How I think about marketing

Start by doubting what the category believes about the customer.

If there’s one move under everything I’ve made, it’s this: before touching the creative, I ask what the whole category has quietly agreed to believe about the customer — and whether it’s still true. Almost always, it isn’t.

What is everyone in this category assuming about the customer — that isn’t actually true?

Investors don’t aspire to trade; they aspire to the outcomes trading funds. People don’t remember financial products; they remember the people they trust. Consumers don’t adopt new categories through advertising; they adopt them when the service becomes part of their environment. People ignore advertising; they notice environments. Each of those is a door the rest of the category walked past because it accepted the obvious answer.

The second belief is older than any of my jobs: perception is a growth lever, not a decoration. I priced websites at ₹11 to prove a corner shop could look like it belonged; years later I used the same instinct to move a brokerage’s perception from ‘place to trade’ to ‘partner for building wealth.’ Same lever, different scale.

Third: earn attention, don’t rent it. Credibility compounds when expertise earns its way in — a research habit inside trusted publications, a character people recognise, a metro station that feels like an environment rather than an ad. Bought attention evaporates; owned presence accrues.

And last, the discipline that keeps the rest honest: tie it to a business number. Brand and performance aren’t rivals; starve either and growth stalls. I’d rather make three things impossible to ignore than thirty nobody remembers — and then prove which of the three moved the P&L.