Generic diamond promotions are all set to make a comeback in India after a gap of over a decade! The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council and De Beers today unveiled the basic framework of the new campaign that they will be jointly releasing over the next three months during the festive season in India.

The Rs 50 crore ad blitz across print, 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).

“This campaign is a very important first step towards giving a push to diamond demand in key global markets,” said GJEPC Chairman Praveenshankar Pandya, adding that the Council is already collaborating with the Diamond Producers Association (DPA) and De Beers on similar generic promotions in the US, as well as exploring direct tie-ups with Alrosa, Rio Tinto and even leading Chinese retailers to get similar efforts started in other major markets.

“Everyone in the industry has been talking about such promotions for some time, and as the leading diamond manufacturing centre, the Indian industry decided to take some concrete steps in getting it off the ground,” he explained, adding that after seeing the initiative taken by GJEPC, associations in the other diamond manufacturing centres have also indicated their interest in doing something similar.

Stressing that a lot of time has already been lost and the industry has suffered as a result, Pandya said that the Council was keen on forging bilateral partnerships and launching promotions in key markets wherever possible. These will be precursors to more co-ordinated efforts with all the stakeholders contributing their share, he added.

In this context, he expressed the hope that promotions would be launched in the Chinese market in the coming year, perhaps even in time for the Chinese New Year season in 2017.

“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.

Pic Caption: GJEPC Chairman Praveenshankar Pandya unveiling the campaign along with PMBD Convener Shailesh Saghani and ED Sabyasachi Ray