Cultural Growth
Musings about marketing and branding at the intersection of new technologies and markets
-
Why Food Delivery Platforms Often Fail in New Markets: A Culture-Market Fit Problem
From Lagos potholes to Deliveroo’s exit from Germany: Why food delivery platforms fail when they export their metrics without examining their assumptions.
-
How the Middle East Crisis and Ramadan Exposed the Problems in Luxury Brands Growth
When the Middle East crisis shut luxury stores during Ramadan, some brands kept growing. What separated them reveals a pattern that goes far beyond the luxury sector.
-
Are You Happy? What the World Happiness Report Reveals About Culture-Market Fit
The World Happiness Report 2026 found that social media harms wellbeing in some countries but not others. This is culture market fit in action, and it shows up in international growth work every day.
-
What Is Culture-Market Fit (CMF)? The Framework Behind Cross-Cultural Growth
PMF tells you if they want it. CMF tells you if they’ll believe it. The Culture-Market Fit Framework explains why the same strategy succeeds in one market and fails in another.
-
“Bleibt alles anders”: What a 28-year-old song taught me about growth vs standing still
“Stillness is death”. A line from a 28-year-old song that never left me, and what a recent client conversation revealed about movement, stability, and what should never change in your strategy.
-
Chinese New Year Marketing: Fire Horses, Horror Family Dinners, and Cultural Intelligence
Burberry turned Chinese New Year into funeral portraits. D&G lost the Chinese market in hours. What they missed reveals everything about international growth and cultural intelligence.
-
Show Me Your Apps and I’ll Tell You Your Culture
How you organize your smartphone apps reveals cultural patterns about trust and control – patterns that determine whether your international product strategy succeeds or crashes into invisible resistance.
-
Time And Time Again: My Reflections On 2025
As the end of 2025 is nearing, some thoughts on what my first year as a founder taught me about patience, pace, and the different ways time shapes our growth.
-
The Quiet Crisis of Knowledge Work – And the Search for Meaning in the Age of AI
Beneath the noise of automation, a quiet crisis unfolds. Knowledge work is changing, and meaning may become the most valuable skill of the AI age.
-
DMEXCO 2025: Between AI Hype and Real Marketing
DMEXCO 2025 buzzed with AI, from GEO to image generation – but the real standouts were creativity, analogue twists, and authentic brand connections reminding us marketing is about resonance, not hype.
-
Founder Resilience: Transforming Rejection Into Your Ultimate Superpower
Rejection hurts, but for founders it can become a superpower. Learn how resilience in entrepreneurship turns “no” into growth and momentum.
-
The AI Transparency Paradox: The Hidden Challenge Every Marketer Must Solve in 2025
The AI Transparency Paradox is reshaping marketing in 2025. Adoption is soaring, but trust, engagement, and ROI lag behind, especially across cultures. Learn how to scale AI-driven marketing without losing human connection.
-
The Cultural Aesthetic Gap: What Makes AI-Generated Marketing Content Work In Some Markets
AI-generated visuals are reshaping global marketing, but not in the same way everywhere. Explore how regional aesthetics and cultural expectations influence the trust, and emotional resonance of AI-generated marketing content.
-
From Fear to Focus: Powerful Leadership Lessons From Learning to Dive
What do scuba diving and leadership have in common? More than you’d expect. This post explores how facing fear, staying calm, and trusting the process underwater can inspire stronger, more mindful leadership above the surface.
-
The ChatGPT Hyphen: How Em Dashes Expose AI’s Blind Spots In Language And Culture
Why does ChatGPT love em dashes or? They are more than just punctuations. Explore how AI reveals cultural bias in writing – and what that means for brand voice, localization, and human connection.
-
Marketing and Branding in the Age of AI: What Humans Still Bring to the Table
As AI reshapes the way brands create and communicate, one question becomes urgent: where do humans still add value? This article explores the irreplaceable role of human insight in brand building.
-
Intercultural Leadership in Action: What a Malaysian Dive Trip Taught Me About Respect and Role Clarity
This real-life leadership story reveals how Western ideals of flat hierarchy can backfire in cultures, where leadership is about role clarity, status, and knowing when not to dive in yourself.
-
Leadership Lessons from the Dragon Boat Festival: Navigating the New World of Management
The Dragon Boat Festival isn’t just a cultural celebration, it’s a lesson in leadership. Rooted in values like loyalty and resilience, this festival offers timeless insights for today’s leaders.
-
Watch How Microdramas Are Revolutionizing B2B Marketing in a Mobile-First World
Microdramas are not just an entertainment trend from Asia – they’re fast becoming a powerful storytelling tool for global marketing. In a mobile-first world where attention spans are short, these serialized videos offer something very important.
-
Why ‘One Brand Voice’ Fails In Intercultural Marketing – And What To Do Instead
“Global brand consistency” sounds great – until it clashes with local expectations. In intercultural marketing, the same content doesn’t perform equally well in each market. This article explores how companies can avoid the global consistency trap.