Culture Is Intentional: How and Why the Best Brands Build It on Purpose.
5 Steps To Building Intentional Culture
By John E Ward, @thewestcoastgentleman
Every brand has a culture. The healthy ones choose it. The messy ones let it happen by accident. Culture is shaped through values, habits, stories, decisions, and the consistent way a brand shows up for both its team and its customers. In a time when transparency and authenticity matter more than ever, some leaders hesitate to be intentional because they worry that intentionality feels manufactured. In reality, being intentional is never about faking anything. It is about deciding who you want to be, living it with consistency, and ensuring that both employees and customers experience that identity in tangible, unmistakable ways. Authenticity is the heart. Intentionality is the steering wheel. When you combine the two, you build a brand that feels aligned and magnetic.
Why Intentional Culture Matters
Culture affects everything. The way teams collaborate. The energy inside meetings. The tone of your customer service. The vibe inside your store. The stories people tell after interacting with you.
If culture is left to chance, cracks eventually form. People drift. Customers get mixed signals. Growth exposes gaps.
When culture is intentional, everyone knows the story they are part of. They understand the expectations. They feel connected to the mission. Customers feel the consistency.
Intentional culture is how a brand scales without losing its soul.
The Five Steps to Build an Intentional Culture
1. Define What You Stand For
This goes deeper than a list of values and requires a clear sense of purpose. A brand should be able to articulate its reason for existing and the emotional impact it hopes to create. Once that purpose is defined, leaders can identify the behaviors that reflect it, the behaviors that contradict it, and weave this clarity into everything from internal communication to onboarding. Aimé Leon Dore is a perfect example of a brand with a defined purpose. They know exactly what world they are building and everything they release supports that world. Their visuals, stores, playlists, and campaigns all feel like part of one cohesive vision.
2. Lead by Example
People do not follow posters on the wall. They follow actions. Culture becomes believable when leadership makes choices that reflect the brand’s values in small day to day moments. How leaders respond under pressure, treat teammates, manage conflict, and prioritize goals sends clear signals. Huckberry excels at this. Their founders and internal team genuinely live the lifestyle they promote. They hike, surf, camp, test gear, and share real stories. When leadership embraces the culture, it becomes contagious internally and resonates externally.
3. Create Shared Language and Rituals
Culture becomes real when people can feel it. Rituals build a sense of belonging and consistency. Rituals create belonging and consistency whether they show up as weekly creative reviews that become part of the rhythm of the brand, intentionally crafted onboarding moments that welcome new team members, or signature phrases and traditions that tie people together. Aimé Leon Dore demonstrates this beautifully with seasonal drops that feel like cultural events. Their lookbooks, short films, playlists, and store experiences have become rituals that fans anticipate with almost holiday like enthusiasm.
4. Build from the Inside Out
Your external culture can never be stronger than your internal one. Customers can sense when a brand says one thing and lives another. A brand’s external culture can never be stronger than the internal one. If teams do not believe in or embody the values, customers will quickly sense the disconnect. This means hiring people who align with the mission, involving the team in shaping culture as the brand evolves, and creating spaces where ideas and creativity are encouraged. Our Place built their brand this way. Their internal team reflects the diversity and sense of home and togetherness that their marketing celebrates. Their product development process draws heavily from personal stories, cultural traditions, and shared meals that come directly from their own people. The inside informs the outside.
5. Measure and Evolve
Culture is not something you set once and forget. It changes as your team changes and as your customers change. It is not something set once and left untouched. As people and customers change, culture should be revisited and refined. Brands can seek feedback from their teams to understand how the culture feels internally and listen closely to customers for signals about emotional resonance. They can audit their storytelling and customer experience to ensure alignment with their mission. Huckberry has done this well. What began as an email newsletter for adventurous men grew into a media platform, retailer, travel resource, and community hub. Their culture stayed true to the core but expanded as their audience matured.
How Three Lifestyle Brands Have Built Intentional Culture
Aimé Leon Dore
Aimé Leon Dore created a world grounded in nostalgia, craftsmanship, and New York energy. They built cafés, curated spaces, cinematic campaigns, and collaborations that deepen the sense of community. This brand has become a cultural force because everything they release feels like part of one cohesive world. Actual things they have done to build culture:
Opened the ALD Café in New York that merges fashion, community, and hospitality.
Designed stores that feel like curated living spaces rather than retail environments.
Released short films that communicate lifestyle, mood, and narrative.
Built collaborations with Porsche and Woolrich that expand the world they are building.
Used consistent photography, styling, and color language that instantly signals ALD.
It is intentional world-building anchored in nostalgia, craftsmanship, and New York culture.
Our Place
Our Place shaped culture around inclusivity and home cooking, infusing the brand with diverse stories and shared meals that reflect real households. Our Place built a culture of inclusivity, home cooking, and cultural exploration. They intentionally connect the dots between product and purpose. Examples:
Their Always Pan launch centered on real home cooks and diverse family stories.
Collaborations with chefs and creators from underrepresented communities.
Packaging and product names rooted in cultural storytelling.
Office traditions that revolve around shared meals and personal food histories.
Their culture is about gathering, connection, and the beauty of everyday rituals.
Huckberry
Huckberry built a culture of adventure, curiosity, and craftsmanship by living the lifestyle themselves and inviting customers into real world stories. Huckberry lives its brand. They do not just sell adventure gear. They promote a lifestyle of curiosity, exploration, and craftsmanship. Examples include:
Sending employees on field tests to try products in real environments.
Publishing long form storytelling pieces about adventurers, makers, and craftsmen.
Collaborations with brands like Flint and Tinder and Danner rooted in quality and heritage.
Launching city guides and adventure challenges to activate their community.
Filling their Instagram with authentic travel moments rather than glossy ads.
This is culture built through action, not talk. These brands did not leave culture to chance. They built it through actions, rituals, internal alignment, and clarity of purpose.
How Any Lifestyle Brand Can Strengthen or Build Culture
You do not need a giant budget or a massive team. Culture starts with clarity and consistency. Here are a few ways any lifestyle brand can elevate culture starting today:
Write a clear purpose statement that defines the world you want to create.
Create one signature ritual that your team and your customers can feel.
Align hiring and onboarding with your values.
Build a visual and verbal identity that tells one cohesive story.
Share behind the scenes content that shows the lifestyle your brand represents.
Celebrate customer stories and weave them into your brand narrative.
Review all touchpoints to ensure the experience feels consistent and intentional.
When you design culture, you design connection. And when customers feel connected, they stay. They share. They grow with you.
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