IMC EP 06 | Suhayl Limbada: Why Brands Must Go Left When the World Goes Right

<p>THE BRANDS THAT WIN IN CULTURE ARE NOT THE ONES THAT PLAY IT SAFE. THEY ARE THE ONES WILLING TO GO LEFT WHEN THE WORLD GOES RIGHT.In this episode of the Business of Influence IMC Series, hosted by Leroy Marc, Suhayl Limbada, Chief Marketing Officer of KFC India, sits down for a conversation about what it actually takes to market a global brand in a way that feels genuinely local, why fear is the single biggest barrier between a brand and its audience, and why the future of marketing in an AI-saturated world is not more technology but more humanity.The localisation conversation that opens this episode is one of the most practically useful things this show has put on record. Suhayl has worked across multiple international markets and the insight he has carried from every one of them is the same. The brands that earn genuine cultural belonging are the ones curious enough to learn the local rituals, to understand the humour, to sit inside the culture rather than observing it from a distance and translating it through a global lens that was never designed to fit.The fear conversation is where this episode gets most honest. Marketers know that culture is edgy. They know that the content that creates the deepest connections is rarely the content that clears every approval layer without a single note. And yet the fear of getting it wrong keeps most brands producing work that is safe enough to publish and forgettable enough to scroll past. Suhayl’s argument is direct. That fear is the thing standing between a brand and the audience it is trying to reach, and the marketers who learn to move through it rather than around it are the ones producing work that actually matters.The core essence versus flexibility framework in this episode is the most useful strategic tool for any brand team navigating this tension. Going left when the world goes right does not mean abandoning brand identity. It means maintaining the foundational brand-building layer that stays true to positioning while creating space for culture-driven, viral campaigns on a quarterly cadence that keep the brand feeling alive, relevant and worth paying attention to.The listening philosophy that runs through Suhayl’s entire approach to marketing is deceptively simple and almost universally ignored. The best consumer insights are not sitting in research reports. They are sitting in social media feeds, in the language people use to describe their own experiences, in the problems they articulate to no one i