India, Aug. 19 -- D2C brands should scale influencer marketing only after establishing product-market fit, as creator-led campaigns cannot compensate for a weak product, according to FMCG major Emami's chief growth officer Dhruv Aggarwal.

"Once you know that you have a product that everyone should be using, then having influencers drive it works very organically," Aggarwal said at Inc42's 'The D2C & Retail Summit 2026'.

However, he cautioned that influencer marketing cannot compensate for shortcomings in the underlying product.

Aggarwal was speaking during a panel discussion titled 'The Consumer Reset: Winning Gen Z, Bharat & Premium India'.

The panel also featured Deconstruct founder and CEO Malini Adapureddy, Soulflower founder and ...