Ishika ShethGet in touch
Hi, you're here. This is me figuring it out loud.

The best opportunities
start with under­standing people.

The Premise

Entrepreneur turned marketer, exploring how customer insight, strategy, and creativity shape the brands people actually remember.

Explore My ThinkingSkip to the featured innovation
Based in
London, UK
Studying
MSc Marketing
Working at
Intersection of strategy & creativity
Currently
Looking for problems worth solving
Still figuring it outMarketing StrategistMakes things people rememberOverthinks packagingProbably asking whyStill figuring it outMarketing StrategistMakes things people rememberOverthinks packagingProbably asking whyStill figuring it outMarketing StrategistMakes things people rememberOverthinks packagingProbably asking why
Chapter 01
How I ended up here

I didn't plan to get obsessed with marketing.
It just happened.

It started in my kitchen at 11pm, taping up a box of treats for someone I'd never meet. I kept wondering: why would they pick my box over the hundred others online? The product was fine. But the question wouldn't leave me alone.

Running a tiny business taught me more than any course. I learned to spot the pause before someone buys, the words they use when they love something, and the awkward silence around things they only "like."

Eventually I figured out that marketing isn't a department you hire. It's the trail of tiny choices a brand makes about the person on the other end. Once I saw that, I couldn't stop noticing it everywhere.

Some experiments worked. Some flopped publicly and taught me more. This site is just a scrapbook of what I noticed along the way.

"I ask too many questions. Turns out that's the job."
— Sticky note on my laptop, slightly curled at the edges
Chapter 02 — The First Real Thing

I built something small and messy and learned everything.

Project ⁄ Brown Box
Role ⁄ Founder, Strategist, Tape-Applier
01The Mess

I had a kitchen, some good recipes, and zero clue how to stand out in a sea of identical hampers. No ad budget. No shelf space. Just me and a lot of tape.

02The Realisation

People weren't buying snacks. They were buying the moment someone opens a box and feels thought-of. The product was just the delivery mechanism for that feeling.

03What I Tried

I stopped describing what was inside and started describing what it feels like to receive it. Every unboxing became a tiny story. Some notes made people cry. (I kept one. It's in my desk drawer.)

04What Happened

Somehow it worked. 10,000+ people watched our content. 40+ orders came in with zero ad spend. Corporate clients found us. IIT Bombay invited us to their startup summit. I still don't fully know how.

10,000+
People who watched our stuff
40+
Orders with zero ad spend
Corporate
Clients who found us somehow
IIT Bombay
Startup Summit invite

The brand grew. But honestly? I mostly learned how much I didn't know.

Chapter 03 — Something I'm Thinking About
Self-Curated Hamper Idea

What if the person getting the gift designed it?

01
What I Noticed

Most hampers are just warehouse leftovers in a pretty box. The person giving it has no idea if the recipient actually likes half the stuff inside.

02
The Annoying Bit

Givers panic-pick items. Recipients smile politely at things they'd never buy. A whole category built on emotion is basically guesswork with a ribbon.

03
The What-If

What if the person receiving the gift got to choose what goes in it? The giver still pays. The surprise becomes 'you get to pick' instead of 'hope you like dried mango.'

04
Why It Might Work

People don't want infinite options. They want a few good ones that feel like someone actually thought about them. The giver feels generous. The receiver feels known.

How It Could Work

A two-sided ritual that happens to involve a checkout.

The giver chooses a feeling and a budget. The brand curates a small shelf within it. The recipient does the final pick — privately, happily. The real gift is the conversation that happens around it.

How The Journey Feels
  1. 01GiverPicks a vibe and a budget. That's it. No more sweating in the snack aisle.
  2. 02InviteRecipient gets a private link. It looks nice. They feel special already.
  3. 03CurateThey pick what they actually want from a small, tasteful shelf.
  4. 04RevealGiver sees what was chosen. Probably texts them immediately.
  5. 05UnboxBoth people remember it. The box is just cardboard.
Why It Makes Money

Higher average order value. Way fewer returns. And every recipient is basically a future giver who already trusts you.

Why It's Hard to Copy

Taste isn't code. The curation is part algorithm, part gut feel. The longer you do it, the better you get at it.

Where It Could Go

Housewarmings, weddings, onboarding kits — anywhere a brand wants to feel like it was chosen, not assigned.

Most brands optimise the transaction.
The real win is designing the memory.

Chapter 04 — Things I Noticed

Three projects. Three times I noticed
something everyone else missed.

01 ⁄ Heritage F&B

Daadi's Food Brand

What was happening?
A family recipe was trying to look like every other packaged food brand on the shelf. It lost the warmth that made it worth buying in the first place.
What did I notice?
People weren't buying spice mixes. They were buying the feeling of someone's grandmother cooking for them. The packaging looked like it came from a factory, not a kitchen.
What could change?
Put the grandmother back at the centre. Let the jar tell her story. When the story is real, people don't argue about the price.
What I suggested
Stop sounding like a food company. Start sounding like a family sharing something precious. Price it like a ritual, not a product.
Lesson

Heritage isn't in the ingredients. It's in the way you make people feel.

02 ⁄ Startup Ecosystem

The Gain Startup Accelerator

What was happening?
Smart founders with nearly identical pitch decks. They all sounded like they were reading from the same template.
What did I notice?
Everyone talked about features and traction. Almost nobody could describe what their customer's life looked like before and after using the product.
What could change?
Flip the training. Before anyone touches a slide deck, make them explain who they help and how that person feels afterwards.
What I suggested
Run a customer-insight workshop before the pitch workshop. Story first, slides later.
Lesson

The best pitches start with a good observation, not a good template.

03 ⁄ Branding

Adhira — Identity Project

What was happening?
A founder who knew her product inside out but couldn't explain why anyone should care about it.
What did I notice?
Her customers described her brand in three words she'd never used herself. The brand already existed in their heads. She just hadn't heard it yet.
What could change?
Build the identity from what customers actually say, not what the founder wishes they'd say.
What I suggested
Name it, design it, and write it in the customer's own language. The result feels strangely familiar the first time someone sees it.
Lesson

Sometimes the brand is already there. You just have to pay attention long enough to catch it.

Chapter 05 — The Idea Wall

Things I think about when I can't sleep.

A messy notebook, not a manifesto. Pinned here so the right person can find one, argue with it, or build it before I do.

I-01ConsumerRitual

The Future of Gifting

I keep thinking gifting should be about emotional memory, not product catalogues. What if the metric was 'did they remember it in six months' instead of conversion rate?

Status — Thinking out loud→
I-02B2BTalent

Employer Branding, Honestly

Candidates check Glassdoor between interview rounds. Most employer brands are still writing press releases while the real story lives in Slack threads. Someone should fix that.

Status — Thinking out loud→
I-03Positioning

Luxury, Actually

Real luxury is saying no to most people. It's restraint and scarcity of attention. Most 'premium' brands say yes to everyone and wonder why no one cares.

Status — Thinking out loud→
I-04AICraft

AI in Marketing (Without the Spam)

Use AI to understand more, not publish more. The winners won't be the ones making the most content. They'll be the ones who actually know their customer.

Status — Thinking out loud→
I-05Research

Everyday Micro-Moments

The loading screen. The menu layout. The unread email subject line. The best market research is already happening for free if you know where to look.

Status — Thinking out loud→
I-06Growth

Community-Led Growth

Communities aren't a marketing channel. They're an org chart. The brands that figure this out will grow in ways that don't show up on a dashboard.

Status — Thinking out loud→
I-07EthicsCX

Sustainability That Shows Up

Not another green campaign. Sustainability that lives in the supply chain and shows up in the unboxing. The next decade belongs to brands that ship truth.

Status — Thinking out loud→
Chapter 06 — How I Work

A loop I keep running.

Not a formula. Just a pattern I've noticed works, after getting it wrong enough times.

01step
Observe

Watch what people actually do before you read what they say. The truth is usually in the behaviour, not the survey.

02step
Understand

Figure out what they feel, not just what they want. The brief is usually hiding in the gap between those two things.

03step
Question

Ask the obvious question everyone stopped asking. The best ones sound dumb until they don't.

04step
Find the Gap

Look for where a small move creates a big feeling. That's usually where the opportunity is.

05step
Make Something Small

Build the smallest version that could be true. Taste matters more than volume at this stage.

06step
Test With Real People

Show it to actual humans, not your team. They will surprise you, usually in useful ways.

07step
Cut Ruthlessly

Most ideas don't die from too little. They die from too much. Strip it back.

08step
Grow What Works

Only scale the things that get better as they get bigger. Everything else is just noise with a graph attached.

It loops. It doesn't end.Each step feeds the next — and the first.
Chapter 07 — What I'm Doing Now

Looking for work
that doesn't feel like work.

I get excited about the messy middle where strategy meets creativity and someone has to figure out what real people actually want. If your brand wants to be remembered instead of just recalled, we should talk.

Looking for brand strategy, marketing strategy, innovation, and consumer insight roles.

Also open to founders building something that actually matters to real humans.

Or just coffee and a good question. Those count too.

Say helloLinkedIn

"The best brands aren't the loudest. They're the ones that actually understand you."

Chapter 08 — Contact

Let's build something meaningful.

Based in
London, United Kingdom
Email
ishikaj641@gmail.com
LinkedIn
Ishika Sheth
Open to
Brand strategy · Marketing strategy · Innovation · Consumer insight

"I'd rather work on something small and real than something big and forgettable."— Me, probably, after my third coffee