The Diamond Rush

With a career that began in 1995 in the gems and jewellery industry, we have certainly come a long way. Back then, I started working with DeBeers and took the challenge of “marketing diamonds to Indian women”. Over the last 18 years of marketing gems and jewellery, I introduced some of the most successful brands of Indian diamond jewellery industry namely the super brand Nakshatra, Asmi, Arisia, Sangini and Opulence in the luxury segment. Nakshatra created a major revolution in the industry and opened diamonds as a category in the minds of Indian women. It’s been a remarkable journey especially in a country obsessed with gold. And now a decade later, we find our country on a “diamond rush”.

An aspirational product
I’m not surprised because I firmly believe that no woman “needs” a diamond but that every women “wants” one. Diamonds are an aspirational product; hence it was important for us to understand why every woman wants a diamond. Once we understood her motivations, it was important for us to build upon it.

Ryka collection earrings in 18 K yellow and white gold with flat diamonds in the centre and surrounded by white diamonds

Breaking the myth
Way back in 1995-96, a research showed that women in India were not very comfortable buying diamonds as they knew nothing about diamonds. The other perception was that diamonds are only for the rich and famous. That’s why it was important for us to address those barriers. We started a campaign on the subtle education of the 4C’s and pricing. The leaflets and brochures explaining how to buy diamonds created a lot of confidence in women to walk into a store and ask for diamonds. The other essential for us was to inspire her to get into buying diamonds; the low-hanging fruit for women to enter the product category was weddings. So we started promoting diamonds for wedding with ‘Diamond Vivaha Jewellery’. It is said that the desire for diamonds is an endless journey. Keeping this thought in mind, we did the segmentation and created different brands to address different motivations to buy diamonds.

Ice collection earrings in rose gold set with oval shaped pink chalcedony and tourmaline stones and embedded with diamonds

The challenges
By no means was this an easy task! The challenges were both on the trade side as well as the consumer side. Trade side barriers such as inconsistent supply of polished diamonds, lack of understanding of category, lack of systems and buying skills and untrained sales staff were addressed through a two-prong strategy of buyer-seller meets and training workshops throughout the country.

Ice collection blue chalcedony chandelier earrings crafted in 18 K white gold set with diamonds

On the consumer side the barriers were low desirability, lack of confidence in the category due to poor knowledge and limited availability of diamond jewellery with retailers. The strategy was to segment the market in categories of occasions of pre-wedding, wedding and post-wedding; in all three categories we built the confidence and the desire for diamonds. India is such a large and amazing country that consumers for diamonds come in all shapes and sizes. We also carried out a campaign to educate consumers on how to buy diamonds—the 4C’s. Understanding the motivation of buying diamonds has helped create different brands and got various retailers involved to enhance the distribution and easy availability of diamond jewellery with highly differentiated designs.

As told to Shraddha Shirodkar

Prasad Kapre
CEO & Director, Opulence
A legendary icon of the gems and jewellery industry, Prasad Kapre has helped kickstart the “diamond rush” in India.