l was speaking to a CPG food marketer the other day and something clicked for me
By Mikeblack · June 25, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
l was speaking to a CPG food marketer the other day and something clicked for me
#Grocery stores are the front lines of #culturalmarketing
They’re places where culture manifests as hard physical fact and sales dollars
Grocery stores exist in neighborhoods with varying degrees of ethnic, income, age, lifestyle representation
Some stores may over-index Hispanic / Mexican, others Hispanic / Puerto Rican, others Asian / Vietnamese, White / Millennial, etc.
All those groups bring a different set of eating rituals, holidays, preferred flavors and definitions of value
For the merchant, that means making very considered decisions about:
-- what assortment to offer,
-- which brands to give more space to because they are culturally beloved
-- where to place those products in the physical planogram to maximize traffic and basket
-- what events and passion points to plan promotions and end caps around
-- how to message authentically to draw in those shoppers
These are VERY HARD things for a retail merchant to figure out without extensive and deep cultural intelligence
You won't see this insight show up in Nielsen or IRI
And this creates THE OPPORTUNITY for brands
As the neighborhoods where grocery retailers compete become more culturally diverse, there’s never been a bigger need for brands to be a source of cultural intelligence for merchants
A couple ways this can take shape:
1️⃣ Develop promo calendars and messaging around events that cultural groups shop for. Beyond Cinco de Mayo
2️⃣ Map those celebratory occasions to what goes into the basket to form a cultural cross-sell strategy
3️⃣ Audit assortment against which brands over-index with specific cultural groups and sub-segments so they get maximized placement
4️⃣ Identify assortment gaps, meaning culturally relevant brands they’re not carrying that could bring more volume, or finding whitespaces for NPD
5️⃣ Advise on planogram: finding culturally popular products that are isolated in the ethnic section of the store that could be located in better traffic areas to be seen not just by cultural shoppers, but by Gen Z and Millennials craving new experiences
The economic impact of this is simple:
✅ More relevant products and promotions tailored to specific cultural groups means more traffic, loyalty and bigger baskets for retailers
The halo effect from attracting culturally-curious Gen Z / Millennial shoppers only compounds it
✅ Being seen as a Cultural Category Captain helps the brand drive more and better placements and secure preferred promo activations
The same CPG marketer I spoke to the other day told me that they were able to help a national grocery retailer grow same-store sales by 8% by implementing their cultural shopper recommendations
The fact that few, and not all, #CPG brands are partnering with retailers this way is white space to be exploited
It's a different way of selling and in the age of AI where the playing field has been evened out, different wins