Kalyan Jewellers picks regional stars as brand ambassadors

MUMBAI: Kalyan Jewellers, India’s leading jewellery manufacturer and distributor, has appointed local celebrities as brand ambassadors in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab and West Bengal as part of a strategy to replicate its hyperlocal marketing approach in southern states in other parts of the country.

The company has signed up with Pooja Sawant in Maharashtra, Kinjal Rajpriya in Gujarat, Wamiqa Gabbi in Punjab and Ritabhari Charkraborty in West Bengal, aiming to reach out to potential consumers in their local languages. Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, along with daughter Shweta Bachchan Nanda, continue to be the national ambassadors for the brand, as does Katrina Kaif.

“If you have to compete with local players, you have to get hyperlocal,” Ramesh Kalyanaraman, executive director, Kalyan Jewellers told ET.

Citing the firm’s strategy to win southern consumers, when the company started operations 26 years ago in Thrissur in Kerala, he said, “Once we started expanding outside Kerala, in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, we quickly realised that in order to talk to a bigger population, and make them come to your store, you have to go hyperlocal. You have to understand their language, culture and talk the same for them to put their trust in you.”