Nish Hair Case Study: PR Strategies and Tactics
Every once in a few years, a brand brings up a product that creates a sense of want for that product within the audience. One such brand name in recent times is Nish Hair, a hair extension company founded in 2017 by actor and now entrepreneur Parul Gulati.
For someone who doesnât know much about the company, may find it an ordinary hair extension company, but only a few know the journey from scratch. In this Nish Hair Case Study, we will dive deep into the emergence and relevance of the brand.
Founding of Nish Hair: Brand Origin
It is said that when one creates a brand out of the issues faced by themselves, it always flourishes. This is what happened with Nish Hair. Tired of using fake and cheap quality hair extensions, Parul Gulati founded her own brand from her living room in 2017, promising best quality hair extensions at a rate affordable to all. This all started when she wanted to flaunt her hair for a shoot, but the production denied that the extensions would cost them a fortune and would be out of budget, and just when she was about to forget about this incident, she was struck by an idea while watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Nish Hair was created on the belief that everyone deserves to feel beautiful and confident. Its headquarters are in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Initially she started looking for sources to get human hair, after days and days of research, she narrowed down the suppliers and asked for samples. She asked her mother to help her out, her mother used to sew the hair together with the sewing machine and Parul used to hand sew the clips onto them. The starting ones were a little off, but they didnât give up. And soon she listed three products on her website: Bang extensions, Halo extensions and length extensions. And this is how Nish hair became the first indian hair extension brand. Nish Hairâs motto was to make extensions affordable and accessible.
Early Stages of Challenges
While finding human hair and making the extensions by hand was a challenge in itself, Nish Hair faced many bigger challenges during its early stages. One of the biggest obstacle was to promote hair extension in a society where wigs and extensions are seen as a stigma. Society saw it as âfake beautyâ or illness and not as a form of self expression. The idea of women openly purchasing hair extensions was still new in tier 2 and tier 3 cities where beauty standards are often conservative. Awareness on this topic was also next to zero, everyone viewed the product as if they were only for fashion models or actors.
Unlike many startups that depend on traditional forms of advertisements, Parul Gulati used her public figure to gain attention to her brand. Her appearance as an actor and an entrepreneur became a great PR tool that helped Nish Hair gain visibility. âShe understood what her audience needed to convert them into clients. She created helpful content to guide people on using natural hair extensions or any of her products that suit their concerns.â This way of presenting made it a credible and authentic source of information for people, which surpassed the ideas of conventional marketing. Parul became the brand, she made herself the center of it. Nish Hair was recognized because of her.
One of the earliest and most effective PR strategies was storytelling through social media. Nish Hair was determined to stand out, but how? The brandâs communication, unlike traditional marketing, was focused on showcasing everything, be it the before and after results, the styling tutorials or the customer testimonials. This approach was both a subtle advertisement and a great PR move that made the audience resonate with the product as the brand maintained a sense of transparency.
Another great PR technique that the brand adopted was word of mouth. From going to interviews to airports, Parul made sure that she foreshadows and talks about her products, with the aim to not only promote but to break the stereotypes surrounding it. Almost all her videos on her instagram handle had her talking about how quick and convenient Nish Hair is or educating the public about the normalcy of hair extensions.. This positioned Nish Hair as not just a brand that was selling hair accessories but a brand that sells confidence and a sense of acceptance to women who suffer silently. It became a brand that wants to empower. Gradually, the media started picking up the story of a young female entrepreneur framing it as an inspiring journey.
Turning Point: Shark Tank India
The year of 2023 changed everything for Nish Hair. The founder took her business to season 2 of Shark Tank India. Shark Tank India is a television show where entrepreneurs pitch their business to a panel convincing them to provide them with funds or invest in their business. âParul Gulati brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Shark Tank panel, where she served as a guest shark for a special episode focused on beauty and fashion startupsâ She pitched her company Nish Hair requesting for 1cr INR for 2% of ownership stake valuing the company at 50cr INR. The sharks Aman Gupta and Vineeta Singh started the negotiations, offering the same amount but for 3% of ownership. But Parul stood her ground and rejected these offers choosing to take full ownership, this act made headlines, people viewed her decision as a symbol of self- assurance in her brand. In the end one of the other sharks, Amti Jain, gave her what she originally offered and Parul accepted the deal.
Since that episode Nish Hair got a national platform and it was no longer limited to the urban women who were aware of the beauty trends. Sales exploded, orders hiked by 500% in just three months, they started having web traffic, product inquiries and what not. Social media was flooded with clips of the episode, talking about her pitch and her stance and discussing how coming on Shark Tank was a PR strategy within itself. It changed Nish Hair from just a small D2C startup to a competitor in the beauty industry. One episode changed Nish Hairâs journey in one night.
With national recognition now secured, it was time for Nish Hair to offer beyond the regular hair extensions and stand out. The challenge was to expand the product line and the trust of customers.
One of the first steps was product diversification. Primarily they were known for selling hair extensions and clip ons, now they added various top ons, donut buns, ponytails etc. for quick styling. Each launch was not just a new product release but was framed as the brandâs bolder step towards its forever goal: making solutions easy, quick and empowering women across different lifestyles. Nish Hair already had a moderate presence in social media, but after Shark Tank, the efforts in social media marketing increased as a lot of people became more aware of the brand and wanted to see what they offer. The brand also started to collaborate with a lot of beauty influencers and models. This strengthened their brand as they showed real women, who face real issues being provided with a quick solution. By collaborating with creators they gave the assurance that hair extensions are beyond actors or models, they are made for anyone who wants to feel fancy or confident. Another crucial development that took place was the expansion of deliveries, at first they used to deliver only to the metro cities, but they soon started delivering to tier 2 and tier 3 cities. By leveraging logistics and e-commerce, the brand became more accessible around the country. It also listed its products on Blinit allowing it to be more feasible, while offering people a quick solution to be at their door in 10 minutes. Nish Hair opened up a studio in Mumbai that offers trial services and functions as a salon. Nish Hair also started attracting a lot of media coverage, YourStory, Forbes India, and Lifestyle Asia, ran different features on Parul, portraying her as a role model woman who successfully juggled both creativity and a business while also living a life of an actor.
Cause driven PR and Media Visibility
As the brand grew, the team realized that the brand will stay relevant not only by selling the products but also by sparking conversations on âhush hushâ topics like hair loss, hair thinning etc. âInstead of treating wigs and extensions as purely cosmetic accessories, Nish Hair began framing them as tools of empowermentâ, especially for women who often felt embarrassed or judged for their struggles.
This cause- driven PR approach gave the brand a new push. Campaigns were launched that focused on transformation stories of women who suffered medical conditions, videos were made of people who were struggling from such issues, trying on the extensions and wigs in their salons. These real-life experiences resonated far more than glossy advertisements, because they represented resilience and self-love.
Parul Gulati, who by now became the face of the brand, started talking about hair thinning, alopecia etc on her instagram account, which made Nish Hair not just a brand that sells beauty products but a brand that supports communities. Founder made content has worked very well for Nish Hair, it's a non-conventional way of marketing, because once a start up gets popular they start hiring celebrities or creators to do their promotion, but maintaining the founder made content gave a feeling that nothing changed, and to show that Nish Hair is not just a business to its founder but also a way to give back to the community. Parul Gulati, in her videos and interviews, started referring to herself as âMalkinâ as in, âownerâ in regard to Nish Hair, this unexpectedly catched on to audiences eyes, everyone started to acknowledge and assign that word to Nish Hairâs founder. This became such a moment that now Gulati has a song named âThe Malkin Songâ sung by Sunidhi Chauhan, Yashraj Mukhate and Parul Gulati herself.
Public reception was deeply personal. This cycle of honesty, trust, and visibility became one of the strongest foundations of Nish Hairâs public relations success.
After a lot of successful campaigns and efforts, today Nish Hair is one of the most recognizable hair extension brands in India. It has become a name in the fashion and beauty industry and also a household name within many young women. While Hairstop and Germia Hair used to dominate the indian hair extension market, slowly they are unable to offer as many varieties as Nish Hair and are very expensive to a lot of people, hence Nish Hair has been able to achieve the aim that they started the business with: to make good quality and affordable hair extensions. Brandâs approach of being digital first has ensured that the company remains visible and relevant on all online platforms where its audience lives, that is on Instagram and Youtube. Initiatives such as opening up offline pop-up studios and collaborations with hairstylists as well as influencers while also connecting with other hair salons have further strengthened their game in the market.
With Nish Hairâs success, Gulati has launched a new brand called ânhdegree6â that sells haircare products. As of right now they have listed two products only, one being âHair Perfumesâ and the other is âHairline Powderâ The companyâs marketing feels quite similar to what Nish Hair has done, and while that definitely works, thereâs a chance people might get bored if it all starts to look the same. To keep things interesting, the team needs to try something new and creative, something that makes the brand stand out on its own, instead of just being seen as a copy of what came first.
Nish Hair has also successfully opened up its first International store/ salon in Dubai. The store offers the standard range: clip-ins, toppers, wigs, halo extensions, accessories, which are made of sourced Indian human hair. Being physically present in Dubai allows customers to experience the products, colour match, get hairstyling wash/blow-dries, etc. This enhances customer trust & visibility.
What Derailed the Brand & Future Challenges
While Nish Hairâs journey has been of growth and fame, it has crossed paths with its own set of challenges. One of the biggest challenges came after its appearance in Shark Tank, as the brand slowly faded away and struggled to remain in the limelight and faced difficulty to be able to make the same amount of sales and buzz about it. Soon the audience who once was very curious about Nish Hair had started focusing on the other startups that came upon the show. This revealed itself as a major setback: To sustain attention of the audience beyond a single breakthrough moment.
Another challenge was not new to them, it was the sensitivity of the products and how they are still surrounded by various stigmas in India and how not every customer is open to purchase such products. There were times where Nish Hairâs PR campaigns sparked controversies, such as the Cannes appearance where Parul Gulati wore a braided hair dress, which was bold and attention grabbing to most but faced criticism for being too gimmicky and a self absorbed move by the founder. Such moments proved how easily a brand operating in beauty and fashion can be overshadowed by the controversies surrounding it affecting its own visibility.
Looking in the future, Nish Hairâs major challenge would be to stay relevant. The D2C beauty and hair market is expanding rapidly in India with international players joining and local startups attempting to replicate Nish Hairâs designs at a cheaper rate. As the competition grows simply relying on Founder led content or social media presence wonât be enough. The brand will need to innovate with the requirements of both the audience and technology, they can introduce virtual trial services on their websites, customized/ personalized products etc. to stay a step ahead. Another hurdle which may or may not be faced by the brand is scaleability, now that they have entered the tier 2 and tier 3 markets, the issue of managing supply chains, transportation, while maintaining the quality and pricing of the products can be difficult. To add on, Nish Hair has now started its own haircare product line, and to carve out its own path in an already occupied market filled with well-trusted brands would be really difficult.
In the end, from this case study and from Nish Hairâs journey, it can be concluded that correct and good use of public relations can be so much more worthy than spending large amounts on advertisements. In the age of the digital world, being present online makes a great impact on the audience, especially if the target audience lies within the age of 18-35. By building stories around real struggles, empowerment, and showing an emotional side to the objective, the brand proved that PR serves best when it feels human. All the steps taken by the brand e it Parulâs storytelling to Shark Tank to a bold move at Cannes, it has only favored Nish Hair overall by being in the talks all around. It has also shared its fair amount of challenges but has outgrown them with effective PR strategies. As a PR case study, Nish Hair has proved that a brandâs storytelling, creativity, and authenticity can make a small startup flourish into a big international brand.