From discourse to design: toward a systemic, relational, and forward-looking brand strategy

Abstract

This essay is based on a real case from the mass-consumption sector in Peru, where a leading fast-food company faced a challenge common to mature brands: difficulty sustaining its symbolic relevance and translating its purpose into a coherent strategic direction. From a communication standpoint, the challenge lay in an identity narrative that had lost cultural resonance and a fragmented strategy unable to connect internal coherence with external significance. A thorough investigation through strategic design—employing a range of cutting-edge qualitative tools—aimed to reveal consumer tensions across different contexts and scenarios. Cultural analysis and futures thinking were included to build a living brand system capable of anticipating scenarios and activating symbolic connections. The final proposal abandons the logic of branding as a mere discursive synthesis and instead envisions a brand configured through relationships and the shared meaning created by all actors who help make its promise real. Communication, in this approach, ceases to be a simple outcome and becomes a practice that mediates among the brand, business ambition, consumers, and possible futures.