Summary
A New Gold Standard for the Gold Industry
Challenge
INDIA AND GOLD: A STRONG RELATIONSHIP The gold industry is integral to the Indian economy, contributing 1.3% to Indian GDP. The nation's cultural identity is deeply intertwined with gold, with gold providing an attractive avenue for both adornment and investment. Research shows that alternatives such as Diamonds have emerged for adornment, Gold is still a strong investment avenue which translates into a strong purchase consideration for gold amongst Indians. SMALL JEWELLERS: LOSING SHINE But all was not shining bright. The advent of corporatized, chain stores and rapid emergence of online commerce in the last 10-15 years and their gradual gain of market share has been at the expense of stand-alone jewellers. So, despite World Gold Council and other brands spending big budgets in keeping gold aspirational & relevant for consumers, the footfalls were not rising for the small, independent jeweller of India - their retail share had infact slid from 50% to 37%. Help the small Indian jeweler protect and grow their share of retail in a gold category increasingly dominated by large organised players.
Objective
Behaviour Change is a challenge for any category, an even bigger one when it comes to the small independent jewellers following deeply ingrained practices. Their resistance to change resulted in loss of consumer trust and business. In this context Swarn Adarsh Abhiyan, is not just another marketing campaign but an empowering ecosystem to help these jewellers adopt everyday actions of improvement and rebuild trust in the community and gold. In doing so, it has already reached over a lakh jewelers and it on its way to galvanise the pan-India jeweler community at scale.
Strategy
THE INSIGHT: Instead of an emotional "shop small" consumer appeal, rebuilding trust in small jewellers demanded a rational approach to transforming the way they work. An industry first, experts guided program that made it easy for small jewellers to change big via small everyday actions. We gave the industry Swarna Adarsh Abhiyaan, a unique program, built across three key phases i.e. Design, Invite and Recognise. Design Powered by our deep research of the transformation required, Swarna Adarsh Abhiyaan was designed across seven key pillars, offering tools and expertise for jewellers to take everyday actions of improvement. Invite This phase entailed creating a nation wide clarion call for jewellers to join this initiative and command for a profitable future. Recognize As jewellers joined this program and reformed their practices, they gained certifications they could showcase to their consumers thus rewinning their trust. The invitation to join Swarna Adarsh Abhiyan was a truly integrated one, making the best of traditional touchpoints such as print, events and roadshows, but also exploring digital touchpoints such as whatsapp, social media and more. A campaign film in the voice of Kabir Bedi acted as a hero asset for the program, giving it an inspirational and cultural voice. All of these led jewellers to a specially designed microsite with complete program education, videos of experts, guidebooks to educate the community as well as join the Swarna Adarsh Abhiyan, thus setting them off on a journey of transformation.
Data
With a background of fast dipping trust levels on the small jewellers, these numbers are an encouraging evidence of the long termed impact of Swarna Adarsh Abhiyan towards revitalizing the trust equation between this community and modern consumers. Furthermore, the positive willingness of jewellers to recommend this program to their peers reflects a sentiment of collective change, something key to creating impact at scale.
Solution
Results
In 2022-23 the small jewellers held their own empowered by Swarna Adarsh Abhiyaan. With the early signs of improved business processes showing, their share in market continued at 37% thus arresting the decline of the previous years. Experts estimate that the share of unorganised retailers will show a positive growth in the times to come as the impact of SAA begins to show at scale. While these are long term estimations, a social sentiment analysis confirms 67% increase in consumer chatter reflecting "higher confidence to buy" gold from small jewellers. Marketing Impact: The Rebuilding of trust on Small Indian Jewellers has begun on a strong note A social sentiment analysis around Swarna Adarsh Abhiyaan saw 79% of chatter citing an increase in "consumer trust", 54% reporting "improved relationships" with consumers, and 41% stating they would recommend their peer-jewellers to join the program. Activity Impact: A never before galvanisation of Pan-India Jewellers at scale The program proved itself to be a gateway of change for Jewellers across India as it garnered a huge 29 million impressions and reached over a lakh jewellers across India. There were 59000 engaged sessions on the dedicated microsite and a high engagement rate across platforms.
