Nishant Nayyar is the Vice President and Head of Marketing at Kaya Limited.

1. You’ve led marketing across industries like healthcare, media, and now  beauty. How has this cross-sector experience shaped your marketing philosophy?

It’s been transformative. Each sector taught me something fundamentally different about  consumer behavior. In healthcare, I learned the power of trust—messaging must be precise,  empathetic, and deeply rooted in credibility. In media, I understood attention—how fast it moves, how fragmented it is, and how storytelling can create emotional stickiness. Now in beauty and wellness, the lesson is about aspiration and self-expression.

What ties all this together is a belief that brands don’t own attention—consumers do. My marketing philosophy today is a blend of empathy, agility, and long-term thinking. I’ve learned to approach strategy like a human, not a marketer, grounding campaigns in real emotions, not just KPIs. And I no longer see channels as isolated tools, but as dynamic ecosystems that must work in harmony, always adapting to where the consumer is.

2. How do you approach building a consumer-first marketing strategy in sectors  as distinct as healthcare and beauty?

The common thread is starting with human insight, which is later coupled with service/product  insight. Whether someone is seeking a dermatological solution or a skincare routine, their  decision is driven by identity, trust, and emotional security. My approach begins with a qual quant loop: qualitative conversations to unearth motivations, insecurities, and rituals, followed  by quantitative validation to size the opportunity.

In healthcare, the consumer journey is rational but emotionally intense—so credibility and  transparency come first. In beauty, it’s emotional first, with rational benefits as secondary  reinforcements. At Kaya, we marry both by building confidence through science-backed  beauty. A consumer-first strategy in this space means co-creating with the consumer—from  user-generated product reviews to co-developed campaigns that let customers own their transformation stories.

 

 3. You’ve handled both growth and brand roles. How do you strike a balance  between performance marketing and long-term brand equity?

I see them as two sides of the same flywheel. Performance marketing gets you into the room; brand equity keeps you there. The key is to ensure they aren’t managed in silos. I advocate for a shared measurement model—one that tracks short-term acquisition alongside long-term brand lift.

Ideally, every performance campaign should be anchored in a brand truth. Similarly, brand campaigns should have performance hooks embedded—whether through personalized journeys or first-party data capture.

Balancing both is also about pacing. Early in the funnel or in category maturity, you might skew towards growth. But over time, brands have to take the front seat—because CACs rise, and trust becomes the real differentiator.

 

4. How do you see the role of technology evolving in the marketing function, especially for brands operating in wellness and beauty spaces?

Technology is becoming the connective tissue between the brand, the consumer, and the  experience. In beauty and wellness, where personalization is paramount, data and AI are  moving from support roles to strategic levers.

At Kaya, we’re actively leveraging AI for personalized skincare regimens, dynamic product recommendations, and even predictive churn modeling. But what excites me more is how tech is  enabling closed-loop ecosystems. For example, a consumer could interact with our AI skin diagnostic tool – KLEAR AI, whereafter they receive a recommendation and make a purchase seamlessly.

But the real north star is empathetic automation—using technology not to replace the human touch, but to scale it. The brands that win will be the ones that use tech not just to target, but to understand and anticipate with integrity.

5. You’ve worked hands-on with email marketing, lead nurturing, and ORM.  What’s one underrated tactic marketers should double down on in 2025?

Micro-segmentation and narrative sequencing. Too many brands treat email as a broadcast  channel. But in 2025, where attention is scarce and privacy is king, intimacy matters more than reach.

We’ve seen great success at Kaya by segmenting not just by demographics or past purchases, but  by skincare intent, self-perception, and even psychological readiness. For example, a consumer browsing hair-fall content versus pigmentation solutions gets a completely different narrative arc, even if their profile otherwise matches.

Also, ORM is the new market research. Mining sentiment from DMs and comments reveals  friction points you’d never see in a survey. We’ve used ORM insights to tweak messaging and even modify product claims.

In short, marketers should move from automation to orchestration—creating journeys that feel human, timely, and uniquely personal.