"Performance Marketing Agency Required!" – Why This Needs to Stop.

There’s a certain kind of brand success that can’t be bought, where customers don’t just recognize your name, they swear by it. They recommend you without thinking, defend you without hesitation, and choose you over competitors, not because of discounts or ads, but because they believe that you have got their back! That’s the kind of brand loyalty every business dreams of. And it’s absolutely possible.

But not through trendy collaborations or celebrations led by fake numbers, but through customised solutions led by your real, untapped numbers. The Illusion of Success: Performance Marketing’s Hollow Promise

Performance marketing is sold as the ultimate solution, a data-driven strategy that ensures every marketing dollar is accounted for. Measurable results, rapid scaling, and immediate returns are almost a given. But behind the sleek dashboards and PowerPoint presentations lies an inconvenient truth.

This system is not designed to build brands; it’s designed to manufacture numbers. Companies chasing vanity metrics over substance find themselves in a high-burn, low-loyalty cycle, spending endlessly without ever creating a real market presence. Many don’t even realize the trap they’re in until the money runs dry.

The casualties are many, and the wreckage is undeniable. The numbers may look good. The businesses, however, are failing.

The Trap of Vanity Metrics: Numbers That Mean Nothing

Performance marketing thrives on numbers like Click-Through Rates (CTR), Cost Per Click (CPC), and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). These figures look impressive enough to convince investors and keep marketing teams employed—but they often mean nothing in the long run.

Clicks Don’t Equal Conversions – A campaign with a 5% CTR sounds successful—until you realize almost no one actually buys anything. Bisleri re-entered the soft drinks market in 2016 with the launch of Bisleri Pop, introducing flavors like Limonata, Fonzo, Spyci, and Pina Colada. Despite leveraging its extensive distribution network, the product struggled to gain traction. Competition from established brands like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola and a lack of enthusiasm from distributors who prioritized Bisleri's bottled water contributed to its failure. By 2018, Bisleri Pop was withdrawn from the market.

While exact promotional spending figures remain undisclosed, Bisleri has demonstrated a history of significant marketing investments. For instance, the company allocated approximately ₹60 crore for the launch campaign of its beverage Fonzo in 2018. This suggests that Bisleri Pop likely faced a failure proportional to their marketing budgets!

Short-Term Spikes, No Brand Loyalty – Paid ads can generate traffic, but they don’t build trust. TaxiForSure learned this the hard way. Their customer acquisition was entirely dependent on ads. The moment marketing costs surged, the business collapsed, forcing a fire-sale to Ola.

Diminishing Returns on Ad Spend – In the battle for attention, companies must spend more to achieve less over time.

Let’s face it, the only winner is the ad platform.

Consumer Fatigue & Distrust – Brands are bombarding customers with ads to the extent that they’re tuning them out. More exposure does not mean more engagement, in many cases, it just leads to annoyance. Ask us! We have analysed endless comments sections where the customers are vocally voicing their displeasure.

The Business Killer: When Performance Marketing Backfires

The pattern is clear: Companies pour millions into paid ads, mistake temporary spikes for sustainable growth, and when the ad money stops, the business collapses. Here’s what goes wrong:

Over-Reliance on Paid Ads – Companies assume as long as they keep paying, sales will continue.

Neglecting Brand Building – Chasing quick wins distracts from what actually matters: brand equity, storytelling, and trust.

High Burn Rates – Many venture-backed startups burn through cash thinking performance marketing will sustain them—only to discover they’ve built a leaky bucket. Doodhwala, a milk delivery startup, raised millions but collapsed in 2019 when ad spending outpaced customer retention.

Let’s take a look the Victims of Performance Marketing

Byju’s: Growth Hacked to Death

Byju’s ran aggressive marketing campaigns that painted it as the future of education. But its unchecked ad spending, misleading sales tactics, and mounting operational losses created a house of cards. As scrutiny increased and revenue projections crumbled, Byju’s found itself in crisis mode—proof that unsustainable growth fueled by marketing alone is a death sentence.

Housing.com: When Performance Marketing Burns Millions

Backed by SoftBank, Housing.com poured crores into ads to build instant visibility. The company even ran prime-time TV ads featuring Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor. The result? Flashy ads, but no customer loyalty. By 2016, after a leadership crisis and financial bleed, Housing.com was forced into a merger to survive.

The Hidden Cost: Why Performance Marketing is Unsustainable

Burning Cash Without Brand Loyalty – Ads generate transactions, not relationships. A brand built purely on paid traffic has no foundation.

Platform Dependency – Businesses reliant on performance marketing are at the mercy of ad platforms. A single policy change can wipe out their entire model overnight.

Consumer Distrust – Modern consumers are smarter than ever. When marketing is purely transactional, brands feel inauthentic, disposable, and untrustworthy.

Many brands don’t even have a real customer base on social media, yet they sink massive budgets into meaningless content, hoping for relevance. What do they get? Spam comments, bots, and vanity engagement that means absolutely nothing.

The logic is simple—if you’re already spending on content, why not make it count? Why not create something that actually moves people instead of just filling up a content calendar? A

Smarter Alternative: Psychology-Driven Marketing

The antidote is far more simple than the jargon-filled performance marketing promise! Though the application of psychology to understand and connect with humans is endless, here is how it can impact marketing:

Brand Storytelling – A powerful narrative fosters loyalty in a way no paid ad ever could. While we all agree on this, brands still struggle to truly connect with their audience. Through psychology, we can decode the emotions behind the numbers and connect with them like never before!

Community Engagement – Organic growth, influencer collaborations, and grassroots marketing create real trust—no doubt about it! But choosing the right influencer, marketing channel, or content requires knowing your audience as well as you know your best friend before you can truly cater to them.

Psychology-Based Content Strategies – Understanding why people engage and connect with your brand is far more valuable than simply tracking clicks and numbers!

This is where companies like ours come in, not just as another marketing agency, but as strategists who understand the psychology of consumer behavior. (Try our AI-powered Marketing Campaign Generator to uncover deep psychological insights about your brand and audience.) We help brands move beyond transactional relationships and build real trust. A well-crafted story doesn’t just sell a product; it embeds itself into the audience’s psyche, making the brand a part of their identity.

Click here to learn more about our process.

Let’s Rethink Marketing Strategies!

Performance marketing is not evil—it has a role to play. But when it becomes a crutch, it becomes lethal. The most successful brands don’t chase numbers—they cultivate trust, authenticity, and long-term relationships. The future of marketing belongs to those who understand that real impact isn’t measured in clicks—it’s measured in connection. Kaala Ghoda is leading this shift, helping brands craft narratives that don’t just capture attention but create lasting influence.

Real influence is when your brand becomes your customers’ brand.

The question is, will your brand continue playing the numbers game, or will it invest in something real?

References

-Harvard Business Review. The Truth About Customer Loyalty. Retrieved from HBR

-McKinsey & Company. The End of Performance Marketing As We Know It. Retrieved from McKinsey & Co.

-Forrester Research. Why Customer Experience Drives Revenue More Than Ads. Retrieved from Forrester

-Economic Times. Byju’s Crisis: How Performance Marketing Led to an Investor Fallout. Retrieved from Economic Times

-LiveMint. Housing.com’s ₹120 Crore Ad Gamble and the Aftermath. Retrieved from LiveMint

-Inc42. TaxiForSure’s Rise and Fall: A Performance Marketing Case Study. Retrieved from Inc42

-Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Princeton University Press. Retrieved from Princeton Press

-Nielsen. The Impact of Brand Trust on Customer Engagement. Retrieved from Nielsen

-Smart Insights. Digital Marketing Failure Examples. Retrieved from Smart Insights

-Afaqs. Have Byju’s Big Marketing Spends Contributed to Its Current Crisis?. Retrieved from Afaqs

-CEO Vine. Doodhwala: What Went Wrong?. Retrieved from CEO Vine

Your Sure shot Success In Marketing!

Data Tells a Story, But Not the Whole One

Let’s be real: marketers are obsessed with numbers. Click-through rates, impressions, conversions—there’s a metric for everything. But here’s the thing: data tells us what happened, not why it happened.

And that’s where psychology steps in.

Marketing isn’t just about tracking engagement; it’s about understanding the emotions, biases, and subconscious triggers that drive decisions. The biggest brands in the world—Nike, Netflix, Coca-Cola—aren’t just crunching numbers. They’re leveraging psychology to forge deep, emotional connections with their audiences.

Let’s break down exactly how they do it—and why psychology, not just data, is the real game-changer.

Why Data Analysts Miss the Full Picture

Sure, a data analyst can tell you that an ad got 100,000 clicks. But what they can’t tell you is why people clicked. Was it nostalgia? Social proof? Fear of missing out? Without psychology, we’re just guessing.

Nike’s "You Can’t Stop Us" Campaign (2020)

Nike’s 2020 ad was a masterclass in emotional storytelling.

• Instead of just selling shoes, the campaign tapped into resilience and unity.

• The split-screen visuals, showing different athletes in perfect sync, triggered mirror neurons—making viewers subconsciously feel connected to the message.

• A data analyst might just measure views and shares, but a psychologist would recognize the deeper impact: psychological mirroring that made audiences feel like part of something bigger.

Lesson: Clicks don’t equal connection. Data measures reactions, but psychology explains emotions.

How Psychology Cracks the Code of Audience Behavior

A media psychologist doesn’t need to scroll through thousands of comments to understand an audience. Instead, they use behavioral psychology models to uncover the subconscious forces driving consumer responses. Here’s how:

1. Spotting Emotional Patterns Beyond the Surface

Instead of just counting likes and shares, psychologists look for underlying emotional themes that repeat across responses.

Netflix’s Binge-Watching Phenomenon

Netflix isn’t just measuring watch time—they’re using psychology to keep you hooked.

• The autoplay feature taps into loss aversion—our brains perceive stopping as "losing out" on something.

• Netflix’s recommendations use variable rewards, the same trick social media platforms use to keep users endlessly scrolling.

Lesson: A data analyst might say, “Users watched three episodes in a row.” A psychologist would say, “Users kept watching because of a subconscious fear of missing out.”

2. Understanding How People Justify Their Feelings

Most people don’t consciously know why they’re drawn to certain products. Psychology helps decode the deeper motivations behind their choices.

Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” Campaign

• Swapping their iconic logo for popular first names wasn’t just a fun gimmick—it was rooted in psychology.

• The campaign leveraged the Endowment Effect—people naturally assign more value to something personalized to them.

• Data alone would’ve shown an increase in sales. But psychology explained why: people saw their name and felt a personal connection.

Lesson: People don’t buy products—they buy feelings. Data tracks sales, but psychology uncovers emotional triggers

3. The Power of Identity and Community

Consumers don’t just engage with content—they engage with brands that reflect their identity.

Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” Campaign

• Instead of focusing on the camera’s specs, Apple turned everyday users into brand ambassadors.

• This tapped into Social Proof Theory—people trust content created by their peers more than traditional ads.

• By showcasing user-generated photography, Apple made customers feel like they were part of an exclusive creative community.

Lesson: Viral marketing isn’t about catchy content—it’s about creating psychological relatability.

The Future of Marketing: A Blend of Data and Psychology

If you’re relying only on data, you’re missing half the picture.

The most successful brands don’t just track clicks—they create emotional impact, build subconscious loyalty, and spark movements that people want to be part of.

And that’s where the true power of marketing lies. Want to Use Psychology in Your Marketing?

If you’re ready to move beyond basic data points and tap into the psychology that truly drives consumer behavior, let’s talk. Your audience is more than just numbers, they’re human. And we know exactly how to reach them.
 
 Write to us at sampark@kaalaghoda.com. As an introductory offer avail 250$ worth of services for free on your first consult! Head over to our website appointments page www.kaalaghoda.com/appointments

Click here for the free demo!

Sources & Further Reading

1. Cialdini, R. B. (2006). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Harper Business.

2. Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

3. Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin.

4. Netflix UX Research Team. (2021). The psychology behind binge-watching. Netflix Insights Blog.

5. Coca-Cola Company. (2014). Case Study: "Share a Coke" and the power of personalization. Coca-Cola Press Release.

6. Apple Inc. (2019). Case Study: "Shot on iPhone" and the rise of user-generated content. Apple Marketing Reports.

Case Study: The Power of Psychological Storytelling in Video Marketing

Client’s Profile

The client, detailed in the provided document, developed a high-efficiency portable stove designed to enhance cooking conditions and minimize fuel consumption.

Initially launched in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, this stove aimed to address both environmental concerns and practical cooking needs. https://nif.org.in/upload/innovation/6th/450-portable-stove-with-high-efficiency.pdf

Distribution Platform

The video campaign was distributed through The Better India, a platform recognized for its focus on impactful and socially relevant innovations.

Introduction

In marketing, success isn’t solely measured by popularity. A video might attract numerous views but still fail to drive purchasing intent. This was evident in our campaign, which aimed to spotlight the extraordinary journey of an ‘ordinary man’ who developed an innovative solution. Our mission was to emphasize the stove’s potential for widespread adoption and its broader impact.

Purpose and Challenge

The goal of our video was to help medium to low scale innovators to showcase their innovations and ultimately increase their sales to enable their business growth. The approach we used was to celebrate the man's ingenuity and determination in overcoming significant obstacles with a novel solution. The challenge was to ensure that the video’s message aligned with the audience's expectations and avoided any dissonance between the visuals and the brand message. Engaging the audience and capturing their interest required more than striking visuals; it demanded a profound connection with their psychological and emotional drivers.

Strategy: Integrating Psychology 

To effectively engage viewers, we integrated psychological insights with elements of pop culture. Recognizing that intense emotional responses—whether positive or negative—can significantly enhance attention and recall, we crafted a narrative that highlighted both the pain and pleasure associated with the product. This emotional engagement fosters deeper reflection and improves long-term memory retention.

Here are some of the comments that the audience left on the video.

By incorporating pop culture references, we aimed to amplify retention and emotional impact. Campaigns like CeraVe’s have demonstrated how integrating pop culture can significantly boost recall and viewer engagement. By weaving familiar cultural contexts into our storytelling, we ensured that the message resonated more profoundly with the audience.
In this story particularly, we understood from the get-go that this is a superhero story and that’s why pop-culture references fit in organically.

Results: Audience Reach and Brand Impact

The video campaign proved highly successful, significantly expanding our reach. Orders surged not only from the initial markets of Kerala and Tamil Nadu but also from Karnataka and beyond. The brand’s identity evolved to be more credible and relatable, as the video showcased both the man’s triumphs and challenges. This genuine portrayal strengthened the audience's connection to his story and the product, leading to numerous inquiries from across the country and abroad.

Sales Performance

The impact on sales was substantial:

- Needs Generation: Increased fivefold annually

- Conversions: Improved by 2.5 times annually

Conclusion

This case study illustrates the power of integrating psychological principles with innovative storytelling techniques. By aligning marketing strategies with psychological insights and leveraging pop culture to enhance recall, we created a campaign that not only captivated viewers but also delivered substantial business results. This approach underscores the importance of understanding and utilizing psychological drivers to craft effective marketing strategies.

How Kaala Ghoda Utilizes Psychology to Craft Branded Content

Stories wield remarkable power for several psychological reasons: they tap into the human propensity for narrative thinking, allowing us to make sense of complex information and emotional experiences.

This ability to weave together relatable characters, situations, and emotions enables Kaala Ghoda to craft content that aligns with these intrinsic cognitive processes.

By leveraging this understanding of human behaviour, emotions, and cognition, Kaala Ghoda ensures that its content not only captures attention but also fosters a profound connection with viewers, making the brand's message more memorable and impactful.

Here is how Kaala Ghoda harnesses psychological principles to create compelling branded content by leveraging the power of stories:

■ Primal Communication: Stories represent a primal mode of communication, deeply rooted in ancient traditions, legends, archetypes, myths, and symbols. As Carl Jung famously posited, humanity shares a collective unconscious—a reservoir of universal patterns and meanings. Stories resonate with these archetypal elements, linking us to a greater collective self and the fundamental truths of human experience.

■ Forging Social Connections: The core purpose of stories is to forge social connections. They bridge generational divides by engaging our emotions, enabling us to share in passions, sorrows, challenges, and joys. Stories provide a common platform that facilitates communication, allowing us to transcend barriers and differences. Through stories, we gain deeper self-understanding, recognize shared human experiences, and cultivate empathy for others.

■ Theory of Mind: Stories function as a Theory of Mind—narrative frameworks mirror the way we process and understand the world. They help us create meaning by employing schemas, scripts, cognitive maps, mental models, metaphors, and other narratives. Stories not only explain how things operate and why events unfold but also shape our decisions and persuade others. They are instrumental in constructing our identities, defining social values, and envisioning future possibilities.

■ Imposing Order: Stories impose order on our experiences. Humans crave certainty, and the familiar, predictable structure of a narrative arc provides comfort. Within this framework, we can endure intense emotions with the assurance that resolution will follow conflict, offering a protective buffer against existential threats.

■ Neorogical Alignment: Stories are inherently pleasurable. The predictability of the narrative arc, the identification with characters, the exploration of new worlds, and the eventual resolution all trigger the release of neurotransmitters that excite, reward, and satisfy. As the poet William Blake wrote, “The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself.”

■ Imagination and Neural Coupling: Stories align with our neurological wiring. Taking place within the realm of imagination, stories are processed by the brain as if they were real experiences. They evoke genuine emotions, a sense of presence, and behavioural responses through cortical activity, mirroring, and neural coupling. “All human beings, by nature, desire to know,” Aristotle observed, and stories fulfil this fundamental curiosity.

■ Engaging Imagination: Stories communicate through vivid imagery, engaging the right hemisphere of the brain and stimulating the imagination. They allow us to envision new worlds and perspectives, fostering empathy and reducing cognitive resistance. Through imaginative participation, we not only explore different viewpoints but also tap into the creativity that underpins innovation, self-discovery, and personal transformation. As Albert Einstein famously said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”

Unfortunately, our brains are evolving at a much slower pace than technology. Regardless of technological advances, stories begin in the brain. We process content by seeking narratives that align with our existing knowledge and experiences.

Technology, however, shifts the balance by giving stories a veneer of authenticity and credibility that enhances their impact and believability. When we seek answers, validation, or comfort, a story from a seemingly authoritative source feels reassuring, even if the facts are secondary.

As narrative scholar Jerome Bruner (1991) observed, our understanding of stories relies on a set of implicit assumptions that activate once we become engaged with the narrative. These underlying assumptions create an unspoken agreement during our discussions and speculations about the story. For instance, we expect the plot to align with the broader narrative, the story to adhere to its genre conventions, the characters to act consistently with their established personas, and past events to influence the present and future within the story's framework. It is these very expectations that make deviations from the norm so surprising and satisfying.

When stories trigger our fight-or-flight response, the voice of reason is often silenced. Any perceived threat to our beliefs, identity, or affiliations can halt cognitive processes, making cooperation challenging, if not impossible. Narratives expose fundamental values that must be acknowledged by all parties for effective compromise and conflict resolution. It's nearly impossible to shift someone’s perspective when their worldview is fundamentally different. This dynamic plays out across politics, business negotiations, consumer behaviour, and personal relationships. The key to resolving such conflicts is to deconstruct the opposing narratives to uncover the underlying beliefs driving them.

Let us see how viewer investment in characters drives audience engagement and ratings but also increases the tendency to mimic observed behaviours.

Holiday movies function as potent stress relievers, primarily due to their capacity to offer a soothing escape from the rigours of daily life. During the holiday season, individuals often grapple with increased stress from familial obligations, social expectations, and heightened commercial activity. These films provide a refuge through their reliably comforting narratives, which focus on themes of joy, togetherness, and celebration. The predictable plotlines, imbued with nostalgic and sentimental elements, create a sense of stability and emotional reassurance. By immersing ourselves in these reassuring narratives, we momentarily detach from our personal stresses and are enveloped in a world that reinforces positive emotional states, thus mitigating anxiety and fostering a sense of well-being.

Millennials and Gen Z are notably drawn to crime thrillers due to a confluence of psychological and cultural dynamics. These genres captivate audiences by delving into the darker facets of human behaviour and societal dysfunction, catering to an inherent curiosity about crime and justice. For younger generations, crime thrillers offer more than mere escapism; they provide a framework for grappling with complex issues related to morality, justice, and the human psyche in a controlled narrative space. The genre’s intricate plots and deep character studies stimulate cognitive engagement and satisfy a craving for intellectual stimulation. Furthermore, the proliferation of true crime content on social media and digital platforms has heightened its appeal, fostering a sense of communal participation through online discourse and theory-building. This interplay of intellectual challenge and social interaction underscores the genre’s resonance with contemporary audiences.

One of the fascinating aspects of media psychology is that, while the tools and technologies evolve rapidly, the core drivers of human behaviour remain constant.

Behaviour is complex, emerging from the interplay between our perceptions, actions, thoughts, feelings, and the broader social, cultural, and structural influences around us. It reflects how our psychological mechanisms adapt to navigate the challenges of the modern world.

Brand psychology dissects this complexity to understand consumer behaviour, aiming to connect with audiences by creating meaningful experiences and delivering value. This value can be practical, such as a functional product, or emotional, like reassurance, inspiration, and hope.

A brand is fundamentally a social contract—it encapsulates a blend of beliefs, images, emotions, and promises conveyed to an audience, often subliminally. For instance, consider Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign. This campaign went beyond simply selling a beverage. By personalizing bottles with popular names and encouraging people to share them, Coca-Cola tapped into core human desires for connection and personalization. The campaign created an emotional narrative where the brand became a vessel for personal expression and social bonding. This approach illustrates how brand psychology extends beyond product promotion to understanding how meaning is crafted and how information delivery influences persuasion.

Brands are essentially "meaning units"—they are not just about selling products or services, but about creating and communicating a narrative that resonates with people. Whether it's a soft drink, a political candidate, a movie, or a social cause, each needs a story to convey its purpose and significance. If a brand fails to provide its own story, the audience will inevitably create one.

In conclusion, Kaala Ghoda adeptly applies psychological insights to develop branded content that goes beyond capturing attention to truly engaging audiences on a deeper level. By leveraging a profound understanding of human cognition, emotions, and behaviour, Kaala Ghoda creates narratives that strike a chord with viewers, enhancing both emotional connection and brand resonance. Our expertise in crafting compelling stories that align with psychological drivers—such as the quest for meaning, emotional engagement, and narrative coherence—ensures that content resonates profoundly and fosters lasting consumer relationships. For brands seeking to elevate their storytelling and forge more meaningful connections with their audience, partnering with Kaala Ghoda offers a strategic advantage, blending psychological acumen with creative prowess to drive impactful and enduring brand experiences.

Brands should approach Kaala Ghoda to benefit from its unique ability to decode and apply psychological principles, which not only improves the effectiveness of content but also maximizes consumer engagement and loyalty. By integrating these insights into their strategies, brands can craft messages that resonate more deeply with their target audience, addressing their core values and emotional triggers. Furthermore, Kaala Ghoda’s approach ensures that branded content is not only memorable but also aligns seamlessly with the evolving expectations of modern consumers. Ultimately, collaborating with Kaala Ghoda provides a distinct edge in an increasingly competitive market, where understanding and connecting with consumers on a psychological level can significantly enhance brand impact and success.

Why wait? Click here to execute with us.