How PGI created a differentiated niche for platinum in India’s jewellery landscape

Platinum Guild International (PGI) is a marketing organisation, which was created in 1975 with the vision to develop the global platinum jewellery market as a new demand source for platinum. Since then, jewellery development has demonstrated a strong track record in delivering results, and platinum jewellery has contributed ~80 million ounces of demand.

Through various programmes, both direct-to-consumer and in collaboration with jewellery retailers and manufacturers, PGI creates consumer ounce demand by first identifying opportunities for platinum in jewellery, and then developing them with partners. PGI’s consumer marketing and educational programmes are focused on developing awareness and an appreciation for platinum’s unique qualities as a precious metal for fine jewellery.

When Platinum Guild International (PGI) entered India with a mandate to develop the platinum jewellery market, it marked the beginning of platinum’s journey in the country. The objective was to create a sustainable market for the metal, to achieve this, PGI has been working at a retail level to increase jewellery demand, expertise, distribution, capacities, and capabilities. At a consumer level, the task has been to build consideration and desire. Over the last decade, PGI has invested significantly in building values that strengthen their foothold in the precious jewellery category and create a differentiated space for the metal.

In an exclusive interview with Adgully, Sujala Martis, Director - Consumer Marketing, Platinum Guild International India, shares the incredible journey of Platinum Guild International (PGI) and how today the consumers are identifying with platinum and finding value in its key attributes and seeing it as a precious metal for fine jewellery. 

India is a strong market for the yellow metal. Platinum is a relatively new metal, which is mostly worn as jewellery by a small section of the audience in India. How and what kind of strategy is PGI using to increase its popularity?

When Platinum Guild International (PGI) entered India with a mandate to develop the platinum jewellery market, it marked the beginning of platinum’s journey in the country. The aim was to create a sustainable market for the metal and to achieve this, PGI has been working at an industry level on the one hand to increase jewellery demand, expertise, capacities, and capabilities. And the consumer level at the other, to build consideration and desire. Over the last decade, PGI has invested significantly in building values that strengthen our foothold in the precious jewellery category and create a differentiated space for the metal.

In 2009, we introduced our first branded segment – Platinum Days of Love and tapped into the couple gifting segment via couple bands as a product offering. Platinum love bands at the time drew from a very relevant insight – the intimate discovery and declaration of love amidst the cultural truth of arranged marriages. Perceived to be young, modern, and progressive, it continues to be our largest segment to date. Its discourse evolving to reflect changing times, today it embodies a set of values that are much sought after yet hard to find in modern relationships. True to our functional anchorage in rare – its stands for a love that is truly rare. The product, too, carries a meaningful story of this love that’s rare.

We followed that up with the launch of our second branded segment – Platinum Evara in 2015, capitalising on the equity platinum had created with love bands in the younger segment. Evara started its journey as women’s trousseau jewellery, operating in the biggest jewellery segment and expanded into self-purchase last year. Leveraging an emerging narrative within femininity, and a focus on a lighter, more frequent wear, an accessible price point-driven range in platinum.

In 2019, we launched yet another category, Men of Platinum, aimed at men, based on a differentiated approach to masculinity and success. It reflects a value system that broadens the narrow, clichéd meaning of masculinity and success. Given codes of solidity in male design, it was aimed at accelerating growth for the platinum category.

The brands are built on values that young consumers find resonance with, both at a functional and emotional level, it feeds into their needs when it comes to self-image and aspiration. Our design, too, works the same way, borrowing from international trends, minimal in approach and based on storytelling so each piece carries meaning.

As a metal, all efforts in consumer marketing focus on creating an understanding of platinum and a lure for it. Building rare as our strongest differentiator, leveraging key intrinsic qualities of the metal like its strength, durability, natural white, resilience, purity as attributes that further build value. Platinum’s imagery of being precious, aspirational, extraordinary, and contemporary, feed into compelling motivations for our consumers who seek differentiation, social distinction and self-expression. It makes platinum a metal that is best suited for moments of personal, emotional significance.

Platinum today, is no longer a metro phenomenon, its appeal has spread beyond Tier 1 today to even Tier 2 and 3 cities. Geographies like Vadodara and Kochi feature in our top 10 markets and almost 60% of the traffic to our websites is from beyond the key metros. Consideration amidst our core segment being 85% and above consistently for the past few years bears testimony to the space the metal has carved for itself. 

Platinum entered the Indian market about two decades back. How has the journey been so far? What are some of the challenges that Platinum is facing in India?

Almost two decades ago, when PGI entered the Indian market, platinum was almost non-existent as there were only two metals for jewellery – gold and silver. Platinum was not a part of our stories, history or mythology and we did not even have a vocabulary for platinum in our local languages. Thus, PGI’s key mandate in India was to identify a differentiated niche for platinum in the jewellery landscape. From there to now, having our core consumers identifying with platinum, finding value in its key attributes, perceiving the metal as one that is synonymous with love and moments of emotional significance has been an incredible journey.

In our consumption culture, jewellery has always had a strong role and platinum has worked to expand the jewellery repertoire. Today, the distinctly younger consumer segment that platinum focuses on, values jewellery as a vessel of emotion, they look at jewellery as an expression of their individuality, something that helps them stand apart, reflects their mindset, their values and is a marker of milestones in their life. This consumer set hence, values platinum’s emotional promise as well as its quality, rarity and preciousness as it feeds into the very needs mentioned.

Current consumption codes have only added a boost for platinum. Unlike before, there are many more milestones being marked, self-expression is celebrated, authenticity and life journeys are held important – and hence, within this realm, the opportunities for platinum have only grown. The fact that affinity for us comes from a younger audience who is a digital native, aid further by propelling discovery and exploration on the one hand and mandating exhibitionism on the other. While building for growth, our focus has been on unlocking new segments and opportunities across the portfolio and we see that in action with each segment.

In fact, despite the pandemic disrupting business and consumer sentiment, platinum brand health and equities did not lose ground, indicating the strength of platinum equity among its core consumers. Today, platinum is present as a category across 1,500+ stores and 300+ cities, with growth up to 10 times in the last decade, its challenges being true to any business whose journey is relatively young – getting further and deeper embedded in our consumption culture without losing our definitive strengths, uncovering newer consumption occasions and segments will be the path. Other challenges are otherwise synonymous with the category, namely high clutter, especially during the key festive/ wedding seasons, media fragmentation and an explosion of content aimed at the younger audience, hence the task of retaining share of mind and heart. 

Who is your TG in India when you speak about Platinum? What kind of communication strategy and messaging helps you in creating awareness and educating your audience?

The ‘platinum consumer’ is young, educated, connected with the world and has an entrenched digital footprint. The core target audience for platinum is young women in the age group of 18-35 years and men in the 25-40 age group, they belong to the affluent segment of NCCS A. Within the portfolio, Platinum Days of Love being love bands for couples, addresses both men and women. Women are the core consumers in addition for Evara, while it is men for Men of Platinum given product offerings.

Through the year we plan different initiatives across our three branded categories to cater to the needs of our consumers across varied segments. Platinum also runs one of the biggest retail activation programmes within organised jewellery retail, called the Season of Love. Differentiation and meaning sit at the core of platinum and that is our focus while building communication. Right from the functional attributes that we are anchored in, to our design ethos, to the kind of narratives across our brands, it is a conscious effort to magnify these 2 pillars so as to drive equity. Another strong impetus for us is the occasion of consumption and the meaning behind design that contribute immensely towards making platinum an emotional buy. It is a marker of a personally significant milestone with deep emotional value attached to it. This emotion and significance is what propels consumption. The innate qualities of the metal itself – being rare, precious, pure, eternal, unchanging, its naturally white colour and its inherent strength work in tandem to create the myth around the metal, which in turn adds to its premium, aspirational lure and value. This bundling represents key triggers for our consumers, apart from the draw of pure design.

Given its tenure in our country and the need-states platinum addresses as a metal, we enjoy a higher consideration within the younger segment and that is something that has worked in our favour too – to be perceived as the choice of today’s generation. The values we focus on, therefore, are the product of consumer research amidst this audience. Hence, when it comes to Platinum Days of Love (couple bands), the focus stays on modern relationships and what young couples desire today. It is the discovery of love that evolves into a strong partnership, based on mutuality and equality, where roles and behaviours go beyond the stereotypes of gender and responsibilities. Platinum Love Bands mark key milestones within this relationship journey.

With Evara, the same attempt is made within the young women’s segment, tapping into values and aspirations that they deem relevant. Young women today aren’t afraid to be their true authentic selves and rejoice in their own unique interpretation of femininity. Femininity to them is an expression of who they are, what makes them happy, what makes them unique and comfortable in their skin. With ‘Very Rare, Very You’ as the new brand sign off – the intent is to capture that very thought. Likewise, for Men of Platinum, it starts from the understanding that young men today seek stature rather than status alone, they seek meaning and not pure material wealth. This new narrative of success and masculinity is what we draw from. These value systems have relevance and relatability at the heart of them, and hence strike a chord with our segment.

Given the last two years, marketing and communication have had empathy, sensitivity and purposefulness built into its fabric. The attempt has been to build relevance at every point for our consumers; clear levers for demand creation have been value and meaning, hence the focus has been on demonstrating that. We launched Season of Hope in the year 2020, a retail activation, when markets opened up in Q4. The year had seen a lot of introspection and many came to realise what truly mattered – in their relationships, values and actions. It were these realisations and the actions borne out of them that built hope towards a better future. Platinum’s Season of Hope was drawn from this. Designed as a retail activation with a difference, with an attempt to give back to society where it was needed most, an association was forged with Oxfam India to come to the aid of the migrant labour community. 4,500 families, approximately 22,500 individuals over a period of 3 months in states where the impact was the harshest, such as West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odissa, were offered help in the form of support for food, sanitation essentials and non-food essentials too.

Brand narratives, too, were woven from the lens of what was contextual and happening around us at the time, for example, Men of Platinum talks of values that a few men possess, spoke of adversity being the true test of character. It highlighted men who came through hard times with a rare display of values. Platinum Days of Love spoke of relationships with the rare qualities that allowed couples to tide through what was perhaps a true trial by fire. While the metal focused on highlighting value and meaning behind each design. 

What do you think will drive the overall demand of Platinum in the next 5 years in India? What is going to be the future for platinum in India as India is still aligned more with investing in gold metal?

2020 and 2021 have been two very challenging years for the world, businesses, economy and most importantly, consumer sentiments. The pandemic has moved consumers to rethink their spends and purchase decisions. They are now more inclined towards celebrating every moment of their lives and making the most of special occasions and milestones with their loved ones, to make up for lost moments. In such a scenario, it is reassuring to see people leaning towards precious jewellery as a means to add value and uplift their lives.

Since the pandemic began in 2020, PGI partnered with Nielsen to conduct quarterly quantitative research to understand consumer preferences and sentiments during the pandemic. The study reflected some interesting findings indicating a recovery in the market and a positive outlook for consumer spends and preferences with strong future purchase intentions.

The long-term outlook for plans to purchase precious jewellery in the next one year looks promising as 79% of our consumers plan to buy precious jewellery for themselves. 75% also plan to buy purchase jewellery as a gift for their loved ones. There is a visible improvement in future spending on precious jewellery and it continues to hold significance for important occasions as 81% of our consumers will continue to spend on precious jewellery.

Additionally, pent-up demand and revenge buying have also added fillip to the current consumption as a lot of wedding buying had been pushed back due to rising cases and that is back on track now. This has added preference for platinum jewellery and will continue to drive growth opportunities for the metal with timely consumer and trade marketing programmes. There is also high demand for light-weight jewellery, which will continue. Our expansion of women’s jewellery across price points with Evara and a larger range of men’s jewellery under Men of Platinum is well poised to address this demand.

For the younger consumers, jewellery is no longer just a means of investment, and they are moving away from heavy jewellery pieces that need to be stored in lockers and worn only for larger social events and occasions. They look at jewellery as a vessel of meaning and prefer contemporary jewellery pieces that can be worn more regularly as an extension of themselves, a reflection of their progressive beliefs and values. Platinum’s key traits – the rarity of the metal, coupled with its unique design narrative – feed into consumer needs that are relevant today, they will continue to be key drivers for the metal’s overall demand. 

How does India compare with the US as far as consumption of Platinum is concerned? Any learnings from there that you could deploy here to increase the presence and demand for platinum?

The US is a far more mature market than India in terms of platinum familiarity and consumption. However, in all countries of operation platinum has established itself as the metal of emotion, metal of love. It is a precious metal meant for personally significant occasions. That stays as our agenda here too. Key reasons why platinum is purchased in our core TG of young women are – wanted to celebrate important occasion (69%), an ideal gift for a loved one (46%). Amidst men, too, the numbers are similar – wanted to celebrate important occasion (66%), an ideal gift for a loved one (48%). These scores highlight the role that the metal plays in the lives of our consumers and the demand for it. 

What is your engagement strategy with your audience? How is the overall media strategy planned and executed to reach your audiences?

It’s a far more complex world today, with a plethora of options, an explosion of content and massive fragmentation of media. Given that our affinity lies with a younger audience, all these factors need to be taken into consideration. Share of heart and mind for us lies in magnifying what makes us differentiated, what adds value and meaning as an offering. Our conversation, hence, starts with intrinsic qualities of the metal, its inherent rarity, its story of origin, keys aspects that pull us apart like the assurance of 95% purity or the fact that it is a natural white that stays unchanged through time. The density of the metal that adds to its heft, enables a strong hold on diamonds. Our design language that is based on exclusivity and minimalism. The emotional narrative is of great significance, too, since it is one of the key reasons of purchase. All these aspects work in sync to create the aura around the metal. From a media point of view, it is a diverse mix that includes both traditional and new age mediums and platforms. Digital is a critical medium because of our audience, and we use the whole digital ecosystem towards that end. A vibrant mix of OTT platforms, social, native and content initiatives on publisher platforms is deployed. Multiple formats and assets are developed basis the task at hand. Given our category, one cannot cut out the role of influencers and the increased sense of aspiration/ reach/ consideration they bring towards our brand arguments. Our digital strategy focuses on creating discoverability, encouraging exploration, building familiarity and connections.

Today, our key retail partners have taken platinum beyond the metro markets, as Tier 2 and 3 cities are growing in both distribution and retail sales. Our TV communication covers 84+ cities, 44% of our print budgets are for regional and language dailies. Our signature activation programmes like Season of Love and now Season of Hope have expanded to 300 cities. We find that the consumer is responding to this. And hence, traditional media plays a critical role for us in terms of mediums like TV still having the highest reach in such markets, while digital is fast catching on. The other facet is the role that regional media plays in not just in driving reach, but also cultural relevance. The use of local languages has been a key driver of resonance. In a diverse market like India, appealing to country’s population in their local language can deepen connections and help brand in the long run. For us, with a segment like Men of Platinum equally important is the stature and quick wins that a sporting platform like IPL or creating a cricket connection brings. Our media outreach is really built keeping these facets in mind.