Tanishq is India's largest jewelry brand owned by Titan Industries. When it launched in 1995, Tanishq struggled due to using Western designs and marketing towards exports. It lost money until 1998 when it changed its strategy. Tanishq shifted to focus on the domestic market, introduced 22kt gold jewelry with Indian designs, opened exclusive stores, and added value with purity testing. These changes helped Tanishq become the leading jewelry brand in India.

1. A MARKETING RESEARCH STUDY
BY: DHRUVA GANDHI
MEB III
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3. TANISHQ – AN INTRODUCTION
• Tanishq is India's largest, most desirable and fastest growing
jewelry brand in India. Started in 1995, Tanishq is the jewelry
business group of Titan Industries Ltd - promoted by the TATA
group, India's most respected and widely diversified business
conglomerate.
• Tanishq challenged the age-old jeweler's word with TATA's
guaranteed purity. It exploded the market with facts about
rampant impurity across India. It introduced technology-backed
challenge in a category completely governed by individual trust.
Tanishq introduced innovations like Karat meter, the only non
destructive means to check the purity of gold.

4. TANISHQ – AN INTRODUCTION
• Tanishq today is India's most aspirational fine jewelry brand with
160 stores in 80 cities, with an exquisite range of gold jewelry
studded with diamonds or colored gems and a wide range of
equally spectacular jewelry in 22Kt pure gold. Exquisite platinum
jewelry is also part of the product range.

5. HISTORY
• When Titan launched Tanishq in 1995, the jewellery industry in
India valued at Rs.40,000 crore, was mostly unorganized, with
around 3.5 lakh players.
• In 1992, as part of economic liberalization, the government
abolished the Gold Control Act of 1962, allowing free import of
gold. In 1993, private companies were allowed to enter the
hitherto restricted gold and diamond mining industry.

6. HISTORY
• Titan realized that there was a huge untapped market for
branded jewellery in India. The critical success factors in the
business were quality, fashionable design, and good after-sales
service. Titan also observed that the changing lifestyles
demanded lighter and trendier jewellery.
• Tanishq began by offering jewellery in the 18-carat gold range,
with designs borrowed heavily from contemporary European
brands. The company justified its decision saying that it wanted
to be 'different' from the traditional Indian offerings.

7. INITIAL RESPONSE
• Tanishq performed very badly in the next three years, posting a
huge loss in 1997-98, proving its detractors right.
• Jacob Kurian, Tanishq's chief operating officer admitted,
"Tanishq, as a concept, was far too ahead of its times." Even if
one agreed with Kurian, it could not be denied that Tanishq did
commit mistakes.
• After its launch,Tanishq faced several problems.
• With its original focus on exports, Tanishq's designs had been
conceptualized for the Western markets and were introduced in
India without any alterations.

8. INITIAL RESPONSE
• Formal consumer surveys showed that though brand awareness
was quite high, it suffered from several negative perceptions.
Many potential customers thought the products were over
priced and associated the brand only with the rich.
• Hence,Titan decided to change its strategy on two fronts:
1.Value proposition
2. Retailing.

9. SETTINGTHINGS RIGHT
• Since the European designs in 18-carat gold did not find any
takers in 1997, Tanishq introduced 22-carat ornaments.
Customer surveys revealed that gold jewellery was not bought
so much for design as for value.
• Titan also decided to do away with the shop-in-shop formats
and started retailing its jewellery through exclusive Tanishq
outlets from 1998.
• Titan realized that, given the diverse nature of Indian ethnicity, it
would have to satisfy the tastes of all regions. So, the designs
became more ethnic.

10. SETTINGTHINGS RIGHT
• Tanishq found out that it had gone wrong mainly in two areas –
1. The product proposition
2. Retailing.
• Initially with a focus on the export market, its designs were predominantly Western,
and the same line of jewellery was sold in India as well. However, when it shifted its
focus to the domestic market, it was unable to sell these designs.
• Therefore the first step was to change the brand positioning from that of an elitist and
Westernized offering to a more mainstream, Indian one.
• The 18-carat jewellery range was expanded to include 22 and 24 carat ornaments as
well.Tanishq also made attempts to redefine traditional styles in its designs

11. SETTINGTHINGS RIGHT
• Titan also decided to transpose designs by stocking Bengali designs in
Delhi, Keralite designs in Tamil Nadu and typical designs from Tamil
Nadu in Bombay in order to appeal to a variety of people.
• The same year, Tanishq entered the studded jewellery segment,
which it had ignored for long. Titan also tapped institutional
customers also. In 1998, it launched the corporate gold gift scheme -
'When you want to say thank you, say it in gold'.
• In 1999, Tanishq delivered gold coins worth Rs.20 crores to Maruti
Udyog Ltd., to be given away as gifts to Maruti car owners. In early
2000, it made miniature gold cars for Hyundai Motors to be given to
select dealers.

12. SETTINGTHINGS RIGHT
• The company also began seasonal and localized promotions based
on Indian festivals, such as during Durga Puja in West Bengal, Onam
in Kerala, Diwali in north India, etc.
• Tanishq's team of in-house designers came out with about 3,500
designs based on current trends and the feedback from stores. At
least 10% of these designs were changed every quarter and fresh
ones were added to the stock.
• Tanishq gave complete freedom to the retail outlets to pick up
designs, which they thought would sell in their stores.Almost all the
outlets stocked the 'best selling' range of designs, which did well
across the country.

13. • In order to add some value proposition to rise above the
competition, Tanishq decided to address the issue of gold purity,
which was most important to the customers.
• Tanishq introduced the revolutionary concept of Karatmeters in
its retail boutiques. The Karat meter used X-rays to give an
accurate reading of the constitution of gold in the ornament
within three minutes. Imported from Germany at a cost of Rs 1
million each, Karatmeters though expensive, proved to be the
biggest USP forTanishq in the coming years.
SETTINGTHINGS RIGHT

14. • Fact, its sales increased by 20-30%. The concept was later on
heralded as a bold step towards professionalizing the Indian
jewellery business.
• In a bid to control gold price variations in different parts of the
country, Tanishq decided to have a standard gold price across all
its showrooms from March 2000.
The standard price was made binding on all Tanishq
showrooms. Tanishq based its gold prices on international
exchange prices, resulting in prices often being lower than the
local market prices.
SETTINGTHINGS RIGHT

15. CONCLUSION
•The story of Tanishq, once written off as a losing
proposition, making a remarkable turnaround was an
example of a company single-mindedly working to make
its own mark in the tradition bound Indian jewellery
market. Behind this success was, of course, a well-
planned and well-executed marketing plan.

16. THANKYOU