Brand Growth and Development

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.

🍦WHY ARE BRANDS USING FOOD AESTHETICS MORE AND MORE IN THEIR MARKETING? Because visual hunger is just as powerful as physical hunger. We don’t just look at a product — we crave it. Brands like Rhode, Fenty Skin, Loewe, Glossier have tapped into something key: Food triggers emotional responses instantly. 🧁 Airy, whipped textures 🍬 Packaging that looks like candy 🍦Colors straight out of an ice cream shop It’s a language of pleasure — one the brain understands immediately. 🧠 Neuropsychology plays a big role here: Food-like visuals activate areas of the brain tied to reward, dopamine, and comforting memories. We subconsciously associate the product with something delicious, soft, and deeply desirable. So brands are selling a feeling: joy, indulgence, care, comfort. It’s instinctive marketing. And it works before you ever touch the product.

If Indian retail wants to win, it must shift its focus from discounts to this, Recently, in a conversation about retail strategy, someone asked me, “Why do so many brands struggle to build long-term loyalty?” The answer is simple: They’re addicted to discounts. Price cuts create a temporary spike in sales. But what happens when the sale ends? Customers move on to the next discount. There’s no loyalty in a race to the bottom. If a brand’s only value proposition is being the cheapest, it’s not a brand, it’s a commodity. And commodities don’t build relationships. The strongest retail brands win on something deeper: ✅ Product innovation: If your product isn’t unique, no discount can save you. UNIQLO doesn’t rely on markdowns, it invests in technology-driven fabrics like HeatTech and AIRism, making its products essential rather than seasonal. ✅ Customer Experience: Shopping isn’t just about the product, it’s also about how customers feel. IKEA built an entire ecosystem around its stores, cafes, play areas, interactive showrooms, turning shopping into an experience people return for, even when they don’t “need” anything. ✅ Community Building: The most powerful brands don’t have customers, they have believers. Starbucks doesn’t just sell coffee; it sells familiarity and personalisation. People go there for the experience of “their” drink, their name on a cup, their place to work or meet. That’s not a transaction, it’s a relationship. + The brands that rely on discounts are playing defense.  + The brands that invest in differentiation are playing to win. So the real question isn’t how much you can lower your price; it's how much value you can create. #retailleadership #beyonddiscounts #brandbuilding

I have spent years in the highs and lows of the consumer goods industry but never seen a pricing climate quite like this. Manufacturers are getting squeezed from every direction-tariffs, skyrocketing raw material costs, and relentless supply chain disruptions. The old playbook of raising prices to cover costs? That’s dead. Why? Because consumers are feeling the pressure too. A 2024 Nielsen report makes it clear: today’s shoppers are scrutinizing every dollar they spend, and brands that aren’t strategic about pricing risk losing market share fast. Here’s what I’m seeing from top CPG brands that get it: 1️⃣ Walmart is investing heavily in AI-driven pricing models to keep costs competitive-e-commerce now makes up 18% of total revenue. 2️⃣ PepsiCo is doubling down on pack-size innovation, offering smaller, affordable options to maintain volume without excessive discounting. 3️⃣ Luxury brands are using price elasticity models, testing demand thresholds before rolling out increases-avoiding consumer pushback. 4️⃣ Supply chain resilience is non-negotiable. Companies are shifting manufacturing away from China, despite short-term cost spikes, to avoid future geopolitical risks. The smartest brands aren’t just reacting. They’re rethinking. They’re moving toward Revenue Growth Management (RGM) frameworks that help them: ✅ Optimize pricing and promotions (because blanket price hikes are a losing game) ✅ Focus on margin-smart growth, not just revenue ✅ Leverage data analytics to make smarter, faster pricing decisions Brands that don’t evolve risk eroding profitability or pricing themselves out of the market. CPG leaders who master strategic pricing, operational efficiency, and consumer-driven value creation will own the future of this industry. Are you adjusting your strategy, or just reacting to rising costs? Because in 2025, only the most adaptable brands will win. #CPG #FMCG #PricingStrategy #RevenueGrowth #ConsumerGoods

We talk a lot about how brands can connect to women. But here’s where I think the conversation goes wrong: Women are not one group of like-minded consumers. The category of “women” comprises 4 billion people with different preferences, professions, purchasing habits, and personal lives. So how can brands connect with women? Authenticity. I'm talking about the kind of authenticity that comes from truly understanding, representing, and serving the people your brand reaches. Why does this matter? Let's look at the numbers first:  • Women are overseeing $32 trillion in spending globally.  • By 2028, 75% of discretionary spending will be controlled by women. These aren't just statistics—they're a wake-up call for brands trying to connect with women. Brands historically miss the mark when they focus on women as "consumers," rather than as people. Take Dove's work with the CROWN Act, a movement and legislation aimed at prohibiting race-based hair discrimination in workplaces and schools. By bringing attention to how women of color—particularly Black women—have historically been told how to wear their hair at work, Dove drove meaningful change that extended far beyond marketing. The result for Dove (and its parent company Unilever) hasn't just been products sold, but actual legislative change—all because they stood for something that impacts the day-to-day life of their consumers. The key to the consumer paradigm: You cannot effectively serve women if you don't represent them at every level of your organization. Women continue to hold relatively few leadership positions in industries primarily serving women. The fashion and beauty industries, for example, are dominated by male leadership. When brands get it right, it shows. A few examples? FERRAGAMO appointed a female CEO back in 1960—long before it was trending—and that commitment to women in leadership has been woven into their DNA ever since. It’s not a campaign. It’s who they are. Or formula company Bobbie, which doesn’t just have consumers, they have devoted brand ambassadors, families, and loyal subscribers. True representation isn't about optics—it's about women making decisions at all levels—from product development to marketing to the C-suite. Maybe we need to retire the word "consumer" altogether. Because if we're talking about real, authentic connections, shouldn't we instead be focusing on people as human beings. It's no longer about thinking what you “should” create to get them to buy—it's about genuinely making that woman’s life better because you know exactly who she is. And your company’s leadership reflects that. 

Marketing has two big jobs, but we're usually judged on only one. Our job in marketing splits into two parts: Building mental availability: making sure people know who we are and remember us when they’re ready to buy. This is often called brand marketing. Activating demand: making sure that people who are ready to buy choose us. This is typically performance or demand marketing. Here’s the challenge — most of our metrics (MQLs, pipeline, revenue) are tied to demand activation. But brand and demand aren’t separate – they work together. Still, they behave differently and aren’t always easy to measure in the same way. Brand is like staying in shape. You go to the gym, eat healthy, and take care of yourself. You don’t always see instant results, but over time, your body gets stronger. → In marketing terms: We want more people to know us, remember us, and think of us when they’re ready to buy. This is a long-term game. Demand activation is like showing up on race day. You’ve trained for months, and now it’s time to perform. If you’re fit, you’ll likely do well. → In marketing terms: When someone’s ready to buy, our goal is to be easy to find and hard to ignore. Most of the time, our execs care about the race day numbers – leads, opps, deals. That’s fair, because those drive revenue. But if we don’t also take care of our brand (our fitness), performance eventually suffers. So what do we do? We need to measure both. Performance marketing already has clear metrics. But brand often feels fuzzy — hard to prove it’s working. That’s why Share of Search (SoS) is useful. It’s a quantifiable way to track how much people are searching for our brand compared to competitors. It acts like a “brand scoreboard”, so we can see how campaigns are moving the needle, even if the revenue impact comes later. So: Use performance metrics for activation (leads, opps, CAC, etc.) Use Share of Search as the north star for brand Run both in parallel, and know that each supports the other Two different motions. Two different metrics. One goal: revenue growth.

I always tell my teams we are in service of two objectives: 1. Leave the brand more valuable than when we were given the privilege to serve it. 2. Leave the shareholders more content than when we started. Brand value and shareholder value are mutually reinforcing. Any other thinking is simply not marketing excellence. When brand initiatives fail to drive financial outcomes, we've created art, not marketing. When financial pursuits damage brand equity, we've mortgaged the future for quarterly results. True marketing leadership rejects false choices. We don't separate creative excellence from commercial impact, purpose from profit, or data from intuition. The tension between these elements is precisely what drives breakthrough strategy. Shareholder value without brand stewardship is unsustainable. Brand purity without commercial results is indulgent. Excellence means embracing both. Always.

The future of luxury beauty is emotional regulation. For decades, the beauty industry sold transformation through visibility: better skin, fuller hair, a younger face, a more perfected version of the self. Luxury was aspirational, performative, external. Now it will be defined by how a product makes you feel. +75% consumers say a beauty routine contributes to their wellbeing +55% of female beauty consumers say they feel more mentally stressed than five years ago >>CONSUMER desire is evolving. Today’s luxury customer is increasingly driven by wellness, longevity, and emotional balance. Beauty is no longer positioned as a tool for attraction alone, but as part of a broader ecosystem of self-regulation and nervous system care. In a culture shaped by digital exhaustion, stress, and overstimulation, beauty products are becoming emotional objects. +80% of adults are adopting preventative beauty routines +70% are changing sleep, stress, and lifestyle habits to support beauty outcomes This is why beauty is beginning to overlap with wellness in a much deeper way. The rise of longevity culture has expanded the definition of beauty itself. Looking good is no longer enough; consumers want to feel regulated, rested, and internally restored. The most forward-thinking brands understand this shift. They are designing products not simply around results, but around experience: +Fragrances developed through neuroscience and mood association +Skincare rituals designed to slow down daily routines +Tactile packaging that encourages touch and presence +Soft materials, weighted objects, and calming textures +Muted palettes inspired by interiors, spas, and wellness spaces +Sensory retail environments that reduce stimulation rather than amplify it >>PACKAGING under the spot light. It is becoming central to the emotional positioning of a brand. The new codes of luxury are softer, quieter, and more intimate. Heavy glass, smooth matte finishes, natural textures, rounded forms, magnetic closures, subtle sound design, and calming color systems all communicate emotional safety and permanence. +60% of luxury consumers plan to increase wellness spending over the next year >>No longer just visual branding. It is becoming a physical interface for wellbeing. In many ways, the future of luxury beauty looks closer to hospitality, wellness architecture, and therapeutic design than traditional cosmetics marketing. The brands that will define the next decade will not be those that sell perfection most aggressively. They will be the ones that understand how to regulate emotion, create ritual, and support longevity in both body and mind. Featured Brands: Atypic Edition Cavaco Elea Feel Olfactif Paris Raaie Sir Jacobs Tamburins To Summer Vie Healing #beautyindustry #beautybusiness #wellness #beautyprofessionals

From near-collapse to ₹623 Cr PAT Ritesh Agarwal didn’t just turn around OYO in FY25 He performed a full-blown financial surgery on itself, while the world was watching Here's how India’s most criticised unicorn became its most profitable startup 1. 2019–2021: Expansion without margins At its peak, OYO operated in 80+ countries. Valuation? $10B. Backers? SoftBank, Sequoia. But behind the scenes: - Minimum guarantee model locked in fixed payouts - Losses spiralled in China, the US, and Europe - Layoffs, lawsuits, and delayed IPO filings piled up - COVID collapsed travel, and revenue with it - Present in 80+ countries FY21 PAT: ₹-3,944 Cr FY22 PAT: ₹-1,952 Cr OYO was bleeding. 2. FY23–FY25: The quiet rebuild - No media blitz. No vanity press. - Just execution. FY23 PAT: ₹-1 Cr (break-even test case) FY24 PAT: ₹229 Cr FY25 PAT: ₹623 Cr This wasn’t just growth. It was margin-led maturity. Revenue: ₹5,464 Cr → ₹6,463 Cr (FY24→FY25) EBITDA: ₹889 Cr → ₹1,132 Cr GBV: ₹10,700 Cr → ₹16,436 Cr - OTA commissions crushed as 90% of India bookings went direct - Cost stack transformed: - Marketing cut 63% since FY20 - Employee benefits down 88% - Tech-led inventory + pricing ops scaled across 30K+ hotels $660M debt refinanced via Deutsche Bank 3. G6 Hospitality: The bolt-on that stuck - Acquired in late FY24 - Added 1,500 hotels (Motel 6, Studio 6) - Delivered ₹275 Cr Q4 revenue - Drove US share of total revenue to 24% - Added 150+ new corporate clients in Q1 FY25 Early buys lacked strategic alignment: Weddingz.in, DoneThing, RLTgo, and Qianyu were cost centers, not growth levers Checkmyguest ($27.4M), DIRECT Booker, and Danamica ($10M) added patchy ROI 4. IPO: Delayed by design 2021: ₹8,430 Cr DRHP → Withdrawn 2023: Confidential filing → Postponed 2025: Two windows missed → Maturity play Why? Founder dilution restructured (Red Spring now key holder) Valuation reset to earnings-led (not SoftBank multiples) Target: ₹1,100 Cr PAT in FY26 3-year PAT run → Index fund eligibility post-IPO The investor lens? This isn’t a comeback story. It’s a cap table recalibration, model correction, and monetisation reset—executed in public view. FY25 proved OYO can scale with unit discipline, acquire with ROI, and stay private until real institutional value is ready to be unlocked. Now the only thing left: can they IPO without diluting the story? #oyo #startup #investor #funding #ipo

I grew an email list from 0 to 500K subscribers in just 10 months for a weekly travel email series. Here’s exactly how we did it: First, nail your strategy. → Identify scalable acquisition channels (cold email, giveaways, social media). → Focus on creating top-notch content that people love. Second, here’s a list of do’s and don’ts based on our success: 1. COLD EMAIL: DON’T: Treat cold email like spam. DO: Use data to personalize at scale. We built a tool that searched Instagram for public data: - Hashtags (like #travel or #wanderlust). - Geotags (places they visited). - Followed accounts (@natgeo, etc.). This allowed us to write hyper-personalized emails with subject lines like: - “Your #hashtag photo” - “Came across your Instagram” Results: 45-50% open rates, 10-15% CTRs, and 200K subscribers from this channel alone. Pro Tip: Warm up your email servers before scaling. Platforms like Gmass + SendGrid worked wonders for us. 2. GIVEAWAYS: DON’T: Run generic giveaways that only attract freebie hunters. DO: Offer niche rewards your audience actually wants. We gave away free flights and hotel stays (funded by rewards miles) and incentivized sharing. Every referral earned bonus entries, creating a viral loop. Results: 5K-15K new subscribers per giveaway, with tools like Gleam and ViralLoops doing the heavy lifting. 3. SOCIAL MEDIA: DON’T: Spend months building social accounts from scratch. DO: Buy and rebrand existing accounts in your niche. We acquired travel-themed Instagram accounts with 700K followers for $10K, then grew the network to 2.2M followers. Here’s how we used them: - Drove traffic to our website, giveaways, and landing pages. - Automated email collection through DMs using tools like MassPlanner. - Created Facebook Groups (30K members), collecting emails via sign-up questions. 4. AMBASSADOR PROGRAM: DON’T: Waste money on influencers who don’t convert. DO: Partner with micro-influencers and reward them based on performance. We recruited 100s of travel influencers from our email data and incentivized them with swag and free travel. Results: Tens of thousands of new subscribers at a cost of just a few cents per email. --- To recap: 1. Personalize cold emails with data. 2. Use giveaways and social proof to fuel virality. 3. Build or buy niche audiences and grow from there. These strategies helped us scale fast. Your email list is one of the best assets you can build. Start experimenting and watch it grow.