Strategist (Cultural Insight & Semiotics)

DESIGNATION: Strategist (Cultural Insight & Semiotics) PRIMARY LOCATION: Mumbai JOB SUMMARY: Strategist is a cultural decoder and insight architect, uncovering hidden patterns, shifting meanings, and emerging consumer tensions that shape markets and behaviors. This role translates cultural, behavioral, and symbolic signals into clear, actionable insights and strategic opportunity territories for brands. By connecting deep cultural understanding with business objectives, the strategist helps organizations anticipate trends, craft resonant narratives, and build strategies that drive relevance and growth. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: Conduct cultural insight, semiotic decoding, and narrative analysis. Identify cultural shifts, category tensions, and meaning-based opportunities. Build meaning maps, cultural codes, archetypes, and future scenarios. Support brand positioning, tone, and innovation with culture-led insight. Bring cultural perspective into creative briefs, workshops, and storytelling. REQUIRED SKILLS Ability to identify trends, correlations, and anomalies within complex data sets. Skilled at connecting insights to broader business objectives and creating structured frameworks. Capable of translating technical insights into clear, compelling narratives for diverse audiences. Deep interest in understanding people, identity, and societal dynamics to inform data-driven strategies. Proficiency in leveraging AI tools, predictive modeling, and advanced analytics for actionable foresight. Strong interpersonal skills to work across global teams and drive consensus on strategic initiatives. About Conran Design Mumbai At Conran Design Mumbai, we design better brands that positively transform how people think, feel, and experience the world. We collaborate with our clients to develop and activate meaningful brands and communications that matter. From research and insight-driven consultancy to effective and impactful delivery, we’re specialists in strategy, communications, design and activation. Founded in 1957 by Sir Terence Conran, Conran Design Mumbai is Havas’ flagship brand and design consultancy. With studios in London, Paris, Mumbai and New York, its team of 250 strategists and creatives work across brand strategy, brand design, experience design, and communications and engagement, using thoughtful design to inspire progress for their clients. Our India practice has won numerous awards including a silver as Campaign South Asia Agency of the year, and is a proud partner to diverse brands such as Zydus Lifesciences Ltd. , Nestle, The Coca-Cola Company, mCaffeine, Hyphen, LT Foods, Tata Cliq, Reliance Jewels, Shazé, PayU, Usha Martin, Adani Capital and more. With teams based in the UK, US and India, we are also an integrated part of one of the world’s largest communications networks: Havas, owned by Vivendi. For more information, visit & follow Conran Design Mumbai on social media. About Havas India Havas India gathers the expertise of 21 agencies, specialised divisions and strategic alliances across 3 verticals: Havas Media Network – Havas Media, PivotRoots (integrated digital), Arena Media, Havas Market (e-commerce), Havas Play (sports, entertainment & content), Havas Programmatic Hub (programmatic trading desk), Havas Analytics (data & analytics), Socialyse (pure play social media); strategic alliances: Havas Media Tribes (out-of-home), Havas Play Gameplan (sports marketing) and KlugKlug (influencer tech stack) Havas Creative Network – Havas Worldwide India (creative), Havas People India (talent communications & employer branding), Havas CX India (customer experience), Think Design (UX/UI), Shobiz (experiential marketing), Shobiz Exhibits (exhibitions) Conran Design Mumbai (branding & design), PR Pundit Havas Red (PR), and Prose on Pixels (content-at-scale) Havas Health & You – Havas Life Mumbai (health & wellness communications) With its unique Village model, it is an integrated network present across 3 Villages in Mumbai, Gurgaon and Bengaluru, and regional offices in Kolkata, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai, with over 2000+ professionals and associates. As one of India’s fastest growing and agile networks, Havas India has bagged multiple new clients across verticals and won several prestigious awards over the last 2 years including the group being Great Place To Work® Certified™ twice in a row (Nov 2022 - Nov 2023 & Dec 2023 – Dec 2024), consistently being featured in the top 3 at R3 New Business League rankings, and winning at Campaign Asia-Pacific Agency of the Year awards, e4m Indian Marketing Awards 2023, ABBY One Show 2023, Campaign Women Leading Change awards, and more. Our CSR programs, DE&I initiatives, and being actively involved in various industry associations is what keeps us invested as a network that has a clear mission of making a meaningful difference to brands, businesses and people. Here at Havas across the group we pride ourselves on being committed to offering equal opportunities to all potential employees and have zero tolerance for discrimination. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants irrespective of age, sex, race, ethnicity, disability and other factors that have no bearing on an individual’s ability to perform their job. For more information, visit and follow Havas India on social media.