Driving Brand Growth: Overcoming Polarization with Cultural Intelligence

Marketing leaders from PepsiCo, Comcast, and Diageo joined Collage and Publicis Media to discuss growth strategies and share how they are leading America’s iconic brands to effectively navigate the evolution of the modern American consumer and win in a polarized America.

The panel was part of Collage Group’s annual flagship event this fall: the 2024 Cultural Fluency Summit, held in partnership with Publicis Media in New York City. As part of the event, Collage welcomed marketing and insights leaders from the world’s leading brands for an exclusive look at the latest cultural intelligence to fuel growth. In addition to the panel, Collage unveiled our annual, trended, flagship research in our presentations “America Now: Reimagining Inclusion to Drive Growth from Diverse Consumers” and “Break Through the Noise – How the Best Ads Activate Around the Reality of the Consumer Experience.”

Joining us for our panel was:

• Maria Teresa LaSpisa, Senior Director of Marketing Innovation at PepsiCo, where she leads marketing and innovation initiatives. Her focus is on leveraging integrated marketing expertise to shape brand strategies and plans that resonate across diverse consumer segments.
• Khary Campbell, Vice President, Consumer Research & Insights at Comcast, where he leads the research function. His team ensures that the business can make decisions grounded in consumer truth, needs and context.
• John Wise, Director of Innovation & Future Spaces at Diageo, where he works to help organizations understand, navigate, and act on cultural currents. He has applied his expertise in the art and science of culture to support leading brands including Target, Google, Coca-Cola, Macy’s and Pfizer.

Fill out the form to watch the replay of the panel discussion and to learn how these leading brands are engaging diverse consumers.

Here are the top-level insights shared from this meaningful conversation:

• Stay on top of evolving consumer trends to win business goals: Consumers’ preferences and behaviors are always changing. To remain competitive, businesses must continuously monitor and adapt to these trends, especially at the deepest cultural level in order to keep ahead of consumer demands and expectations.
• Get out of the office, observe, and build empathy by engaging with diverse cultures and experiences: Stepping outside the office environment and immersing yourself in different cultures and experiences helps build empathy. This understanding is crucial for creating products and services that truly resonate with diverse consumer bases.
• Foster collaboration within your organization to make smarter, more human decisions: Collaboration across different departments and with peers enhances decision-making. By incorporating diverse viewpoints, organizations can develop more innovative and human-centric solutions.
• Embrace multiple perspectives for effective problem-solving: Relying on a single way of understanding limits problem-solving capabilities. Embracing various perspectives allows for more comprehensive and effective solutions to complex challenges.
• Blend art and science in marketing for impactful results: Successful marketing requires a balance of creativity (art) and data-driven strategies (science). This blend ensures campaigns are both innovative and grounded in insights, leading to more impactful outcomes.

At Collage, our mission is to support your efforts to unleash the power of cultural intelligence to drive brand growth.

Our aim is to help you drive cultural fluency to drive enduring brand growth. Today’s consumers continue to change the game with evolving media habits, trends, and purchase decision drivers, and Collage’s Inclusive Marketing 3.0 framework helps brands continue to grow in cultural fluency.

Thank you again to our members who joined us in person and virtually, our marketing leader panelists, and to Publicis Media for their incredible partnership.

Contact us today learn how you can partner with us on the journey to cultural fluency and engaging diverse America.