Branded diamonds lack lustre
Why are diamond brands, despite aggressive advertising and suitably swish brand ambassadors, failing to even dent the Indian market? With the success of mass brands such as Levi’s, or niche luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, it’s clear the Indian consumer isn’t averse to paying a little bit more for quality, a guarantee and a name. Why should diamonds be any different?
Although the diamond market in India is one of the fastest growing in the world, brands are failing to make an impact.
On television and in the glossy print media, the sparkle of diamonds is spreading to designer names and tags. Brandnames like Sangini, Tanishq, Orra and Nakshatra are on everyone’s lips.
Despite this, however, the familiar neighbourhood jeweller is far from threatened by their presence; even as the domestic consumption of diamonds has been rising, the branded diamond is still to make a major impact.
At a time when brands are dominating markets from shoes to bath fittings, the jewellery market in India has remained relatively untouched by the phenomenon. Given that India is the largest global centre for the cutting and polishing of diamonds, and given also that it’s becoming one of the world’s largest consumers of diamonds, this is, to say the least, surprising.
The diamond market in India, according to Diamond Trading Company, the marketing arm of diamond giant DeBeers, is worth over $1 billion, and for the last 10 years it has been growing at a mean rate of 15 per cent annually. Last year, this jumped to 24 per cent; this was the highest growth shown by any DTC market worldwide. Yet branded jewellery accounts for only around 8 per cent of the total diamond market.
Why are brands, despite aggressive advertising and suitably swish brand ambassadors, failing to even dent the Indian market? With the success of mass brands such as Levi’s, or niche luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, it’s clear the Indian consumer isn’t averse to paying a little bit more for quality, a guarantee and a name. Why should diamonds be any different?
According to Cherie Saldanha, marketing director (India), DTC, it’s because the industry is still in its infancy.
“While it is growing at unprecedented rates, consumers are only just beginning to experience brands, and there is certainly a time factor before they will whole-heartedly accept them.”
G S Pillai, the president of the recently-launched Gold Souk in the Delhi suburb Gurgaon, agrees, but puts more blame on the shoulders of the brands themselves: “Branding hasn’t really taken off; I don’t think it is understood that branding is not about just launching a name. A lot of money needs to be invested, and there needs to be a definite, long-term plan, a huge sustained effort.”
Family jewellers have had a huge head-start in the market, and they are using it well. Pillai points out that their main weapons are trust and flexibility, and this can make a huge difference to the consumer. Jewellers, since they usually have long histories with their buyers, are not averse to payment in installments, or even a casual exchange policy.
They may sometimes allow customers to take pieces home on trust (“Some of my long-term buyers like to see how the pieces go with different saris,” laughs one jeweller); these are advantages you would never get with a modern retail store.
The flip side is that unscrupulous jewellers can take advantage of this trust, knowing it is highly unlikely that customers will take their business elsewhere. While you run the same risk when buying a branded diamond, the path to claiming reparation is much less rocky, given that the piece will come with an official guarantee.
Either way, it may be a smarter move in the long run to trust international and national brandnames, rather than keep up an archaic relationship with a jeweller that could have no more to offer.
Brands, therefore, have a natural advantage over traditional jewellers; and although it will be difficult to shift the traditional jeweller from the deep niche that he has built for himself in the marriage market, brands can still make much more of an impact than they are doing at the moment.
The trend today, however, is moving, however slowly, towards branded jewellery. Consumers, especially that new, powerful subset — working women — are thinking beyond investment when they buy jewellery, and more about the pieces themselves.
Heavy, traditional gold jewellery, while still popular among the middle classes and universally during weddings, is losing some of its shine. Young women want something they won’t have to keep in a bank all their lives and trot out only on ultra-special occasions. They want something they can wear every day. And this is where brands come in.
Marzin Shroff, CEO at Ishi’s, subscribes to this point of view. “There will ultimately be a transition from unbranded to branded jewellery,” he says, “But this phenomenon is likely to take a very long time. Currently, for serious purchase, the consumer still goes to the jeweller. And for fashion purchases, for light jewellery, the customer prefers branded jewellery. This will eventually stabilise as time passes.”
Pillai has a host of suggestions for brands to help push this stabilisation along. As well as advertising, brands should pay more attention to retail. Nowadays, they simply sell wherever they can, and shopkeepers are happy to lure customers into their stores with large, glitzy posters of branded diamonds, but once the customer is in, they are no longer interested in peddling, for example, a Rs 10,000 Nakshatra diamond, when they can sell their own wares for a ludicrously larger sum.
“Some manufacturers,” says Pillai, “just supply to jewellers regardless of clientele. They don’t think about the fact that some jewellers are only interested in catering to the marriage market. They don’t want to attract the young working woman in jeans. And this is exactly the customer that brands such as Asmi and Sangini need to attract. This is their target consumer.”
One answer is to start exclusive retail stores. Some brands have already caught on to this as, for instance, Kiah, the diamond series from Sheetal Jewellers, that has opened a shop in the Gold Souk’s hysterically high-market Avenue Montaigne. Orra, too, has opened its own store.
However, this is not all of the answer, for Nakshatra did have several outlets in cities like Delhi, Indore and Jaipur, but the owner, Ashok Jain, recently shut them down to branch out with his own brand, Aastha. “It was impossible to work with Nakshatra,” he says, “The policy of the company is more shopkeeper-oriented than customer-oriented.”
Brands may need to be monopolistic in the retail segment to survive, but a more overt change may be to make use their investing ability to give their pieces a definitive style. Ishi’s, for instance, is trying to build consumer confidence with various events and tie-ups, for example with designer Satya Paul.
The recently launched B’Dazzled line also prides itself on its “different” pieces. Sonal Jain, one of the designers, insists, “Our line will have wide appeal: while the style of our pieces is more sophisticated than most, they are priced very reasonably, thus targeting both the middle- and high-end consumer.”
She suggests that design could be another reason for other brands not doing so well. “Many of them are mass produced and have no distinctive character that the consumer can recognise and develop a loyalty to.”
Perhaps differentiation is what brands need. But for the moment, to the Indian consumer, branded diamonds are diamonds that are not widely different in quality, price or style from the unbranded ones available at local jewellers, and with no real added advantages or benefits.
They have shadowy connections to advertising slogans and celebrity faces, but this does not offer much in real terms, either in inspiring trust, establishing a name, or linking that name with a particular style or design.
If even an international name like De Beers, with its internationally renowned plug of “A diamond is forever” has failed to take off substantially, it becomes clear that it is an uphill road. But there are huge incentives to tap into the market, and manufacturers have, specifically, over a billion good reasons to jump on board.
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Social Beat wins SEO mandate of Tata CLiQ tag rss
The account was won after a multi-agency pitch
e4m e4m Social Beat has won the SEO mandate for Tata CLiQ, one of the fastest-growing omnichannel marketplace in India. Social Beat has been entrusted with optimizing existing content, as well as launching new, optimized category pages systematically on Tata CLiQ’s platform to scale monthly organic traffic by 2x over the next year. The account was won after a multi-agency pitch and will be serviced by Social Beat’s offices in Mumbai.
Shishir Kataria, Director - Marketing, Tata CLiQ, “Shoppers, e-commerce or otherwise, continue to heavily rely on search and discovery throughout their shopping journey, be it engaging with the latest fashion trends or hunting for the best buys. No wonder a platform's ability to be a part of this journey organically drives significant consideration for it amongst potential shoppers. We, at Tata Cliq, are confident that Social Beat will help us develop and optimise content that is highly discoverable to grow our engagement and revenue. Our goal continues to be to drive more and more shoppers to our platform with optimised and curated products and relevant content.”
Vikas Chawla, Co-Founder, Social Beat said, “We are thrilled to partner with Tata CLiQ in their growth journey. We aim to scale traffic to the Tata CLiQ platform manyfold over the next year. Our team of specialised SEO and Content strategists will be working closely to achieve this”
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ShareWill OOH dazzle this festive season?
As the celebrations begin, experts tell us the trends and challenges for the OOH sector this season
Be it the flower-clad taxis in Mumbai for Made in Heaven Season 2 promotion or Zomato’s ‘kheer mangoge kheer denge’ billboards, India's OOH advertising sector has undergone substantial transformation and expansion in the recent years. Even though the medium was severely hit during the pandemic years, it has now managed to rebuild its status. Now, with the onset of the festive season, elections and the cricket world cup, OOH is expected to see more and more advertisers come on board.
Amarjeet Hudda, Chief Operating Officer, Laqshya Media Group, believes most of the clients spend a lot of money during the festive season, especially for Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali, targeting their customers in a festive mood. The categories that spend heavily during these months are Auto, Consumer Durables, Real Estate, Organised retail, and E-commerce.
According to Dipankar Sanyal of Platinum Outdoor, there was a huge surge in the festive season last year, and he expects the same this year too. “Last four to five years have turbulent for outdoor. It was picking up in 2019, but then Covid came and everything went flat for two years,” he mentioned.
According to EY-FICCI’s M&E Report 2023, OOH media grew 86 percent in 2022 to Rs 37 billion. The value includes traditional, transit and digital media, but excludes untracked unorganised OOH media such as wall paintings, billboards, ambient media, storefronts, proxy advertising.
Sharing the brand’s perspective, Shivam Ranjan, Head of Marketing, Motorola-APAC, said, “We are going into this festive season with a strong mix of media, including OOH. Within OOH, we are focusing on digital OOH, due to its capability of programmatic serving, measurability, and near real-time insights that allow us to be agile with the communication and optimisation of our campaigns.”
With urbanisation, improved infrastructure, rising consumerism and an increased spending power, clients' expectations from OOH advertising too have evolved. “The clients expect better ROI on every investment, best in class innovations, tech-led planning and execution. Today, technology plays an important role starting from planning the campaign, to measuring metrics to ROI,” Singh explained.
Another trend that Sanyal has observed is that traditionally advertisers looked at spending on OOH nearly two weeks prior to the festivities, but now, most advertisers have now started advertising a week earlier so that they can get maximum eyeballs. Additionally, the digital OOH advertising (DOOH) has also emerged big. The digital OOH screens increased to around 100,000 and contributed eight percent of total segment revenues.
“Now with digital, there is more space for advertisers to come in one frame. Because of this, you can see it is getting more attractive. The innovations too are coming in at a much lower cost and creating a greater impact,” shared Sanyal.
The only challenge with the medium, according to Ranjan, is OOH being a fragmented industry with lack of measurability and agility. This becomes a serious issue for ROI-centric brands. However, the growth of DOOH, which is dynamic, agile and measurable, is giving marketers the confidence to invest in the medium backed by relevant data and outcomes.
Adding to this, Hudda highlighted that availability of good media spots is the biggest challenge in this season as media assets are limited and demand is very high. Due to the gap in the festive season, many clients are not able to fully optimise their campaigns. Rather sometimes, clients are even compelled to divert their budget which adversely impacts the industry, he shared.
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Banking on positive consumer sentiment: BFSI optimistic on doubling festive AdEx : Cache
Some categories within the sector, however, may spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season
The BFSI sector is expecting a surge in demand for loan during the festive season and is looking at increasing its ad spends to cash in on the celebration spirit. Industry leaders say they are hopeful of witnessing a good growth in the number of applications for auto loan, home loan, credit card and health insurance during October, November and December due to positive consumer sentiment this year. However, though most of the BFSI players are planning to double their advertising budget this time compared to the previous year, there are some who are not investing too heavily on marketing during the festivals as they plan to save the money for the fourth quarter.
According to Shailendra Singh, MD & CEO, BOB Financial, they witness incremental growth every year during the October-December quarter, and they anticipate an increase in consumer spending as well as new enrolments for cards this year too. “There remains a surge in customer demand for credit during the festive season,” said Singh.
Singh shared that the company is fully geared up for the launch of #FestiveShoppingRewards on all Bank of Baroda credit card variants under the theme ‘Reimagine Festivities’. They would kickstart festive offerings with the start of Navratri.
The festive season does not just see the demand for credit go up, but there is an increase in applications for health and motor insurance too during this time of the year.
Aabhinna Suresh Khare, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer, BajajCapital Ltd, shared that among insurance products, health insurance and motor insurance reign supreme during festivals. According to Khare, the demand for mutual funds and SIPs too sees a hike.
“Overall, the festive season presents an opportune moment to secure insurance coverage. A plethora of attractive products and services are on offer, with financial institutions extending special discounts and promotions to entice new customers,” said Khare.
The company launched #BlessMeGanesha campaign during Ganesh Chaturthi. “Our goal for this festive season is not only to provide financial solutions but also to create memorable experiences and deepen the connection with our customers,” said Khare.
Though all major sectors spend heavily on advertising during the festive season, within the BFSI sector, some categories spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season.
Explaining the trend, Samir Sethi, Head of Brand Marketing, Policybazaar.com, said that the festive season has varying impacts on the BFSI sector. In the banking sector, for instance, the demand for loans surges as many individuals purchase items and undertake home renovations. Conversely, in the insurance category, the festive season doesn't result in significant changes. Instead, the insurance industry experiences its peak season after the festive period, particularly during the fourth quarter of the financial year.
“As the festive season approaches, there is a noticeable increase in car sales though, leading to a surge in the demand for motor insurance. Consequently, we see a significant uptick in the requests for motor insurance policies. During the festive period, there is an upswing in demand for various categories, such as electronics. However, in the insurance sector, this period doesn't significantly affect us, so we don't run specific campaigns targeting festivals. Nevertheless, we do roll out multiple campaigns throughout the year, and some of them may coincide with the festive season,” said Sethi.
According to the TAM AdEx report on BFSI sector across media for H1, the advertising volume of the sector grew on TV, radio and digital, but declined in the print medium. The report indicated that ad impressions on digital saw 91% rise during Jan-Jun '23 over Jan-Jun’22. The increase was 32% for radio and 4% for TV. The ad space of the BFSI sector decreased by 7% in print.
Speaking on media mix, Singh shared that BOB Financial has a good mix of customer segments belonging to Tier I, II and III. So, understanding their needs and preferred form of media channels, the company will reach out to them through relevant media promotions. “For the easy discovery of our offers, we shall have a dedicated offers page with regular promotion of top offers on our social media and other digital channels,” said Singh. Without disclosing the figure, Singh shared that the company’s promotion budget has surely increased from last year and it will be visible through their multi-channel promotional activities.
According to the TAM report, in the BFSI sector, life insurance is the leading category on TV and radio whereas mutual funds is the top category on digital.
Khare highlighted that in recent times, Bajaj Capital has observed a significant growth in audiences on online platforms and the changing preferences of their clientele. “This observation led us to recalibrate our marketing approach, placing a heightened emphasis on digital avenues,” said Khare.
He further added, “Our promotional efforts are primarily digital-focused, accentuating areas like social media engagement, search engine outreach, content-driven marketing, and targeted online advertising. As we approach the festive season, we've fine-tuned our online approach. By harnessing the insights from data analytics, we aim to grasp our clients' needs and inclinations better, ensuring our content is both tailored and pertinent.”
Khare also mentioned that Baja Capital has doubled its advertising budget compared to the previous year.
“This increase in our ad spend signifies our confidence in the opportunities this festive season presents. This impressive surge in our budget allocation underscores our dedication to maximizing the potential of this festive season and driving significant expansion within our business. We firmly believe that this increased investment in advertising will not only elevate our brand presence but also lead to an exceptional uptick in customer engagement and sales.”
For Policybazaar.com, the media strategy primarily involves a blend of television and digital platforms, an approach that has remained consistent in recent years and is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.
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OMD appoints Dileep Raj Singh as Head of Digital for APAC
Singh will report to Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC
OMD has added a Head of Digital (HOD) to its Asia Pacific (APAC) regional leadership team with the hiring of Dileep Raj Singh.
Singh is a digital native and brings with him a wealth of experience across product, media agency and client side in APAC, North America and the United Kingdom. His last 10 years have been spent building diverse digital marketing teams covering areas like performance marketing, digital media planning, ad/martech, product marketing, branding and measurement.
As HOD, he will accelerate OMD’s digital leadership agenda, rooted in helping clients address their business challenges and digital ambitions. He will be supporting OMD’s local teams in APAC on operational excellence, and digital transformation frameworks and roadmaps; and the development and implementation of our digital leadership agenda. He will also be working hand in hand with both our regional and global networks to initiate complementary workstreams for our clients in APAC.
“We will continue to invest and win in digital as part of our wider goal to be our clients’ most trusted business transformation partner,” said Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC.
“It is our global ambition to continue our leadership position in digital, data and technology. In line with this ambition, we are excited to have Singh come on board the OMD APAC leadership team. His background of agency, in-house and start-up experience position him perfectly to understand and address our clients’ business needs,” added Lee.
“Digital media and access to our audience, as we know it, is changing quite rapidly around us. This puts most of us in a delicate but remarkable position, a position from which we can shape and contribute to conversations about the next evolution of digital media. As we embark on this journey, I want to leverage the strength of the OMD network – people, technology, data, tools and platforms – to help our clients pivot and navigate through all the new and evolved possibilities in digital media. With this, I aim to position OMD as an unrivaled partner for our current and future clients; to dominate and succeed in this incredibly competitive and multifarious digital realm,” said Singh.
Singh will report to Lee, and work closely with the team including Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), David McCallen, and Chief Client Officer (CCO), Sadhan Mishra, to drive and support APAC local markets as well as regional clients on digital, data and technology needs.
Mishra was promoted to CCO of OMD APAC recently in June 2023. He will continue to be CEO of OMD Singapore, a position he was promoted into last August. Mishra has been with OMD for over 13 years and in his concurrent new role as CCO, he will focus on key client relationships, understanding their business needs and ensuring we remain a critical partner on their transformation journeys.
McCallen was elevated to the role of CSO of OMD APAC in April 2022, and was previously the CSO of OMD New Zealand for five years where he helped the agency to attain the top place in the market for new business, overall billings and award wins. Since starting in the APAC role, his focus has been on connecting and elevating strategic best practices across the region, building capabilities across a range of strategic outputs, and supporting new business growth both regionally and locally.
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Chandrayaan 3: Brands over the Moon
Some of the best moment marketing posts on India's crucial lunar mission
The nation is in a celebratory mood with its moon mission Chandrayaan 3 making its smooth landing on the lunar surface on the evening of August 23, 2023. The Pragyan rover is in pursuit of discovering water on the moon and is a vital feat for India's ambitious space research.
To celebrate this momentous episode in Indian space research history, netizens have taken to the internet to express their excitement, hopes and fears for the nation's lunar mission. Joining them are brands who have crafted creatives to mark the historic occasion and capture the emotions of the nation who have their eyes set on the moon. Here is our pick of some of the best Chandrayaan 3-moment marketing posts.
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BCCI rakes in Rs 4670 cr in Women's Premier League team auction: Jay Shah 26 Jan
WPL has broken the inaugural auction record of Men's IPL in 2008, tweeted Shah
As expected, Wednesday turned out to be another historic day in Indian women's cricket with BCCI having a windfall gain of Rs 4,600 crores by auctioning five team franchises for the first season, a higher sum compared to what men’s IPL franchises offered to the cricket body during the launch in 2008.
Adani, IndiaWin Sports, Royal Challengers, GSW- GMR cricket and Capri Global have won the bid, BCCI secretary Jay Shah tweeted.
Shah shared in a series of tweets, “Today is a historic day in cricket as the bidding for teams of inaugural #WPL broke the records of the inaugural Men's IPL in 2008! Congratulations to the winners as we garnered Rs.4669.99 Cr in total bid.”
“This marks the beginning of a revolution in women's cricket and paves the way for a transformative journey ahead not only for our women cricketers but for the entire sports fraternity. The #WPL would bring necessary reforms in women's cricket and would ensure an all-encompassing ecosystem that benefits each and every stakeholder.”
“The @BCCI has named the league - Women's Premier League (WPL). Let the journey begin…”
The country's top corporates had bid aggressively for the league. Over 16 groups including IPL franchise owners, Adani group, Torrent and Haldiram were believed to be in the fray.
Given the popularity of IPL in India, the event is touted to be a big draw for all stakeholders involved.
The BCCI was reportedly expecting ₹4,000 crore gain through team auction.
It’s noteworthy that Viacom18 has won the Women's IPL media rights for Rs 951 crore for the next five years creating euphoria around the league whose first season will be held in March.
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