Mumbai: The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), apex Gem & Jewellery body of India and De Beers, world’s leading diamond company have jointly announced the launch of the much needed generic promotion campaign for diamonds. With this campaign, the industry has started its effort to revive the demand for diamonds and diamond jewellery.
The industry has witnessed a hard phase during the last 2-3 years due to other competitive products; and the global economic slowdown has further resulted slow demand for the diamond jewellery in the consumer segment. The generic marketing of diamonds was a need of the hour for the industry to revive its sales.
With a budget of Rs. 50 crore advertisement, electronic and digital media will be targeted at young, recently married couples in the 25-35 age bracket, and will have a simple emotional message ‘Ek Hira, Tumhare Hire ke Liye’ (Because only a diamond is worthy of his diamond).
GJEPC Chairman Mr. Praveenshankar Pandya said, “Looking at the slow demand for diamond jewellery, the deliberation among the industry stakeholders for such a campaign has been going on since some time now. I am glad that along with De Beers we have been able to take the first step in reviving the demand for diamond and diamond jewellery. Through this campaign, we expect to bring back the excitement back to the category and increase the consumers’ awareness about the diamonds and its prices.”
“We believe in a generic promotion across the world – not just India – as it is only 10 percent of the global market. We are hopeful that all the stakeholders from the industry will support the DPA and soon get see some activities for the promotion of diamonds,” he added.
“The campaign in India aims to bring excitement back into this category and inspire consumers to purchase diamonds,” said Shailesh Sanghani, Convener, Promotion, Marketing & Business Development Sub-Committee of the GJEPC. It is based on insights into consumer behaviour and attitudes that have been gleaned from market research conducted by De Beers and an assessment of the category of diamond jewellery that needed the maximum push at present based on feedback from major diamond and jewellery manufacturers. “The ‘Ek Hira, Tumhare….’ encourages the husband to show his appreciation of all the many little things that his partner does to make life happier for the family by gifting her diamonds,” Sanghani said.
The campaign will be in Hindi, English and the major regional languages and will run from Dusshera through Diwali till Christmas and the New Year. While no special collection or jewellery concept has been created for this campaign, Sanghani said that visually it will promote diamond jewellery designs around the traditional flower and cluster concepts, starting from very simple basic designs priced at an affordable Rs 25,000. “Having established the emotional reason to buy, we also want to stress to customers that diamond jewellery is quite affordable, as well as give a push to stars and melee sizes which are currently among the slower moving diamond categories,” he added.
GJEPC-De Beers will conduct road shows over the next 10 days to encourage manufacturers and retailers to be associated with the campaign. “They need not make any monetary contribution, barring a very basic administrative fee of Rs 5,000 per store,” Sanghani said, explaining that all participating jewellers will be listed on a website which consumers can use to locate a store. “A consumer can also call a toll free number, and based on the location from which he/she is calling, they will receive names of all participating jewellers in the vicinity,” he added.
The promotions are being undertaken in 30 cities pan India and will be targeted at getting the diamond jewellery retailers on board. “They will be the ultimate beneficiaries,” Pandya stressed. Sanghani added that many of the bigger pan-India chains have already agreed to join hands with the GJEPC-De Beers campaign even before the road shows have officially commenced, and said that he was hopeful that nearly 1,000 retailers from across the country would extend their support to this effort.
Mr. Stephen Lussier, Executive Vice President, Marketing, De Beers Group; Chief Executive Officer, Forevermark, said “De Beers is working closely with the GJEPC to develop a category-based marketing campaign over the key selling season in India. India continues to be one of the top performing markets where diamond consumption is concerned. It is thus imperative to protect and grow diamond equity and this will require a sharp focus on consumer confidence and consumer demand. With this campaign we aim to retain and mature the preference and purchase of diamonds in this market.”
The campaign which is expected to hit the Country on 10th October would target women falling in the age group between 25 to 35 who has a hectic lifestyle and craving for romance and pampering. As a start, the campaign would run for 3 months across TV, Print and Digital. Promotions will be at its peak during the forthcoming festive season such as Dusshera, Dhanteras, Diwali, Karwa Chauth & Christmas. A special website has been created for the campaign where customers would find the retailers’ name, address and contact numbers. Co-branded activities have also been planned to get maximum mileage to the campaign.
