Building culture-first brands during the festive season

Fundamentally, culture-first marketing is about making meaning from the  things we consume. If a brand is focused on meaning-making, chances are it is  also focused on money-making.  

Culture is relevance. A brand needs to be relevant in the context of its target  audience. Culture-first branding or advertising is not only about trends, it goes  deeper than what we call “trends.” Trends are like flash floods: sudden, noisy,  and short-lived. Culture is like a river, always flowing, shaping the land,  sustaining life, and carrying memory.  

A brand that flows with the river, guided by cultural intelligence, becomes part  of memory. A brand that chases flash floods stays visible for a moment, then is  gone. A brand must understand the importance of each.  

What culture-first looks like  

When brands behave like cultural products, not just items to be consumed, it  gets amplified during festive seasons. If they want to shape how we speak,  act, or what we hold dear, they must shape the cultural ideology first. Only  then can they flow into the wider cultural production of music, film, literature,  dance, or fashion.  

Take Amul. Many brands with mascots are forgotten, but the Amul girl has not  only survived, she has thrived. She has always been relevant because she  mirrors India’s cultural mood, politics, cricket, festivals, and meme-worthy  moments. The brand reflects how people talk, laugh, and live. That is why  Amul is not just a dairy brand, it is an emotional landmark.  

Take the beauty category, for example. For years, festive beauty was framed  around fairness. Today, the ideology has shifted to wellbeing. From body health  to skin health, from gut health to mental health, every layer has become more  granular. This is not just marketing, it reflects how society itself is reimagining  beauty.  

Jewellery too often steps beyond the product to touch cultural chords of  togetherness. It does not just sell jewellery, it shapes how we imagine  individuality, love, gifting, and memory.  

F&B brands like Swiggy and Zomato, at their best, do not just sell food during  festivals, they remind us of longing, distance, and togetherness. 

Quick commerce is redefining waiting. Festive anticipation now meets instant  availability, changing how we shop, gift, and celebrate. One of the most  striking examples came from Zepto, which used the symbolism of Soan Papdi,  a sweet often re-gifted during Diwali to spark a humorous, relatable campaign  about festive gifting culture. By owning a cultural insight rather than just  pushing discounts, the brand created conversation and recall.  

The LOCUL® lens  

This is where culture-first thinking becomes actionable. At FIRE & WATER®  Consulting, I developed the LOCUL® framework to simplify cultural nuance  into five cues:  

Locality: Festivals feel different in a Mumbai housing society, a Banaras  ghat, or a New Jersey diaspora hall. Context is everything.  

Origin: Rituals matter, but so does how they evolve from puja at home  to Zoom aarti with family abroad.  

4 Cs & Truths:Balancing category truths, consumer realities, company  voice, and cultural meaning. Miss one, and the campaign rings hollow.  

User Experience: Celebrations today are hybrid. WhatsApp invites,  shopping apps, AR filters alongside the smell of new clothes and the  sound of crackers. The brand experience must flow seamlessly across  both worlds.  

Lingua Franca:Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Hinglish, even emoji. Festivals  speak in many tongues. Brands must land their message in the rhythm  people actually celebrate.  

These are not boxes to tick. They are living cues to enter culture with respect  and originality.  

From discounts to belonging  

Festivals are not marketing seasons. They are opportunities for brands to  become cultural authorities. What people remember is not the discount they  redeemed, but whether a brand made them feel seen, understood, and  celebrated.  

A brand that understands cultural intelligence belongs to the people. A brand  that does not belong stays confined to a boardroom.

This article is penned by Rupesh Kashyap, Founder & CCO of  FIRE & WATER® CONSULTING.

Disclaimer: The article features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the stance of the publication.