How spokespersons influence consumer trust

New age consumer brands in India don’t scale on product alone. They scale on the credibility of the person speaking behind the product. Over the last few years across D2C and FMCG, I’ve observed one behaviour repeat itself over and over: When the founder becomes the trust anchor, the brand scales faster and sticks deeper. Just think about how you perceive these brands: 📍 The Whole Truth Shashank Mehta doesn’t just talk about products. He breaks food myths, teaches you how to read labels, and lets you understand why the brand exists in the first place. That clarity made him credible long before the category took him seriously. 📍 Bombay Shaving Company Shantanu Deshpande chooses his topics with intention. Marketing, mental health, youth culture, startup lessons. These are the same conversations his consumers are already having in their daily life. By placing himself inside those conversations, he built credibility that naturally extends to the brand. 📍 Go Zero Kiran Shah speaks openly about nutrition, formulation choices, family businesses, and even pricing logic. When a founder breaks down decision making so clearly, the brand automatically feels honest and thought through. 📍 Fix My Curls Anshita Mehrotra has built a community-first voice. Her content blends education, curl-care myths, product chemistry, and relatable storytelling. It’s the kind of visibility that doesn’t promote the product. It justifies it. And these founders educate more than they “influence”. And that’s exactly why consumers trust the brand faster than any ad can create. I’ve seen this pattern hold true across every project I’ve worked on. Hospitality, F&B, retail, finance, all completely different industries, but the same outcome. The moment the founder showed up with clarity, the brand started converting faster and conversations around it grew sharper. I’ve watched engagement double, retention improve, and even cold audiences warm up simply because the person behind the brand became visible, consistent, and trustworthy. It’s one of those things you only understand when you’ve seen it play out across very different kinds of consumers. It always comes back to the same truth that people don’t just buy products, they buy the person who helps them make sense of those products. Which is why I would love to know this from you Which founder’s voice has genuinely shaped how you see their brand? Image source: Bain & Co #consumerbehaviour #D2C #branding #founderbranding #Iconsumerbrands

𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐡 𝐑𝐮𝐤𝐡 𝐊𝐡𝐚𝐧 (𝐒𝐑𝐊) 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐛𝐡𝐮𝐣𝐢𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐤. 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐊𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭. 𝐊𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐚 𝐊𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐢 𝐬𝐚𝐮𝐜𝐞. Celebrity in India is a cultural force that shapes trust, familiarity, and aspiration at scale. Their presence goes beyond endorsements in ads or commercials. In many cases, their faces are printed right on the product packaging. Walk through a supermarket in India (or through Mustafa Centre in Singapore) and you will see it clearly. The connection between the product and the celebrity is immediate and visual. This is a response to what the market responds to. A 2025 study showed that more than half of Indian consumers say they frequently buy products endorsed by celebrities. Brands are seeing real returns: 🔹 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭: Unilever’s radio-ad campaign used Salman Khan’s voice to appeal to budget-conscious rural buyers. The result was dramatic: after running the “missed call” ad (with Salman touting Active Wheel detergent), Unilever reported Wheel sales tripled in the test region following 16 million callbacks. 🔹 𝐆𝐑𝐌 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬: In March 2025, small-cap FMCG firm GRM Overseas announced Salman Khan as brand ambassador for its “10X Classic Chakki Fresh Atta.” The stock market reacted immediately: the share price jumped ~8% the next day, despite weak market conditions. 🔹 𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐬 𝐔𝐩: Thums Up’s valuation soared to $1 billion in sales with SRK as its face. Coke India’s marketing chief explicitly credited SRK’s star power and the brand’s strong taste for this success. Industry sources estimate that after SRK’s entry, Thums Up quickly regained market share lost during the COVID-19 downturn. 🎯 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐬𝐨 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥? In India, celebrity holds a unique kind of emotional equity. These public figures are household names whose values and image have been shaped over decades through film, interviews, and media. When their face appears on a product, consumers feel a sense of familiarity. That familiarity creates trust. For brands operating in highly competitive or low-margin categories, this connection can become a growth lever. This got me thinking about how product marketing looks in other parts of the world. 𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲? Would love to hear what you have observed in your market. #MarketingStrategy #ConsumerBehavior #FMCGMarketing #CelebrityEndorsement #IndiaMarketing #BrandTrust #PackagingDesign

If the same influencer promotes 5 brands in a week…who do you actually trust? Over the last few years, something fundamental has shifted in how consumers choose brands. People aren’t just buying products anymore, they’re buying people they trust. Take Boat. It saw a sharp boost in recall when Aman Gupta became widely visible. What’s even more interesting is how this plays out across different categories. The Whole Truth Foods is a great example, Shashank Mehta consistently breaks down ingredients and calls out industry practices, becoming a filter for credibility. Even his recent post on the impact on prices due to the Iran War, I am sure echoed with many customers. And that honesty would mean that customers knew why the prices increased, when they will. Over time, the founder himself became a filter for credibility, if he says it’s clean, people believe it. On the other hand, Minimalist took a quieter route. Mohit Yadav focused on radical transparency and product-first communication. Consumers today are exposed to endless influencer promotions, where the same face endorses multiple competing brands within days. The credibility gap is obvious. In contrast, when a founder speaks, there’s perceived skin in the game. That’s why brands like BellaVita Organic use Aakash Anand - A Rotoris Man in campaigns, and SUGAR Cosmetics leverages Vineeta Singh’s strong persona to reinforce brand identity. Founder-led trust may drive discovery and first purchase, but it doesn’t guarantee retention. Indian consumers, in particular, are still deeply product-first. You might try a brand because you trust the founder, but you’ll only stay if the product delivers. In fact, of the product disappoints, the backlash is quicker and more personal because the trust was built at a human level. So the real shift isn’t from “brand-led” to “founder-led.” It’s towards humanised brands, where founders act as trust accelerators. Because in the end, people don’t choose between brand or founder, they choose brands that feel human, credible, and consistent over time. Tag a brand where the founder makes you more confident to buy.

When Celebrities Sell Confusion, Not Trust One month a Bollywood star is promoting Brand A’s smartwatch. Next month, the same face is selling Brand B’s smartwatch. And consumers? Left asking: So which one is actually worth my money? This isn’t hypothetical-it’s real. In 2022, Virat Kohli endorsed Noise smartwatches, calling them India’s #1 choice. Soon after, he appeared in ads for Fire-Boltt, another rival brand claiming the same Title. Both brands grew massively—Noise crossed ₹2,000 Cr revenue in FY23, while Fire-Boltt grabbed India’s No.1 spot in smartwatch shipments (32.6% market share in Q1 2023, IDC). If the same celebrity tells you two different brands are the best, what happens to consumer trust? The influencer economy is booming—India’s influencer marketing industry is expected to hit ₹3,375 Cr by 2026. But if endorsements become just a game of highest bidder wins, the very foundation-authenticity is at risk. Are celebrities shaping consumer choices—or just selling attention for a price? What are your views on this ? KaroStartup #InfluencerMarketing #BrandTrust #CelebrityEndorsement #Marketing