I’m telling you right now, with absolute certainty: the old marketing game is over.
I don’t just feel this. I know it. And I can see it. The way things were marketed, even a year ago, is dead on the table. Unappetizing. And frankly, nobody wants to eat it anymore.
Indian brands, especially the millennial darlings who were popping champagne on LinkedIn or Shark Tank last year, are learning this the hard way. Some are limping. A few are shutting shop. And a few are still posting “New Drop 🔥” like it’s 2021 and expecting applause.
See… you are not competing with other brands anymore. You are competing with Netflix, street food reels, AI slop, meme pages, podcasts, and people’s shrinking attention spans.
So you need to look at social media as a multicultural society; and to belong here, you’ve got to show us your culture. Think of it as a bar. A late-night chai tapri. It’s where people hang out, not where they want to be sold to. And you are a tastemaker here.
For starters, treat your brand like a living thing. A human being.
It eats. It drinks. It dances badly at weddings. It has opinions about coffee. It gets obsessed with music. It hangs out with strange, interesting people. Now think of all the ways this human is going to interact on social networks.
If you’re in India, look around you. The culture is rich. So start building a universe that includes films, music, illustrations, and yes, food.
If you sell coffee, create breakfast experiences. If you sell shoes, host walking tours. If you sell furniture, throw house concerts.
Partner with an illustrator. Make posters people want to steal. Make playlists people save. Make a film. Do it now.
We are living in a time where AI is slotting into every crack and crevice of our lives. When everything can be generated in five seconds, what can’t be automated becomes status. People are hungry. And they are voraciously consuming what feels authentic.
So build a culture. That’s the job now. And for Pooja’s sake, stop being boring!