Desi Disruptors: Timeless Lessons from Iconic Indian Brands

What makes a balm feel like a mother's touch?

How did a packet of noodles become India's comfort food?

How did a brand name become synonymous with a cure for a cold?

And why do some brands create categories while others merely compete?

Desi Disruptors is not a book about marketing jargon, boardroom presentations or boring management classroom lessons. This is a lively, insight-driven account of how some of India's most iconic brands-Vicks, Maggi, Whisper, Frooti, Tanishq, Jockey, Thums Up, Lenskart, and more - rewired consumer behaviour and created entire markets just by gauging what people felt and needed even before they themselves knew it.

Whisper didn't just sell sanitary pads but broke a cultural taboo around menstruation; Big Bazaar elevated the kirana store model to another level; Frooti converted our obsession with mangoes into an irresistible thirst-quencher; Jockey pulled innerwear out of closed cupboards and into everyday conversation; and Tanishq made buying gold accessible and cool for the younger Indian. The stories of these great brands demonstrate that true pioneers don't chase trends; they create them.

Packed with behind-the-scenes anecdotes and surprising insights, Desi Disruptors: Timeless Lessons from Iconic Indian Brands, blends sharp storytelling with decades of on-ground market research to reveal strategies that speak to the psychology of the Indian consumer. Because, often, in India, the brands that win aren't the loudest -they're the ones that understand us best.

Vispy Doctor refers to himself as being ‘terminally curious'. His journey has been a blend of science, business and passion. Having done his doctoral work in physics, and with an MBA from XLRI, he moved into the exciting world of branding and business consulting. Branding has always fascinated him—how small changes in perspective can have enormous consequences in the real world. But his real interests lie in astronomy, photography, spirituality and farming. These interests have kept his curiosity alive and fuelled his continuous pursuit of knowledge. Today he spends his time between work in Mumbai and play on his farm. Life is good!

Vikrant Pande has published fourteen translations till date, many of them bestsellers, like Ranjit Desai's Shivaji: The Great Maratha (HarperCollins) and Girish Kuber's Tatayan, published as The Tatas: The Family That Built a Business and a Nation (HarperCollins), which won the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize for 2019. He cowrote, with Neelesh Kulkarni, In the Footsteps of Rama: Travels with the Ramayana (HarperCollins), a travelogue containing unknown stories of Ramayana, which is now being made into a travel show by a top OTT producer, as well as Akashvani: A Century of Stories from All India Radio (HarperCollins). He also authored The SBI Story: 200 Years of Banking (Westland Publications). He is currently working on an account of fascinating operations done by the special forces (HarperCollins).

A graduate of IIM Bangalore, Vikrant Pande enjoyed twenty-five successful years in his corporate career before turning to writing full-time.