TITAN GOLD PLUS CASE STUDY

In 2005 titan industries (subsidiary company of tata) launched its second

retail gold brand named “GOLD PLUS” . where its first retail gold brand was
TANISHQ which was started in 1992 and it opened its branch in 1996. As
TANISHQ was companys more upscale brand . Gold plus is a lower end
Jewellery brand meant for mass marketing.
As world gold council estimates that about 60% of gold in India is purchased
by customers in small towns and villages. And also report stated that 90% of
gold purchased by indian consumers is adultrated and also such stores
doesn’t have standardized equipment to ensure correct purity of gold and
its weightage. In this way consumers almost lose 7000 crore on yearly basis.
So Titan thought it as a great opportunity so they felt to held
standardization and build up customers base in small towns and rural areas
as TATA’S trusted name can help to dominate the segement.

Target segment

The target segment was B & C income groups who are mostly investing in
the yellow metal(gold) for the for their daughters or sons marriages rather
than immediate use. So for such customers purity of gold is important than
variety of designs.
The marketers of Gold Plus felt that there is a need to educate the would-be
buyers of gold on purchasing the 'real thing'. For this, it has installed carat
meters at all its media campaigns and they also organized audio-visual
shows and question-answer sessions at street corners. And the most
important factor is the Tata name, which is conspicuously displayed on all
Gold Plus hoardings and shop fronts (Research by the company showed
that the Tata tag was more widely recognized and trusted).

EFFORTS AT WOOING THE BUYER

It was observed that in smaller towns, customers share a very strong bond
with the family Jeweller, as from generations together, they had been
buying gold from him (family jeweller). This relationship, from a long
period of time, acts as a defacto for trust. Thus the big task before Gold
Plus marketers was to distract the small town buyer away from his family
Jeweller. Some initiatives at bonding with the buyer are given here under

1)Many of these buyers are accustomed to buying Jewellery

from local goldsmith or family Jewellers, so in order to make them feel
comfortable, the Gold Plus stores are designed to look traditional-either
homelike or resembling temples.
2) In order to encourage footfalls, the gold price points have been kept low.
Customers can buy little as one gram of gold. Exchange of old gold for new
one (a popular practice in south India is allowed: at just two percent char e,
when the market rate was six-eight percent. They also constantly bring out
new designs because the customers are very demanding.

PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITES USED BY TITAN INDUSTRIES

Apart from using the conventional approaches of advertising by

putting up hoardings, wall paintings and event sponsorships, other
promotion activities are being attempted to. These include advertising
on local cable channels as well as on the FM radio channels.

The company decided to opt for below the line activites they are

 Gold Plus introduced an initiative called the “,Golden Chariot”, which is a

vehicle with a carat meter taken across the consumer hubs .The customers are
encouraged to come forward and get purity of gold owned by them tested on
carat meter. Further they can also avail of services like clearing and
polishing their Jewellery free of cost. Such a move can help to catch the
amnion as well as increase the awareness of the Gold plus brand among
prospective customers.
 Another initiative was to create promo which would attract attention. It
created a gold bangle weighting 24.5 kilo gram that gave it an entry into
 the Limca Book of Records and then took it on a road show of 17 towns,
Consumers were asked to participate in a "guess the weight of the bangle
contest”. The company also offered visitors a photo opportunity , with
the opinion of mailing their photographs to five of their acquaintances.
 Another promotion include distributing gold paper slips to potential
customers in 3-5 kms radius prior to inauguration of the stores.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1) Can you suggest other promotional activities which can be used by the
marketers of gold plus , if say, the brand is to be extended to include young
and tech savvy target costumers of cities , too ?

Ans : In case if gold plus is extended to youth and tech savvy customers the
promotion may be done through

 If we take tech savvy customers we can promote gold plus through

providing advertisement through internet as their name itself suggest
tech savvy which means they have proficiency in digital media and
using modern technology. And also it would be cost effective compared
to other types of advertisements.
 If we take youth promotion activities may include providing offers on
one gram gold products on valentines day, mothers day etc so that they
would use as gift on respective days . It might not extend to 18 /22/24
carat gold because as youth will have less money and savings compared
to elder ones. If they also demand for 18/22/24 carat gold from next
season onwards we could implement it.

2) Do you feel, the initiatives taken for rural and small towns by marketers
of gold plus brand , could also be used for launching it in cities, targeting ,
the middle class customer here?
Explain it with reasons
Ans) some of the reasons why gold plus should be launching in cities to
attract middle class customers.

 The share of middle class' consumption of gold and jewellery across the country
was estimated to be around 17 percent in 2030, up from around nine percent in
2020. As the middle class population increases, the income of the population
increases which leads to increase in the consumption of gold, mainly because
Indians consider gold as an important investment.

 In 2015 it was 5% and it was estimated to increase to 9% and to 17% from 2020
to 2030 respectively. Which was stated by statista research department.

 And also India Middle class segment would grow from 5% to 40% in next two
decades so they could grab more market in India.

CONCLUSION
 Despite operating in 30 stores of gold plus brand and its various efforts
made to promote the gold plus retail by titan it wasn’t able to cope up it
has been merged with Tanishq in January 2017.
 The company said that in the last one decade, customers' taste has
evolved and Tanishq has kept pace with them. Hence, it has decided to
consolidate its offering.
 The survey was conducted only on the customers. Nonetheless, in order
to follow a bottom-up approach, the viewpoints of the local goldsmiths
should also be taken into consideration. Given the taste and preference
pattern of the target segments, a careful analysis may be done to see
whether the traditional goldsmiths can be incorporated in the integrated
system to ensure value co-creation chain involving the three major
entities concerned (the Tata GoldPlus, customers, and local goldsmiths).