Featured In: LinkedIn — Marketing Musings, Date: February 17, 2026
Imagine walking into a brand that’s already halfway out the door.
Not because the work is done, but because the market has shifted, shareholders have made the call, and the company is in the middle of exiting. The headlines and rumours are louder than your official messages. Staff are anxious. Customers are watching for signs of decline. Competitors are circling. And somewhere in the background, a new investor is preparing to take over the subscribers and assets from the company, which means the brand can’t look like it’s fading, even as it transitions.
That was Essar.
When I joined, the task wasn’t “marketing as usual.” It was crisis communications in motion…. protecting brand trust while managing an exit, and doing it without triggering a self-fulfilling prophecy of decline.
So the work became two things at once.
First: steady the inside. Because when staff sentiment collapses, service collapses next. In a transition, people need certainty, dignity, and confidence that leadership has a plan. My focus was to keep communication clear, frequent, and human, so the organization didn’t spiral into panic, disengagement, or silent resistance.
At the same time: protect the outside story. Customers don’t wait for official announcements to decide what they believe, they read signals. Fewer campaigns. Lower visibility. Quiet channels. A change in tone. In an exit, reduced presence can look like failure, and once that perception spreads, churn accelerates. The business becomes less valuable to whoever is buying it.
So, we had to keep the brand’s essence alive, not with loud promises, but with consistent activity that told the market: “We are still here. Service continues. Value continues. We are stable.”
That meant sustaining initiatives that kept demand warm, kept the brand visible, and kept customer confidence intact, all while managing the issues that naturally rise in a sensitive transition: uncertainty, internal rumours, customer anxiety, and the emotional weight of change.
In short, my job was to make sure the brand didn’t bleed value during the handover as the goal wasn’t just to “communicate the exit.” The goal was to maintain trust, protect reputation, and keep the business healthy for the next investor, ensuring continuity for subscribers, and credibility for the brand right up to the final moment.
That was an experience and a half….and it greatly shaped my marketing mindset. That marketing is more than just the growth in good times, rather, it’s also about stewardship in uncertain times, holding a brand steady when the easiest option would be to go quiet.
