Marketing heritage to Gen Z: Neha Marda shares how Phitku is selling ‘phitkari’ without the grandma guilt
To cut through a crowded personal care market driven by 10-step routines and clinical jargon, Phitku is selling a traditional nuskhe without the “grandma guilt”.
For actor and founder Neha Marda, returning the humble phitkari (alum) to the vanity shelf is not a nostalgia play, but a calculated effort to reposition the ingredient by selling its science and proven everyday efficacy.
For decades, legacy brands have relied on a familiar playbook to sell traditional remedies—leaning heavily on heritage, nostalgia, and the emotional pull of "grandmother’s wisdom."
But for a younger, highly pragmatic generation of consumers, this approach falls flat. Which is why Neha told LiveMint that at Phitku, "we don't want to tell Gen Z or Millennials, ‘Use this because your grandmother used it.’ That's not enough."
“They need to understand why something is relevant to them and how it fits into their own lives,” she said, sharing that the realisation formed the bedrock of Phitku’s marketing strategy. “The traditional wisdom can be the starting point, but the way we present and experience it has to make sense to the consumer today.”
The brand recognised that while traditional knowledge is inherently practical, its conventional presentation often clashes with modern lifestyles. By stripping away the “old-fashioned” label, Phitku repositioned the alum not as a relic of the past but as a highly efficient, minimalist solution for today's fast-paced world.
In most Indian households, alum has historically been coded as a utilitarian, masculine product—a staple in local barbershops as an aftershave or used for basic water purification.
"For many people, it was something their grandparents used, something they had seen at a barbershop, or something they remembered from their childhood," Marda noted, recalling the initial scepticism from early testers. “So when we said we were building a deodorant around it, the immediate reaction was often, 'Really? Phitkari?'”
Phitku, however, is premiumizing this highly commoditised ingredient for a female-first, wellness-conscious demographic. “Traditional ingredients don't necessarily need to be reinvented,” Marda added. “Sometimes, they simply need to be presented in a way that makes sense for the life people live today.”
The brand has since evolved from selling just a simple alum-based crystal roll-on deodorant to a broader portfolio—including an oral care 'Mouth Paste' and an in-shower ‘Deo Bar’.
“The Deo Bar, for example, takes our approach to odour care beyond the underarms, bringing it into the shower and making it part of a whole-body hygiene routine,” Marda explained.
Crucially, the brand is avoiding the trap of "clean beauty" fear-mongering, a tactic heavily utilised in the direct-to-consumer space. Today’s consumers are increasingly sceptical of brands that claim moral superiority simply by being "chemical-free."
Marda tackled this scepticism head-on, offering a refreshingly pragmatic stance for a wellness founder. “I actually think consumers are right to be sceptical,” she said. “Just because something is natural doesn't automatically make it effective, and just because something is synthetic doesn't automatically make it bad. For us, the conversation has to begin with whether the product actually works.”
By prioritising actual results over the “natural at any cost” gimmick, Phitku ensured its products stand up to the rigorous scrutiny of modern buyers.
“Our philosophy is not 'natural at any cost'. It is about finding effective solutions while also being thoughtful about what goes into everyday personal care,” Marda emphasised. “For me, efficacy has to come first. If the product doesn't solve the problem, nothing else matters.”
Marda shared that being thoughtful about ingredients is important, “but it cannot come at the cost of the product actually doing what it is meant to do.”
Phitku, the actor said, is drafting a new blueprint for homegrown brands: proving that traditional Indian wisdom can be aspirational, exciting, and deeply relevant to the next generation, without ever relying on a guilt trip.
Arshdeep Kaur is a Senior Content Producer at Mint, where she reports and edits across national and international politics, business and culture‑adjacent trending stories for digital audience. With five years in the newsroom, she strives to balance the speed and rigor of fast‑moving news cycles and longer, context‑rich explainers. <br><br> Before joining LiveMint, Arshdeep served as a Senior Sub‑Editor at Business Standard and earlier as a Sub‑Editor at Asian News International (ANI). Her experience spans live news flows, enterprise features, and multi‑platform packaging. <br><br> At Mint, she regularly writes explainers, quick takes, and visuals‑led stories that are optimized for search and social, while maintaining the publication’s standards for accuracy and clarity. She collaborates closely with editors and the audience team to frame angles that resonate with readers in India and abroad, and to translate complex developments into accessible, high‑impact journalism. <br><br> Arshdeep's academic training underpins her interest towards policy and markets. She earned an MA in Economics from Panjab University and holds a Post‑Graduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism from the India Today Media Institute (ITMI). This blend of economics and broadcast storytelling informs her coverage of public policy, elections, macro themes, and the consumer‑internet zeitgeist. <br><br> Arshdeep is based in New Delhi, where she tracks breaking developments and longer‑horizon storylines that shape public discourse.
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