The Nomad Mindset: Why the world’s oldest lifestyle is the future of brand strategy

I have long struggled with the label "citizen of the world." While it suggests a cosmopolitan ideal, to me, it often feels like a narrow claim to belonging everywhere that paradoxically diminishes the diversity that makes specific places and peoples interesting. Reflecting on my own life across many countries, I’ve realised I am not a citizen of the world, but rather a nomad.

The distinction is subtle but vital. A citizen belongs, a nomad observes. A true nomad moves with places rather than just through them. While we should aspire to move forward as one humanity, we must also be proud of our differences. This ability to observe, adapt, and decode differences is not just a lifestyle choice, it is a lost art that modern brands desperately need to recover.

Some brands like Nike or Coca-Cola have mastered the art of operating in this way: they do not simply belong everywhere, but move through cultures, learning their codes and re‑expressing themselves locally while keeping a clear internal compass. When Nike builds campaigns around local athletes or social issues in specific markets, from equality-focused storytelling to partnerships with community figures, it is practicing this art of attentive observation, decoding and nuancing rather than imposing a single, static global message.

The Original Cultural Brokers

History confirms that nomadism was never just about moving cattle or goods. It was the engine of modern society. Early nomads were the original cultural brokers. By navigating the Silk Road or the Saharan caravans, they didn't just trade spices and silk, they traded farming methods, political ideas, and weather wisdom.

In a contemporary sense, brands like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s play a similar broker role when they adapt global platforms into very local forms, learning from existing local norms and traditions, which they turn into innovation. That’s true of the “Share a Coke” label personalisation with local names but more importantly the contextualisation of the shared moment, or of creating products such as the McAloo Tikki in India and Ramadan-specific offers in Muslim-majority markets.

Through ages, nomadism was the foundation of our collective IQ, EQ, and CQ (Cultural Intelligence). It was a system built on hybridising knowledge, taking the best practice from one culture and applying it to another. However, as we navigate the 21st century, we are seeing a retraction of this mindset. We live in an era of polarisation, pulled by what cultural entrepreneur Peter Mousaferiadis calls "demands for alignment rather than invitations to dialogue". We are losing our curiosity for the "other."

Some brands still resist this pull: Patagonia, for instance, carries a consistent values-based stance on environmental responsibility but applies it in different coalitions, campaigns, and local issues around the world, effectively hybridising global principles with local struggles rather than choosing one side of a cultural divide.

The Demographic Blind Spot

Nomadism is no longer a fringe lifestyle, it is a global force with estimates suggesting up to 50 million digital nomads worldwide. Yet, this creates a strange disconnect in the market. While governments (like Madeira’s Digital Nomad Village) and niche hubs (like LOCO(AL) in Thailand) have rushed to build the physical infrastructure to house them, mainstream brands have largely ignored the insight to understand them. They continue to view nomads through static demographic lenses, seeing them merely as people who travel, while missing the deeper psychographic shift. By failing to look beyond the geography, brands are overlooking a distinct set of values and behaviours that traditional segmentation grids simply cannot capture. Only a rare few, such as Western Union (and other competitor FX brands), have historically managed to bridge this gap, adopting a culturally-nuanced approach that recognises the complex reality of these multi-location and multi-value-base audiences.

The "Test-Run" Market

This is where the opportunity lies. Brands shouldn't just look at nomads as a target audience to sell travel and WFH gear to, they should view the nomad mindset as a methodology.

Think of Nike trialing narratives of equality and representation that must resonate across very different cultural contexts, or Airbnb framing travel not just as accommodation, but as immersion into local lives and experiences. If those stories can appeal to the nomads, they tend to travel well to mainstream audiences too.​

In a world of fragmented audiences, the true nomad community can act as a test-run market. Nomads are hyper-sensitive to authenticity and experts at adaptability. Because they are constantly decoding new environments to survive and thrive, they hold the keys to cross-cultural relevance. If a brand can crack the nomad, satisfying their demand for authentic, adaptable, and purpose-driven engagement, they can likely crack other diverse audiences using the same approach.

The Responsibility to Reconnect

Why should brands be the ones to lead this charge? Because the public trusts them to do it. The 2023-2025 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that around 80% of people trust the brands they use to do what is right, compared to roughly half who trust government, media, or NGOs. Furthermore, a 2024 Kantar study shows that about 63% of consumers are willing to buy or advocate for brands based on their beliefs and values.

We are living in times that demand we reinstate the desire for discovery and cross-enrichment. Brands have a real advantage they’re not always leveraging. By adopting a nomad mindset (one that values observation over judgment and hybridisation over polarisation), brands can do more than just increase market share. They can become the new cultural brokers, endorsing a shift back to where we truly come from: a world connected not just by technology, but by understanding.

When brands like Patagonia or Whole Foods use their platforms to champion environmental or social causes across multiple regions, or when platforms like Arête amplify designers from underrepresented geographies, they show how a brand can act as a mobile connector of people, ideas, and practices, much like the nomads that once carried seeds, stories, and skills along ancient routes.

Mélanie Chevalier