Kalyan Jewellers began its awe-inspiring journey as an emergent jewellery brand in the 90s. From a 300 crore company, Kalyan Jewellers is today a 12,000 crore megalith. And we are proud to proclaim that we partnered with Kalyan, through thick and thin, every step of the way.
Breaking the mould in jewellery advertising of that time, we zagged when the rest followed conventional wisdom. For the first time in jewellery advertising,
we made the man the protagonist, a result of research we commissioned to identify the real influencer in jewellery purchase. The second salvo was the use of regional celebrities for each state as against one big national celebrity.
In a category that hinged on trust and credibility, the strategy to use a celebrity who was one of their own turned the tide in Kalyan’s favour. This strategy generated enough traction for the brand in each market and the brand grew exponentially.
Then, there was the path-breaking concept of ‘My Kalyan’, a stand-alone retail store unit that provides an advisory service besides retailing of gold to shield the customer from irregularities and inconsistencies of the industry
Today, Kalyan continues to lead the way in jewellery advertising with breakthrough communication with results to match in India and abroad.
BABY STEPS – 1 CARAT AT A TIME
This brand follows the trajectory of conventional marketing wisdom and is a testament of how structured market and consumer understanding as well as brand development techniques can create strong brand value. When the brand decided to enter other markets where it was unknown, we designed and analysed extensive consumer research, both qualitative and quantitative, to understand needs, wants and desires of consumers of jewellery. Product range assessments were carried out with real samples to understand cultural differences. Trade interviews added a seller’s perspective. This understanding powered the first foray into closer cultures across the Southern markets.
We realised that gold jewellery, unlike diamond or other gem studded jewellery is a matter of investment rather than aesthetic apparel. And while the blushing bride’s opinion regarding design would be one factor to be taken into consideration, the investment value and hence the authenticity of the supplier was much more important to the true decision maker i.e. the parents actually investing the funds.
Hence, the brand building began first with 2 core product benefits as differentiators which were unmet needs – the presence of the BIS mark which most players did not bother with and demonstrating how price promotions actually did not benefit the consumer.
For a small local player to make these claims credibly, we needed it to come from affluent people who would be expected to have the knowhow and legal resources to check if these claims were actually true. Hence we had a genuine role for a celebrity and a creative treatment that used them to advantage. The strong growth registered by the brand in the South markets were proof that the approach worked.
Once the product benefits were established in the initial years of launch (and we heartily commend our client who has the good business sense to know when spending is required) we then laddered up these benefits to the emotional benefit area, taking on the platform of ‘Trust’ - a word that is synonymous with the brand today.
And while this continued to reap dividends, when the time came to take the brand across the Vindhyas, to a completely different cultural milieu, an equally extensive understanding was carried out amongst these consumer markets to test if the brand approach needed to be modified in any of the marketing parameters. Largely, the tested launch path was found to be relevant, and the brand now chose to bring in a celebrity with national and global relevance. Mr. Bachchan came on board and the rest is history.
Kalyan became the first Indian jewellery brand to get funding from Warburg Pincus. It also serves as a great example to brand owners who question the utility of investing in brand building activities such as research, advisory services and impactful advertising and get trapped in the short term comfort of driving sales.
KALYAN JEWELLERS DUBAI LAUNCH
THE EVENT
Kalyan Jewellers, the fastest growing jewellery brand of India, had over 70+ showrooms spread across India around the time they launched in Dubai. Push Integrated, the agency which was instrumental in growing Kalyan Jewellers from a 2 store retail brand from Kerala into a 110+ showroom today, was assigned the massive task of launching the brand in the Middle East, starting with Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
THE HISTORY OF KALYAN STORE LAUNCHES
Brand Kalyan Jewellers carved a niche for itself in whichever new market it entered. Thousands came to witness the event and shop on the opening day. The highlight of these openings were also about the superstar brand endorsers of Kalyan.
THE CHALLENGE
The client expected Push to create the same fervour and magic and attract the Indian diaspora from the Middle East to the store on the launch day. One must understand that Middle East was not an easy market when it came to gold as it was filled with retail jewellery players of all sizes. There were half a dozen brands that had already made its way into this region, successfully running their businesses.
THE IDEA
After much thought, Push hit upon an idea that could not
get any better or bigger. The idea was to create a dent in the market and to
achieve that it had to do something different. And nothing could be more unique
than launching 5 stores spread across the city of Dubai and 1 store in Abu Dhabi
on the same day. These stores were to be opened by Kalyan Brand Ambassadors –
Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Akineni Nagarjuna, Prabhu Ganesan and Manju
Warrier. The client bought the idea and team Push got working on it. It was no
longer a launch, but 6 launches on the same day. In the evening, all these stars
will preside over a function for the crème d’la crème of Dubai, which had
Shankar Mahadevan in concert at a prominent venue.
Communications across all mediums was created with the same thought where all
brand ambassadors were landing into Dubai and Abu Dhabi in interesting ways.
This campaign happened over print, outdoor, television and radio.
In short, Dubai was carpet bombed with the campaign. The campaign started
building the desired buzz and soon, everyone in Dubai was only talking about the
Kalyan Jewellers launch. Expectations and anticipation grew.
THE LAUNCH
With surgical precision, planning, starting from logistics, venue, security, invitation, permissions, stage, crowd control and more, all 6 stores were launched on the same day. On the day of the launch, all the brand endorsers went to the showrooms together. Dubai and Abu Dhabi had never seen such an event happen ever. Thousands of fans waiting hours before the stars arrived to witness the event were excited and were thrilled when the superstars interacted with them. The event was a massive success. It was imperative to make noise and make its presence felt right from the start. It did that well and the resonance of it is still being felt even to this day. Kalyan Jewellers immediately became the number 2 store in the region and continues to enjoy that position.
A REVOLUTIONARY BUSINESS INNOVATION CHANGING THE FACE OF JEWELLERY TRADE IN THE SUBCONTINENT THE BRAND
My Kalyan is the result of a business strategic decision,
that helped Kalyan Jewellers reach out to its customers across tier 2 & 3 cities
and towns, through a friendlier, consultatory and a big brotherly approach.
This model neutralised the inertia of middle class and lower income groups
across the mofussil areas of our country, to interact with the larger than life
brand, Kalyan.
THE BUSINESS MODEL
The key challenge for Kalyan was to engineer an ‘inclusive’ growth, taking ‘Middle India’ with them. To attain this, ‘reach’ was critical. Kalyan Jewellers was more an urban brand till then. It catered to the middle income as well as a percentage of high spenders on jewellery. Our surging economy saw a robust change for the better in terms of spending power across tier 2 and tier 3 cities that formed the extended catchment area.
How do we reach out to these customers?
The solution was a business idea that marked the turning point in jewellery retail in the country. Push Integrated suggested and recommended Kalyan to start small ‘advisory’ outlets that keeps product brochures on which the customers could book their orders as well as bring to the mofussil customers, the path-breaking ‘Gold Saving Schemes’ of the brand. The nature of the shops neutralised the intimidating demeanor of a leading jewellery retail outlet. Its friendly approach made the My Kalyan outlets a big hit with customers. These outlets actually went on to become their local advisors on gold investments and marriage purchases.
THE RESULT
Kalyan launched 100 outlets in 1 day! That was the scale
of the launch and their belief in this business model. Where the infrastructure
investments were low, but could provide top-notch advisory services as well as
book orders for that captive audience, who were never approached in the past by
any other top jeweller.
In the first year of launch of My Kalyan, the business extension contributed 25%
to the company’s total revenue. This has become a case study in business
transformation, and have become part of the curriculum of leading business
schools in the country including the IIMs.