A few months ago, I would’ve walked into a supermarket, picked up what I needed, paid the bill, and left without giving it much thought.
Now, I spend an extra few minute looking around.
I notice which products are placed at eye level, which brands use bold colours to stand out, and which ones rely on minimal packaging to communicate quality. I catch myself comparing taglines, reading the back of packages, and wondering why one product costs ₹20 more than another when they seem almost identical.
The funny part is that I’m not doing it consciously anymore.
Somewhere between classroom discussions and my summer internship, my perspective quietly changed.
Before the internship, marketing mostly existed in presentations and case studies. We discussed frameworks, analysed campaigns, and debated why one strategy worked better than another. While those discussions were interesting, they still felt like academic exercises.
The internship changed that.
I got to see how much thought goes into decisions that consumers barely notice. A campaign isn’t approved just because it’s creative. A social media post isn’t published simply because it looks good. Every idea is questioned, refined, and often reworked after considering timelines, budgets, brand guidelines, and business objectives.
What surprised me the most was how much time is spent asking questions before arriving at a solution.
Is this the right audience?
Does this fit the brand’s personality?
Will this actually solve the problem, or does it just look impressive in a presentation?
Those questions have stayed with me long after the internship ended.
Back on campus, I find myself looking at brands differently. An Instagram advertisement is no longer just another post in my feed. A new product launch makes me curious about the insight behind it. Even something as simple as a café changing its menu or redesigning its logo makes me wonder what prompted that decision.
It’s almost like marketing has become impossible to switch off.
The interesting part is that this habit has also changed the way I approach learning. When we discuss a campaign in class, I’m less interested in knowing whether it was “good” or “bad.” Instead, I find myself wondering what constraints the team faced and why they chose that particular direction.
There is rarely one perfect answer in marketing. More often than not, there are several reasonable answers, each involving a different trade-off.
I think that’s the biggest lesson I’ve carried back from my internship.
Not every successful idea begins with a moment of inspiration. Sometimes it begins with asking better questions, understanding the problem more deeply, and being willing to revise your first instinct.
As I begin my third semester, that’s the mindset I hope to carry forward and not just learn new concepts, but learn to observe more closely.
Because once you start noticing the decisions behind brands, it’s surprisingly difficult to stop.