Why Cultural Fluency Is the Industry’s Most Undervalued Growth Lever

By Liz Castells-Heard, CEO, INFUSION by Castells

As we enter 2026, marketing sits at a decisive inflection point. Economic pressure, unevenly governed AI adoption, political polarization, fragmented media, declining attention, eroded trust, and cultural whiplash are converging—reshaping not just how brands market, but why consumers choose to engage at all. Budgets are tighter. Performance is demanded across the full funnel. Speed and efficiency are prized. In some boardrooms, this pressure has triggered a retreat toward “safe,” generalized approaches. That instinct may feel comforting—but it is dangerously misguided.

Because culture didn’t pause. Consumers didn’t either.

Multicultural consumers—who drive virtually all net population growth, household formation, cultural influence, and future demand in the U.S.—are navigating this moment with heightened awareness and expectation. They are younger, more digitally native, expressive, and influential. The Forbes Agency council recently stated: “Multicultural consumers must be central to any 2026 marketing plan—44% of U.S. consumers, $7 trillion buying power, driving growth across retail, food, tech, and all categories, and accelerating toward a majority by 2045.” This is where growth lives.

More than 85% say culture defines who they are and shapes their daily life—yet many still feel unseen in advertising. Their cultural lens informs values, behaviors, media choices, and family dynamics, amplified by digital platforms where Multicultural voices now shape trends in real time.

Yet some brands respond by scaling back ambition, defaulting to surface-level representation, automation, or translation in the name of efficiency, safety and alignment. That approach may move faster or easier—but it moves brands in the wrong direction.

Retreat vs. Invest: Performance Makes The Stakes Clear

Brands that retreated from Multicultural commitments have seen erosion. For example, Target scaled back long-standing cultural initiatives and experienced sustained sales declines—driven in large part by younger and Multicultural consumers who had fueled its growth. And Bud Light’s cultural silence and inconsistency created space for Modelo, a brand deeply rooted in Hispanic cultural authenticity, to overtake it as the #1 beer in the U.S.

By contrast, brands that maintained or increased intentional cultural investment—such as Costco, Levi’s, Toyota, McDonald’s, P&G, and T-Mobile—demonstrate greater resilience, loyalty, and momentum.

In 2026, winning brands will move from speed to signal, volume to value, and automation-first thinking to human-centered AI performance—embedding cultural fluency at the heart of strategy. Because growth now depends on understanding consumers more deeply, not reaching them more broadly.

Fear, Uncertainty, and the Recalibrated Consumer

In 2026, consumers carry financial, digital, and emotional fatigue. Rising living costs, AI, geopolitical instability, and social division are shaping how people prioritize spend, define value, and which brands they trust. Price matters but confidence matters more. Brands must earn permission, not assume it. Purchase decisions are no longer transactional. They are emotional, contextual, and values-driven.

For Multicultural consumers, uncertainty is often compounded by lived experience. Many have long relied on resilience, community, and cultural grounding to navigate instability. Brands are personal and reflect who they are. Being valued and treated well matters as much as products. Brands that invest in real understanding beyond demographics are best positioned to interpret how this influences needs, trust and choice. Cultural fluency is no longer “nice to have.” It is a risk-mitigation tool.

Cultural Fluency, Authenticity, and Loyalty

Cultural fluency is the ability to understand when and why culture matters, how it shapes behavior and expectations, and where nuance drives performance across product, messaging, media, and experience. It is what separates relevance from noise—and performance from wasted spend.

Brands that invest with cultural fluency and intention earn trust that translates into growth. Those that treat Multicultural marketing as episodic, inconsistent, or expendable—or automate without guardrails—will continue to lose relevance.

Multicultural audiences are fiercely loyal to brands they trust and feel understood by—not just brands that “reflect” them. They are quick to spot performative gestures, casting, or optics-driven representation. Authenticity is layered and nuanced. It shows up in how brands define audiences, design products and offers, allocate budgets, choose channels, build engagement and experiences.

In 2026, cultural fluency becomes an essential strategic capability embedded across the company. This requires the “3Cs”: cultural intelligence, cultivated experience, and consumer intimacy. Cultural fluency is built through action—not pressure or perfection—by having the right research, data, expertise, and partners, learning and investing with intention, aligning teams, and linking Multicultural insight to business results to establish a paradigm for lasting growth.

Fragmentation, Media Choices, and the Role of Language

Attention is scarce. Platforms are crowded. Orchestration—not reach—is the priority. No single channel carries the load. Integrated journeys across email, direct mail, paid media, digital, social, and activations outperform tactics. Winning brands will focus on what counts—fewer messages, clearer channel roles, and content designed for how people actually consume, view and share.

For Multicultural audiences, this includes TV and digital—but also audio, radio, creators, collabs, gaming, co-viewing, and community activation. Effective Hispanic marketing requires a dual-language, dual-culture approach that mirrors real life—streaming fútbol and football, texting in Spanglish, FaceTiming, and listening to Bad Bunny. Spanish isn’t fading—it’s evolving. Spanish-only silos miss bicultural reach; English-only plans miss depth, trust, and connection.

AI Is Table Stakes—Judgment Is the Differentiator

AI is now infrastructure. Every brand uses it for targeting, personalization, planning, content, execution, and optimization. The difference is how it’s used. Left unchecked, AI can amplify bias, stereotypes, language misfires, and cultural blind spots. It can flatten nuance and erode trust. AI can’t empathize, code-switch, or distinguish a Mexican in L.A. from one in Sonora. AI without human oversight is like GPS without a map.

Winning brands will pair AI’s scale with human cultural judgment and guardrails—using technology to enhance resonance, not replace thinking, voice, values, culture, meaning or respect.

The Trust Economy: Action Over Optics

In 2026, trust becomes the #1 brand currency across all consumers (beyond Hispanics or Gen Z). Consumers will judge brands by what they do, not what they say—scrutinizing transparency and consistency across touchpoints, leadership decisions, partnerships, and moments that matter.

Brands that lead with empathy and purpose build deeper relationships as partners in people’s lives. Multiculturals reward that effort with loyalty, advocacy, and influence. They don’t just buy brands—they identify with them, engage with them, champion them, and forgive the occasional mistake.

As expectations and regulations rise, cultural fluency becomes even more critical. Privacy shifts from compliance to strategy. Permission-based, first-party data enables useful and not invasive personalization. Gen Pop reach gives way to real-time, culture and context-driven engagement. Content goes two-speed: short-form snackable for attention, and long-form storytelling for trust.

Multicultural Marketing Is No Longer Optional 

Multicultural marketing isn’t about DEI inclusion—it’s about illumination. It isn’t an add-on or segment—it’s the strategic lens through which modern mainstream is evolving. It isn’t a separate strategy—it’s the lead strategy and forward path It informs when to align, when to diverge, and where growth is headed. As proof, 70% of non-Hispanic White consumers say the Multicultural majority is reshaping American values for the better, informing their own brand decisions and how they personally engage.

The Bottom Line for 2026 and Beyond

Trust is the ultimate currency. Storytelling still differentiates. And brands that align message, behavior, and experience to priority consumers outperform those chasing universality, efficiency, or fads.

Marketing in 2026 isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing what matters—better.

Cultural fluency is not a trend. It is a core business capability, a reflection of today’s market reality, in an era of “Culturenomics”––and the clearest path to sustainable growth into the future.

Culture isn’t the risk. Ignoring it is.

For more information, CLICK HERE.