Brand of the Month
Brand of the Month: May 2026. India’s 5 Most Interesting FMCG Plays
India’s brand landscape doesn’t slow down in summer. In May 2026, five FMCG brands made moves worth studying, from a…
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Brand Strategy
Brand Journal
Three Friends Spent ₹50,000 Making Cold Brew Coffee in Their Kitchen. India Had Never Heard of It.
In 2016, cold brew didn't exist as a consumer category in India. Most people hadn't heard the phrase. Ajai Thandi and his co-founders decided that was the opportunity, not the obstacle. They were right.
Brand Journal
mCaffeine Put Coffee in a Face Wash. Dermatologists Shrugged. Indians Bought Millions of Units.
Caffeine is a legitimate, clinically-backed skincare ingredient. But that's not why mCaffeine exploded. It exploded because the branding made young Indians feel like their skincare routine was as cool as their morning coffee order. Here's how.
Brand Journal
The Shaving Brand That Realised Indian Men Didn’t Know They Had a Skincare Problem
Indian men were spending ₹40 on a Mach3 refill and calling it grooming. Shantanu Deshpande saw a different market, one that didn't exist yet. He had to educate it into existence. Then sell it.
Brand Journal
Wakefit’s Founder Noticed That Indians Were Buying Bad Mattresses Because They Were Too Embarrassed to Test Them Properly
Mattress shopping in India was broken. You lay on a mattress for 30 seconds under showroom lights while a salesman watched. Then you made a ₹20,000 decision. Chaitanya Ramalingegowda decided to fix the embarrassment and built a ₹900 crore company doing it.
Brand Journal
Every Global Beauty Brand Tested on Fair Skin. Vineeta Singh Built Her Entire Brand on Everyone Else.
When Vineeta Singh launched SUGAR Cosmetics, every global brand's foundation shade chart started at porcelain. She started at dusky. That one decision ignored by every incumbent became a ₹1,000 crore brand.
Brand Journal
Meesho Now Has More Active Users Than Amazon India. Nobody in Mumbai Talks About It.
Meesho serves the India that premium D2C brands, Nykaa, and Blinkit don't. It's the largest e-commerce platform for tier 2 and tier 3 cities and it's quietly outgrowing every competitor in user count. The brand conversation about Indian e-commerce consistently misses it.
Brand Journal
Tata Consumer Products Is Quietly Building India’s Largest Packaged Foods Company
Most people know Tata Salt and Tata Tea. Fewer realise that Tata Consumer Products now also owns Soulfull, NourishCo, and the food business of Tata Chemicals and is consolidating everything under one listed entity. This is India's biggest FMCG restructuring in a decade.
Brand Journal
Zepto Went From a Stanford Dropout’s Idea to a ₹40,000 Crore Valuation in Three Years
Aadit Palicha dropped out of Stanford at 19 to deliver groceries in 10 minutes. Most people thought it was a stunt. It turned out to be India's fastest-scaling consumer startup since Jio.
Brand Journal
Mamaearth Listed on the Stock Exchange. Then the Stock Fell 30%.
Honasa Consumer — the parent of Mamaearth became India's first D2C brand to go public. It was supposed to validate the D2C model. What happened next was a masterclass in the difference between brand love and investor confidence.
Brand Journal
Paper Boat Sells Aamras at ₹30. What It’s Actually Selling Is Your Childhood.
Paper Boat doesn't compete with Coca-Cola on distribution or Pepsi on marketing spend. It competes on memory. Neeraj Kakkar built a beverage brand that sells nostalgia in a pouch in a market two multinationals have dominated for 30 years.
Brand Journal
Fevicol Hasn’t Changed Its Product in 60 Years. Its Ads Do All the Heavy Lifting.
Fevicol has one product, one target customer, and one brand promise. What it has in unlimited supply is advertising so effective that the brand name became a verb in Hindi. Here's how Pidilite built India's most recalled industrial brand without changing a thing.
Brand Journal
Nestle Destroyed ₹400 Crore of Maggi. Two Years Later, India Was Eating More Noodles Than Ever.
In June 2015, Nestle India recalled every pack of Maggi from Indian shelves and destroyed 38,000 tonnes of noodles. Analysts wrote its obituary. They were spectacularly wrong.
Brand Journal
Three Brothers Split Their Snack Business Over a Family Dispute. The Accident Created a ₹50,000 Crore Empire.
Haldiram's is India's most beloved snack brand. It's also three completely separate companies that can't sell in each other's territories. The story of how a family fight accidentally built a snack empire is one of Indian business's strangest and most instructive tales.
Brand Journal
The Difference Between a Brand and a Logo (In 60 Seconds)
A logo is not a brand. It’s just a symbol.That’s one of the biggest misconceptions in business. A logo is…
Brand Journal
What Most Startups Get Wrong About Branding (And How to Fix It)
Most startups think branding starts with design.It doesn’t. Branding starts with clarity.And that’s exactly where most founders fail. 1. They…
Brand Journal
The Real Reason Swiggy Feels More “Fun” Than Its Competitors
Most delivery apps focus on efficiency, Swiggy focuses on energy.That’s why the brand feels lighter, faster, and more entertaining than…
Brand Journal
Why most startups get branding completely wrong?
And it’s costing them users. Most startups think branding starts with design.It doesn’t. That mistake alone kills clarity, conversions, and…
Brand Journal
Why Apple never talks about specs (and still wins)
Most brands sell features, Apple sells feelings.And that’s why they dominate. Look closely: Meanwhile… Most startups: Here’s the truth: People…