Culture as the Starting Point: What It Takes to Win in Asia

Be locally intelligent, not just globally consistent

The ambition is a brand that is globally coherent while also being culturally relevant and flexible enough to evolve market by market. That starts with understanding people's beliefs and habits, what matters to them emotionally, the dynamics of adjacent categories and the tensions specific to each market. It also means accepting that Asia is not one market. Some places look alike from the outside but have very different cultural dynamics, which is why local teams are so critical. They understand those nuances and can get the execution right the first time.

Treat culture as a creative source

Culture works best as an input to brand ideas, innovation and product development, rather than a filter applied at the end as an afterthought. Instead of adapting a global idea so that it fits a local culture, we should start from the culture and let it lead us to a better idea. Sophia Wee, Creative Director at Marks APAC, shared some inspiring examples. Ariel in India started from the cultural role of women and household dynamics, and LEGO Friends came from asking how the brand could become more relevant to girls.

Speed matters

Asia brings different consumer behaviours, varying levels of category maturity, multiple channels and ecosystems, and local competitors who keep rewriting the rules and launching new innovations all the time. Spotting cultural signals early, and building the capabilities inside our organisations to turn those signals into action quickly, is now a requirement for winning.

Move from brand guidelines to brand systems

A guideline that lives in a static PDF struggles to keep pace with this reality. A better approach, shared by Tingyi Yuen, Senior Strategist at Marks APAC, is a "fit and flex" system. The system spells out what must stay consistent (brand DNA, core equity, iconic assets) and what can flex (cultural expression, creative execution, fragrances and so on). The purpose is to protect what makes the brand unique and iconic while leaving enough room for adaptation, with local teams fully in charge of that part because they know it best.

Build two-way loops between local and global

The old flow of global creating and markets executing must give way to something more circular: markets learn and feed back to global, ideas evolve, markets adapt, and the learning flows back again. Local teams are a source of consumer insight, cultural intelligence, innovation and creative inspiration, and in Asia new behaviours often emerge at speed. That makes it worth building structures that encourage this feedback loop and keep it moving fast.

Run a "fit and flex" audit of your brand guidelines

Sit down with your global and local teams and list what is genuinely non-negotiable and what is open to local expression. If the boundaries are unclear, or the non-negotiables list runs long, it is worth revisiting. The goal is to protect the brand DNA while allowing the brand to adapt to local realities and nuances.

Trace one local insight from market to global

Pick a recent insight from one of your markets and follow how, or whether, it reached the global team and influenced a decision. If you cannot find the path, you have found the first gap to fix.