The posting
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) — Khetika
Location: Bengaluru / Mumbai / Hybrid\ Reporting to: Founder & CEO\ Function: Brand, Marketing & Consumer\ Employment: Full-time
About Khetika
Khetika is building a modern consumer brand with the ambition to create a distinctive, trusted and deeply loved brand in its category.
We are looking for a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) who can make Khetika a recognizable and culturally relevant brand, with a particular focus on offline brand building, retail presence, consumer experiences, partnerships and community.
This is a builder role. The CMO will be responsible for translating Khetika's brand ambition into a strong physical presence and a consistent consumer experience across stores, events, retail partners, packaging, communications and communities.
The Role
As CMO, you will own Khetika's overall marketing and brand agenda, with a strong emphasis on offline and on-ground execution.
You will be responsible for:
- Brand strategy and positioning
- Consumer understanding and research
- Offline brand building
- Retail and trade marketing
- In-store experience and visibility
- Events, activations and experiences
- Partnerships and collaborations
- PR and communications
- Community building
- Content and social media
- Packaging and customer touchpoints
- Marketing campaigns
- Customer experience
- Marketing team, agencies and external partners
You will work closely with the Founder/CEO, Sales, Retail, Operations and Product teams to build a consistent Khetika experience wherever consumers encounter the brand.
What You'll Own
1. Brand Strategy
Build Khetika into a distinctive and trusted consumer brand.
- Define Khetika's positioning, personality and core consumer proposition.
- Develop the brand narrative and communication architecture.
- Identify what Khetika should uniquely stand for.
- Build a distinctive visual and verbal identity.
- Ensure consistency across physical and digital touchpoints.
- Develop long-term brand-building platforms rather than relying only on short-term campaigns.
- Build strong brand recall within the target consumer base.
2. Offline Brand Building
Make Khetika visible, memorable and desirable in the real world.
- Develop Khetika's offline marketing strategy across relevant markets.
- Identify high-impact physical touchpoints where consumers discover and experience the brand.
- Build innovative on-ground campaigns and activations.
- Develop sampling, trial and experience programs where relevant.
- Create memorable consumer experiences around the brand.
- Build city-level and market-level brand plans.
- Develop mechanisms to measure the impact of offline marketing.
- Continuously experiment with new physical formats and consumer experiences.
3. Retail & Trade Marketing
Work closely with the sales and retail teams to make Khetika stand out at the point of purchase.
- Develop retail visibility and merchandising strategy.
- Own in-store branding and consumer communication.
- Create impactful displays, signage and point-of-sale materials.
- Develop retailer activation programs.
- Build strong relationships with relevant retail partners.
- Ensure the brand looks and feels consistent across different retail environments.
- Identify opportunities to make Khetika more discoverable and distinctive at the shelf/store level.
- Develop market-specific retail marketing programs.
4. Events & Experiences
Build Khetika's presence through experiences that people remember.
- Develop Khetika's events and activation calendar.
- Identify relevant cultural, consumer and community events for Khetika to participate in.
- Create proprietary Khetika experiences and events.
- Manage event agencies and execution partners.
- Develop experiential campaigns that generate conversation and participation.
- Ensure every physical experience reinforces the brand's positioning.
5. Partnerships & Collaborations
Build the brand through the right people, organizations and communities.
- Identify strategic brand partnerships and collaborations.
- Develop partnerships with complementary consumer brands.
- Explore cultural, hospitality, retail, community and institutional partnerships.
- Build long-term relationships rather than one-off sponsorships.
- Evaluate partnerships based on brand relevance and consumer impact.
6. PR & Communications
Build credibility and cultural relevance for Khetika.
- Own the PR and communications strategy.
- Develop relationships with journalists, editors and relevant media.
- Create compelling stories around Khetika's journey, people, products and purpose.
- Identify opportunities for earned media.
- Manage launches, announcements and brand moments.
- Work with PR agencies where appropriate.
- Ensure Khetika has a clear and consistent public voice.
7. Consumer & Community
Build a genuine relationship between Khetika and its consumers.
- Develop a deep understanding of Khetika's target consumer.
- Spend significant time in markets, stores and with customers.
- Conduct consumer conversations, research and field visits.
- Identify cultural and behavioural insights that can inform the brand.
- Build communities around shared interests and the Khetika brand.
- Develop programs that turn customers into long-term advocates.
8. Content & Digital Presence
Digital should amplify the physical brand—not replace it.
- Define Khetika's content strategy across social and digital channels.
- Build a strong visual and editorial identity.
- Develop content around products, people, culture, customers and the Khetika world.
- Work with creators and relevant cultural voices.
- Use digital channels to extend offline campaigns and experiences.
- Ensure Khetika's online presence reflects the quality and personality of the physical brand.
9. Packaging & Consumer Touchpoints
Own the moments where consumers physically interact with Khetika.
- Work closely with product and design teams on packaging.
- Develop memorable unboxing and product experiences where relevant.
- Ensure packaging communicates the brand proposition clearly.
- Identify opportunities to create delight across the consumer journey.
- Maintain consistency across packaging, retail, events and communications.
10. Team & Agency Leadership
Build a strong marketing organization capable of executing at a high standard.
- Hire and develop the marketing team.
- Build the right mix of internal talent and external partners.
- Manage creative, PR, experiential, media and other agencies.
- Set clear objectives, timelines and accountability.
- Build a culture of high-quality execution and ownership.
- Ensure ideas translate into excellent execution on the ground.
What We're Looking For
We are looking for someone who has built brands in the real world, not just managed digital marketing.
You may be a strong fit if you have:
- 10+ years of experience in consumer marketing, brand building, retail marketing, FMCG, consumer goods, hospitality, lifestyle or adjacent categories.
- Significant experience building brands through offline channels.
- Experience with retail, trade marketing, events, activations and consumer experiences.
- Strong understanding of Indian consumers and markets.
- Experience managing agencies and large-scale on-ground execution.
- Strong creative judgment combined with commercial understanding.
- Experience building teams and managing significant marketing budgets.
- Excellent communication and storytelling skills.
- The ability to move between strategy and execution.
- An entrepreneurial mindset and willingness to be on the ground.
What We Care About More Than Titles
We are less interested in someone who has simply managed a large marketing organization and more interested in someone who has actually built something.
We want someone who can walk into a market, observe consumers, visit stores, talk to retailers, understand what is happening at the shelf, spot an opportunity and turn that insight into a great brand idea.
Someone who can think:
Big brand → strong idea → excellent execution → consumer memory.
The First 12 Months
The CMO's priorities will include:
- Sharpening Khetika's brand positioning and identity.
- Establishing a clear offline brand-building strategy.
- Building a strong retail and in-store presence.
- Creating a calendar of high-quality activations and experiences.
- Establishing Khetika's PR and communications platform.
- Building strategic partnerships and collaborations.
- Developing a strong consumer and community program.
- Creating a consistent physical brand experience across markets.
- Building the internal marketing team and agency ecosystem.
- Establishing clear measures for brand awareness, consideration, trial, repeat and consumer engagement.
How We Think About Marketing
At Khetika, marketing is not just advertising.
It is what people see, experience, hear, touch, taste, remember and eventually tell someone else about.
We want to build a brand that people encounter in the real world and remember long after the interaction.
The CMO's job is to make Khetika impossible to ignore and difficult to forget—through great products, great experiences and great brand building.
Compensation
Competitive compensation with a meaningful performance-linked component and/or ESOP opportunity, depending on experience and fit.
