"In a category built on shock value, the harder creative problem was restraint."
THE SITUATION
A gap nobody had filled properly.
The founder and I started Pleaz from a clear read on the market. Every intimacy brand selling in India sat at one of two extremes. Loud and crude, leaning on shock value to get noticed. Or clinical and invisible, treating the product like something to apologise for. Both missed the actual opportunity. A brand normal enough to sit on a shelf. Confident enough to be a choice, not a confession.
I built the name, the positioning, and the creative direction from a blank page, working directly with the founder. A design agency joined for packaging, logo, and visual execution, working off briefs I wrote and revisions I directed.
APRIL 2025 · AT A GLANCE
Market read: existing brands split between shock-value and clinical invisibility
Built brand name, identity, and positioning from a blank page
Strategy and creative direction led directly with the founder
External agency engaged for packaging, logo, and visual execution
THE DIAGNOSIS
Not a product problem. A permission problem nobody had solved.
People don't avoid this category because the products are wrong. They avoid it because every brand selling into it gives them two bad options. Yell past the discomfort, or disappear into it. Neither lets someone buy without feeling like they're explaining themselves.
The diagnosis was simple once we named it. Nobody wanted louder. They wanted permission. A brand that treated this the way skincare treats skin, ordinary, considered, nothing to justify. That meant naming had to read as character, not category. Packaging had to read as premium, not clinical. And the line had to hold in both directions: no obscenity, no sexualising people, no cheap thrill marketing. Confidence was the brand. Shock was the competition's habit, not ours.
AUDIENCE — 70% Millennials, 30% Gen Z. Singles, couples, long-distance, and people exploring for the first time.
BRAND SOUL — Confident, fun, and inclusive. Never crude.
VOICE — Witty and warm in equal measure. Never judgmental.
SCOPE OF BUILD
Twelve products planned. Six market-ready before the pause.
12 — Products across the naming and identity system
6 — Market-ready, packaging and product strategy complete
79 — Static social assets produced
74 — Video assets produced
70+ — Social posts content-planned for the 90-day launch window
TIMELINE
April 2025 — Brand build begins
May 2025 — Positioning locked
June 2025 — Packaging finalised
July 2025 — Product-level naming and positioning locked
October 2025 — Build paused
February 2026 — Cancelled, import issue on the product made launch unworkable
THE SYSTEM BUILT
03
GO-TO-MARKET ARCHITECTURE
Built the 90-day social launch plan and the funnel behind it before the build paused. Three content pillars: education, relatable storytelling, witty hooks, all under one rule: no obscenity, no judgment, no stereotypes.
Funnel ran top to bottom on the same brand voice. Top of funnel built curiosity through couple visuals and wordplay. Middle of funnel carried trust through UGC, unboxing, and product specs. Bottom of funnel converted through urgency without losing the tone. 79 static assets and 74 videos produced, content planned across 70+ posts for the launch window.
THE WALL
Paused once. Closed out in February.
The build ran from April 2025 through the second half of the year, positioning, packaging, and product-level work all locked by July. The brand paused in October 2025. It was formally cancelled in February 2026, when an import issue on the product made launch unworkable.
Six of twelve planned products were market-ready, packaging and product strategy complete, when the work stopped. The brand was ready. The product wasn't able to ship.
THE ARGUMENT
The category was new. The judgment wasn't.
Pleaz is the range proof. No playbook, no precedent, a market built on two bad options, and a brand that chose neither. The easy path was shock value or invisibility. The harder path, the one we took, was restraint.
I set the positioning, the naming, the voice, the standard the brand had to hold everywhere it showed up. The agency built packaging and logo against the brief and direction I gave.
When the build stopped, a supply chain problem stopped it. Six of twelve products were already market-ready when the pause came. The system held the whole way through.
I don't need a category I've already worked in. I need the room to set the standard, and the people willing to hold it once I have.