Once upon a less-connected time, we experienced a brand before forming an opinion about it. We ate the samosa. Stayed at the hotel. Drove the car. Visited the bank. Fought with customer care. Then we decided whether the brand was good, bad or deserving of vocabulary unsuitable for a respectable column. That was ‘Aap Beeti’. What happened to me and what I personally experienced.

Then came the internet. Reviews. Ratings. Influencers. Reels. WhatsApp University. And now AI, which can conveniently summarise what thousands of strangers think so that we don't even have to suffer the inconvenience of reading their opinions.

Welcome to ‘Jag Beeti’. What someone else experienced.

The interesting question is, how much does my real brand experience matter anymore?

When Experience Collides

Suppose I visit a highly rated restaurant. Google says 4.7. Influencers photograph themselves looking spiritually liberated after tasting the butter chicken. Reviews call the ambience "divine". My waiter ignores me. The food arrives cold. The bill arrives surprisingly hot. What is the truth?

My Aap Beeti says, ‘Terrible restaurant’. Jag Beeti says, ‘Exceptional restaurant’.

Strangely, instead of questioning the restaurant, I may start questioning myself. Maybe I ordered the wrong dish.........

© Free Press Journal