A conversation with Ruchi, brand manager, dancer, and someone figuring out how to hold all her worlds at once.

Ruchi came to brand roles through product, curation, and merchandising. That path matters.

It means she understands desirability from the inside out. Not from a brief, but from being close to the product itself: how it is presented, what it is paired with, whether it actually fits into someone’s life. She knows that no campaign can save a weak foundation.

Outside of work, she is a dancer with a creative page she is slowly, quietly building into something. Outside of work, she is a dancer with a creative page she is slowly, quietly building into something. Newly married, still finding her footing at home, and honest about all of it.

ALL THE RUCHIS, COEXISTING

Who is Ruchi right now, across all the different lives you are living?

At work, I care a lot about doing things properly, maybe a bit too much. I put pressure on myself to get it right, which keeps me a little stressed.

At home, I am still finding my footing. Newly married, still understanding the new family, still figuring out the balance between work and home. Touchwood, I am lucky. My partner pushes me to grow and my family is proud of what I do.

With friends, it is completely different. I feel free. That naughty, fun version of me just comes out naturally. But I still take time to open up. I usually observe people first, understand them, and then be fully myself.

And then there are my private thoughts. That is a whole different space. I overthink a lot. I think about my mom and sister, how they are doing, how to keep everyone happy. But at the same time, that private space is the only place where I am completely unfiltered and calm. That is where I do my creative work or dance, and that honestly feels like meditation for me.

“That private space is the only place where I am completely unfiltered and calm. That is where I dance, and that feels like meditation.”

Newly married, still finding her footing at home, carrying her family in her private thoughts, and building a career she cares deeply about. That is a lot to hold at once. What Ruchi describes is not a lack of balance. It is the honest reality of being in the middle of multiple transitions simultaneously. The fact that dance is her unfiltered space is a detail we will not move past quickly.

DESIRABILITY STARTS BEFORE THE CAMPAIGN

What has your journey from product and merchandising to brand roles taught you about how desirability is actually created?

Working closely with products, curation, and merchandising before moving into brand roles made me realise that desirability does not really start with marketing. It starts much earlier.

It is about the product itself first: how relevant it is, how it fits into someone’s life, whether it actually solves something or makes them feel something. Through curation and merchandising, I learned how small things, like how a product is presented, what it is paired with, the timing, the context, can completely change how people perceive it.

Consistency matters a lot too. If the product, the pricing, the experience, and the communication are not aligned, people can sense it immediately. You cannot just brand something into being desirable if the foundation is not strong.

Marketing can amplify desirability, but it cannot create it out of nothing. Real desirability comes from a strong product, thoughtful curation, the right storytelling, and a consistent experience across every touchpoint. Having experience in basic product curation and merchandising has helped me understand the market, and that has helped me grow brands too: I am able to give insights on what to do and what can actually help a business grow.

“Marketing can amplify desirability. It cannot create it out of nothing.”

This is the clearest articulation of the product-first philosophy we have heard in this series. Ruchi is not dismissing marketing. She is correctly sequencing it. The campaign is the last step, not the first. And because she has worked at every step before it, she can see the whole chain in a way that someone who started in comms simply cannot. That is a rare vantage point.

EVERY WOMAN IS MAKING HER OWN CHOICES IN HER OWN CONTEXT

What does the phrase ‘the modern Indian woman’ get wrong, and what would you replace it with?

I think the phrase is too broad and a bit outdated in the way it is usually used. It tries to put so many different people into one box, as if there is just one way to be modern.

From what I have seen, there is not a single definition anymore. Women today are constantly switching between roles, priorities, and even identities depending on where they are in life. Someone can be very career-focused and ambitious but also deeply rooted in family values. Or independent in some decisions but still navigating expectations in others.

What the phrase gets wrong is that it assumes linear progress, like there is one direction of modernity everyone is moving toward. But in reality, it is much more layered and personal.

One big thing it gets wrong is that it quietly creates expectations of what a woman should be. If a woman is very career-focused, people assume she does not care enough about her family. And if she chooses a different path, she is judged for that too.

So either way, she is being put in a box. What people do not really stop to understand is: what does she actually want? Has she chosen this for herself? What are her priorities right now?

That is why the idea of a modern Indian woman does not really work. It comes with fixed ideas. In reality, every woman is making her own choices in her own context. That is what matters more than fitting into any label.

“Every woman is making her own choices in her own context. That matters more than fitting into any label.”

She makes this argument twice and from two different angles: the strategic one, that the label flattens a complicated reality, and the personal one, that it quietly creates expectations that judge women either way. Both are correct. And the personal angle is the more honest one. Ruchi is not just critiquing a marketing brief. She is describing something she has lived.

THE CREATIVE PAGE SHE IS QUIETLY BUILDING

Outside of your job title and your company, what are you building?

There has always been a creative side of me that I keep going. I am a dancer, and I also have my own creative page where I keep experimenting and putting things out.

Right now, it is something I do alongside everything else. But somewhere at the back of my mind, I know I want to build this into something bigger. I would love to eventually create my own brand around it, something that feels very personal and true to me.

That is my project underneath the project: figuring out my own creative voice, being consistent with it, and slowly shaping it into something meaningful over time.

She says somewhere at the back of my mind. Not loud, not urgent. Just quietly there. That is the most honest way to describe a creative ambition that is being held alongside a full life. She is not rushing it. She is not abandoning it either. She is just letting it exist and feeding it when she can. That is its own kind of discipline.

THE FIRST TIME SHE CHOSE HERSELF

The first time you spent your own money on something that was not practical, something just for you. What was it? What did it feel like?

The first time I really spent on something that was not practical was when I used my entire salary to buy a phone for myself. It was not the smartest decision at that time, but I really wanted it.

What made it feel different was that until then, my instinct was always to spend on others. With my first internship stipend, which was just 3,000 rupees, I ended up buying something for my family instead of myself.

So this felt a little new, and honestly a bit uncomfortable too. But at the same time, it felt nice to do something just for me. It was a small moment, but it made me realise that it is okay to sometimes choose yourself.

“It was a small moment. But it made me realise that it is okay to sometimes choose yourself.”

The first internship stipend was 3,000 rupees and she spent it on her family. That is not a small detail. That is the entire context for why spending a full salary on a phone for herself felt uncomfortable. The instinct to give first is deep. And the moment she spent on herself was not grand or dramatic. It was just a phone. But it meant something. We think a lot of women reading this will know exactly what she is describing.

THE SELF-DOUBT SHE HAS LEARNED TO CARRY

Most people have one fear they have learned to perform confidence around. What is yours?

For me, it is self-doubt, especially around whether I am doing things well enough.

Over time, I have learned to handle it and not let it show. At work, I come across as confident and in control, but internally I can still overthink small things or question if I could have done something better.

I think it also comes from putting a bit of pressure on myself to get things right and not make mistakes.

It is something I am still working on: being a little more comfortable with not being perfect all the time. But I have definitely gotten better at not letting it affect how I show up.

She performs confidence. She has gotten good enough at the work that it does not show. But internally she is still running the loop: was that good enough, could I have done it better? This is one of the most common things we hear in this series and one of the least spoken about in professional spaces. The gap between how composed someone looks and what is actually happening inside is often enormous. Ruchi is naming that gap honestly.

A GOOD CAMPAIGN CANNOT SAVE A WEAK FOUNDATION

There is probably a widely held belief in your industry that you quietly disagree with. What is it?

One thing I quietly disagree with is the idea that marketing alone can create desirability, or that a strong campaign can compensate for everything else.

From my experience, it does not really work like that. If the product, the pricing, the experience, or even the context is not right, no amount of marketing can truly build something long-term.

I have also seen this when it comes to how women are approached in marketing. There is often an attempt to generalise or simplify what women want, as if it is one clear idea. But in reality, it is much more layered and context-driven.

For me, good marketing is less about creating an image and more about understanding real behaviour, real needs, and then building everything around that, not just the communication.

She has now said this twice in the same interview: once in Q2 and once here. The repetition is not an accident. It is what she actually believes, deeply and from experience. Marketing cannot save a weak product. A campaign cannot replace understanding. And simplifying women into a single brief does not work. Three things the industry keeps doing anyway. Ruchi has the receipts.

A Note From Decoding Draupadi

What stayed with us after this conversation is the image of Ruchi’s private space.

The one where she is unfiltered and calm. Where the dance happens. Where the creative work lives. Separate from the version that shows up perfectly at work, the version still finding her footing at home, the version that carries her family in her thoughts.

We built this series because that private version of women in brand roles deserves a room of its own. Somewhere honest, unedited, and not trying to be a label.

If this felt like someone you know, share it with her.

— End of Interview —

Ruchi is a brand manager with experience across product, curation, and brand roles. This interview was conducted as part of the Decoding Draupadi Brand Manager Series.

We built this for the woman who is still figuring it out and doing brilliantly anyway. If that is you, you belong here. @decodingdraupadi.