I was frightened that I would be treated badly without the power of a big brand and title shielding me. This was when I was leaving my role as Chief Marketing Officer of Wipro Technologies to start Paul Writer, a marketing consulting firm in 2010. I now realize that it was the change in identity that was causing the fear. But what did I do about it? I invested in corporate armour – a Louis Vuitton bag, a BMW. To tell myself and the world that I was successful with or without the company brand name.
I did some less shallow things too – more on that in a bit. But I really did think that these purchases would boost my social confidence. It’s more nuanced now.
Is GenZ Self Confident?
Sabyasachi is the founder of India’s largest homegrown luxury fashion brand. He says that he is not targeting GenZ because their “social confidence is not defined by consumption, but by purpose”.
Research backs this up. Publicis Groupe India and Kantar Gen Z Horizons: Aspirations and Engagements research, involving 3,000 respondents from 2024 says GenZ are:
Experience Collectors: Prioritizing life-enriching moments and travel over long-term savings.
Purposeful Explorers: Seeking deep authenticity, transparency, and personal fluidity.
Charismatic Inspiration: Heavily influenced by relatable, dynamic personalities and creators.
Abundance Mindset: Comfortable navigating vast choices without brand loyalty constraints.
Holistic Well-being: Treating physical and mental health as interconnected priorities.
Tech as a 5th Sense: Utilizing digital tools and platforms seamlessly for daily discovery.
What does this mean for marketers?
You can’t sell stuff without a meaningful story. Whether it is wheat or a handbag customers want to understand why this is special. For example, Kadam Haat’s handbags sit at the intersection of Indian raw materials, traditional weaving techniques, modern design and helping craftspeople. Starting as a D2C brand they have just opened their first IRL store in Bengaluru.
Diya Joukani is a Mumbai based designer who combines Indian traditional embroidery with edgy styling, cool girl vibes and authentic videos. That has landed her a collab with Nike and the ability to sell clothes priced $100 an up.
Even as AI becomes ubiquitous – and scary – humans are seeking real world narratives that make them feel good about themselves.
The story has shifted from “I’m so cool I can afford these things” to “I’m so cool I care about these things”.
The Anti-AI Wave
It is logical to be afraid of what AI holds for the future, particularly if you are in the job market directly competing with it. Anti-AI is also therefore a rising trend and expressing it can also be a part of your identity. The most clever rendition of this to date is by Desigual (one of my favourite brands) who use the model Vivian Wilson in a campaign “Born to Disobey“. Why it is clever is that Vivian Wilson happens to be a biological child of Elon Musk 🙂
We are in a period of flux, and I personally feel that governments need to do more to enforce Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) on AI firms like Anthropic and Open AI. Otherwise it is like colonization of human civilization, and we all know how that works out for the natives. Just last week OpenAI celebrated solving a super tough math problem that has defied humans for years. Now it says that it can’t rule out that the work a couple of humans did using their systems helped train their models…
I get uncomfortable that there are no penalties for OpenAI agents hacking HuggingFace because there was no intent to cause damage. Still creepy to me. Intelligence without a mind of its own needs a mind to manage it, no?
Do I still care about brands?
At the beginning of the newsletter I said my position is more nuanced now. I believe that brands provide a short cut to writing my own brand narrative. This helps remove awkwardness when telling a new story. Certain brands also are conversation starters and I enjoy that. And then there are others that evoke a personal memory or a sense of accomplishment.
Kadam Haat, for example, is a brand I am happy to both use and gift not just because the products are awesome but because the co-founder Payal Nath is so passionate about her cause and I am an investor in the brand. I love my Louboutin boots because of how I discovered the brand.
What about you? Tell me your stories!
I will be at the AI in Marketing Summit in Bangalore next week – ping me if you expect to be there! I have no affiliation with the event – just looking for interesting content and people 🙂
