Several years ago, the Coca-Cola Company asked me to build a subculture. They had seen my work on youth culture and they liked it.
“We want you to build one for us.”
“One what?” I parried.
“We want you to build us a subculture.”
Coca-Cola is a kingdom with monarchical powers. And it has used these powers to create art and advertising that built a picture of Americans at play, at war, and at home. So it was reasonable for them to say “hey, build us a subculture.”
I had to deliver bad news.
“Sorry, you can’t build your own subculture. It has to be organic.”
No one could just build a world, I thought, it has to occur naturally. That was then.
The case for building subcultures (aka why bother?)
A subculture is a small cultural formation within a larger society that invents some of its own symbols, rituals, values, and norms – sometimes in opposition to the dominant culture. It is a world-within-the-world, sustained by shared meaning and the pleasure of belonging apart.
Now that our culture is superheated by innovation, subcultures matter more than ever. They can serve us as powerful platforms and anchors for the brand. Much of what we do as marketers seems to disappear without warning. Subcultures are most lasting.
The problem is often the speed of change. Our solution: go faster to keep up. But even this strategy can disappoint. As more than one CEO of a CPG has noticed recently, the corporation is sometimes caught in a relentless game of catch up, “chasing cool.” Stanley Tumblers recently enjoyed an explosive moment of consumer enthusiasm, only to discover that TikTok fame can be fleetingly brief.
In a North Sea world of turbulence, the answer may not be more speed, but the cultivation of still waters – what I call ‘slow culture.’ Perhaps the option here is not to go faster. Maybe it’s to go slower.
Slow culture
Let’s slow the world down. I proposed a “slow culture” strategy in a book called Chief Culture Officer. I argued that all trends are not created alike. Some have staying power. This gives the marketer a “slow release” option. This culture dwells. Now brands can too.
Subcultures have deeper roots. They build real commitments. They endure over time. They manage to survive even when so much of the marketing world is being swept away.
Subcultures discourage fragmentation. They represent a rip-proof community in which people work together to stay together. The point of the exercise is membership and people happily pay the price of membership. Agreement and a kind of conformity.
Subcultures activate group dynamics in a way that no marketing instrument does.
This means that subcultures can act as a powerful platform, an anchor, a cause for brand loyalty, a treasury of brand meaning.
The subculture was beautifully explored by Paulie Dery in the work he did as the CMO for Yeti. Dery had publicly declared his impatience with fast culture branding. He told The Drum that he was not going to pander to trends for a quick buck.
“You can’t chase trends and TikTok dances; if it ain’t you, it ain’t you and I think people respect that in the long run.”
He took exception with new meaning makers. He went so far to gently rebuff Kim Kardashian when she expressed an interest in working with his brand.
If you are at the whim of influencers, TikTok or celebrities, you are not 100% controlling the narrative of your brand – and that is terrifying. I love that celebrities love us and that they want to do stuff with us, but is that good for us long term? No, I don’t think so…”
For Dery, subcultures were a prized solution. He cared about surfers, skaters, skiers, fishermen and rodeo sports. And he waited until they came to him, and then he played a long game, showing up at events, making himself useful, getting to know people in a personal way. And he made the brand a power house. While Stanley was suffering fleeting fame on TikTok, Yeti stayed the course.
This raises the Coca-Cola question: can a subculture be created? Or are they organic, the kind of thing that must emerge on their own or not at all?
I now believe they can be created. It’s a question of architecture. Can we find the right cultural meanings, and bring them into the right configuration? Think architecture. We need to build the frame that defines the subculture. If we build this, they will come.
Subcultures matter. They have weight, they have substance, they are lasting, they are worlds unto themselves. Consumers inhabitant subcultures. Consumers now flirt with marketing. Subcultures they commit to.
Step 1: Creating a subculture for young men in crisis
We asked ourselves what might serve as a subculture candidate. We weren’t sure how to canvas the possibilities. Eventually, we decided to find a trend that might serve as the “starter kit” as they say in yogurt creation. We wanted a trend that we could build into a subculture. We have built a Trend Catalog. We began this by using a database called The Brain and then moved to another called Tana. The latter now has around 250,000 data points and we keep filling it up as more intelligence is forthcoming.
We settled on “young men in crisis.” This is a tragic story and we have followed it closely. There is long form journalism, including Of Boys and Men by Reeves and The Boy Crisis by Farrell and Gray. We have done ethnographic work of our own. We have followed the evidence where it took us. (We are still looking for good evidence for driving licenses. At their most unhappy moment, young men were giving up licenses or failing to get them. This was a great cultural signal, given the fact the getting a driving license had been perhaps the most important life passage for young men. But the data for licenses, then and now, is hard to find. If you have some, let us know!)
So we had a topic for subcultural invention: young men in crisis, sometimes also called FTL (Failure to Launch). Now we needed a brand. We decided to make this a cologne.
The question: could we build a subculture that would speak to young men? Could we build a subculture that could speak to and for a cologne brand.
In a way, AI and I came to this as a rescue project. And this seemed to push our branding work beyond the purpose of branding proposed by Stengel and enabled us to embrace not only an existing value but move onwards to the construction of a new value.
Step 2: Choosing 8 trends
To begin building the construction of the FTL subculture, I asked AI to choose 30 trends at random from the catalog. (The entire list is proprietary.) Here are eight trends, enough to show you what I mean and offer a tentative proof of concept.
Step 3 Outcome (8 trend subsets)
1. Biohacking
2. Gaming
3. Performance
4. Decline of Experts
5. Transparency
6. Anti-Wellness
7. Creator Economy
8. Roomy Discourse Culture
Our 30 trends deliver meanings to the subculture. In Step 3, cultural extraction, we take a look at eight of these meanings.
Step 4: Meaning Extraction
1. Biohacking
Control through bodily experimentation; the self treated as a lab for agency and transformation.
2. Gaming
Mastery, measurable progress, and community achieved through structured play when life feels stalled.
3. Performance
Selfhood staged and curated; authenticity becomes something practiced rather than possessed.
4. Decline of Experts
Distrust of formal authority; knowledge and credibility flow through peers and lived experience.
5. Transparency
Moralized visibility; showing one’s process and pain becomes proof of sincerity.
6. Anti-Wellness
Rejection of performative self-optimization; humor and irony replace discipline as coping tools.
7. Creator Economy
Self-enterprise; identity, labor, and content merge into one ongoing act of self publication.
8. Roomy Discourse Culture
Loose, generous conversation spaces; refuge from judgment and the tyranny of polished speech.
The next challenge: architectural synthesis.
Step 5: Making a subculture
Name: Builders: a subculture for FTL
■ Essence
▪ The Forge is a new subculture of young men seeking agency, skill, and belonging in a post-certainty world.
▪ They reject irony and passivity; they seek meaning through making, lifting, repairing, and self-discipline.
▪ It’s the FTL (Failure-To-Launch) generation trying to ignite momentum – forging self worth through action.
■ Cultural Context
▪ Raised amid digital overstimulation, social drift, and economic precarity, these men feel overexposed yet under-formed.
▪ Traditional masculinity feels obsolete; wellness feels ornamental.
▪ They turn instead to craft, fitness, and DIY competence as moral and psychological repair.
▪ The Forge reframes self-improvement as manual spirituality – less optimization, more agency.
■ Core Values & Drives
▪ Agency: “No one’s coming – build it yourself.”
▪ Competence: Mastery is emotional stability.
▪ Transparency: Vulnerability as proof of strength.
▪ Belonging: Brotherhood through shared doing, not talking.
▪ Repair: Redemption through fixing – self, object, community.
■ Behavioral Patterns
| Mode | Typical Behavior | Brand Implication |
| Repair Mode | Fixing gear, mending, tinkering | Tool, grooming, and maker brands can ritualize competence |
| Training Mode | Lifting, cold plunges, diet testing | Fitness, supplement, and apparel brands can frame discipline as design |
| Retreat Mode | Gaming, Discord servers, small circles | Platforms can offer cozy sovereignty and peer mentorship |
| Reveal Mode | Public confession and rebuilding arcs | Media and fashion can model heroic vulnerability |
■ Aesthetic Vocabulary
▪ Material: Steel, leather, linen, dark glass.
▪ Palette: Charcoal, ember orange, gunmetal blue.
▪ Sound: Industrial ambient, slowed percussion.
▪ Scent: Cedar, resin, soap, sweat.
▪ Symbol: Hammer + flower = strength that repairs, not destroys.
■ Diffusion Path
▪ Phase 1: TikTok and YouTube Shorts – male makers and “garage philosophers.”
▪ Phase 2: Gym + workshop hybrid spaces (“forges”).
▪ Phase 3: Lifestyle media reframes as “Slow Masculinity.”
▪ Phase 4: Brands institutionalize: self-repair kits, workwear-beauty hybrids, emotional competence campaigns.
■ Cultural Function
▪ Recasts precarity as pilgrimage.
▪ Offers a moral language for effort and repair.
▪ Creates a new aspirational masculinity: capable, emotionally literate.
■ North Sea Read
▪ Velocity: Medium–Fast (trend visible, emotionally resonant)
▪ Friction: Low (compatible with fitness, craft, tech, lifestyle)
▪ Depth: High (addresses identity, skill, belonging)
▪ Forecast: Likely to evolve into a mainstream masculine current as Gen Z ages into responsibility.
■ Tagline
Make something. Then yourself.
Step 5: Making a cologne brand
We want to use a subculture not as a mirror but as an engine – to define, anchor, and animate a men’s cologne brand.
The task, therefore, is to translate cultural DNA into a sensorial, olfactory and symbolic world that could hold a fragrance line.
The Forge Cologne
Building a brand from a subculture, not a slogan.
■ Strategic Idea
▪ Rather than chasing “confidence” or “sex appeal,” The Forge Cologne arises from a deeper cultural truth: young men no longer trust inherited scripts of masculinity.
▪ They want to feel capable, grounded, and quietly powerful – not perform it.
▪ This brand makes scent an act of agency and repair – a small, repeatable ritual that signals I’m building myself.
Positioning Line:
The scent of making something new.
■ Cultural Root System (from The Forge)
| Source Trend | Application to Cologne Brand |
| Artisanal Masculinity | Hand-crafted production; visible ingredients; slow distillation. |
| Scented Masculinity | Emotional literacy through fragrance – complexity, not projection. |
| Repair / Rescue Impulse | Packaging & ritual evoke restoration, renewal. |
| Preparedness | Design language: tools, kits, readiness – scent as personal equipment. |
| Authenticity | Real materials, honest storytelling – you smell like what you do. |
| Anti-Wellness | No fake purity; musk, sweat, resin – a human, lived-in aroma. |
| Homeyness | Comfort layer – warmth in the base notes. |
| Transparency | Ingredient clarity, small-batch sourcing. |
| Low-Load Sociality | Intimate diffusion – designed to be noticed up close, not shouted. |
■ Fragrance World
Olfactory Architecture
• Top: bergamot, black pepper, ozone – ignition.
• Heart: cedar, vetiver, leather, cardamom – craft and focus.
• Base: amber, smoke, resin, linen – aftermath of labor, calm after heat.
• Smell Narrative: Begins with spark (metal on stone), settles into wood and sweat, finishes in linen and warmth.
A story arc of work → mastery → release.
■ Visual & Design Language
▪ Materials: brushed metal, smoked glass, linen wrap.
▪ Form: bottle shaped like a tool handle; slight asymmetry = visible handwork. ▪ Logo mark: hammer + flame, embossed, minimal.
▪ Palette: charcoals, embers, pale heat.
▪ Typography: industrial serif + humanist sans pairing – precision meets warmth. ■ Ritual & Messaging
▪ “One spray before work, one after.” → scent as a threshold ritual.
▪ Campaign imagery: small groups of men at worktables, repairing, lifting, laughing – no glamour, just capability.
▪ Social: #FixSomethingFriday – men tag small acts of repair wearing The Forge.
▪ Collabs: toolmakers, knife forgers, workwear brands, indie musicians.
■ Position in the Market Landscape
| Dimension | Legacy Colognes | The Forge |
| Emotional Core Seduction | Self-definition | |
| Masculine Code | Dominant / victorious | Capable / grounded |
| Aesthetic | Glossy, performative | Textured, handmade |
| Voice | Assertive | Quietly assured |
| Ritual | Special occasion | Daily readiness |
■ Brand Tone & Copy
Voice: calm, literate, direct.
Lexicon: make, mend, sharpen, temper, build, breathe, release.
Tagline: Make yourself. Then make something.
Alt line: Capability has a scent.
■ Opportunity Signal for Branders
▪ The Forge Cologne turns identity anxiety into a sensory proposition: “What if scent could make you feel competent?”
▪ It taps the next masculine current: emotional utility — not status or flash, but stability and resonance.
▪ It bridges fragrance (emotion) and craft (action) — opening a new segment: functional fragrance for moral restoration.
For CMOs, this changes the marketing repertoire. Subcultures join advertising, sponsorships and social campaigns as a fourth major instrument – but one with far greater depth and durability. They give the brand not just presence, but a world to belong to.
When a brand builds or joins a subculture, it moves from messaging to meaning, from exposure to participation. That shift – from telling stories to sustaining worlds – is what will distinguish the enduring brands in a turbulent age.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author Grant McCracken – best-selling author and cultural anthropologist – and do not necessarily reflect the views of Brand Innovators.
