Shells Advertising

In 1987, as a 23 year old setting up an ad agency, I struggled to get clients to listen. In 2026, I struggle to get people to stop scrolling. 😄 40+ years in marketing taught me one thing: Everything has changed. Except human we are marketing to. Grateful to Hello Entrepreneurs for featuring my journey. Still learning. Every day.

Bookshops didn't want Penguin's books. Woolworths ordered 63,000. Penguin never invented a new product. It removed 3 barriers around an old one: Price: a great book for the cost of a packet of cigarettes
Recognition: a bird you could spot across a room
Distribution: Woolworths, not bookshops Don't wait for customers to find you. Go where they already are. #BrandStrategy @PenguinIndia

9 bookstores. 9 hours. 9 different reasons people picked up my book. Some came looking for it. Some found it on a table. Some bought it because a bookseller pushed it into their hands. Same book. Three journeys. That's the whole game in one Delhi afternoon. Brief Case: 21 Sept.

15 TEDx talks. Nagpur to Shillong. Grateful @TheHitavada covered it. Talk #15 is at TEDxIIMShillong, Sept 16.

One week, four cities, three speaking engagements, a few book signing events and a lot of miles in between. But the real privilege isn’t the travel. It’s the opportunity to be with people who are willing to think differently, question assumptions and rethink what they know about business and brands. Shillong → Jaipur → Lucknow → Delhi → home. Different audiences, different industries, different conversations. Same mission: make ideas travel further than I do.

This morning: #782. This afternoon: No.1 Bestseller in Sales. No.1 in Marketing. No.1 Hot New Release. Then it sold out.

In 2015 India destroyed 37,000 tonnes of noodles. And mothers came out on the streets to defend them. Nobody protests for a product. They were defending their childhood.

A mother in Mumbai got angry about coriander. Four hours later, a company worth thousands of crores had changed its app. The CEO replied with two words: Will do.

A small item in the local newspaper this morning: I’ve been appointed an Independent Director on the Board of MMP Industries Limited. MMP has been making aluminium powders and foils out of Nagpur since 1973, a business that has grown for five decades without ever needing much noise. I’ve spent my career on the noisy side of business. So this feels less like what I bring to the boardroom, and more like what fifty years of manufacturing discipline can teach a brand man. Grateful to the Board for the trust. #MMPIndustries #IndependentDirector #CorporateGovernance #BrandStrategy #Nagpur

An Indian Berkeley-Stanford chemist went to prison for loving India. He came out and built a raincoat empire from a shed in Calcutta. That brand still protects our fighter pilots & navy commandos today. Most Indians have worn it. Almost none know this story. The Duckback saga nobody told you about 👇

Toyota doesn’t dominate by chasing excitement, it wins by designing for boredom. While others add complexity and features, Toyota obsesses over what breaks and removes it until only reliability remains. Their engineers aren’t trying to impress you on day one, they’re trying to make the car disappear from your worries for decades. That restraint is why Toyotas quietly cross 300,000 miles while others chase innovation headlines. In a world addicted to more, boring has become a competitive advantage. #Strategy

An Australian creator sold tap water for $1,000 by changing nothing except the story around it. Same water, different bottle, setting, and words, and people experienced more value, more pleasure, and more belief. Science shows our brains feel more when we think something is premium, even if it’s identical. Customers don’t buy products, they buy meaning, identity, and emotion. Change the story, and you change the value.

That feeling when a McDonald’s fry box looks “not quite full,” yet you still finish every fry and want more? That isn’t an accident — it’s psychology. Our eyes decide fullness long before our stomachs do, and “almost enough” keeps us coming back in a way overflow never could. Scarcity makes anything feel more desirable, from limited cups at Starbucks to rare iPhone colours that become instant status symbols. Smart brands don’t just fill the box — they design the feeling that makes you reach for one more.

Every 'overnight success' I've met has years of unseen failures behind them. The real story isn't the summit, it's the climb they never showed you.

The Rs.10 biscuit that became a rage as and the blank canvas that made all of us chefs, but it’s the story of how it got its name will blow your mind away!