Mia comes with the heritage and the legacy of Tanishq, Mia is a brand of bold, modern and chic jewellery. For the young and at the young at heart and the stylish, Mia crafts gold jewellery in designs that are unique, minimal and extremely versatile. Featuring a wide range, the collections from Mia are designed to accessorize you for every moment and every occasion effortlessly. Crafted in 14kt gold the Mia line of jewellery has over 1000 designs
Mia by Tanishq, one of India’s most fashionable jewellery brands brings for the very first time, a new collection ‘The Princess Edit’ based on 7 popular Disney Princesses and their distinctive traits. The fascinating and exciting collection is an addition to Mia’s fine jewellery portfolio of 14 Karat gold and diamond jewellery.
Shyamala Ramanan – Business Head, MIA by Tanishq, talks to us about the new collection and the tie-up with Disney. Mia by Tanishq’s new collection is an ode to the powerful attributes of Disney Princesses that the Mia woman resonates with, making her a #princessinaction in everyday life. The collection has a variety of Disney Princess themed pendants and earrings crafted with coloured stones and set in Rose Gold and Plain Gold.
The tie-up with Disney and how was this jewellery conceptualised?
In fact, Titan and Disney go back in time, we have done quite a bit of connections with Titan watches, and we had done the Avenger Series. When the Disney team approached us, if we would be interested in looking at the Princesses Series, we thought this as an interesting opportunity, but then we were not really sure. Then we realised that each of the seven princesses had traits and characteristics which are actually very reflective in MIA woman. That is what got us excited, and typically when you think Disney, you think pre-teens, you really do not think women in their 20s and 30s would be interested in a collection like this, but the more we delved into the characteristics that these traits are exhibited in a certain way and that actually aligned to our view on our customers and in that sense, it made us to actually explore this opportunity and that is how we went ahead with it.
I think what is really most exciting is how our design team gets into the challenge of making these products drool-worthy for mature adults and not look at it as a kiddies line and what we have done is we have very interestingly played with the colours of these princesses. Each of them have a separate colour, and we have embedded it with some quirk which reflects the sense and the more we see it without even knowing which princess we are talking about, but you just like it because it is a beautiful design. Either which way it works really well for us and we thought let us go ahead and launched it last weekend.
You have launched this collection during this crisis, any research done to understand customer reactions?
One thing which has really worked even during this Covid period is women buying affordable jewellery, and the thought that I just want to own a piece of jewellery for myself and the need to accessorise. Even in this pandemic women and their love for jewellery continues, but what they are also looking for is affordable pieces of jewellery and lightweight jewellery. As the occasion to wear that jewellery is very limited and it is confined to their homes, lightweight plays an important role here and this is where we have an advantage as we deal in 14 karat gold. Our pieces are very lightweight and it is in a contemporary form. The beauty of the jewellery is that it works for all occasions, like a virtual tea party or Zoom calls and it was almost like just what the doctor ordered for this kind of situation.
We did not find any different experiences but a whole lot of precautions. Also a lot of people have lost their jobs, this whole thing of being in a crisis, in this scenario how do you actually go about indulging. But many came back and said enough is enough and we need some bit of retail therapy, indulge a bit and feel positive about things.
This collection actually comes out as a burst of fresh air and excitement and we wanted to actually create that excitement and buzz. The collection is at 15-20k price range. It is not like something you have to really think about a lot. The beauty of gold is that it has a lifetime exchange value and it is far better than a whole bunch of other products that you might want and the concept and the story was very powerful. We have planned a lot of initiatives and acceptances of matching the jewellery to the women. We had a lot of women sending us messages saying that this collection is a reflection of themselves. We have a few anecdotes within our company, a lot of men working out of home and their outlook towards the women in their lives is actually changing and appreciating the work the women does.I think what works that it is a brilliant product for gifting and it is a no brainer and which woman does not like to be called a princess at any age and the product is definitely good.
Indians love heavy gold jewellery, what is the market for 14 karat jewellery?
In fact, when we started talking to 22 to 40-year-old working woman and what we have realised that over the last few years a lot of women are coming into the fold, and the concept of workwear jewellery is growing. With women contributing, not monetarily but even otherwise. The progression which is happening for Indian women finding her own ability to take action when buying jewellery. Earlier as I said, our mother or the husband or the whole family was involved in buying the jewellery, but for a product like ours, you and your band of girls are good enough to actually go and make that purchase and the product is easy on your pocket and goes very well with Indian and Indo –Western attire, as our product is minimal it goes very well. 14 Karat jewellery is a growing trend and if you see globally, there are a few brands which only operate in the 14 karat space. We are actually ahead of the curve and we are fairly confident that the business is efficient and is poised to grow.
The film is so beautiful and the jewellery looks very irresistible, what was the pitch to the agency?
The film is about bringing alive the magic of the product, it talks about the various characteristics and personality of the princesses and showcases the product very well. The film is very product oriented. It is very magical because the essence of jewellery has to be there all the time and so we wanted to shoot it in a very magical manner, showing connect between the jewellery and Disney princesses in every shot.
What is going to be your marketing campaign for this launch?
It is largely a digital campaign as the audience are there now, no TV for this collection. We tend to partner with Hotstar as and when, we believe that Disney Hotstar and Mia could be a good fit due to the Disney connect. We are looking at Hotstar as a potential medium to communicate, but otherwise, right now it is largely digital and it is going to be promotion led and we will be having a few fun activities, a collection like Disney needs to have people actually participate, it has to be interactive and not a purely monologue of sorts. With this collection we want more participation in trying to find the happiness of the woman and we want to find the girl in the women.
Your expectations from this collection?
We are largely looking at an excitement and looking at shaking things up in the market with Mia, this is in fact is our first collection for this year and hence that is the objective we want to create the buzz around the brand, and the numbers will come. With the malls opening up it depends on whether the consumer wants to go or not, but as long as the interest is on online we are happy.
We are quite confident about this collection will do well for us, this is just the beginning of what the rest of the year looks like. We do have an e- commerce site tanshiq.com and it is present in the Tanishq website and we are present across marketplaces like Amazon, Myntra and Tata Cliq, we do have relatively good presence online but we have actually partnered with very few and the platform which will actually add value to us. This entire base is populated by all kinds of websites and brands and we obviously do not want fake jewellery going out or something like that.
You were at the helm in Taneira what was the experience then and now with MIA?
Taneira was actually a labour of love because I think it was another world and we crafted and put it together. Here it is actually taking the baton from a previous brand and I think it is it is very interesting for me I am actually feeling tangled like Rapunzel if I may say so or Mulan, I keep thinking which princess should I be but obviously when I think about it what is working, it is a new category I am into and to that extend, gold is something every Indian woman likes and it is quite fascinating. Since its early days and I am really excited with the potential and I think what works is the TG is slightly younger but young and old is just a fragment of our imagination, I have seen a lot of 20 year old buy Taneira and here I have seen 40 year old buy Mia.
To that extent it is exciting the moment I am looking to see what is it that I can learn from MIA and add back to it. I am looking forward to see how is it that I can shape up the brand a little bit.
What is the market share of 14 karat gold in the South of India?
We are beginning to see that the younger ones are not instantly wearing them and jewellery as a regular wear has picked up as a trend and as a brand we are growing. We are looking to give an elevated status and I think that this will now put together to work extensively on this brand clearly shows that as an organization, we believe in the potential and merit of that where 14 karat can go to that extend that is what our aim and objective is.
