Kanika Pahuja
Marketing leadership advisor for Indian brands
Kanika Pahuja advises founders, CEOs and marketing heads in India on the decisions that shape a marketing function: strategy, team structure, budgets and priorities. It suits companies that need senior marketing judgement without, or before, a full-time hire.
Who it is for
- Founders and CEOs deciding what marketing should own and what it should cost
- Marketing heads who want a sounding board for a reorganisation, a budget or a big launch
- Businesses moving from agency-led to in-house marketing
What marketing leadership advisory covers
- Marketing strategy tied to the P&L, with targets the business already tracks
- Team design: roles, agency versus in-house, and hiring priorities
- Budget allocation across brand, performance and retention
- Quarterly reviews of what is working and what to stop
Kanika Pahuja’s experience behind it
- Rose from Assistant Marketing Manager to Deputy General Manager, Marketing at VLCC Healthcare over more than a decade, including a term as Marketing Head.
- Directed national marketing for 100+ VLCC centres across India.
- Head of Marketing at Little Millennium Education (B2B franchise and B2C enrolment) and at Laiqa, a D2C FemTech brand.
Background reading: the Brand and growth strategy guide.
Questions about marketing leadership advisory
What does a marketing leadership advisor do?
A marketing leadership advisor helps the people who run a company make better marketing decisions: what to prioritise, how to structure the team, where to spend and how to measure it. The advisor works alongside the existing team rather than replacing it.
Is this the same as a fractional CMO?
It overlaps. Advisory is lighter: regular sessions and reviews rather than running the team day to day. If you need someone to lead the team through a period of change, say so in your enquiry and the scope can be shaped around it.
Which industries does Kanika work with?
Her record spans wellness and healthcare, EdTech, D2C and FemTech, FMCG, retail and real estate, across agency and in-house roles.
Enquire about marketing leadership advisory
Kanika PahujaMarketing leader, IndiaGurugram, Haryana, IndiaAcross India, in person and remotehello@kanikapahuja.comOther ways to work together
- Performance marketing review
An independent review of your Google, Meta and affiliate spend: where the money goes, what each lead really costs, and what to change first.
- Digital transformation and AI in marketing
Putting AI chatbots, CRM automation, lead scoring and WhatsApp journeys to work in a marketing team, with the governance to keep them safe.
- Brand and go-to-market strategy
Positioning, launch plans and integrated communication for new products, apps and markets, planned against the numbers the business runs on.
- Speaking and team workshops
Talks and hands-on workshops on marketing leadership, performance marketing and AI in marketing, for conferences, colleges and in-house teams.