Tanishq plays affordability card

The brand's latest campaign explores relationships beyond that of husband and wife and emphasises its accessible yet elegant ornament range.

Tata group's Tanishq, which introduced the concept of branded jewellery on a national level in India, has so far featured couples in its ads. In its latest campaign, however, the brand widens the net to include other relationships and also conveys the affordability factor. The television commercial for the campaign, 'Accessible Tanishq', drives home the fact that while the brand is considered desirable and aspirational, it is also easy on the pocket and offers gold jewellery starting at Rs 5,000.

Conceptualised by Lowe Lintas & Partners, the campaign, like the brand's earlier ones, dwells on cherishing relationships through Tanishq. The lead characters in the television commercial are siblings and the focus is on affordability.

The film opens with a young lady talking to her friend over the phone, insisting that the friend attends the imminent wedding. She has to conclude the call as her brother comes up and stares at her. Typical sibling arguments and teasing ensue, and her brother gives her a gift - a pair of gold earrings from Tanishq - ostensibly for 'emptying the room'. She asks him whether he spent his entire salary on the gift, to which the brother gives a smart reply. She then asks him whether he has already started missing her. The question is met with a moment of silence, full of emotional undercurrents. The voiceover in the end says, "Kabhi kabhi pyaar dikhane ke liye zyada kuch nahi lagta. Tanishq, ab sirf Rs 5000 se shuru".

Deepika Sabharwal Tewari, general manager and head of marketing, Tanishq says the brand is very desirable and aspirational. However, through this campaign, it also wanted to convey accessibility. "We wanted to regain the relevance of the category among people and show that the brand has products that start from Rs 5000. However, we wanted to keep the brand's speciality. A special gift for a special occasion, to a special person. And, we have been able to effectively capture that in this campaign," Tewari says. Tanishq also wanted to explore other relations as the category is full of clichéd husband-wife portrayals.

Tewari emphasises that the relationship shown in the campaign is a metaphor which extends to various other relations. "I am expecting a whole lot of people to get the message," she states.

Arun Iyer, national creative director, Lowe Lintas & Partners, says the team narrowed on the sibling relationship due to the brief. Who would look for gold jewellery and at the same time think of affordability, thought the team, and the idea of a brother (on his first job), who has some money and feels for his sister, struck. "While the brief was to communicate Tanishq as a desirable brand and to make it a lot more accessible, we didn't want to make the TVC completely on price point. The communication also had to touch emotionally, which has been the feel and tonality of the brand throughout," he says.

Interestingly, the casting took the agency nearly two-and-a-half weeks to finalise. "The casting was very important and we went back and forth on it," Iyer says, adding that a lot of complex emotions were at play. While the brother feels for his sister, who will soon get married and go away, he is not comfortable to show it. These nuances of emotion had to be captured and director Vivek Kakkad of Curious Films did it very well, Iyer says.

Apart from television, the six week campaign will be extended to outdoor, digital and radio. The brand has 146 stores in 86 cities across the country.

Binding thoughts?

Nima Namchu, executive creative director, Cheil Worldwide, feels the campaign is quite engaging, well directed and the message of affordability comes across pretty clearly.

"While some might feel that this campaign does not fit in the Tanishq world, it is interesting to see the brand using different commercials to talk to different target segments with seemingly different messages when, in all of them, Tanishq comes across as the scale by which people measure their relationships. It is an idea in which commercials about exclusivity, taste and craftsmanship can easily reside side by side with stories about affordability," he says.

Namchu, however, adds that the voiceover reminds him of a Domino's commercial his team had created a few years ago, which had similar lines - "Kisi ko khushi dene ke liye zyaada kuch nahin chahiye. Domino's Pizza Mania, sirf painthees rupe mein".

Rajeev Sharma, national brand planning director, Leo Burnett, is all praises for the campaign. "I have always been an unabashed fan of Tanishq advertising, with its extraordinary ability to strike the right emotional notes and this TVC certainly works for me. The idea of using a younger brother who's presumably just started earning to drive the proposition of affordability is a smart and universally appealing one," he says.

Sharma adds that the well crafted script, the casting and the underplayed acting - hinting at the affection behind the banter between a brother and his soon to be married elder sister, all come together to deliver another home run.