The Power of Branding: Cultural Relevance Amidst Growth

How can a brand grow without losing the reason people cared about it?

Some brands become bigger and somehow feel smaller. More products. More distribution. More visibility. Yet less reason to care.

That is the tension I keep coming back to when I think about brand building. As co-founder of AMS and founder of RSPro, I care about sales. A business needs customers, cash and profit. But I also care about what those numbers can fail to show: whether the brand still means something to the people who made it matter.

What cultural relevance means

For me, a culturally relevant brand belongs in a world its customers recognise. The products, people, language and choices fit together. It understands why someone rides, surfs or spends hours thinking about equipment that an outsider barely notices.

That connection goes beyond recognition. People can recognise a logo without feeling anything about it. Relevance gives them a reason to choose it, talk about it and come back.

When growth changes the decisions

An acquisition can bring capital, expertise and access to new markets. It can also change what gets rewarded. A founder who spent years protecting a particular point of view may be replaced by a team measured mainly on the next reporting period.

But this is not inevitable, and it does not require an acquisition. An independent founder can make the same mistake: pursue every channel, launch every adjacent product, discount too often and gradually remove everything distinctive in the name of reaching more people.

Each decision can look reasonable on its own. Together, they can change the character of the brand.

Revenue can hide the damage for a while

Wider distribution may increase sales even as existing customers feel less connected. A promotion can move stock without creating a stronger reason to buy again at full price. A new category can add revenue while making the brand harder to explain.

None of these decisions is automatically wrong. The question is what is driving the growth, and whether it leaves the business stronger after the immediate sale.

Five questions before chasing the next opportunity

1. Who is this for? Be specific enough to picture the customer, the situation and the problem.

2. Why does it belong here? A new product or partnership should make the brand easier to understand.

3. What would our existing customers think? Their approval is not a veto on change, but their response is worth understanding.

4. What happens when the promotion ends? There should still be a reason to want the product.

5. What are we willing to decline? A point of view becomes real when it rules out an attractive opportunity.

Keep the connection, allow the brand to evolve

Staying true to your roots does not mean freezing a brand in its first successful moment. Customers change. Sports change. Products improve. A brand needs room to move.

The work is to understand which parts of its identity deserve protecting and which habits have simply become familiar. That requires listening, judgment and a willingness to make choices that may be difficult to justify through short-term sales alone.

The question I want to keep asking is simple: as more people buy the brand, are we giving them more reason to care about it?