The boon for marketing is that the ‘Better Me’ quest leads to the discovery and adoption of new brands.  | Photo Credit: TarikVision

Two weekends of 2026 have already passed. Those who had survived the first weekend quickly realised that the next one was coming in stronger, faster, with far more temptation. It’s an age-old battle between set masterful triggers and amateur willpower. No guesses who wins.

Quitters’ Day

Cumulative findings from surveys conducted between ages 18 to 80 say that the three most popular resolutions are saving more money, losing weight and exercising more. For Indians, too, it’s a variation of the same. Top 3 resolutions in India are reported as getting fitter, eating healthier, and learning new skills for life/ career improvement. But findings all over the world also indicate that the average New Year’s resolution lasts less than three months, with a majority of resolvers dropping out within the first two weeks. So rampant is the quitting, that there are days dedicated to it. “Ditch New Year’s Resolution Day” is noted as January 17th, and mobile app for runners Strava has found that the second Friday of January is officially when new activity begins slowing down - a day now called Quitters’ Day.

It’s okay. You win some, you lose some. The mind is willing in December, but the flesh is weakened by January. It’s just human. Why is this important for marketing?

In a year-long study conducted from 2024 to 2025, we tracked the New Year resolutions of 100 people around India. It was reported that in the period between the last week of November up to the first two weeks of December, the stage was set for New Year resolution-building. There is no escaping this, really. During this period, influencer content, social media, and plans for the year-end break lead people to look for information on new habits, better lifestyles and new role models to imitate.

‘Better Me’

The first step towards ‘Better Me’ is a most beautifully convoluted one, as most human behaviour is. Instead of getting off the couch and touching your toes, step one is to order athleisure wear. Instead of going for a run, one buys shoes. Good branded ones, recommended by a fitness influencer, who also dabbles in stocks - but it has hi tech modified gel insoles, scientifically proven to make your resolution last.

The boon for marketing is that the ‘Better Me’ quest leads to the discovery and adoption of new brands. All the euphoria that comes along with it is associated with the promise of a better life. The brand experience is yet to be built though. Brands here are mere experiments in identity, which can only strengthen with habit and experience of change. Therein, comes a bane for marketing, where the Fresh Start effect that triggered these experiments, unless closely controlled, eventually gives into old routines and triggers. ‘Better Me’ fades and ‘Same Old Me’ returns, replete with old frustrations and new defeat. Every brand decision that has been made in the euphoric stage is now associated with the emotional frustration of failure. The burden of this transference non-consciously falls on brands. As one respondent in the research who purchased an exercise bike which she reported was now used to dry clothes indoors said, “I kind of hate Decathlon now.”

The Fighter’s week

Across multiple studies, including our own, a familiar pattern emerges. Most people want change. Very few know how to design it. Fewer still know how to survive the middle of it. This gap between intent and action is precisely where marketing can move from opportunism to usefulness.

The first opportunity lies in honesty. Consumers increasingly notice and trust brands that educate them about the real journey from resolve to resolution. Especially in categories like fitness, wellness, and self-improvement, this means talking openly about what’s coming next. Quitter’s Day is not a personal failure; it is a predictable behavioural cliff. The people who make it through aren’t more disciplined - they are better prepared. In our research, what separated those who continued was not intensity in week one, but gentleness in week three. They slowed down. They forgave slip-ups. They stayed flexible. The third week of January turned into something else altogether: the Fighter’s Week. Marketing communication here has a role to warn users about the danger of Quitter’s Day, to reframe persistence as progress, and to normalise “fail thrice” as part of the process, not proof of defeat. Brands have multiple opportunities to do this -- in the Fighters’ Week after the new year’s second weekend, in the first week of February, and towards the beginning of March, as old habits try hard to return. Brands that position themselves as allies, not judges, earn the right to stay in the story longer. They go beyond experiments in identity and become lifelong associates.

Triggers and ability

The second opportunity is accountability -- designed, not declared. Behavioural science has long told us that vague goals create warm feelings, not change. “I want to be healthy” comforts the mind. “I will go to the gym three times a week for thirty minutes” instructs it. Marketers can help users draw this distinction. Equally important is reframing what people are trying to avoid into what they can approach. Replacing is easier than subtracting. “Read ten pages before bed” travels further than “stop doom-scrolling.” Motivation, as most users discover by mid-January, is unreliable. What sustains behaviour are triggers and ability, use of the right prompts and lowering of friction. This is where brands can shine: nudging with the proper message, simplifying the next step, making continuation easier than quitting.

The third opportunity is timing. Not just what to say, but when to show up. January is not a single moment; it is a sequence of emotional states. The second Friday. The third week. The last day. Each carries a different psychological weight. Timing also shows up in how programmes are designed. When Cult launched its five-month weight loss programme, it didn’t begin on January 1st. It is scheduled to begin on January 17th, right when resolve starts wobbling. The signal is subtle, but powerful: this is not about beginnings, it’s about staying.

Most marketers obsess over growth metrics and lifetime value. But there are few growth strategies more effective than becoming part of a deeply personal journey, one where failure is expected, effort is uneven, and progress is fragile. When brands show up not at the moment of promise, but at the moment of doubt, they don’t just earn retention. They earn relevance.

(Prakash Sharma and Reshma Tonse are the co-founders of 1001 Stories. They work with Behavioural Science and Context Architecture to decode and design strategy for Products, Brands and People Interventions. )

Published on January 13, 2026