Culture is the dominant theme in marketing for now. Drafting off of, plugging into, photobombing pop culture trends and social memes has become a hedge against the white noise of media clutter. As with all marketing trends, this smart move casts off a lot of social crapvertising and gratuitous meme surfing that drips inauthenticity. So DOVE men's care's recent campaign caught my eye as a way to do culture adjacent work in a way that actually speaks to the brand. Unilever plugged into an unlikely social media trend - men posting images of their dirty sneakers and complaining about the …

Change is the hardest thing about marketing. Our entire job is focused on changing human behavior when inherently, people just don't like change. We're creatures of habit. We settle in a routine that fits our lifestyle. We stick with products that we know are going to work for us. We eat the same food that we already know we're going to like.

Legacy. It's what every brand strives to leave behind. How will they be remembered? For most brands today, that's about becoming a permanent placement in pop culture history, if such a thing exists. How do we weather the storms, the ups and downs that any long-lived company sees? How do we capitalize on viral moments, turning a little stroke of luck into a multi-million-dollar businesses?

In mid-century America, the local soda and sweet shop was a fixture of small town life. Here is where Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica met to gossip, fall in and out of love and plan the next pep rally. The Fiiz Drinks chain is trying to modernize that tradition. Started in Utah in 2014 around the personalized "Your Drink, Your Way" soda concept, it has expanded the menu to snacks and desserts, and grown its footprint, to 70 locations. But can that local meeting-place appeal scale to the 500 locations that company President Scott Ball has planned over the next …

While healthy popcorn and snacks brand Lesser Evil launched almost two decades ago, it really burst from its organic shell and onto mainstream grocery shelves in just the last few years. Now at 40,000 stores, Lesser Evil has taken the same approach to growth that it does to popping corn - low and slow. As VP of Marketing Caitlin Mack tell us this week, the art and science of the product touches all aspects of the company culture. Get ready to learn about the importance of "butterfly wings" on your handful of popcorn.

There are meat-lovers' brands and then there are meat-lovers' brands. Barry McGowan, CEO of Brazilian-style eatery Fogo de Chao assures me that there are many veggie offerings on the menu and the buffet table for my vegan palate. But let's face it. The heart of this fast-growing chain is the slow-turning spits and deep carnivore vibes. As he explains this week, Fogo is all about on-premise experience - flames, meat juice, friends.

In just eight years, it's grown to a billion-dollar brand by marketing the most basic product out there: water. But don't tell that to its cult-like following that has turned the beverage company into a full-blown cultural phenomenon.

In 1992, Gary Chapman, a Baptist minister from China Grove North Carolina, coined the Five Love Languages which outlines how people express and receive love. According to Chapman, these five languages are: Words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, acts of service and physical touch.