The jewellery industry may be going through a lot of changes but one thing is constant - the consumer is truly the ultimate king. A study shows that the aspiration levels of a consumer from a smaller town is way higher than someone from a big metro. Also, the tastes or preferences in jewellery may also be vastly different for both these catagories. We spoke to 4 jewellers to understand what the differences are:

Ishu Datwani - Anmol Jewellers, Mumbai

There’s a big difference in the attitude of a big city and a small city consumer. In small cities people love to flaunt. The tastes of consumers in bigger cities have changed and they are beginning to prefer diamonds over gold. They have budget for two things, one is for wedding and second is for personal use for day to day basis. For personal use, the budget is usually between 50-60k and 6-7 lakhs for casual wear, and for occasional wear it can go up to 12 lakhs. For weddings the budget is usually from 30-35 lakhs. In Mumbai, the psyche of buyers is for wearability instead of investment. One of the major strategies we use very successfully is social media, especially Instagram.

Viraj Sheth – Batukbhai Son Jewellers, Nagpur

When we speak about the masses, they prefer gold over diamond and uncut diamond jewellery. Whereas when we speak about the high spending power clients, they buy jewellery based on their requirement. They end up short listing all gold/diamond/polki jewellery and then they select the one which fulfills their needs & purpose.  Clients with a higher disposable income are not extremely price sensitive as they are well-travelled, especially to the metro cities and they have number compared the pricing of the same caliber of jewellery, but eventually the jewellery prices in the metro cities are pricier compared to smaller towns. A lot of factors play a role for the high pricing which are higher rents, higher staff salaries, higher spending power of the clients, lesser inventories and more. Middle class clients tend to bargain because of the competition in the market, whereas the lower middle class are usually satisfied with the pricing. India is a country of influence. We influence people & get influenced as well. Our industry like any other fashion industry also has a craze for market trends and inspiration. A classic example is Deepika Padukone. When she wore chandbalis in Padmaavat that created a buzz across India. We sold almost 40 pairs of chandbalis ranging from 3-5 lakhs in a span of 2 months, during the festival of Karwa Chauth. So, influence and inspiration does play a big role in our market and the industry as whole. In a metro city time and commuting are major factors. Usually clients try to close the deals in a visit or two where the lady might bring back her husband to take the decisions. Whereas in smaller cities, the client visits number of times and also goes around the market to find that perfect piece of jewelry at the desired pricing. This is only the case for a certain segment of client which comes with a budget of 5-10 lakhs.  When we speak about the mass they don’t have much buying capacity for obvious reasons. Whereas, people with bigger budgets usually buy for wearable purpose as after a certain level, everybody knows each other in the society so they wish to stand out at the social gatherings by wearing high end jewellery, as for investment purpose they prefer gold in the form of biscuits and bars. For the mass we have print media as well as hoardings and sponsorships. For millennials we have social media platforms. Whereas for the elite class, we have this unique concept of inviting certain groups of ladies where we call them for high tea and preview our latest collections. As we believe in an industry like ours nothing beats the conventional word of mouth publicity by the ladies.

Surenderpal Singh Bir, Neelkanth Jewellers - Pune

In Pune, the customer looks for better design and better diamond colour. They also look for different shapes of diamonds such as pear, heart etc. To us, customers come with various budgets for various products. We have customers asking for products from 10k to 15 lakhs. However, these days all the budget products are selling from low to high. Daily wear jewellery or a working woman jewellery sale is on the rise. In a city like Pune, we are known for design. We do have customers talking about family members wearing some piece and order similar products. Pictures from social media such as Instagram also makes way to our counters where customers want similar products made for them. For marketing, we prefer going 360 be it print, radio or social media, which has become very influential these days. Anyone who has time, they switch on their social media and are glued to it so we like to reach out to our clients through various platforms.

Subhash Bhola, Bholasons Jewellers – New Delhi

In Delhi, there are two objectives with which people come to buy jewellery. First is for the wedding and second is for regular wearability. Working women prefer to buy heavy jewellery for their wedding but they want to purchase jewellery that does not remain locked up in the bank. Heavy jewellery has stopped being of fancy for the middle income group consumers, the ones in the higher income group anyway won't have an issue in investing in fine jewellery. It is the mass which is the middle income group who ponder over buying jewellery. Youngsters are fond of light-weight jewellery preferably in diamond.  In metro cities, the budget ranges from one to 5 lakhs. Even for bridal jewellery, they don't prefer buying anything ranging above 6-7 lakhs. For inspiration, all our clients give Google references as they find each and everything in one place. When it comes to reaching out to our customers, we like to pitch in every platform but most economical is social media.