Keeping jewelry at the heart of all traditions: Decoding Tanishq's marketing strategy ft. Ranjani Krishnaswamy

With Ranjani Krishnaswamy from Tanishq India, we attempt to decode Tanishq's marketing strategy and understand how to encash relevance through heartwarming campaigns for the consumers.

Despite the ongoing situations, people continue to explore avenues and moments of solace to come together and receive a brief period of respite from the anxieties. As this phase continues, people attempt to forget woes and celebrate the alliance, togetherness, and the beginning of new journeys, and more during these times. As the communication strategies become more sensitive and call for generating meaningful conversations during the second wave of the pandemic, we speak with Ranjani Krishnaswamy, GM – Marketing, Tanishq, Titan Company Ltd. to deep-dive into Tanishq marketing strategy around the jewelry category, keeping social media in focus.

Behind-the-Scenes: Tanishq Recent Campaigns

In India, one of the most diversified occasions is jewelry during pertinent occasions including weddings and Tanishq makes an effort to celebrate every culture to becoming quintessential as the jewelry destination in the country. With the onset of the wedding season in 2021, the jewelry brand launched the ‘When It Rings True’ campaign, focusing on engagement as an occasion that signifies being closer to a commitment of a lifetime and the memories associated with it.

Conceptualized by Lowe Lintas, the campaign celebrates the moment when it rings true for a woman to make that final decision with a realization that she has found her partner for this lifetime.

Krishnaswamy shares, “There is one finite moment where everything rings true and the puzzle comes together to bring out the big picture. This is how the whole process of when it rings true happened.” As per the brand to own such moments, the pun, which was very much intended, is about the engagement rings, also the symbolism for that union and that moment when everything is clear.

In the jewelry market, wedding is 50% and the other 50% of the jewelry is in and around a wedding for women, she shares.

From a business standpoint, engagement is the initiation of the brand’s journey with their TG, starting with the first-year milestones in the bride’s life which go on for the next few years.

 “We want to own that phase when jewelry falls critical to her life”, highlights Krishnaswamy.

Further, the brand launched a new collection, Rivaah, as a platform for coming together of jewelry for all the Indian cultures.

To become a one-stop destination for jewelry in Pan-India, the brand shared that every community has a specific kind of jewelry that celebrates their culture. “This launch was a plank to consolidate our position as the jewelry for every Indian bride from all the communities”, explains Krishnaswamy.

Speaking further on the brand’s purpose, she says, “As a national local jeweler, we understand that there is a diversity in wedding jewelry and we can offer jewelry across the communities - both in terms of the depth in trousseaus and the number of communities, through our 350 physical stores.”

As an insight, Tanishq leveraged the fact that a bride today is a participant and not a silent spectator. They want to understand each of the symbolism and rituals involved in the tradition.

Krishnaswamy explains that with the proposition of ‘A Jewel for Every Tradition’, the Rivaah collection spoke to the new-age confident bride, who is modern in her outlook yet deeply rooted in traditional values, bringing alive the meaning and significance of every piece of jewelry in her bridal trousseau.

Hence, the brand intended to speak to this mindset of the bride and demystify the depth of each jewelry to her which would lead to a differentiated conversation, through these initiatives

Tanishq India also released #ChainOfGoodness in-line with the ongoing pandemic to celebrate the real-time heroes in the nation.

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A post shared by Tanishq (@tanishqjewellery)

Marketing Strategy and Role of Digital

Through its various campaigns and initiatives, Tanishq aims to be meaningful and symbolic for the most precious moments in the lives of consumers. As part of the Tanishq marketing strategy, one of the ways to do that is by owning the moments, associated with the brand, shares Krishnaswamy.

2020 was a challenging year for the A & M Industry across the brands from the varied sector.

For the jewelry category, even when the wedding spends got down-sized, the brand shared that it had observed a committed buying for such occasions.

As the second wave takes a grip in the nation, safety at physical stores is another pertinent aspect that the brand would be cognizant of. Further, Tanishq intends to go full-throttle for their marketing strategy with a 360-degree approach. The brand continues to drive relevant conversations across digital and traditional media platforms and will leverage dynamic and flexible mediums with short-term planning for this period.

For the brand, the festivals and rituals would continue to play a crucial where jewelry sits at the heart of the traditions.

Krishnaswamy also highlights that with the rise in the above-the-key dressing trend the brand would also focus on lightweight and everyday jewelry for day-to-day occasions.

Highlighting the relevant media channels for Tanishq marketing strategy, the brand has witnessed a rise in its digital spending. Krishnaswamy expresses, “Digital allows us to have a conversation with the customer, engage with her and what she feels about the products.”

To make the lives of digital customers easier, the brand leverages Live chats, virtual try-on, and video calling. Krishnaswamy explains, “There has been a fair amount of multiplier growth in case of transactions across digital platforms which involves a full purchase journey. We have been nimble to the changes and leveraged Omni-channels to make the transactions happen. By and large, omnichannel will grow even in this year.”

Moving forward, Tanishq wants to focus on equity-building mediums as well which help them in a longer format of storytelling. “You would continue to see us on Television”, adds Krishnaswamy.

Also read: From cashless transactions to online safety: Richa Sharma decodes PhonePe marketing strategy

Social Media Play

According to the brand, social media is a part of a larger ensemble of the overall media strategy. The platforms provide a two-way street for the brand to have a conversation with the consumer and highlight what they stand for.

Krishnaswamy says, “Social media helps us to share our value as a brand, perspectives, etc. We want to celebrate women for the choices they make during their journey and have commenced a journey to change the paradigms in the world. We strongly endorse that.”

Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are the social media platforms with maximum consumer presence and traction, as per the brand where the consumer engages and interacts with Tanishq.

It garners 1.4L+ followers on Facebook, followed by 719K+ followers on Instagram, 99.8K+ subscribers on YouTube, and 40k+ followers on Twitter.

Facebook

Tanishq leverages Facebook to speak with the consumer in line with the topicals and moments significant to the brand.

The platform highlights the brand’s latest jewelry and campaigns while sharing daily thoughts with the people for motivation and optimism.

Instagram and Twitter

Apart from leveraging the visual appeal of the platform, Tanishq utilizes Instagram to speak about various products and their roots- from the traditional ‘Nathas’ to the jewelry significance, the brand leverages the platform to speak with the youth, especially the modern women.

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A post shared by Tanishq (@tanishqjewellery)

The brand also utilizes Instagram to redirect customers to their latest products in tandem with their ongoing marketing campaigns and latest initiatives. For example, the #ChainofGoodness during the ongoing pandemic and posts on engagement rings during wedding seasons.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tanishq (@tanishqjewellery)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tanishq (@tanishqjewellery)

Twitter page of the brand shares glimpses of the moods of the platform along with highlighting specific themes and amplifications.

YouTube

The Tanishq YouTube page leverages the playlist to highlight a collection of each of the campaigns along with the customer testimonials.

The ‘About’ section of the brand’s YouTube page also presents an ensemble of social media page links including the blog page and the Tanishq website to redirect the consumer to the platform of their choice

Krishnaswamy shares that social media helps them to share their messages while targeting the consumers in a customized and personalized manner to deliver messages and initiate conversations rather than just announcing things.

“I look at social media as a composite plan. You can no longer be bereft of social media. It is very much a part of the fundamental media planning exercise”, she puts forth.

Content Strategy: An attempt to be the ‘Rivaah’ for all the buyers in India

Tanishq content strategy works on how the brand attempts to bring alive the meaning of each of the jewelry for women, in line with the marketing strategy. “Our content strategy is very much linked to what we want every campaign to do and how we want to engage with the consumers”, explains Krishnaswamy.

The brand content strategy goes hand-in-hand with the content strategy. Further, the brand tends to focus on transparency, design, and the depth of the things to follow through the strategies and purpose.

Further, Tanishq collaborates with Humans of Bombay to highlight many stories on Facebook pages along with the brand associations.

One of the largest learnings has been understanding consumers through various cohorts. It is different strokes for different folks, shares Ranjana.

Speaking about moments and topicals, Krishnaswamy says that while the brand is not topical-forward, they participate in moments relevant to them such as Mother's Day, Women's day, etc. 

With the content marketing strategies prevalent in the social media spectrum, the brand’s purpose revolves around connecting with the consumers.

“We look at individuals who resonate with the ethos that the brand does and segue ourselves through that celebrity”, quips Krishnaswamy. 

In the past, the brand has leveraged Deepika in the past and Nayantara in the south where she represented women as traversing from being traditional and classic in roots but being contemporary and modern in their outlook.

Speaking of 2021, wherever the brand finds a resonance with the like-minded ethos of influencers, they will plan to partner with them.

To bring relevance and not just doing for the sake of doing something, will continue to be Tanishq’s marketing and content strategy.

Going Beyond

As the way forward, the brand will continue to provide services to the relevant customers for various occasions especially weddings, and whenever any occasion demands celebration. In times of crisis, people often look at traditions for inspiration, for reassurance with light at the end of the tunnel, says Krishnaswamy and the brand intends to leverage these moments in the near future.

Further, the brand will perpetuate itself as a complete jeweller - a jewel for every tradition, a brand that is fashionable and offers something in daily wear, and a platform with a regional connect across India.

While brands will have to wait and watch if 2021 is similar to 2020, many trends in the jewelry category will come back shares, Krishnaswamy.

To conclude, she encapsulates the marketing trends in the jewelry category:

• It will be a cohort-based strategy that will emerge, next year
• Gold buying might come back as a safe haven, 
• Committed buying will stay around weddings
• Discretionary buying will come up and go back, depending on the situations
• Celebration of personal milestones will come back in a big way