RL1854 takes up industry reform for 1gm gold jewellery

I was surprised to know that 1-gm (imitation) jewellery trade too was under the same attack as precious metal jewllery is. In precious metal jewellery customers were being undersold, whereas the reverse was happening in imitation jewellery. Consumers were being oversold. Fortunately for gold and silver sold in any form/caratage of jewellery BIS has taken the right step by coming out with Hallmarking guidelines and implementing them through Assay labs. The immitation jewellery sector was not so lucky as the base metal in that category is made of metals other than gold/silver.

There was an opportunity lurking and most retailers grabbed it the wrong way. So this sector became a money spinner for the retailers and the consumer was being fleeced. It also meant an opportunity to comeout and standardize the sector. Amrish Jain of Aarel Jewellers Pvt Ltd. rose to this occasion. Aarel bought out advertisement in quite a few national dailies and started blogging to educate people on the current state of affairs and thus in one fell swoop became the undisputed leader in immitation jewellery.

It takes a lot of guts, conviction and vision to stand out from the crowd. Its tough to say 'STOP' to a practice in which the entire industry is consumed. And when you can do that , thats when you are reckoned as a leader.

We need few more jewellers to recognise its an opportunity to believe in 'It's profitable to be ethical.'

Disclaimer: Kathana Jewellers does not stock 1-gm jewellery.

Branded jewellery: Is it a good investment?

The Traditional Equation:

You know the moment you drive out a brand new car from a showroom its value depreciates massively. You are prepared for this. And there is nothing you can do about it. Until and unless its a limited edition production. Same goes for anything like furniture, electronics, clothes ....whatever. These things are created in assemblies and as long as there is demand, it can be met. On the other hand expenses in gold and land/property is considered an investment which appreciates due to lopsided demand supply equation. You can only produce so much gold which is economically viable and land cannot be produced (unless you are dutch).

Enter branded jewellery:

India is seeing branded jewellery in droves. Adora, asmi, nakshatra, ddamas, gili, orra, ishi's, kiah, nirvana, sangini and sia are some to name. Perhaps one for every letter in the english alphabet. The launch of these brands are the result of 2 key insights. One, a lot of expendable income available to the young adults. Second, the globalizing tastes of the Indian middle class. Branded jewellery turned the traditional jewellery market upside down with their star studded marketing campaigns. They woo the younger generation with star power to make a point. Their designs in gold and diamond jewellery start at couple of thousand rupees.

Is it an investment?

The value of your investment is the money it will fetch in the market when you go selling it. Branded jewellery gets that wrong in 2 ways. Most of the branded jewellery available at store-in-store or even exclusive showrooms have a very clear cut return policy. A consumer loses anywhere from 15-30% of the value, depending on whether you have exchanged or wanted your money back. Much more then the making charges of such an ornament. This makes branded jewellery an accessory rather than a store-house of value. In other words : It epitomizes the culture of use and throw which is slowly seeping into the indian mindset. Secondly the appraised value depends on the price you bought it at and not the day of selling it. So the benefit of any rise in gold eludes the consumer. A fact not liked by many investors in gold. These reasons combined explains why branded jewellery hasn't made inroads into the mind of the older generation of consumers( quite likely the parents of this young generation).

India is the biggest market of gold and diamond jewellery and Indians consider every bit of gold an investment. Branded jewellery in India has not been able to keep in tune with this investment philosophy. And any amount of star power cannot put that value in it. What is your take on branded jewellery? Leave comments below.

Tanishq invites for preview of Jodhaa Akbar Collection

By now everybody knows who's behind the elaborate jewellery worn by Aishwarya and Hrithik in Jodhaa Akbar. The jewellery in this period movie from the mughal era has been painstakingly recreated by Tanishq. Some of the stats from craftsmanship to kilos of gold used is available here.

What few might be knowing is that Tanishq has set up a preview of the Jodhaa Akbar jewellery collection in select cities. You can sign up for it here.

Featured above is a choker used in the movie.

Related Posts:
7 Trends in Jewellery Industry for 2008
Fighting the Goliath - Tanishq

Marketing Lessons Offline Stores Can Learn From The Internet

Internet stores realized the advantages of low operational costs, an unlimited audience and catering to their niches( yeah I am vaguely refering to the long tail). In this wake they also shed some old marketing techniques and developed new ones.

Since being entrusted with marketing for Kathana Jewellers ( and a pittance budget) I have often looked online for inspiration. Not just getting inspired but also borrowing from the online world and applying them offline.

Some of these out-of-the-box techniques were fairly easy to implement while others needed a whole new way of doing things.

The interesting lessons are:

• Customer testimonials : Websites love to put customer testimonials online we did the same at our offline store.

• Customized Jewellery : We borrowed techniques of Dell.com and Bluenile.com, to allow our customers to design and order Custom Engagement Rings. By custom making, customers save on the shelving cost and get a product of their liking and within their budget.
  

• Contextual Ads : These days Google and the likes allow you to serve ads contextually. So, a person living in India would see a different ad of the same product versus a person living in US. We are doing that offline as we serve different ads to different neighbourhoods based on the customers testimonials.

• Conversational Copy: We haven't tried this but this occurred to me recently. Isn't the web2.0 all about conversations? Make the copy of your marketing material a conversation.

Can you think of similar marketing/business lessons one can learn online and apply offline?