“It was imperative for us to be seen as a national local player”: Deepika Tewari, Titan

Titan's flagship jewellery retail chain, Tanishq had launched a series of videos for their new campaign #DuaKaSona, conceptualised by Mumbai-based WYP Brand Solutions.

Through the organic digital outreach, the ads have garnered over 5 lakh views in just over a week. The campaign has three films across seven regional languages.

“As of now, there has been zero ad spend on promoting the videos as they were released through our social media assets,” shares Deepika Tewari, assistant vice president - marketing, Jewellery Division, Titan.

The brand positions itself not just as a business which sells jewellery but as an organisation that values the craft and the craftsmen equally.

“Thus, we ensure that our karigars work in a healthy, safe and dignified environment and we support them with best in class infrastructure. We empower women and the girl child by providing them skills and have also implemented sustainable crafting practices at our manufacturing units, where we incorporate measures to use renewable energy and recycle water,” she informs us.

In the last fiscal year, the brand claims to have used 40 per cent of recycled gold in their manufacturing. Tewari explains, “It essentially means that we have utilised the gold bought back from our customers to craft jewellery. Mining of gold leads to denudation of earth and this is one of the attempts from our end to protect the environment. The campaign was conceptualised to convey this message to our customers.”

Technology has played a key role when it comes to gathering information about consumers. Taking the cue, she adds, “Digital today is a key visual medium and hence we use Instagram's ‘shoppable posts’ to engage with our consumers. We treat our consumers like our brand ambassadors and chat with them on a deeper level on social media to help us in spreading the word of mouth. We also look at monthly search trends for a category to determine which product sets are doing well and have gained popularity amongst consumers.”

What have been the key turning points in the brand's advertising strategy so far, we ask her.

“As a brand, we always stood for inclusiveness and this has brought about major disruptions in the area of buying behaviour and we have ardently strived to celebrate relationships of varied nature. For instance, in our Raksha Bandhan campaign, we have taken it a notch higher by celebrating not just brother-sister bonding but also #sisterhood bonding,” she tells us.

The advertising campaign in the year 2013 around “second marriage” was also a head turner and many touted it as a bold move aimed towards breaking stereotypes.

Regionalisation of marketing campaigns

Tanishq was seen as a national jeweller over decades but it was imperative for the brand to be seen as a national local player. "In order to tap into regional emotionalism, our campaign’s rationale was created with narratives around regional festivals. The idea was to keep the deeply traditional nuances intact, all the while celebrating the core sentiment that binds Indians,” she explains.

The brand has made an effort towards customising all the local and national campaigns in l vernacular languages in order to receive higher brand consideration and recall in these markets.

Tanishq has brought on board regional celebrities like Mimi Chakraborty for east, Sonali Kulkarni for Maharashtra and Nayanthara for the southern belt in a bid to build deeper brand-connect.

Tanishq used the sharp targeting method for reaching out to the relevant customers for niche campaigns like Ahalya and Red Carpet collection.

What's also interesting to note is that for each campaign, the brand tends to team up with different creative agencies of late (#WomenOfGold was conceptualised and developed by Lowe Lintas and #HeeronMeinHeera was conceptualised and created by 22feet Tribal Worldwide). So, does this strategy help the marketer/advertiser tell stories in a more effective way?

“It is not a strategy as such. Lowe Lintas is our incumbent agency and works on our campaigns. However, we are open to fresh ideas and working with different partners,” she responds.