With so many diamond and gold jewellery brands in the market and almost each one of them trying to catch the customer’s attention with various gimmicks, how does one really build loyalty and also a true brand where it can sell only on fixed rate MRP type and not break-up of raw materials?
Sameer Gosar
Mumbai
Sameer, jewellery to date has been about personalisation, trust, design and financial investment value, in that order.
Personalisation has been and still remains a very key aspect of jewellery branding and marketing. To an extent, the element of trust is based on this personalisation that jewellery businesses invest in.
Even the best and biggest brands today in this space depend on the personalisation their key account managers are able to bring to the party. If you invest adequately in this space, and if you can make what you do unique enough to the customer set you cater to, you will float as the cream in this space.
You must not only invest in this personalisation, but make it a gold-standard skill that will be showcased by you in your every bit of communication.
All else in jewellery space is parri passu. Everyone does the same thing and says the same thing. When I peek into the trend in this space, in the beginning was the corner goldsmith who used to cater to your family for decades and across generations. He would come home, share your stories, share you meals and make for you what you wanted and when you wanted. That was the gold standard, you might say.
That vanished, and in came the corner goldsmith who sat in his store and expected walk-ins from the hinterland he covered due to proximity. He built his business slow and steady as well. And this led the way to the corporate jeweller, the branded guy who offered trust as the basic hallmark and wanted to upgrade customers.
Interestingly, all these formats co-exist in any consumer society.
What will come next is the re-invention of the goldsmith who comes home. Do you want to be in that space?
(Harish Bijoor is a brand strategy expert and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. Mail your queries to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in )