From mass messages to micro-moments: The personalised marketing shift

In 2025, personalisation has flipped from a “nice to have” into a core strategic imperative — especially in a market as complex and diverse as India, where brands have to navigate 4,000+ dialects, multiple socio-economic segments, and rapid digital adoption.

Customers increasingly reject “one-size-fits-all” messaging and expect brands to meet them with relevant, timely, and culturally resonant experiences. 

This shift is not just qualitative; it is backed by numerous instances showing that personalisation drives engagement, conversion, and customer loyalty. So, the question isn’t whether to personalise — it’s how fast and how well.

Why personalisation is no longer optional

Traditional mass marketing — broad TV ads, generic SMS blasts, undifferentiated offers — still plays a role here. But consumers today want relevant interaction at every touchpoint. As per a recent survey by McKinsey, 71% of customers now expect personalised interactions, and 76% get frustrated when brands fail to deliver them.

In India, personalisation isn’t just about relevance — it’s about cultural resonance and language nuance. A festival campaign that works beautifully in Mumbai might not do so in Jaipur unless tailored with the right imagery, language, and offer. This becomes a competitive differentiator.

The AI advantage: Beyond custom fields to true personalisation

The next wave of personalisation is being powered by AI-led targeting and generative AI-based content creation at scale. These capabilities are enabling brands to move from broad segmentation to truly individualised experiences, while dramatically reducing the operational complexity that personalisation once demanded.

Targeted offers based on behaviour and lifecycle: A customer who regularly buys masala dosa batter online could receive a curated offer for premium chutneys, while a first-time visitor gets a welcome discount optimised for conversion.

Gen AI-crafted content: Brands like Nykaa are already experimenting with AI recommendations across beauty categories, suggesting products based on past purchases, browsing patterns, and even skin-tone preferences — creating experiences that feel one-to-one rather than broadcast.

Contextual communications: Imagine an auto brand like Tata Motors using AI to tailor campaigns that speak differently to a first-time car buyer vs an existing commercial-vehicle customer. The same piece of creative can adapt its tone, offer, and channel based on the segment.

At scale, such capabilities move beyond engagement metrics, directly influencing revenue growth, margin quality, and commercial effectiveness.

Building the foundation: Data, tech, and team alignment

Personalisation is engineered, not improvised. It demands an ecosystem where data fuels insight, algorithms guide decisions, content adapts dynamically, messages travel through the right channels, and outcomes are continuously measured.

Data: Centralised customer insights across e-commerce, in-store, app usage, and loyalty programmes — brands such as Big Basket and Myntra use unified customer data platforms to get a 360° view of behaviour.

Decisioning: Use of AI models to predict not just what customers want, but when and how they prefer to engage.

Design: Building modular content that can be personalised dynamically—from email copy to app banners to video assets in multiple languages.

Distribution: Delivering the right message on the right channel — WhatsApp, email, OTT — based on real-time context and preference.

Measurement: Track not just clicks, but incremental revenue and retention from personalisation efforts.

For marketers, this means investing in capabilities, skilling teams in data literacy, and upgrading technology stacks that can orchestrate experiences across channels, languages, and segments.

Brands rewriting the playbook

Across categories, brands are already unlocking the personalisation’s power and embedding it into the customer journey.

Zomato: Pushes dynamic offers based on cuisine preferences and ordering habits — not generic coupons that spread across millions.

CRED: Personalises rewards and provides curated offers based on spending patterns, giving high-value customers a sense of exclusivity.

Swiggy: Uses predictive insights to optimise delivery suggestions, timing offers when they’re most likely to convert.

Tanishq: Augmented digital showrooms tailor recommendations based on past interactions and design preferences.

The new frontier: Empathy meets engineering

Personalisation in 2025 is more than technology — it’s strategic empathy — anticipating needs before customers articulate them, i.e., marrying human insight with machine precision.

For marketers, the opportunity is enormous. With digital adoption surging and data multiplying across touchpoints, the brands that master personalisation will not only drive ROI but will also own relevance in a world where customer attention is a rare commodity.

The future belongs to brands that can fuse AI-driven precision with culturally attuned creativity — turning every interaction into a meaningful touchpoint and every customer into a lifelong advocate.

(Atul Raja is a brand strategist and marketing evangelist with 30 years’ experience, building iconic brands across Asia, Africa and Latin America, and advising leading global brands through his consultancy.)