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Anupam Katheriya, the CEO of Cholayil and Director of Medimix, delivered a pivotal keynote on ‘Rewriting the Wellness Code: The New Pillars of Health Branding’ at the e4m Health and Wellness Marketing Awards 2025.
His central point: in today's intricate market, trust has become the indispensable mediator for healthcare brands. Katheriya opened by illustrating the dramatic shift in consumer behavior. Gone are the days of limited media exposure as today's consumers are on multiple screens, multi-tasking their way through it. This fragmented attention presents a significant challenge for marketers. Manufacturers face increasing complexity as well, moving from a single assortment to complex ones involving variants, SKUs, and seasonality. He explained that pharma companies aspire to transition from generics to branded players for identity and direct consumer connection, which ensures that their P&L is protected.
Challenging traditional notions of brand building, Katheriya asserted that neither state-of-the-art manufacturing with robust distribution nor a massive advertising budget alone guarantees success. While manufacturing can be outsourced and distribution gaps bridged by e-commerce, the real hurdle lies in how to make advertising worth it. He drew a powerful analogy by saying that, “If you yourself won't take such an important decision,” referring to a life partnership, “then why are you expecting consumers to probably switch you just because you decided to spend money on advertising?”
The cornerstone of Katheriya's address was the ‘Trust Equation’ by Charles Green, David Maister, and Robert Galford, which finds credibility, reliability, and intimacy balanced against self-orientation. He proclaimed that, “while doctors and chemists traditionally mediated healthcare decisions, trust is the new mediator for consumerfacing health products. Without it, consumers will not even consider you.”
His vision extends to achieving a ?1,000 crore turnover for Cholayil Pvt. Ltd. in the near term, by focusing on contemporizing their offerings and reaching out to newer segments while upholding the strong equity in Ayurvedic and natural products. This includes an aggressive push to grow their omnichannel brand presence. Katheriya has been the Key Account Sales Manager for Nestle India till 2012 before becoming the General Manager in Marketing for Emami. After spending 10 years at Emami and advancing to the Associate Vice President of Marketing and Business Development till 2022, he served as the COO at Suraksha Diagnostics in Kolkata. He became the CEO of Cholayil in February 2023 and the Director of Medimix a year later.
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