Marketing leader in India.
Kanika Pahuja is a marketing leader in India with 18+ years building brands and growth across wellness and healthcare, EdTech, D2C and FemTech, FMCG, retail and real estate.
Over a decade at VLCC Healthcare, she rose from Assistant Marketing Manager to Deputy General Manager, Marketing, including a term as Marketing Head. She directed national marketing for 100+ centres across India, managed a ₹1.2 Cr monthly performance budget across Google, Meta and affiliate networks, and conceived performance campaigns that cut cost per lead by 15% and lifted click-through by 20% year on year.
She led VLCC's digital transformation: the launch of the D2C app, the Expert app and a progressive web app with subscriptions and video consultations, AI-driven CRM journey automation and lead scoring, and WhatsApp bot and AI chatbot integrations. Her work there earned Management Appreciation Letters and cash rewards.
She has also been Head of Marketing at Little Millennium Education, across B2B franchise and B2C enrolment, and at Laiqa, a D2C FemTech brand, where the app's content and communication delivered a 20% increase in user engagement. Her agency roots, from 2008 to 2013, are at Ogilvy, Law & Kenneth and Percept Hakuhodo, on brands including Dabur Oral Care, OVS, The Beer Café, DLF and Shipra.
She holds an MBA in Marketing Management from Sikkim Manipal University, a PG Diploma in Communication and Media from Apeejay Institute of Management, a BJMC from VIPS, GGSIPU, and a Diploma in Cyber Law, and is based in Gurugram.
What she works on
- Brand and growth strategy
Brand strategy kept in step with the P&L, and communication plans built to hit measurable targets.
- Digital transformation and AI in marketing
AI chatbots, CRM, customer-journey automation and AI-led digital business, put to work rather than piloted.
- Performance and digital marketing
Lead generation, search and social built around the numbers the business cares about: CAC, CPL and return.
- Web, apps and content
Sites, apps and content that load fast, launch well and turn attention into customers.
Industries
- Wellness and healthcare
- EdTech
- D2C and FemTech
- FMCG
- Retail
- Real estate
What she believes
- Build for the phone first, and for all of India, not only the metros.
- Use AI to multiply good judgment, not to replace it.
- Measure what changes the business, not what fills a dashboard.