Shyamala Ramanan on Mia by Tanishq's femininity & sportswomanship approach

Mia by Tanishq recently kickstarted its collaboration with Royal Challengers Bangalore of Women’s Premier League (WPL). Here, we take a look into the brand’s overall communications that establish the brand as 'everyday fine jewelry.' 

Launched in November 2012, as a sub-brand of Tanishq for working women, Mia By Tanishq has steadily established itself in the everyday wear category, steering away from the general consensus of jewelry only being an occasion-led adornment.

In conversation with Shyamala Ramanan, Business Head, Mia by Tanishq, we dive into the field of Women's Premier League and the brand's collaboration with the women's team of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and further discuss the social presence of the brand, the purchase journey of consumers, and brand communications that carry the Tanishq legacy forward into the contemporary era of women in action.

Mia by Tanishq X Royal Challenger's Bangalore

The first association of the brand with women athletes can be traced back to the Olympics last season, where it collaborated with Indian women athletes. The jewellery brand is now transitioning this into a long-standing collaboration with women in sports, starting with cricket, the sport that's touted as a religion in the country. Mia has associated with the first women’s team from RCB.

Shyamala mentions the brand always believed that women need to be celebrated for who they are, and there are only certain types of women who are portrayed stereotypically.

"We found it is time that we go beyond that. Why should we only include women, why not actually go beyond that for the positivity or acknowledge sports.”

She further explains the stereotype of women in sports being touted as 'masculine'.

Women in sports are equally feminine, equally graceful, and exhibit all the truth. It's just the first time that we have a women's cricket team playing in WPL.

Shyamala Ramanan

Celebrating Inclusive Feminine Energy

In this day and age, femininity is not defined by the gender a person is assigned at birth and isn't restricted to the heteronormative definition of 'female'. Mia by Tanishq explores the wide spectrum of femininity. The initiation of this approach is defined by the question - "Why stop at progressive stories and why limit it to only gender being added to it?"

Body positivity, neurodiversity, and sports, all of these elements visible in the campaigns are based on this approach. An approach that starts with, "Understanding that gender is a spectrum and not just binary. Women who are gender fluid, women who are diverse in their neurological capability, women who do regular housework, live corporate lives, or step in a sports arena. Jewellery is for everyone.”

The Brand Language Of Mia

Mia carries the traditional legacy of Tanishq with a bolder and edgier tonality, which constitutes a brand language that presents recognizable traits where we see women in action. The genesis of this brand language started a decade ago when Mia was founded, and women started to come up and buy their own jewelry.

Shyamala says that in the early 2000s and 2010, it was less common for women to buy jewelry for themselves. “Jewellery was relatively a family purchase where the mother-in-law, the sister, the mother, and the husband would buy jewelry. It was a collective purchase.”

The brand's origins came in at the point when women started to make their own choices. “With a certain price point, we were at a certain time where the product was not legacy jewelry which is bought and then put away in the locker, or to be only brought out on special days,” she says.

"We are about making every day special. Our jewelry was aimed at women who wanted to wear modern jewelry because that was a time when there were a lot of international brands coming in and it was about women experimenting with Indo-Western, Western, and so on. 

Western sensibilities, and the versatility of jewelry that goes on Indian as well as Western wear, so the language was bringing western jewelry and making it relevant for India. 

"We have a strong purpose that we are talking to this very young evolved emancipated woman who does not believe in a lot of the old world for her, creating her own rules and her own traditions, even if it is sustainability, a lot of young women are into sustainability. So we use a lot of recycled gold. We include these topics so that we tell the people that this is what we stand for. And that is how we draw that connection on purpose with our consumers because we are all about modern-age thinking.”

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The Purchase Journey Of A Modern Consumer

Since the pandemic digital consumption of products and services has been adopted by Indian consumers at an accelerated rate. Traditional sales may have bounced back to pre-pandemic levels but the purchase journey of consumers has changed, offline and digital tracks overlap at several levels and the differentiation is blurry. A product discovered on social media may be purchased from a store, with no traces linking it to the discovery online. Especially for jewelry, a premium category of products.

The purchase journey of jewelry changing from a collective family experience coming into the store to women buying it for themselves has also altered the purchase journey. While online purchases have surged, the brand also recently launched its 101st standalone store in India, apart from the installations at Tanishq stores.

Explaining the tracks leading to a purchase, Shyamala mentions as Mia By Tanishq is a digital-first brand and most of the brand's advertising is actually digital, most consumers go to the website to check out the products and buy them, and a good chunk of them who are getting familiar with the brand, also see the products in the store. 

"So the good thing for us is we have an extensive presence offline and we are also present across Tanishq, and we have our own exclusive SAS (standalone store) channel. So a lot of consumers do walk into either of these two channels to check the products out and they make their purchase there. They also tend to buy online, or they do tend to come back.”

She adds that social media is one of the biggest means of communication for the brand. "So we have a strong presence on Instagram, WhatsApp is another channel to reach out to consumers, we use a lot of targeted ads on Facebook, etc. We use Meta very efficiently and effectively to reach out to people. And that's the place where they discover us. And from there on we have a means for them to go to our website and check us out as well.” 

80% of our marketing is online.

Shyamala Ramanan

The Role Of Social Media 

Since 80% of the brands' presence is online, social media becomes an integral part of the media plan, and Shyamala mentions that visual platforms such as Instagram are important because key target audiences such as Gen-Z are present there and explore the products.

Along with formats such as Reels and Shorts being tapped, the brand also dispenses several influencer activities, with collaborations in various fields such as Finance, Comedy, and Lifestyle. Throwing some light on the genres such as Finance that are not conventionally related to jewelry, she adds, "For Gen Z, understanding Finance is very important.

So we have had influencers from this segment speak about why Mia is a great piece of jewelry not just to wear but also as an investment profit proposition. Because instead of buying synthetic or fake jewelry, which is about 30-40,000 INR investing on a 20-25,000 INR of Mia is a more sensible thing to do. Diamonds can always get bought back, and educative videos with influencers help communicate that.

The content cohorts are also often tied to relevant occasions. For instance, during Dhanteras, a period considered auspicious for buying gold and diamonds was weaved in with educational content, with Finance influencers educating viewers about the full resale value of diamonds that does not fluctuate with time or depreciates. 

With Mia By Tanishq championing sporting leagues and portraying inclusive femininity with a strong presence on social networks, the brand is in action to establish the everyday fine jewelry category.