Built by Anurag Lala

Every successful brand has a story, but very few stories are powerful enough to become lessons for marketers across generations. Watching Made in India: The Titan Story reminded me that the brands we admire today were not built through clever advertising alone. They were built through conviction, strategic patience, relentless execution, and an unwavering focus on creating value for customers. Titan is now one of India's most respected brands, but the film takes us back to a time when the Indian watch market looked completely different. Watches were largely viewed as functional products, dominated by HMT and unorganized manufacturers. Introducing a premium Indian watch brand was not just a business challenge—it was a behavioural challenge. That is what makes Titan's journey so relevant for marketers even today. Here are the biggest marketing lessons I took away from the film. 1. Before Changing the Market, Change the Customer's Mindset The lesson that stayed with me th...

Over the past few months, I closely studied 50 Indian brand campaigns across categories—FMCG, fintech, edtech, D2C, and legacy brands. Some were widely celebrated, some quietly effective, and a few… just noise. But once you strip away the surface-level creativity, clear patterns start to emerge. Not trends, but repeatable principles that separate campaigns that work from those that just exist . Here are the 10 patterns that consistently showed up: 1. Cultural Context Drives Virality The campaigns that performed best weren’t random bursts of creativity—they were rooted in culture. Whether it’s: Zomato’s real-time topical ads Amul’s decades-long topical creatives Swiggy capitalizing on IPL or festivals They all plug into what people are already talking about . Timing + cultural relevance = disproportionate reach. 2. Simplicity Outperforms Cleverness Many underperforming campaigns tried too hard to be witty or abstract. The winners were simple: Clear message Clear ...

When I published my first book, I believed the biggest challenge was writing it. I thought if the content was good, people would naturally discover it. But after publishing ten books in the domain of marketing and advertising, I realized something important: writing a book is only half the work. Marketing the book is the real game. Over the years, through successes, mistakes, and experiments, I learned some powerful marketing lessons. These lessons are not just about selling books; they apply to marketing any product, service, or personal brand. Here are seven marketing lessons I learned after publishing ten books. 1. A Great Product Does Not Market Itself One of the biggest myths in marketing is that a good product will automatically find its audience. I believed this in the beginning. I focused heavily on writing valuable content but did not pay enough attention to promotion. The reality is simple: even the best products need visibility. Without marketing, people simply do not k...

 When I first stepped into the world of sales and marketing, one of the most important lessons I learned was the difference between on-sales and off-sales . At first, I thought sales was just about closing deals—but over time, I realized there’s a whole journey before and after that transaction. Let me break it down in my own words. What is On-Sales? On-sales is everything I do before the customer makes the purchase . It’s the active effort to bring them in, convince them, and close the deal. Think of it as the “courtship” stage—where I’m building trust, answering objections, and showing value. Example: When I was working on a campaign for a SaaS product, the on-sales activities included demo calls, sharing case studies, running targeted ads, and offering free trials. All of these were designed to convert a prospect into a paying customer. Strategies I use in On-Sales: Lead qualification – Not every lead is worth chasing, so I use tools and frameworks to focus on the one...

Growing up in West Bengal, I’ve never looked at Durga Puja as just a festival. For us, it’s an emotion — five days when the entire state feels alive with lights, pandals, food, music, and togetherness. But as I started working in marketing, I began to notice another side of Pujo: its sheer economic impact. I recently came across a figure that Durga Puja contributes nearly ₹50,000 crore to India’s economy . That’s not a typo. We’re talking about one festival driving an impact comparable to entire industries. And if you’re a marketer, this is a lesson you can’t afford to miss. Here’s what I’ve learned and what I think every marketer should take away from Durga Puja: 1. Cultural Relevance Beats Generic Messaging During Durga Puja, ads that work aren’t the ones shouting discounts. It’s the campaigns that capture the emotion of Pujo : togetherness, nostalgia, festivity. Brands like Shoppers Stop, Titan, and even Zomato have mastered this. If you’re marketing during festivals, speak the...

When I first started in marketing, I often thought of campaigns as stand-alone activities — create content, run ads, track results, repeat. But as I gained experience, I realized something deeper: marketing isn’t just a collection of tactics. It’s part of a value chain — a system where every activity creates or adds value for the customer and, ultimately, for the business. What is the Value Chain in Marketing? The value chain, a concept introduced by Michael Porter, explains how a company turns inputs into valuable products or services. In marketing, this means looking at how every touchpoint — from product design to after-sales service — contributes to customer value . It’s not only about selling; it’s about connecting strategy, operations, and customer experience in a way that makes the brand indispensable. How Marketing Fits into the Value Chain From my perspective, marketing shows up across almost every link of the chain: Inbound Logistics & Operations – Understandin...

Over the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of taking guest lectures across different institutes. Each time I stepped into a classroom—whether it was filled with MBA students, undergraduates, or aspiring marketers—I thought I was there to teach . But if I’m honest, those sessions ended up teaching me just as much. One lesson that stood out is the gap between theory and skills . Students are often well-versed in frameworks, definitions, and academic concepts. They can tell you what “segmentation, targeting, and positioning” is or recite the 4Ps of marketing without missing a beat. But when I ask them to apply those same concepts to, say, running a Meta Ads campaign for a local brand, there’s a pause—a moment of hesitation. That pause told me something important: knowing is not the same as doing . During one session, I shared real dashboards from Meta Ads and asked students to analyze why a particular campaign wasn’t performing well. Initially, they leaned on textbook responses—...

When I first thought about becoming a marketing consultant, I was honestly overwhelmed. So many questions ran through my head: Where do I start? What do I offer? How do I even find clients who’d trust me? But instead of overthinking, I broke it down into small steps—steps that I could actually take. Looking back, those early decisions shaped my entire consulting journey. Here’s the story of how I did it, and the exact path I’d recommend if you’re just starting out. Step 1: Narrowing Down What I Do (And Who I Do It For) In the beginning, I made the mistake of saying: “I can do everything—social media, ads, SEO, websites, content, you name it.” The truth? That confused people. The turning point came when I asked myself one question: “Who exactly do I want to help, and with what result?” That’s when I chose a niche, defined an ideal client, and got clear on the outcome I could deliver. For me, it was helping early-stage businesses get their first scalable marketing system in pla...

Two years ago, I launched what I thought was a brilliant MVP. After months of careful planning and development, I was confident we'd built something users would love. Within 48 hours of launch, I realized I was wrong. Not just wrong, but spectacularly wrong. The feedback we received wasn't just negative – it revealed fundamental flaws in our core assumptions that could have been caught weeks earlier. That painful experience taught me the most important lesson of my product career: getting feedback on your MVP isn't just about validation – it's about strategic learning. Today, I want to share the framework I've developed for getting feedback that actually improves your product strategy, not just your features. Why Most MVP Feedback Strategies Fail Before diving into what works, let me share what I've learned about why most teams struggle with MVP feedback: The Confirmation Bias Trap I've seen countless teams (including my own early mistakes) design feed...

As someone who has spent years studying marketing strategies and watching the Indian business landscape, I've been fascinated by how several homegrown brands have successfully implemented what W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne call the "Blue Ocean Strategy." Today, I want to share my observations on how Indian companies have created uncontested market spaces, making competition irrelevant while capturing new demand. My Understanding of Blue Ocean Strategy Before diving into examples, let me explain what I understand by Blue Ocean Strategy. Unlike red ocean strategies where companies fight over existing market share in bloody, competitive waters, blue ocean strategy is about creating new market spaces – untapped territories where competition doesn't exist yet. It's about value innovation: offering something so unique that you create your own category. I've noticed that successful blue ocean strategies focus on four key actions: Eliminate factors the industr...