Brand Building Essentials

The luxury brand paradox is real. Everyone is chasing success, but few get it right. Hermès is a prime example of what it takes to become a true luxury brand. Here's what they nailed: 1️⃣ Time matters. Hermès took over 100 years to build its reputation. Can't expect instant luxury. 2️⃣ A strong heritage. They began with functional horse harnesses, focusing on quality before fashion. 3️⃣ Scarcity beats price. Luxury is not just about high prices. The Birkin bag's two-year waitlist proves that scarcity is key. 4️⃣ Smart marketing. Instead of chasing trends, they stick to what works: • No influencers or flashy ads. • Low social media presence. • Carefully managed product releases. The hard truth is this: the more you try to project luxury, the less authentic you feel. Luxury is not just created. It’s earned through time and authenticity.

Tanishq was a failure for 10 years. But then, this company revolutionized the Indian jewelry market. My family has been in the jewelry business for 40 years. Although I’ve never worked in the business - I’ve seen it around me growing up. Recently, I was talking to my dad, Biren Vaidya, about the state of the market. He reminded that the world was very different when he started in the 80s. As much as 95% of the market was unorganized and there were no ‘brands’ - largely home jewelers – until Tanishq tried to organize the industry. In 1991, India had a severe forex deficit. Titan Company Limited needed $$ to import their watch components so they made a plan: Sell jewelry in Europe → Earn forex → Use it to import watch components → Make more watches in India → Sell the watches across the world This is how Tanishq was born :) After a while, the forex crisis settled down. The management still saw a new opportunity in the jewelry business domestically. They introduced 18-carat gold with European designs, trying to be ‘different.’ But in India, gold isn’t just jewelry—it’s wealth, status, an investment and tradition. This is what they missed. Plus, every family in India had a trusted “Family Jeweler” who had served them for generations – the biggest barrier to entry for any new brand was trust. By 2001, Titan’s stock crashed to ₹2, and the company was ₹150 crores in losses. Consultants urged the Tatas to shut it down. Instead of quitting though they kept fighting and adapted. Eventually a new playbook worked. They: – Shifted to 22-carat gold, aligning with Indian values of purity and investment. – Introduced the “Karatmeter” to check gold’s purity. It exposed that 60% of local gold was impure. – Now, to rebuild trust, they launched the "Impure to Pure" scheme with which customers could exchange their impure, adulterated gold for Tanishq’s pure 22-carat jewelry. They leveraged the core USP of the Tata Group and made it Tanishq’s USP - trust! 25 years hence, Tanishq is 88% of Titan’s revenue. Today, Tanishq is India's largest organized jewelry brand with over 400 stores—capturing 7% of this massive market. We are seeing a new trend as Indian customers are viewing jewelry more as a fashion accessory. This has led to a recent rise in 18 Carat designs – something Tanishq started with but miserably failed in 1994 :) So, India’s largest jewelry company and most loved retail stock started as a failure. Everything that ends well doesn’t necessarily start well. PS - I still see large investment opportunities in jewelry. The next frontier is lab grown diamonds, silver/demi fine and luxury. Thoughts? #business #success #growth

How modern brands grow Lessons from marketing science I just had the pleasure of watching Magda Nenycz-Thiel from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute present to a room full of marketers. Magda shared some of the key principles of marketing science and how to apply them practically. I was scribbling down notes. Here's the takeaways: 1. Marketing science is about increasing the likelihood of success; it's not about guaranteed outcomes. This was the biggest lesson for me. Knowing the "laws" and principles, this frees up your team from arguing about that logo change, or whether you now need to target a new segment, to getting on with the work that matters. 2. Penetration. It wouldn't be an EBI presentation without the Double Jeopardy law. The fact that most things are actually an outcome of your market share (inc. loyalty) and the key driver of market share is new light buyers as most customers for all brands only purchase once or twice. If penetration is the metric, reach is the strategy. 3. Value creation. A great reminder, and you can spot senior marketers at FMCGs who focus on this. 3 ways to increase the value of your business. Share gains, category expansion, or acquisition. The bigger your brand gets, the more growth must come from growing the category, not stealing share. Good strategy needs to be about expanding occasions and growing the pie, not just fighting for a larger piece. 4. Earn growth, don't just snack on market share. Earning long-term market share (not just discounting to steal share) is far more valuable. Improved advertising to increase mental availability, route to market innovation, innovate to create true customer value, and expand the quality or quantity of distribution. This is the hard stuff we must focus on. 5. Creativity. I was rather surprised at the focus on creativity. How consistency, emotion, and distinctive brand assets use are key drivers of proper long-term growth and often the fastest and easiest way to earn share. Also, EBI research showing that getting enough attention is also important. There was then a bit of a debate about challenger brands, and how to apply these principles to small brands when budgets are limited and "reach reach reach" simply can't happen. There's still more to learn in this area, and perceived difference must play a role. However, I accept that most brands asking "are we different" is a daft way of measuring that. Magda Nenycz-Thiel, a real pleasure meeting you. Loved hearing your stories from two decades of marketing science. If anyone's new to marketing science, recommend reading "How Brands Grow" as a good place to start! I share #advertising and #marketing insights daily, follow for more.

CFO: What’s a good ROAS target for 2025? CMO: The lower, the better. CFO: That doesn’t make sense. Why would we aim for lower ROAS? Isn’t that the opposite of what we’re trying to do? CMO: Not at all. ROAS obsession is where so many brands get it wrong. By focusing on short-term returns, they build a growth model that depends entirely on spending money to acquire customers. And that’s not sustainable. CFO: But don’t we need to acquire customers? Isn’t that the goal? CMO: Yes, but the goal shouldn’t be to constantly buy customers through paid ads. The real objective is to build a brand so powerful and resonant that people come directly to us when they’re ready to buy. No ads, no promotions—just a deep emotional connection to our brand that puts us top of mind. CFO: That sounds great in theory, but doesn’t building that connection mean spending more with lower returns? CMO: It does in the short term. Here’s the deal: at any given time, only about 5% of your audience is actively shopping for what we sell. For that 5%, ads focused on product, price, and promotion perform well. But for the other 95%? Those ads don’t resonate because they’re not in-market. That’s where branding comes in. CFO: And branding means advertising to the 95% who aren’t ready to buy? CMO: Exactly. The downside is that this effort will show lower ROAS because it’s not driving immediate conversions. But here’s the fantastic news—reaching that 95% is astronomically cheaper because they aren’t being bid on by every competitor in the category. CFO: So what’s the benefit of reaching them when they’re not shopping? CMO: When they’re not in-market, they’re less focused on rational factors like price and features. That’s the perfect time to build an emotional connection. If you connect with them then, by the time they’re in the 5%, they already know, trust, and want your brand. They don’t even shop around. CFO: You’re saying this makes us harder to compete with? CMO: Exactly. Competitors can match our price, promotions, and even features. But they can’t replicate our brand. A strong brand creates a value proposition that draws customers directly to us, bypassing the whole ad ecosystem entirely. CFO: So what’s the long-term play here? CMO: By focusing on branding and building this connection with the 95%, we’re creating future-proof growth. It’s not about immediate ROAS—it’s about turning our audience into loyal customers who seek us out on their own. That’s how we reduce dependency on paid acquisition and build a scalable, profitable business. CFO: Alright, I’m starting to see the bigger picture. Let’s talk about how we balance the short and long term in the budget. And next time, lead with this when you say “lower ROAS.” CMO: I like to get you all worked up sometimes. Lets me know I’m truly alive.

If you ever visit Bali, you'll notice a flood of Polo Ralph Lauren stores... All selling Polo apparel at almost 60% off the retail price... And despite the on point branding of the stores, they're all fake - not the original Polo Ralph Lauren... And this is because in the late 1970s, an Indonesian man trademarked the brand name, colours and logo in Indonesia, much before the American company decided to enter into that market. So all the stores can legally operate under the Ralph Lauren name and with the logo, but are not owned by the original American company we know of. Plus, the original brand cannot sell its products in Indonesia. And so that the same thing doesn't happen with your brand anywhere around the world... you must take these steps while registering your trademark... 1/ After registration of your trademark at the Indian Trademark Office (ITO), within six months file for a global trademark that is valid in 130 countries through a WIPO application which happens from the ITO itself In certain countries like China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Japan - also make a separate filing independent of the WIPO application - as these countries have a first-to-file method, which means if someone else files before you, they get the right even if you have been using the brand for longer 2/ To increase defensibility, also register variations of your trademark in other languages such as Chinese, Arabic - as well as trademark common misspellings of your name 3/ Consider getting a trademark not just in the same category in which you currently operate, but allied categories where you may operate in the future as well - for example, an apparel brand may want to enter bags, shoes, or even cosmetics, watches and sunglasses later. These days, even as small D2C brands begin to sell online and start getting orders from NRIs outside of India - it becomes important to protect your brand not just in your country of origin, but even elsewhere. #casarthakahuja

The Great Flattening is upon us. Barron's just surfaced a stat that should stop every marketing leader in their tracks: AlphaSense logged 73 corporate documents using the exact phrase "not just X, it's Y" in Q4 2025 alone.... after only a handful of mentions across the previous two decades. Progressive Insurance. Citizens Financial Group, Inc.. Synopsys Inc., Royal Caribbean Group., A. O. Smith Corporation. All reaching for the same construction and now are all sounding like the same company. Here's what's actually happening: LLMs are trained on the statistical average of everything ever written. When every company routes its shareholder letters, press releases, and earnings scripts through the same few models, every company starts sounding like the average of every other company. Three-quarters of PR pros now use AI on the job. 74% of new web pages contain AI-generated content. 91% of B2B marketers cranked up output in 2025. More volume, fewer models, faster convergence to the mean. The piece on State of Brand (linked below) makes the argument I've been waiting for someone to make clearly: this is the biggest brand opportunity in a decade ....for anyone willing to sound like themselves. The companies still sounding like themselves ...Anthropic's careful, technical hedging; Ramp counting its age in days to use AI to scale a point of view that already exists. The flattening happens when AI is asked to generate the point of view itself. B2B stands to gain the most here. Ehrenberg-Bass's 95-5 research is clear: buyers pull their consideration set from memory. When 95% of your market isn't in-market, the only thing that matters is whether they'll remember you when they are. Memory favors the pointed, the opinionated, the specific. Corporate America is converging on a single voice and it's clear that the brands that opt out will own the next decade. Read the full piece on State of Brand: https://lnkd.in/g9HgU7Hy

Los Angeles Apparel features the faces of the workers behind each garment on its tags. Each garment includes a tag with a photograph of a worker who helped make it, along with a short bio. One tag introduces Rosa, who came to Los Angeles from El Salvador at 27 to pursue her passion for sewing. When she’s not working, she enjoys shopping and taking walks with her dogs. Other tags feature stories like Oscar, who has 30 years of experience and came to Los Angeles from Guatemala after a heartbreak. His tag reads, “current employee, future shareholder.” Each tag gives space for a new story to come to light. The brand has built its reputation around ethical fashion and domestic manufacturing. Every garment is designed, cut, sewn, and dyed in the company’s South-Central LA factory. The company describes itself as sweatshop-free and operates in a safe, ethically managed environment. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀: → For customers, the tags create a human point of connection at the moment of purchase, turning an everyday garment into something much more personal. → For workers, their faces and stories travel with the product itself, extending recognition beyond the factory floor and into the life of the customer. → For the brand, transparency is made tangible, embedded directly into the product in a way that’s difficult to replicate. The advantage here is replacing abstraction with specificity. “Ethical manufacturing” is abstract. Rosa and Oscar aren’t. Naming people, sharing their experience, and showing their faces collapses that distance. Great work 👏

Not ads. Not influencers. This is what builds a D2C brand. 8 years ago, when Varun Alagh and I launched Mamaearth, we weren’t the biggest brand. We didn’t have endless budgets or massive influencer deals. What we had was intent. We replied to every DM ourselves. Took feedback personally. And obsessed over what one customer was trying to say, not how many followed us. I myself talked to over 3,000 mothers to understand what they want in a baby product. That’s what most people miss about D2C: The consumer doesn’t just buy your product. They buy your intent. 🔹They notice when you make changes based on their reviews. 🔹They remember how fast you responded when they had a concern. 🔹They talk about your brand when you listen to them like a person, not a number. The edge in D2C isn’t speed or scale. While those are important too, what tops the list is how real your relationship with your consumer feels. If you're in the D2C space, don’t chase virality before you’ve built trust. And don’t confuse transactions with loyalty. What’s one lesson that’s shaped how you show up for your consumer? #Entrepreneurship #MondayMotivation #LeadershipLesson #D2C

Psychology behind building objects of DESIRE. Lets talk about LIFESTYLE beauty, a territory beyond functionality. Think on aspirations, symbology, luxury, identity, and status. In lifestyle, desire is cultivated not just through product performance, but through emotional branding, scarcity, and curated experiences. you are looking for deep understanding of what your customers truly value, and what frustrations your brand can solve. The global premium cosmetics market is experiencing growth, with a market value of USD 153.68 Billion in 2024, and is projected to reach USD 353.93 Billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 8.70% >> PSYCHOLOGY OF DESIRE << Desire-driven purchases tap deeply into the brain’s EMOTIONAL and reward systems. When we encounter luxury or exclusive products, our brains release dopamine in anticipation of the reward, sparking motivation and craving. +72% consumers make purchase based on emotional connection with a brand or product. This anticipation is often stronger than the actual satisfaction of owning the item. Scarcity and limited availability trigger the amygdala, activating fear of missing out (FOMO) and increasing the product’s perceived VALUE. +332% conversion rates by Limited-time offers or “only 2 left” messages. +48% of online shoppers have purchased something due to FOMO. At the same time, mirror neurons make us subconsciously IMITATE influencers or aspirational figures who use these products, reinforcing the desire to buy. +84% Gen Z and Millennials are influenced by social media before making purchases. >>DESIRE BUILDING<< →Emotional triggers ⇒ Emotional design drives deep connection & impulse. →Dopamine surge ⇒ Reward anticipation, not the reward, excites the brain. →Scarcity ⇒ Limited triggers urgency & fear of missing out. →Mirror neurons ⇒ Aspirational figures builds subconscious imitation. →Exclusivity ⇒ Luxury signals status, elevating perceived self-worth. →Desire ⇒ Controlled access makes products feel more valuable. →Impulse buy ⇒ Emotional + social triggers pull quick decisions. >>RATIONALIZE MEMORIES ⇒ LOYALTY<< Emotional connection also plays a major role. The prefrontal cortex helps us RATIONALIZE emotionally-driven decisions, while the hippocampus links products to MEMORIES, making them more meaningful. Oxytocin fosters trust and LOYALTY when a brand aligns with personal values or tells a compelling story. In essence, we don’t just buy products, we buy identity, emotion, and experience. Final thoughts. In lifestyle beauty, products are desired, not just bought. It's about sparking emotion, not just solving problems. Build aspiration, connection, and identity by tapping into what truly drives your audience. Here’s my curated search of examples, get inspired for your next HIT! Featured Brands: Carolina Herrera Chanel Beautycrop Benefit Bubble Glossier Glow to Go Gucci Miu miu Rhode Some by me Tocobo #beautybusiness #luxurbusiness #beautyprofessionals #luxuryprofessionals

Branding in B2B is more important than ever. That's a fact...or better yet, facts! B2B marketing was once all about facts, figures, and rational decision-making. Creativity? That was for B2C. But in 2025, the game has changed. B2B and B2C buyers are the same humans, driven by emotions first, logic second. That’s why brand is now a company’s most valuable asset. Marketing Week reports a major shift: in 2021, lead generation ranked as the 3rd most important B2B strategy, now it’s 7th. Meanwhile, brand awareness jumped from 6th to the top priority in 2024. For years, B2B companies relied on product-first strategies, dropping most of the cash into short-term lead generation. But as differentiation becomes near impossible, with features and offerings being nearly identical, the real competitive edge isn’t what you sell, it’s how you make customers feel. AKA B R A N D. Why Brand Wins Over Product - IBM vs. cheaper alternatives? Trust. - Salesforce dominates CRM? Familiarity. Why do buyers choose one car over another with the same specs? Once again B R A N D. Branding isn’t about logos or colours; it’s about trust, credibility, and being top of mind at the right moment. But why invest in brand? - Reduces risk perception: A strong brand makes buyers feel safer choosing you. - Shortens sales cycles: Familiar brands require less convincing. - Attracts top talent: People want to work for admired brands. - Creates pricing power: Strong brands command higher prices. - Future proofs your business: Products get copied. Brands endure. 4 Key steps to build a strong B2B srand: 1: Shift from product to purpose to benefit. Stop marketing what you do. Start marketing why it matters. IBM helps businesses ‘Build Smarter Businesses.’ HubSpot helps them ‘Grow Better.’ Your brand purpose should be at the core of your ecosystem. 2: Tell better stories. People remember stories, not specs. Case studies, success stories, and founder journeys humanize your brand and build trust. 3: Invest in distinctive assets Logos, colours, taglines, music... and so on, they create instant recognition. Think Salesforce’s blue cloud, Slack’s multicolour hashtag, or AWS’s signature orange. 4: Play the long game brand building isn’t a quick win, it’s a long-term strategy. Top-of-funnel activities now drive more financial value than performance marketing, with CMOs allocating 51%+ of their budgets accordingly (Marketing Week). If branding is still an afterthought for your B2B strategy, it’s time to rethink or prepare to fade into irrelevancy very soon...In life, the best product doesn’t always win. The best brand does.