Defying the odds: Anand Jewellers

Anand Jewels is on a mission to create awareness in the market through ad campaigns to challenge the immoral practices running in the gems and jewellery industry.

–Manoj Chakraborty

The most valuable commodity in the jewellery industry is trust and it builds when the jeweller deals in quality products and transparent pricing. Today’s market is very competitive and every jeweller is trying to gain attention by running various promotional activities. However, in the due process, they forget the most important thing and that is trust and due to this, the customers are losing confidence in the industry. To challenge the prevailing situation and educate the customers about the unethical practices currently running by some of the big jewellery national brands, Indore- based Anand Jewels came up with an ad campaign. As part of the campaign which has been running from quite some time huge outdoor hoardings were put up all over the city and print and radio are being used to pass the communication to the public.

Giving more details regarding the advertising campaign, Gaurav Anand, MD, Anand Jewels said, “We started our brand four years ago. We did a market survey in the last six months to find out the demands of the customers. We came to know that customers need only 2 things from the retailers, one is honesty and the other is decision making power. But unfortunately with the rise in competition in the market few of the national brands have got themselves indulged in unfair practices to gain short term profits. They are selling jewellery like a fashion brand in the overcoat of a jeweller. So, we planned to launch an all-out fearless campaign to expose their duplicity for both gold and diamond categories.”

As part of the campaign, Gaurav has placed big outdoors hoardings across the city, ads on newspapers and radio were given to create a buzz in the market. Through the ads, Anand Jewels invited the customers to bring their old jewellery bought from their family/trusted jeweller and get it tested from them. They have a dedicated lab at the showroom where the customers can come and test the quality of their gold and diamond jewellery. In the advertisements, customers are also warned not to fall in the trap of discounts and offers and if they have any doubt in their mind they can visit Anand Jewels and get their doubts cleared.

Adding further Gaurav said, “We never ran a single offer in our history giving discounts to the customers. We have the same rates throughout the year. But if you see any brand in India today they have some offers or the other running every month and compel the customer to buy from them which is not right. Every person has a right to decide when and what he wants to buy and it should be respected. The customer over a long period of time realises that he has been cheated and thus lose confidence which affects the industry.”

Gaurav feels that his efforts are paying off as people are more aware now. However, according to him, it will take at least a few years to spread the work completely.

After the festive season got over, we will come out with another survey to find out how much has changed and made plans accordingly. We are slowly creating our brand in people’s mind so the process will take time. I am optimistic that in the long term customers will come to the shop after trying the big brands and won’t leave us ever, Gaurav said.