Sparkling strategy

“Main Madhuri Dixit banna nahin chahti hoon; mujhe sirf uske kapde aur uske jaisa ghar and ameer pati chahiye,” (I don’t want to be Madhuri Dixit,I only want her clothes,a house like hers and a rich husband),she said. If ability to buy was one driver behind choices,the ability to participate was another.

Last year,while researching a book,I met a ladies tailor who ran a small unit–with one masterji–in Nadiad in Gujarat. She made “TV blouses” and regular “Punjabis” (that’s what they call a salwar kameez in Gujarat). We chatted in Gujarati. Her speciality? “Don 2 sari blouses” she announced proudly. “But who wears blouses in Don 2?” I asked,perplexed.

The promos were out but the film was a couple of months away from release and I couldn’t recall Priyanka Chopra in sari blouses. “How do I know,but I need marketing tricks to justify Rs 150 stitching charges for special blouses,otherwise my rate is Rs 80. So I name all my “specials” after new Hindi films,” she said.

Her logic was people in small towns want to feel closer to what is happening in the world of fashion and trends,instead of just being distant spectators. “If my neighbour can wear a Don 2 blouse,she feels better about her life,does it matter if there are no sari blouses in the film?” I laughed a lot,giving her big thumbs up. This was original.

All this came rushing back recently in a freewheeling chat with Vikram Raizada,the executive director of Tara Jewellers. “There are a lot of pent up demands about luxury buying among Tier 3,4 and 5 cities of India but nobody is servicing their lifestyle aspirations,” said Vikram.

So Tara Jewellers opened diamond stores outside hoity-toity big cities bursting with disposable incomes,thus simultaneously penetrating into small town India going as deep as Tier 5 towns. From Rajkot to Jalgaon,Gorakhpur to Nasik,Kolhapur or Jabalpur,29 stores came up in 19 cities.

“If diamonds are a woman’s best friend,why are stores so elitist and masculine?” asked Vikram. So as step two,diamond jewellery was yanked out of its intimidating and locked glass showcases and hung up on walls. Customers were allowed to touch,feel and try it. Money is hardly a challenge in small town India but choice and style certainly are.

“Browsing also helps make friends with a customer,” added Vikram telling me that the sales staff in all their stores—Delhi or Gorakhpur–wore uniforms designed by Rajesh Pratap Singh. When I brought up the Indian mentality of “trust” in a jeweller,I was told trust comes with knowledge—if people know who you are,they trust you. Why would they trust jewellery locked up in glass cases,visible but not approachable?

In theory,I agree. In practice,it makes me really curious: do women in small towns spend lakhs of rupees on diamonds because they are hung on a wall and easily available or because they sit in their mind’s eye as must-have presiding deities of prosperity?