I’m sitting across from a founder who built one of the internet’s favourite homegrown brands. Right now, though, she’s lit by the cold blue glare of Meta Ads Manager. Sales are nose-diving.
She has 165 ads running. “They aren’t performing,” she says.
I scroll through the account.
Every. Single. Ad. Is in English.
Let’s just say it. India does not dream in English.
We’re 1.4 billion people. Nearly a billion of us are online. And 86% of Indians prefer content in their native language. 84% say they trust regional content more than English. Yet, the industry persists in this collective hallucination that the entire country dreams in Queen’s English.
And no, slapping a translation layer on your copy isn’t going vernacular. It’s offensive. Truly great brands, the ones that become part of the subculture, understand that speaking the language of India should be a brand's DNA.
Cadbury's Learners' Pack is the most literal example of this. They launched packaging that featured everyday words in 9 Indian languages to encourage connection through language. The campaign video got millions of views sparking discussions about linguistic inclusivity and cultural sensitivity.
Meanwhile, I once asked someone at NNNOW why there were three Ns in the name. The answer? now.com was taken. So they added two more Ns. This is how one of India’s great textile beasts, Arvind, ended up baptising a brand like it was a typo after four Patiala pegs.
The counterexamples are sitting in the archives.
Look at Bata. A Czech brand that somehow convinced generations that it is an Indian brand. How? They embedded into distribution: school systems, small towns, vernacular print media featuring their logo and advertisements in at least four or five major regional languages.
Then there’s the Amul Girl. She comments on elections, cricket losses, Bollywood drama, fuel hikes. In regional languages. In puns. And she says it with a wink.
Before the 1950s, paint was something contractors bought. Then Asian Paints asked R. K. Laxman to create Gattu, the mischievous kid with a paint bucket and a grin. Sales multiplied. In 2002, they pivoted to “Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai,” written by Piyush Pandey, adapted across eight languages. They moved from being a bucket of chemicals to being the lifestyle of the Indian family.
These brands are built on linguistic intimacy because branding is anthropology.
If you want to survive in a market where 10-minute delivery has killed patience and CAC is climbing like a reckless lizard, you have to build something that feels native to our world.
Observe before branding. Listen to how people actually speak, and say it the way we say it.
Because if you don't, you’ll spend crores on affiliate marketing and Meta ads, and you’ll keep blaming the consumers for not being loyal.