Track the Tanishq campaign since 1995 till date.

The campaign for the Tanishq brand over the years have undergone a lot of experimentation and changes, both dramatic as well as subtle changes to create the current image of that of India’s only truly national jeweler that sold gold and gem-studded jewelry in boutiques across the country.

Tanishq as a brand emerged from the Titan Industries, which was instrumental in bringing a paradigm change in the Indian Watch Industry by being the first Indian Company to introduce the Quartz Watches.
It had entirely changed the market scenario over a period of ten years subsequent to its entry.

By the year 1995, Titan Industries was keen to launch a new design watch targeted at the very high end consumer market segment.
This gave the birth of Tanishq- as the Jewelry Watch Brand. This was a brand pegged as an ego satisfier, above the mundane and utilitarian.
However the Jewelry Watch Brand concept did not click with the consumer as it was perceived to be clunky in design and highly overpriced.

In 1996, brand Tanishq was therefore used to offer an entirely new product range to the consumer. This was Precious studded Jewelry. Underlying logic was the possibility of capitalizing on the high pricing of studded jewelry compared to plain gold jewelry, where the gold as a commodity mindset, of the consumer did not allow too many pricing options.
However selling studded jewelry required a paradigm shift of the consumer mindset because, studded jewelry used 18 karat gold, which was considered as impure compared to the prevalent 22 karat gold.
At this period the marketing campaigns were focused on establishing Tanishq’s credentials as a differentiated jeweler offering jewelry for adornment and not for investment, and also educate the consumer of the new type of gold. The Jewelry offered was distinctly western in style and design.
Tanishq also for the first time designed its campaign as a feminine brand compared to the traditional competitors.
However, the 18 karat gold offering was perceived by the consumer to be not suitable for weddings and festivals, which were till then still the major events for jewelry consumption. Also the designs were perceived to be too western which invoked a feeling of “nice but not for me” in the consumer mind.

In 1997, focus was given on offering 22 carat gold jewelry to establish the brand in the larger market. Company piloted an offering of 22 karat plain gold jewelry with about 400 designs, at the same time it introduced another 1000 designs in 18 karat diamond studded jewelry. A multimedia campaign was launched to focus on the shift towards more traditional design to break the Western perception. The entire idea of the campaign was to dodge the “not for me” feeling of the consumer and evoke a sentiment of “looking good, feeling good all the time”

In 1999, the company renewed the push of 22 carat gold and included more Indian Inspired designs. This resulted in higher foot-falls in the showrooms which in turn increased the 18 carat gold sales too. But sales trend suggested that the market was not large for 18 carat gold.
In the Mainstream 22 carat gold market, Tanishq wanted to leverage its offering of pure and high quality gold compared to the industry-wide mal-practice of under-karatage. Hence the company decided to pioneer the karatometer to certify the purity of offered gold.

In 2000-01, sales shot up and touched the 100 crore mark. However the bottom lines were under pressure largely due to the fact that the local players were able to offer mark-up prices at a discount compared Tanishq which was mainly due to the under-karatage in the offered gold.
Ad campaigns as a result were reduced to below the line promotions and store launches by innovative store designing.
New market research revealed that Tanishq name had positive association, modern & fancy, good design, grand, sophisticated, elegant etc. However it also showed that consumer’s still preferred local family jewelers even if purity was questionable.
Based on this finding, it started an exchange scheme wherein it offered to test the purity of the gold and exchange it for a fair price.
This campaign had a very strong impact on the consumer mindset which transformed in higher sales figures.

In mid 2001, the company focused on improving its supply chain efficiency to reduce costs
In late 2001, the Collections sale was designed around the theme of getting existing and potential customers into the stores. Stories were attached to each collection, motivating thematic advertising and inspiring curiosity. This campaign was very well accepted by the consumer.

In 2002, new range of products under Diva collection offered lighter weight studded jewelry which were trendy and yet less expensive. These were also very well accepted by the consumer.

In 2003-04, brand reassessment studies showed that Tanishq was an aspirational brand in the studded, light, modern and western space yet it was considered expensive. Brand awareness was very high but translation to sales was slow.
The brand valuation exercise of Tanishq in 2004 showed that the brand was moving towards regional buyers and the same time local competitors have also moved up the brand ladder.
Several new collections were launched. Diamond based collection aimed as repositioning the diamond as affordable; Wedding & Festival Collections were launched.
Brand was associated with several high profile events. All these events resulted in very strong financial numbers for the company.

In 2005, a new research study was conducted which segmented the market into 5 psychographic segments. Based on this campaign, Tanishq associated itself with innovative branding techniques of designing jewelry for traditional period movies. This had the much needed impact of breaking the perception barrier of being western and not ethnic & traditional.

What were the differences between the Tanishq and the Goldplus campaign?

GoldPlus • Their target market was the traditional plain gold jewellery segment which is around 80% of the overall market. They housed jewellery with 22 – karat gold.

• They decided to launch in small towns of Erode and Ratlam where Tanishq did not have a presence.

• Their shops were designed to resemble local competitors – where the entire inventory is out on display, very much in your face.

• The TATA name was used aggressively.

• The Gold Plus customer lived in small town and wore jewellery for weddings and festivals.

• The purchase was always a joint decision, with a man involved.

• Their advertisements relied on a ‘girl next door” look.

• At every turn they looked for cost-effective ways to promote the brand name and the store . Several non-profit organizations were contacted, and deals were struck.

• The main objective for Gold Plus was to connect with parents and build their confidence in them.

• In 6 months time the Erode store was profitable.

• The GoldPlus brand permitted price negotiations.

• GoldPlus was an out-and-out low margin, volume play.

VS
TANISHQ
• Tanishq started with watches and then shifted to jewellery. Their target market was all urban households with an income of over 1 lakh rupees per month. They decided to launch with studded jewellery. They started with 18 – karat gold and were later on also started with jeweller with 22 – karat gold.

• Their jewellery was distinctly western in style and design.

• The Tanishq brand was launched in a boutique style designed store in Chennai where their boutiques were like five-star hotel lobbies: intimidating and exclusive, with limited inventory on display.

• The Tanishq advertisements depicted women as art forms and sought to create mystery and intrigue around their brand.

• The TATA name was not used aggressively.

• Tanishq concentrated on jewellery for adornment, rather than investment.

• The clients that walked in were seen as modern, sophisticated, elegant and artistic.

• Under the Tanishq brand they had lot of other sub brands having variety of other classes of jewelleries like – Diva which offered pearls and diamonds in elegant design ; Daytimes – a diamond-based collection, aimed to reposition diamonds as affordable, casual, young and contemporary ; Colors – riding on trend for coloured jewellery , aimed to correct the perception that Tanishq only had modern designs ; Aarka – a high fashion 22 karat gold collection aimed to position Tanishq designs and image leadership.

• They also had joint venture with fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee. The brand was associated with several high profile fashion events, beauty pageant crown, including designing the Femina Miss India beauty pageant crowns, and the Apsara Film Awards Trophy as well as participating in the Milan Fashion week.

• Tanishq brand does not permit price negotiations.

What do you think were the reasons behind the difference in the 2 campaigns?

To understand the campaign principle of these two brand Goldplus and Tanishq, let us try to understand the USP of these two brands. A snapshot of the difference in the USP of these two brands are given in the below table

| |Gold plus |Tanishq |
|Product |Ethnic design and plain gold |Western, innovative & exclusive designs |
| | |using studded jewelry |
|Geographic |Rural & semi-urban |Urban |
|Brand positioning |Next door girl |Exclusivity, theme based |
|Target group |Wedding, one time wear |Feeling good all time |
|Target customer |Low income, cost sensitive |Brand conscious, premium priced |

As you can infer from the table the two products are totally different targeting different markets.
Inline with the USP of “Goldplus” product, the advertisement campaign has to give

• a “girl next door” feeling,

• earn the trust of the people as traditionally the rural customers trusted their next door jeweller so much

• Cost effective ways of advertising to keep the cost low

• Unique cultural touch to the rural – like having engagement party, couples photo on banners etc

• Connect with the parents to build their confidence

In case of Tanishq, the campaign was focused on

• Projecting itself to reach the Western styled, modern and progressive Indian

• Traditional yet Modern, fancy and exclusive design

• Projecting usage of gold jewellery as an ornament for adornment and not just investment

• At the same time Tanishq was slowly shifting its focus on the urban woman of substance who had considerable decision making power in the family.