MARS Cosmetics, a beauty brand recently appointed Anmol Sahai Mathur as its new Vice President of Marketing. This strategic leadership move is a pivotal moment as the brand continues to grow from an emerging competitor to a household name in India.
Mathur has experience in digital marketing, brand building, and content creator partnerships. With over a decade of experience across industries, he brings a unique blend of digital fluency, brand storytelling, and strategic insight into how today’s consumers think, behave, and engage. Having worked with MARS Cosmetics previously laid a strong foundation in the brand’s core values: affordable, innovative, and high-quality products.
Medianews4u.com caught up with Anmol Sahai Mathur, Vice President of Marketing MARS Cosmetics
Q. The goal is to reach 300 million consumers and the focus is on three areas: regional personalisation, technology experiences, and an omnichannel presence. Could you shed light on the strategy in each area and the big challenge?
Reaching 300 million consumers is a testament to our mission of democratizing beauty in India.
Regional Personalisation: We go deep into the nuances of every market whether it’s shade ranges inspired by local skin tones, festive campaigns rooted in cultural relevance, or messaging tailored in regional languages. This ensures every consumer feels represented.
Technology Experiences: Our shade finders, virtual advisors, and AI-led recommendation tools empower consumers to make confident choices online. This is critical in a category where trial has traditionally been offline.
Omnichannel Presence: We are creating a seamless bridge between digital discovery and offline touchpoints whether through kiosks, pop-ups, or retail partnerships, especially in Tier Two and Three cities where first-time beauty buyers are emerging.
The big challenge: Scaling all three simultaneously: personalisation, tech integration, and omnichannel rollout while ensuring products remain affordable and the brand agile.
Q. What role is AI playing in helping the company balance affordability, quality, and scale?
AI has become a backbone for balancing these three pillars.
- Supply Chain & Pricing: Predictive analytics help us forecast demand, optimise inventory, and minimize wastekeeping costs and prices affordable.
- Product Development: AI studies beauty trends, consumer reviews, and undertones across geographies, making R&D more data-driven and inclusive.
- Consumer Experience: AI-driven consultants and chatbots provide personalised support at scale, ensuring that a consumer in a smaller city receives the same level of service as one in a metro.
This integrated use of AI enables us to offer high-quality products at accessible prices while reaching more consumers faster.
Q. Could you shed light on MARS’ mission of delivering ‘Makeup for Everyone’? What does this entail?
- ‘Makeup for Everyone’ is not just a tagline, it is the soul of our brand.
- Diversity of Skin Tones: We design inclusive shade ranges so every consumer finds themselves reflected in our products.
Accessibility through Pricing: Beauty should never be a privilege. Our goal is to bring premium-quality formulations at prices that are within everyone’s reach.
Empowering Self-Expression: Makeup, for us, is not about covering up but about showing up as your most confident self. Whether it’s a beginner trying their first lipstick or a professional perfecting their look, we provide choices without compromises.
This mission drives every decision from formulation to packaging to distribution.
Q. What marketing tactics will be adopted during the festive season to accelerate the mission?
Festive season is when beauty plays a central role in self-expression and celebration. Our marketing will be anchored in authentic, hyper-local storytelling:
- Local Voices: Campaigns in regional languages and contexts that celebrate local traditions.
- Influencer Collaborations: Partnering with nano, micro, and celebrity influencers to share real-life stories rather than just product plugs.
- Community-Led Content: Encouraging consumers to share their festive looks with MARS, turning them into co-creators of our brand story.
- Omnichannel Engagement: Exclusive festive collections and offers, supported both online and through retail activations, to ensure accessibility everywhere.
Our aim is to make every consumer feel seen, celebrated, and included this festive season.
Q. What marketing campaigns and innovations can we expect?
We are developing campaigns that unite technology with emotion. For instance, “Beauty Without Filters” will employ try-ons to enable consumers to play with looks while affirming genuine confidence.
Branded content partnerships with OTT platforms and creators will move towards storytelling, not sales pitches, but dialogues on beauty, identity, and authenticity. We also plan to pilot customized festive kits, bespoke shade tools, and limited-edition offerings inspired by local sensibilities. Innovation is not just about utilizing consumer insights, feedback, and technology to influence product and storytelling in ways that are personal and timely.
Q. What will the media mix look like between traditional and digital avenues?
Digital is still our spearhead; social media (YouTube, Instagram), influencer partnerships, virtual tools, and content marketing will power discovery, engagement, and purchase. Traditional media, however, continues to play a critical part in creating mass awareness and credibility, particularly in non-metro regions, via local TV, radio, and out-of-home (OOH) advertising.
The combination is synergy: digital fuels traditional and vice versa. For instance, a television campaign can push individuals to an online try-on feature; alternatively, quality influencer content can spark interest in store visits or retail kiosks.
Q. Last year MARS Cosmetics partnered with TVF’s Girliyapa for the ‘Sisters’ web series. What was the outcome and what is the potential in branded content for MARS Cosmetics ?
The Girliyapa collaboration provided solid performance on the emotional connect and reach of the audience. It helped us to weave the brand organically into a story that understood sisterhood in real life and thus made the product more relatable. To MARS, branded content is not merely about being seen but about being relevant culturally.
It helps us communicate with our consumers’ language through genuine storytelling. This form has great potential in the future, particularly on web series and OTT platforms, where we can deliver meaningful impact beyond conventional advertising.
Q. The aim is to also build a culture rooted in inclusivity, agility, and purpose and this is reflected in products built. How does this give the company a leg up in a competitive beauty industry?
In the current beauty industry, products need to be representative of not only quality but values. Inclusivity at MARS is represented by every shade range equaling real Indian skin tones. Agility is responding quickly to trends and feedback.
Purpose is what holds it all together. We exist to democratize beauty, not simply sell it. This culture enables us to design relevant, timely, and meaningful products. It also establishes consumer trust and loyalty, two key drivers in an increasingly competitive and changing industry.
Q. What goals have been set in terms of market share, profitability etc?
Though numbers are internal, our north star is certain: to be one of India’s first three mass-market beauty brands in the next three years. Our strategy balances scale with intelligent execution.
Profitability will arrive through effective operations, robust distribution, and lean inventory enabled by AI. But above all, long-term value will be driven by persistent consumer trust and preference, and that is our highest priority.
Q. According to data analytics is the whitespace for growth in tier two and three towns and cities? Or do the Metros still have room to grow? Which are the key international markets being targetted?
Both Tier 2/3 towns and metro cities offer distinct avenues for growth. Smaller cities are witnessing a surge in beauty adoption, fueled by increased digital access and rising aspirations; this is where the next 100 million consumers will come from.
Meanwhile, metro markets continue to shape trends and present strong opportunities for premiumisation and innovation. On the global front, we are actively exploring markets across South Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa, regions where Indian beauty aesthetics and preferences already enjoy strong cultural relevance.
Q. How important is hyper-personalisation in the beauty segment?
Hyper-personalisation is becoming a minimum expectation. Consumers desire to be noticed, whether through AI-driven shade matching, individually tailored beauty kits, or personalised recommendations.
For MARS, this is not viewed as a nicety but a requirement. When customers feel a brand caters to their unique requirements, this creates trust and loyalty. In an oversaturated beauty landscape, such customised experiences are a powerful differentiator and repeat engagement key.
Q. How does MARS ownership culture of trust and transparency allow for better decision making?
Our ownership culture allows teams to decide quickly and make well-informed choices. Trust is key; we depend on people’s knowledge and data-driven gut feelings. Transparency means everyone knows not only what we’re doing, but why.
This translates to quicker execution, more innovative problem-solving, and greater internal alignment. In today’s fast-paced beauty world, this structure enables us to remain agile, consistent, and closely tuned to both our teams and our consumers.
