B Swaminathan
The Chemmanur group is more than 150-year-old in India and is planning to expand across India on all its companies. Despite various medium had evolved, the group, as a whole, had felt print as the most successful for reaching their target audience.
Gold and diamond retail is one of the key business of Chemmanur group. Dr Boby Chemmanur, the fourth Generation entrepreneur from one of the oldest family-owned business houses has never ceased to amaze his customers through innovation in stores.
Speaking to MediaNews4U, Boby says, that the expectations from the customers from a retailer has changed tremendously while their love for gold still remains the same. “I see even the new-generation is also having its love for collection of gold and diamond. Not just because it is an investment, buying gold is always seen as ‘anytime-cash’ which is not in the case of land or other goods.” He also adds that the reason while many jewelers are sustaining in the market despite the entry of multiple players in the field.
According to Boby, Kerala, being a leader in literacy levels, the habit of newspaper and magazine reading has been raising and impact till date. “While we had been doing various campaigns across various means, no other media has been successful than what a campaign in print can bring us. Print, as a medium, reaches every house hold in Kerala beyond economic, cultural and social barriers.”
Global Brand ambassador:
While Boby was thinking of a brand icon to promote the group as a whole, he wanted an icon who could be a connect for every Keralite across the globe. “Football is not just a game but a culture amongst us. Thus, we want an icon who is close to the hearts. We thus finalized Diego Maradona and we thus signed-up to promote our brand across the globe”, he said. Chemmanur group utilize the celebrity endorsement and almost every store of them will be inaugurated by a celebrity from the local market.
Chemmanur International has operations in 5 different countries. However, the store is designed in such a way that attracts the pulse of the local audience, be it selection of the location, celebrity invited or store designs. Some of the innovation intrdouced by Chemmanur in recent times are providing EMI and credit schemes to the customers much before while the concept itself was not prevalent. Boby also claims his stores are designed in such a way even a common man from any economic status can enter the showroom, buy a jewel even without money.
Jewellery on wheels:
Most of the stores in India are located in high-street and only one store has been located in Kerala and Tamil Nadu are in highstreet and a in a mall in Navi Mumbai. Chemmanur has brought a store-in-vehicle where the entire jewellery has been made in a vehicle and the vehicle travels across different places. “My idea was to take our product to the customer and increase the walk-in to the stores. The vehicle does not only travel to metros but also to different small towns and villages providing a different experience for the customers”, Boby says. The idea is said to have more similar such mobile jewellery stores in the coming days.
Some of the key in-store activities include attractive schemes, competition for kids and more. “More than that, we have close to 5 Thousand registered agents who will reach out to various villages and bring customers to our store. Their primary job is to identify the potential customers. For example, marriages or other special cases, where they find a customer might be investing on gold”, Boby added.
Way ahead:
Boby says he wants to be a Pan-India player for jewellery business.
Chemmanur also had recently forayed into super market business. “Under our retail segment, we had recently unveiled ‘Boby bazaar’, an affordable shopping for daily-needs. We are aiming to have 100 branches in every state especially in the tier-2 and tier-3 regions. Even though the idea is to bring women-empowerment as we run the entire show with women, we are very serious on this.“, he concluded.
