

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