Brands That Created Traditions We Now Follow (and They Benefit From!)

In the winter of 1931, Coca-Cola faced a challenge: How do you sell an ice-cold beverage when temperatures drop and snow blankets much of the United States? The answer came not from some clever engineering of a hot cola drink (hey, it could taste OK!), but from the simple power of an image—a robust, red-suited Santa Claus with a twinkle in his eye. The ad campaign featuring this jolly figure didn’t just boost winter sales; it redefined how the world envisioned Santa Claus. That transformation—the marriage of a product and a cultural icon—offers a fascinating lesson in how brands create rituals.

It’s not enough to sell a product. Great brands weave themselves into the fabric of life, becoming not just useful but essential, and in these cases, part of our traditions. In the world of marketing, this phenomenon is more than a lucky accident; it’s a deliberate strategy. Take a closer look, and you’ll see a pattern.

KFC and the Christmas Phenomenon in Japan

Consider Japan, where Christmas isn’t a national holiday. Yet, each December, lines snake out of KFC restaurants, families clutch buckets of fried chicken, and the streets are filled with the smell of Colonel Sanders’ secret recipe. This isn’t some long-standing cultural tradition. It started in 1974 when KFC launched its "Kentucky for Christmas" campaign, a marketing initiative aimed at creating a Western-style holiday meal. The idea struck a chord. Over time, what began as clever advertising became an entrenched ritual. Now, if they don't pre-order their KFC, they'll be left out in the cold.

Why did it work? It wasn’t just the novelty of fried chicken; it was the way KFC positioned itself as a solution to a cultural gap. Christmas wasn’t deeply rooted in Japanese culture, but KFC gave families a way to participate in a global holiday. In doing so, they didn’t just sell chicken; they created a new tradition that people could be part of.

Levi’s and the Birth of Casual Fridays

Now let’s rewind to corporate America in the 1990s. Offices were rigid, ruled by suits and ties. Enter Levi Strauss & Co., with their Dockers khaki line and a bold proposition: What if employees could dress comfortably on Fridays? Levi’s sent HR departments across the country a “Guide to Casual Businesswear,” complete with styling tips that included Dockers. The move was revolutionary. Casual Friday didn’t just take off; it became a norm, reshaping workplace culture.

What Levi’s understood was that tradition isn’t always about nostalgia—it can also be about aspiration- what do people actually want? They didn’t create a ritual steeped in history; they invented a new one that aligned with the way people wanted to live. Dockers khakis became the unofficial uniform of the modern office worker, and Levi’s became synonymous with a new era of professional comfort.

The Diamond Engagement Ring: A Forever Promise

The story of the diamond engagement ring is a tale of reinvention. In the late 1930s, diamonds were struggling to hold their value. De Beers, a South African diamond company, launched a campaign that forever linked diamonds to romance. Their 1947 slogan, “A diamond is forever,” didn’t just sell jewelry; it created a ritual. Today, it’s hard to imagine an engagement without a sparkling diamond ring.

What’s striking about De Beers’ success is how it turned a marketing message into an expectation. The diamond ring became a symbol of love—not because it always had been, but because De Beers said it should be. The power of tradition lies in repetition and cultural adoption, and once enough couples embraced this idea, it became self-perpetuating.

Hallmark’s Valentine’s Day

If De Beers invented the engagement ring as a symbol of love, Hallmark made Valentine’s Day the annual expression of it. Long before Hallmark, Valentine’s Day existed, but the greeting card company saw an opportunity to turn a modest holiday into a commercial phenomenon. By offering a range of cards that let people say what they couldn’t always express easily, Hallmark gave Valentine’s Day a modern identity.

This is where traditions gain their real power. Hallmark didn’t just sell cards; it sold a sense of social obligation. If you love someone, you buy a card. It’s automatic now, but it wasn’t always. That shift wasn’t about manipulating consumers—it was about giving them a tool to connect.

What We Learn from These Traditions

The lesson from these stories is that existing traditions can be used by brands, to create brand-linked actions that will become a cultural norm and requirement. On top of that, brands like Coca-Cola, KFC, and Levi’s didn’t just offer products—they gave people a reason to celebrate, connect, or belong, repeatedly. That’s the magic of tradition: Once it takes root, it ceases to be about the brand and becomes about the people, and people want to re-create their traditions regularly.

And so, the brand still benefits over the long term. When you’re the source of a tradition, you aren’t just part of the culture—you are the culture. And for the companies that understand this, the rewards aren’t seasonal or fleeting. They are, as De Beers would say, forever.

Take some time this week to look across the calendar and see whether any holidays or events inspire you to create a product-linked tradition around them.