afaqs!

Why we picked it This is the honest gut-check for the exact problem: a brand that reads as English-first, metro-first, Valley-first while the real audience lives elsewhere. Dasgupta argues that reaching people beyond the big English-speaking cities is not about translating your existing look, it is about building for their culture and context from the start. A useful starting point before you decide whether your polished SaaS skin is actually talking to the founders you serve.

Why brands in India must fall in love with the vernacular

From afaqs! by Shivaji Dasgupta

• Over 90% of content consumed in India is in regional languages, and the next wave of customers is largely outside the metros, so an English, metro-coded brand quietly excludes them.
• Vernacular does not mean cheap or unpolished: premium and regional can coexist, as Piyush Pandey's Hindi advertising proved decades ago.
• The fix is structural, not cosmetic: segment your audience by culture, create locally rather than translate a national campaign, and treat context as the brief.