BRANDINGBRAND STRATEGYCREATIVE
A brand can make an advertisement that gets everyone talking and still fail to speak to the person most likely to buy its product.
That is the more interesting question behind the recent GIVA Raksha Bandhan advertisement featuring Kriti Sanon.
Much of the public conversation has focused on the actor’s outfit, cultural representation and the decision to eventually withdraw the campaign. Those are valid subjects for cultural and creative debate. But from a marketing perspective, there is a more fundamental question worth asking:
Who was this advertisement actually made for?
Because sometimes the biggest advertising mistake is not choosing the wrong message.
It is choosing the wrong consumer.
And the GIVA campaign provides an interesting case study in exactly that possibility.
The Difference Between the Customer and the Aspirational Customer
There is a common assumption in premium and aspirational marketing:
If the product is premium, the advertising should look premium.
That sounds logical.
But it can become dangerous when “premium” starts being confused with “elite.”
A brand can sell an aspirational product without representing an elite lifestyle.
In fact, many of India’s most interesting consumer markets are built precisely around this gap.
The consumer may not live the lifestyle shown in a luxury advertisement.
But she may want a small piece of that lifestyle.
That distinction matters enormously.
A GIVA jewellery purchase in the ₹3,000 – ₹5,000 plus range can be an attainable premium purchase rather than a conventional luxury purchase. GIVA itself currently promotes extensive jewellery collections below ₹5,000 and explicitly positions such products around gifting, festivals, everyday wear and special occasions.
That means the brand’s consumer may be aspirational without necessarily being affluent.
And that is where advertising needs to be particularly careful.
The ₹5,000 Question
Imagine two women.
The first lives in a major metropolitan city, regularly shops premium fashion, follows celebrity styling, spends freely on beauty and lifestyle products and sees ₹5,000 jewellery as an occasional fashion purchase.
The second lives in a Tier 2 or Tier 3 city.
₹5,000 is still affordable to her, but it is not an insignificant amount.
She may buy jewellery for a birthday, Raksha Bandhan, anniversary, wedding, festival or an important personal milestone.
For her, jewellery can mean:
Love. Family. Achievement. Gifting. Tradition. Self-expression.
A little bit of luxury that she can actually own.
Both consumers can buy the same product.
But they don’t necessarily buy it for the same psychological reason.
That is why demographic targeting alone is not enough.
The real job of marketing research is to understand the meaning behind the purchase.
When Aspiration Becomes Alienation
The GIVA campaign presents an interesting creative contrast.
The visual world is highly polished, fashion-forward and celebrity-led.
Kriti Sanon brings glamour and cultural visibility.
The styling communicates contemporary fashion.
The overall production language feels closer to an aspirational, urban fashion environment.
None of that is inherently wrong.
The problem begins when the visual world becomes too far removed from the cultural and behavioural world of the buyer.
There is a difference between saying:
“This is the woman you could become.”
and saying:
“This is the woman we think you are.”
The first creates aspiration.
The second can create distance.
And that distance is especially dangerous for brands whose growth depends on India’s emerging middle-class consumer.
The Consumer Doesn’t Always Want to See a Celebrity
This is one of the most misunderstood aspects of celebrity advertising.
A celebrity can provide:
- Attention
- Recognition
- Status
- Reach
- Aspirational value
But the celebrity should not replace the consumer insight.
The question should not simply be:
“Does Kriti Sanon look good in GIVA?”
The better question is:
“Does the GIVA consumer see something of herself, her aspirations or her relationships in this world?”
That is a much harder question.
And it is the question that marketing research is supposed to answer before a camera is switched on.
The Cultural Consumer Is Not the Same as the Conservative Consumer
This distinction is also important.
Saying that GIVA may have a culturally rooted consumer does not mean that its consumer is conservative.
Indian consumers can simultaneously be:
modern + traditional
aspirational + rooted
fashion-conscious + family-oriented
digitally progressive + culturally connected
This is particularly visible across India’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.
A young woman can wear western clothing, follow global fashion trends, use Instagram every day and still attach enormous emotional importance to Raksha Bandhan, Diwali, weddings, family rituals and gifting.
There is no contradiction.
In fact, that combination may be one of India’s most valuable consumer identities.
Advertising often makes the mistake of choosing one side.
Real consumers live in both.
The Bigger Research Failure: Confusing Visual Codes With Consumer Codes
This is perhaps the most important lesson from the campaign.
Marketing teams often research:
What does the target audience like?
But they should also research:
What does the target audience identify with?
Those are not the same thing.
A consumer may like luxury fashion content.
She may follow celebrities.
She may save high-fashion posts on Instagram.
She may admire a celebrity lifestyle.
But that doesn’t mean she wants advertising for a ₹5,000 jewellery purchase to reproduce that lifestyle.
Her actual purchase trigger may be much closer to:
“This would be perfect for my sister.”
or:
“This looks premium enough to make the gift feel special.”
or:
“I can actually afford this.”
or:
“This feels modern, but it still feels like something I would wear.”
Those insights are much more commercially valuable than simply knowing what she watches.
Advertising Should Reflect the Consumer’s Life, Not Just Her Feed
This is where modern marketing research needs to become more sophisticated.
Social media has made it incredibly easy to confuse content consumption with consumer identity.
Someone can spend hours consuming luxury content without being a luxury consumer.
Someone can follow Bollywood fashion without purchasing designer fashion.
Someone can admire a celebrity without wanting to live like a celebrity.
The algorithm shows us what people engage with.
It does not automatically tell us:
what they value, what they can afford, what they buy, why they buy it and what role the product plays in their lives.
That requires deeper research.
What Should the Research Have Asked?
Before developing a festive campaign, a brand like GIVA could potentially investigate questions such as:
1. Who actually buys the product?
Not simply age and gender.
Look at:
- City tier
- Income
- Occupation
- Household decision-making
- Purchase frequency
- Gifting behaviour
- Average consideration
- Online versus offline behaviour
2. Why do they buy jewellery?
Is it:
- Self-expression?
- Gifting?
- Festivals?
- Relationships?
- Fashion?
- Milestones?
- Status?
- Emotional value?
3. Who are they buying it for?
A jewellery brand can have a radically different communication strategy depending on whether the dominant purchase is:
Self → Self or Self → Sister or Partner → Partner or Child → Mother or Brother → Sister
4. What does ₹5,000 mean to them?
This is a surprisingly important question.
₹5,000 does not have the same psychological meaning for every consumer.
For one person it may be an impulse purchase.
For another it may require consideration.
For another it may be the upper limit of a meaningful festival gift.
Price is not just a number.
It is part of the consumer’s psychology.
The Most Important Distinction: Aspirational vs Aspirer
This may be the biggest lesson for marketers.
An aspirational advertisement doesn’t necessarily need to show rich people.
It needs to show a world the consumer wants to move towards.
That could be:
- Better style
- Better relationships
- More confidence
- Greater independence
- A more beautiful home
- A special celebration
- A better version of herself
The consumer can aspire without being wealthy.
And that is particularly powerful for accessible-premium brands.
The opportunity is not:
“Look at how rich our customer is.”
It is:
“Look at what our customer can feel, achieve or give herself.”
What GIVA Could Have Owned Instead
The interesting thing is that GIVA doesn’t necessarily need to abandon contemporary fashion to connect with its core consumer.
It could combine both worlds.
Imagine a Raksha Bandhan campaign where the protagonist is modern, stylish and contemporary—but the emotional environment is unmistakably Indian.
A sister who works in a city.
A brother who has moved away.
A family WhatsApp group exploding with Rakhi messages.
A mother insisting everyone eat before leaving.
A gift ordered online.
A ₹4,999 jewellery box being opened.
A sister saying:
“Tu har saal bolta hai kuch nahi chahiye.”
And the brother replying:
“Is baar sach mein kuch chahiye tha.”
The product becomes part of the relationship.
Not a prop inside a fashion film.
That is a very different advertising strategy.
The Real Lesson for Marketers
The GIVA case should not simply become another debate about whether an advertisement was too bold, too traditional or culturally appropriate.
Those debates are easy.
The harder—and more commercially important—question is:
Did the brand understand the person who was supposed to buy the product?
Because an advertisement can be:
- Beautifully produced
- Celebrity-led
- Fashionable
- Social-media friendly
- Highly discussable
…and still be strategically wrong.
The creative team can execute the brief perfectly.
The director can shoot it beautifully.
The stylist can make it look spectacular.
The celebrity can deliver brilliantly.
And yet the campaign can miss the consumer.
Because the problem may have happened before the creative brief was ever written.
The Marketing Principle
There is a simple principle worth remembering:
Don’t build your advertising around the person you want your customer to look like. Build it around the person your customer actually is—and the aspiration she is trying to reach.
That is the difference between selling an image and building relevance.
And in India’s rapidly evolving Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, that difference may become even more important.
Because the next big Indian consumer isn’t necessarily choosing between modern and traditional.
She is already both.
The brands that understand that complexity will have a significant advantage.
Final Thought
The most valuable takeaway from the GIVA campaign may therefore have nothing to do with the controversy.
It may be this:
Know your consumer before you decide what your consumer should look like.
Research the purchase.
Research the occasion.
Research the emotion.
Research the household.
Research the aspiration.
Then build the creative.
Because sometimes the most expensive mistake in advertising isn’t making the wrong advertisement.
It is making a very good advertisement for the wrong person.
At As U Wish, We Start With the Consumer
Great advertising doesn’t begin with a celebrity, a trend or a beautiful visual. It begins with understanding who you’re speaking to, what they value and why they buy.
At As U Wish, we help brands turn consumer insights into meaningful brand strategy, positioning and creative communication.
Because the right idea starts with the right understanding.
Building Brands That Understand People.
