Q] What is Traya’s brand positioning right now? What’s something most competitors are still getting wrong that Traya is addressing in a different way?
Traya is built around efficacy, not positioning. In a category where marketing often runs ahead of product performance, the brand is defined by the results it delivers. Our focus on honesty and myth-busting comes from operating in a corrupted haircare space. Traya’s root-cause approach goes beyond hair products—with solutions for stress, sleep, and digestion. Nearly 20 per cent of our Ayurvedic supplements focus on gut health. The brand’s promise is reflected in the experience—from our hair test and customised kits to hair coaches and doctor consultations.
Q] How are you marketing this thinking to consumers and what share of your budget currently goes into AdEx?
We spend about 2–3 per cent on advertising; we are not an acquisition-heavy brand. Nearly 70 per cent of our monthly revenue comes from retention—customers who first tried Traya four years ago and continue to stay with us. While strategies may evolve, our model today is not acquisition-led. When we do acquire customers, the approach is education-led. Hair loss is a high-involvement but low-trust category—people care deeply about it, have researched everything, yet often believe nothing works. The first step, therefore, is helping them believe that hair loss can be reversed and that Traya can offer the right solution. That makes our approach science-led. Logical reasoning and honesty have worked for us. We were the first to say results take five to six months, and that users should start only if they are committed. That honesty, rooted in the right intent, has become our strongest marketing strategy.
Q] Your recent campaigns have consistently featured Rajkummar Rao. What did that association unlock for Traya? Was there a particular personality trait that aligned with the brand, and what kind of KPIs or ROI have you seen from the partnership?
Traya is not a beauty or haircare brand. it is as medical and efficacy-led as it gets. So, we didn’t want a conventionally macho celebrity with unrealistically perfect hair. Instead, we were looking for someone with a realistic hairline—no transplant, no wig; someone who genuinely represents hard work and authenticity. Rajkummar Rao fits that role perfectly. He hasn’t come from a film family but has built his career through sheer hard work. Not many people know this, but he also believes in Ayurveda. All of these factors came together, making him the right personification of Traya—less about beauty, more about health.
We brought him on board about three and a half years ago, and have since completed our third campaign with him. Partnering with Raj for the first time was a major unlock for us. When a relatively small brand signs a recognised celebrity, it lends credibility and helps cut through the clutter. Our brand awareness grew significantly in the first two years of working with him. Today, we enjoy fairly strong reach and awareness, but consistency builds recall. That’s why we’ve continued working with Raj—and, we still see a long road ahead.
Q] With Traya Women now in the portfolio, is there a plan to introduce a female face for the brand?
I’ll say this out loud for the first time— it’s Alia Bhatt! She’s neat, real, and most importantly, doesn’t have unbelievably perfect hair. Most hair brands add extensions and sell an illusion, we don’t. We want to show that even an actor like Alia can have imperfect hair. She can still choose the right treatment to improve her hair. That honesty makes her relatable. She also has the courage to stand by it, which is a value that deeply resonates with our brand.
Q] What does Traya’s marketing funnel look like today? Where does most of your growth come from, and do platforms, regions, or market tiers shape how you communicate?
Most of our growth comes from digital awareness-led campaigns and performance marketing. We focus primarily on YouTube and Instagram. Women are more active on Meta or, Instagram. However, men tilt towards YouTube more. Hence, our strategies are built accordingly.
Uttar Pradesh (UP) is one of our most important markets, with strong penetration across Tier-1 and Tier-5 towns. Today, Traya resonates with a wide spectrum of consumers—from a premium, educated CXO in BKC to someone in rural UP with two buffaloes tied outside his home. Our digital-first approach has helped us build relevance across both ends of that spectrum.
While Rajkummar Rao works well as a national ambassador, in markets like Uttar Pradesh we also collaborate with regionally relevant faces. The idea of a single universal brand ambassador is increasingly outdated. Communication, language—and even Hindi itself—varies across regions such as UP, Jharkhand and Bihar. Vernacular content, therefore, becomes extremely powerful. People prefer consuming content in their own language, slang and through local creators they trust. Retention and trust are also stronger in Tier-3 towns and beyond, where consumers tend to value the brand more. In larger cities, scepticism is often higher and the number of choices far greater.
Q] How do you strike the balance between brand and performance marketing?
We invest significantly in brand-building campaigns to reach newer audiences who may not yet know about Traya and to open up the top of the funnel. The balance between brand and performance largely depends on scale and business objectives. For smaller brands, performance marketing tends to be the most efficient way to grow. But as you start scaling, performance eventually plateaus or acquisition costs rise, and that’s when adding a brand layer becomes important.
The second factor is the business objective—whether the focus is on aggressive growth or on profitability and EBITDA. There have been years when we consciously chose not to grow too fast, and others when we pushed for rapid expansion. When growth isn’t the priority, we scale back brand investments and allocate more to the most efficient channel, which is performance marketing.
Q] What is the focus for this year? Where are you planning to invest more?
We’re still figuring that out. January to March is when we typically plan for the next financial year, and that’s exactly the process we’re in right now. Between our two brands—Traya Men and Traya Women—the dynamics are quite different. The women’s category is relatively new and its awareness levels are much lower. For men, the brand is already established; people know Traya. Now, moving consumers from consideration to trial is the real challenge.
With women, however, there is still significant brand-building to be done. It’s a smaller segment at the moment, so we’ll likely invest more aggressively in building awareness. However, the men’s business will be managed with more measured planning to maintain a healthy bottom line.
Q] As you plan for the year ahead, are you exploring newer platforms/formats such as WhatsApp advertising or even, traditional media like TV, print and OOH? And how does this approach change for Traya Women, which still needs stronger awareness?
At Traya, the culture is to experiment and let data decide—as long as it doesn’t compromise our guardrails of honesty and efficacy. For instance, platforms like Zepto and Blinkit can’t deliver the outcomes someone gets through the Traya system, so those aren’t the channels we would pursue. As for traditional media, FY27 planning is still underway. We’ve experimented with hoardings, newspapers and TV in the past, but it’s too early to say whether we’ll repeat those investments.
Today, the brand also has offline centres where people can walk in, meet a doctor or hair coach and consult. We currently have about 20 centres across Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur and Hyderabad, and in many ways, each centre acts like a Traya hoarding, reducing the need for additional outdoor advertising. For Traya Women, however, brand-building will be a key focus. You may see a Rajkummar Rao–equivalent face, alongside a broader push spanning credibility-building, advertising, celebrity collaborations, partnerships and the full brand mix.
Q] We’re about three months into 2026. Looking back, how was 2025 for Traya, where does the brand stand today, and what priorities are you carrying into the year ahead?
The last year was a bit of a rollercoaster for us. There were phases when things dipped and others, when they spiked, and at times, we wished things would just stay stable for a while. But that unpredictability also made the year exciting.
In FY25, we grew about 44 per cent, and by the end of FY26 we expect growth to be around 17 per cent. What excites me even more is FY27, because some of the aggressive bets we made over the past two years are now beginning to take shape. Our offline centres, for instance, are doing really well, and FY27 will be the year we scale them further. Overall, the business is in a healthy place, and we’re now entering a stronger brand-building phase.
