Marketing Buddy #6: "Branding is the story you tell" with Deepa Shanbhag
New Q&A with Deepa Shanbhag, Creative Director + Scale that Marketing!
👋 Hello, Branding and Marketing Revealers. How are you doing today?
Today, I want to have a brief introduction to a topic we will explore soon: marketing your products and understanding your selling style or behavior. I have been listening to Bryan Flanagan on the prospect character, and he emphasizes the importance of understanding behaviors and buying styles of your prospects. More importantly, it’s crucial to grasp their motivation to buy. This understanding can help you curate your product information to meet that motive. I particularly loved his definition of motivation: "a motive for action." There is a lot to learn, so I keep you posted and I will write about it soon.
✦ Did you miss the last Brand Revealer? He is a designer entrepreneur.
Discover the series ‘‘Marketing Buddy’’ — a great addition to our Brand Revealers. From time to time, we will invite marketing experts to join the newsletter and share their wisdom, tips, and strategies. Marketing and branding go hand in hand. While there may be a natural order to this dynamic, they work together to make your vision and brand shine for the right reasons. To succeed, we need to embrace the art of marketing—so let’s welcome these experts and grow together!
👋 Marketing Buddy of the week: Deepa Shanbhag
Deepa Shanbhag and I met through WATBD a few months ago. She shared a set of super useful resources with the community and entered my radar. I discovered that she has a background in fashion and marketing. In addition to her role as a creative director, she is also a founder. With such a diverse skill set, I thought she would make a great guest for this side of the newsletter! Additionally, she has created a new Slack community that brings together a wide range of creatives.
☕ Grab some tea or coffee, and let’s go!
The interview with Deepa
Scale that Marketing! and news of the week
Who are you? What is your profession?
My name is Deepa Shanbhag. I am a Creative Director and founder of TCTLE (pronounced tac • tile).
Deepa
Where are you located?
🇺🇸 New York City, USA.
Deepa
Where can we discover your work? (website, socials…).
Deepa
What is your definition of Marketing? And what is, in your opinion, the main difference between Branding and Marketing?
Marketing is how you tell your business' story to an audience.
Branding is the story you're telling.Example: Business ⟶ "This is a shampoo."
Branding: "This is a shampoo made for curly-haired individuals."
Marketing: "This is a shampoo made for curly-haired individuals, so let's have popular curly-haired beauty influencers do product reviews."
Deepa
Seth Godin, the marketing expert, says, "You cannot be seen until you learn to see". What do you think about this superpower of seeing what others do not see and providing a solution to it?
I believe that career success depends on recognizing your strengths and having the humility to ask for help. If you see a problem with a clear solution, are you the best person to solve it? Can you make a meaningful, positive impact personally? If yes, go forth!
If no, is there someone out there who is better suited to solve this problem but lacks the necessary resources (funds, access, etc.)? Do you have what they need, and can you help them on their journey to solve "problem with a clear solution"?
While I believe that it’s okay to have multiple businesses, while selling the same product, it’s important to consider what makes you and your product different to ensure you don’t burn out midway through.
Deepa
Do you have any tips for creative entrepreneurs and Brand Revealers to improve their marketing skills in three steps?
(Listed as tips, not steps).
#1 • Do not strive to win awards or be viral.
Authenticity always wins the longevity "game".#2 • Focus on who currently engages with your product.
It doesn’t matter how small the audience is (as long as they are your target audience). Through them, you’ll learn what resonates and can use that information to grow. Also, if they like your product enough, they’ll talk about it in their own networks (free marketing!).#3 • Recognize that all tips are just suggestions, not directions.
Try what resonates. Many people regurgitate what's trending on social media to increase engagement or share experiences that are no longer relevant in today’s world. Instead, focus on creating something sustainable and relevant to the audience you want to attract.
Deepa
What are the repeated words you hear about your Branding and Marketing from your audience, teams, and people who discover you? (3 to 5 keywords)
When it comes to TCTLE, I strive for it to be:
✦ Authentic ✦ Accessible ✦ NuancedIt's how I approach teaching and mentorship, and who I am as a creative.
Deepa
Do you have any recommendations for mastering marketing, such as books, podcasts, conferences, etc.?
Honestly, what has made me who I am as a marketer are all my coworkers over the years and the people I have met through various endeavors. I was tossed into this industry by chance and have had the pleasure of working at different large companies, which provided insight into how things get done at various budgets, environments, and more.
Deepa
Haute couture has long set trends and shaped the market, making it difficult for lesser-known sustainable brands to gain visibility. Why do you think these established luxury brands continue to dominate popular culture today? And what strategies can slow fashion brands adopt to achieve long-term success and scalability?
As a consumer, it feels like the bigger brands dominate, mostly because they have a recognizable brand and access to resources. I don't think there's a magical, overnight answer for how to succeed and cut through the noise. That said, I do believe that many businesses (big or small) fail due to poor customer service, chasing trends (and thereby being disingenuous to their target audience), and sacrificing quality to make up for it. Brands grow because they have something special to offer and capitalize on it. In the long term, it’s important to stay true to the brand and the customer, scaling when it makes sense.
Deepa
You created a networking community called TCTLE, which I think is amazing at bringing female founders together. What made you switch from a product-based company to a service-based company?
TCTLE was never just about bringing female founders together; it was about helping WOC makers expand their businesses with less overhead. At its core, the brand has always been about leveraging my social capital and experience to help other creative women of color succeed. I switched to a resource guide because I can provide insights and make connections in marketing, branding, and advertising more authentically than I can when building product brands.
Deepa
Female founders are important. Female black founders are important! Diversity in leadership is the only way to shift perceptions of what a leader looks like. How did you seize the leadership path? And what keeps you going as you empower fellow female black founders?
When I started my business many years ago, my internal motto was, “Why not me?” It was a toxic combination of naïveté and ego. I’ve learned many lessons, but the two biggest have been:
I do not know everything.
Neither does anyone else.
As I progress as a leader, I’ve learned to recognize the moments when I need to come to the table with questions versus answers. I’m decisive but encourage collaboration and feedback. I hire people who are more technically skilled than I am and remove roadblocks so they can thrive. What has helped me the most during my career, especially as a leader, is learning from those with more experience and receiving their advice as if we are peers, rather than from a place of authority. I don’t believe in gatekeeping knowledge. I’m confident in who I am and what I know, and I am willing to share that knowledge—that’s what keeps me going. Let’s all win!
Deepa
Could you share 1–3 tips you experimented with in your brand to get to know your audience better and foster a deeper bond?
When it comes to my brand, I’ve struggled the most with setting boundaries around what to share. There’s a lot about myself that I prefer to keep offline, but I know from feedback that my experiences can be helpful for others to know. Captions have been the easiest to write, but they don’t get as much engagement as videos or photos of my face. I don’t even post selfies on my personal and private social media, so why should I do so on my public business account? I’m still figuring out the right balance and solution. Since my business is based on cultivating relationships, I remain authentic throughout this process. If it’s not a true story, I won’t share it. If a resource doesn’t consider the experiences of POC or WOC specifically, I won’t share it either.
Deepa
You can connect and discover her work and mindset @Deepa Shanbhag
🧠 Scale that Marketing!
🙋🏽♀️🙋🏾 I can start my business (Thashina Okanga-Souna shares 3 truths about personal branding that can transform how you present yourself to the world).
🌱 A new community for women (Amanda Craven will help you tackle self-sabotage, gently heal past wounds, set new goals and unleash the NEW YOU).
📣 Own your perspective (Sam Smith empowers us to embrace creative roles, helping us become more agile problem-solvers, idea generators, and communicators).
🤖 Black Women In Artificial Intelligence (Angle Bush empowers Black women in AI emphasizing that the the revolution must include diversity).
If you enjoy the content and believe in what I am building here, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support would mean the world to me and help keep this vision alive. You can also find more ways to share the love here. Thank you for being a part of this journey!
Sending aligned vibes 💫
Keva.