Not Being Honest — The Biggest Ethical Challenge

What’s one thing you love most about marketing, especially in the context of advertising and sales promotion, which you teach? What led you to choose this as your career?

When I was in graduation, even though I was studying science, I always loved psychology. Why do people behave in certain ways? How can you get people to behave the way you want them to behave? The power you can have over people fascinated me.

Being a girl from UP, I used to feel very powerless because, first, in UP men are considered more important than women. Secondly, when you’re just walking on the street, anyone can say something, tease you, and walk away, and you can’t do much. Then I realised the only power I had was my brain — like Matilda, if you’ve read that book. That’s how I started getting into psychology. From psychology, I realised advertising is nothing but playing with
people’s minds. So I got into this field. I also loved talking; I didn’t like sitting in an office and working on a desktop. That’s how I got into it.

If you weren’t teaching, what other profession do you think you would be in?

It would definitely be a customer-facing, people-facing role. I would have done something on stage, that’s for sure. Maybe a stand-up comedian; they’re
coming up now. I think I have an act for that, but back then nobody thought about stand-up comedy.

Wherever I have to convince people, I feel comfortable. I could have become a placement officer in a bigger university or a marketing professional devising strategies, working in advertising, planning how to position a brand — something along those lines. I want to be in a people-facing role that’s somehow connected with marketing. More than marketing itself, I like reading into people’s minds — not manipulating — but understanding them and getting them  to do what my career requires.

In a dream-like situation, I might have become an actor or something — face the camera.

In your opinion, how much of marketing is about applying frameworks and how much is about intuition and creativity? Can one be successful in this field without knowing the jargon?

You don’t need to know the jargon. Jargon is just words people create so others feel intimidated. It’s like wine. Wine is just wine. Chai is just chai, but then you have entire industries around them with difficult words and concepts. So no, it’s not necessary.

I think intuition and creativity alone cannot take you far, because when you’re reading about marketing, you’re absorbing concepts and frameworks that attune your mind. For example, before your advertising course, you would see an ad simply as a good or bad ad based on social acceptance. But after the course, you start thinking about the customers, the message, the product placement, how they’re influencing behaviour — that gives you a base to create
your own ads. So frameworks help by giving you a foundation from which you can build further.

However, someone sitting in a room cannot understand marketing fully. You have to meet people, talk to them, and then bring those learnings back to tweak your approach. For example, I have students working in Asian Paints. One student told me how they use marketing concepts they’ve learned. Asian Paints asks customers to upload a picture of their house to their website, and based on that, it suggests paints. Many people may not realise it’s a clever strategy. Once you upload a room image, they analyse other things, like whether you have a bigger TV, and push more expensive paint products accordingly. These tactics are not in textbooks but arise from understanding customer behaviour.

 

Actually, after the course, we saw this in action. Whenever we see an ad, we start dissecting it — what audience they’re targeting, whether it’s cognitive or behavioural. The same with consumer behaviour and market research. We’re relating what we see to the concepts we’ve learned.

Yes. That student also told me they’re developing Asian Paints’ website in Hindi. Again, knowing how expensive such work is, why would they do it? Many people in India cannot understand English when they visit a website. If they can read in Hindi and understand the nuances, they’ll ask their dealer for Asian Paints, giving the company a better market share.

 

Based on your experience, what is the most crucial skill a student can develop to succeed, not just in marketing, but in life?

Try to understand why someone is doing what they’re doing. If you can see beyond the action and ask ‘why,’ you understand motives. Sometimes there’s no motive — it’s just action-reaction. Otherwise, knowing the motive helps you work with it.

Secondly, especially for students joining a company, always think two steps ahead. Don’t react blindly. Understand how the other person might react to your actions.

For instance, when I started as a salesperson in Allahabad, my job was to visit government offices and convince IAS officers to buy computer training courses. I went to these offices and stood, because in my convent school, we were taught never to sit unless asked. In Allahabad, if you just stand, people
assume you’re from a lower background and won’t offer you a chair. Only when I spoke in English and mentioned I was from the best school would they realise who I was and invite me to sit.

Later I understood that behaviour in UP works differently from other places like Chennai, where subtlety is appreciated. In UP, being brash is seen as confidence. So next time I simply pulled a chair and sat down. At 21 or 22, facing someone 35 or 40, this earned me more respect. To get ahead, you must understand the place, the people, and their psychology.

 

What is the most significant ethical challenge that marketers, especially in advertising, face today?

The biggest challenge is asking people to buy things they don’t need. Every other day there’s a sale and prices are slashed. It’s necessary to sell for the market to function, but practices like this are unfair.

For example, Amazon might sell a product for `200, and two days later it’s `150. That’s unethical to the customer. In America, if prices drop soon after
purchase, you can return the item, but in India, return policies are limited. What’s happening is that prices fluctuate based on a customer’s purchasing history. Someone with a higher net worth is charged more, while a new customer is offered a lower price. That’s unfair.

Being honest and fair is a huge challenge, and we need policies to enforce it. But if we enforced strict fairness, we couldn’t pay our MBAs such high salaries— that’s the reality.

We’re pushing materialism aggressively. Even 13-year-olds are told to use serums to prevent dry skin or wrinkles. But South India seems to get by without
this culture, while North India is definitely more materialistic. Teaching children that they don’t need more stuff is difficult, but it’s necessary. So, not being honest — that’s the biggest ethical challenge.

 

And regarding price discrimination, we’ve observed that prices differ depending on whether you’re using an Android or iOS phone.

Yes. The same applies to Uber or Ola —  they quote higher prices based on your phone. Products for women are also priced higher. These are ethical challenges. We want to be honest but can’t be. There’s always a balance between profit and honesty. Capitalism drives us to buy more.

Do we really need three TVs in three bedrooms? We managed with just one black-and-white TV for the entire family. But now people keep buying more. In
America, people buy clothes, wear them once, and then throw them away or donate them. We need to scale back materialism. Marketers understand this, but they’re constrained by the system.

 

Given that tourism is a key driver of our economy, what can India do to make the most of its diverse offerings? How would you position Indian tourism globally?

Right now, Indian tourism is positioned as multicultural with diverse offerings, which is fine. Some states promote tourism actively, others don’t. Tourism is left to individual states, but it would be better if there was a centralised body overseeing it.

Take Bihar’s Bodh Gaya — an incredible site for Buddhist tourists from Asia. Yet it’s underdeveloped and many people don’t even know about it. Gujarat and Rajasthan are doing more in tourism.

Corruption and lack of preservation  also cause heritage sites to be neglected. Some monuments are encroached upon or poorly maintained. We need a robust department to protect our heritage. Italy, for example, discovered artefacts while building a railway and preserved them properly. We don’t do that in India, which is unfortunate.

 

If you had to create a marketing campaign for yourself, what would be your core message and key channels?

I’ve never thought about it honestly. I can create a campaign as an academician, but not as myself. If I had to, the key channels would be LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram — those reach the widest audience.

My core message would focus on health — not just physical but mental health — and how one can be at peace with themselves. I see myself as a life coach helping people become calmer and less stressed. That would be my USP and campaign message. I wouldn’t use Facebook.

 

No one uses Facebook anymore?

I don’t like it because whenever I go on Facebook, I see sad, sponsored content. I’m sick of it. There’s enough sadness in the world already.

 

Thinking back to your journey, what advice would you give to your 21-year-old self — or any 21-year-old — just starting out?

First, don’t limit yourself. If you feel you can do something, even if the world says “don’t,” don’t listen — just do it. Whether you succeed or not is secondary. As it is, you are sitting on zero without doing. Trying and failing is still plus one.

Second, I would tell myself or anybody, don’t take unnecessary risks. They’re not worth it. Don’t drive scooters at high speed, or go for bungee jumping or skydiving, especially in India. There are enough accidents. That’s all marketing. That’s all hype, that you have to feel free, flying in the air like a bird. You’re human. Enjoy what you can as a human being.

Third, don’t try to fix things just because you feel you have to. Do what you want to do. Resentment follows forced choices. For example, if you want
one car but your spouse wants another, don’t settle for the other just for peace. Find a way out but don’t compromise. Lastly, use logic — not tradition,
culture, or advice from parents and grandparents. They lived in a different era. Logic will take you far.