How A CPG Challenger Brand Activated Cultural Fluency to Compete and Win

The Challenge

Brand A, a heritage household cleaning product with deep roots in Hispanic communities, faced a tough competitive landscape. Competitor Brand B dominated the market with overwhelming brand recognition, trust, and distribution. At face value, Brand A’s head-to-head performance seemed bleak, trailing across nearly every key brand metric.

But underneath these broad averages, a more nuanced story was unfolding. Brand A had been tracking brand intelligence with Collage and its robust cultural fluency diagnostics across consumer segments for several years. Longitudinal data revealed emerging pockets of strength, particularly among Hispanic consumers and, increasingly, among White and Black segments. These green shoots pointed toward a viable path forward: accelerating its market share growth by winning through cultural fluency and advocacy.

The Approach: Closing the Cultural Fluency Gap

Rather than attempt to outspend or out-scale Competitor Brand B, Brand A chose a different strategy. It would deepen cultural relevance and emotional connection with multicultural segments, where brand loyalty is often rooted in culture, language, and family traditions.

Assessing the Cultural Gap

The journey began with a head-to-head Brand Cultural Fluency Quotient (B-CFQ) assessment. The findings were stark:Brand A lagged Competitor Brand B across most B-CFQ components, particularly Fit, Memories, and Advocacy. However, some segments told a different story. Unacculturated Hispanic consumers consistently rated Brand A higher on familiarity and trust. Bicultural Hispanics were showing early signs of increased resonance. Even other consumer segments were beginning to trend upward on key metrics like Trust and Brand Love, which demonstrated the opportunity for leveraging Halo Effect.