Malabar Gold is taking a leadership role by offering One India One Gold Rate: MP Ahammed

Founded in 1993 by a team of enterprising businessmen led by Ahammed MP at the northern city of Kozhikode, Kerala, Malabar Gold & Diamonds, the flagship company of Malabar Group, has come a long way. The company today is the world’s fifth largest jewellery retailer with over 260 showrooms spread over 10 geographies and an annual turnover touching approximately Rs 30,000 crore. Headquartered in Kerala, with branches across India, the Middle East and South East Asia, Malabar Group is best known for its activities in the field of gold, diamonds, silver and lifestyle articles.

Very recently, the jewellery retail launched a campaign with their value proposition – ‘One India One Gold Rate’, an initiative offering uniform gold rate across all states in the country for 100% BIS hallmarked and responsibly sourced gold without compromising on the quality and purity of gold. The campaign, ‘One India One Gold Rate’, is being promoted across all platforms – television, digital and print. The TVC launched by Malabar Gold and Diamonds, titled #MalabarPromise, offers purchase of gold at uniform price with #OneIndia #OneGoldRate across any Malabar stores in the country.

In an exclusive conversation with Adgully, MP Ahammed, Chairman of Malabar Gold & Diamonds, talks about the thought behind ‘One India One Gold Rate’, the campaign strategy as well as gearing up for the festive season.

Malabar Gold & Diamonds have launched the ‘One India One Gold Rate’ campaign to bring in uniformity in pricing of gold across India. What prompted you to bring this concept? How is the response from the buyers after this launch?

In India, all leading jewellers procure gold from the same banks at the same international rates. On top of this, they pay the same duties and taxes to the government authorities. And yet customers in different states pay different rates for gold even though they are buying a commodity of a standard quality. The only reason for this is rate fixation by local and regional industry bodies.

At Malabar Gold & Diamonds, we believe that customers should not be differently charged for what is essentially a commodity just because of where they reside. For a number of years now, we have been trying to convince various stakeholders to bring in a transparent pricing mechanism across the country so that customers are benefitted. This Diwali, we thought it would be the perfect occasion to adopt ‘One India One Gold Rate’ as a policy and take a leadership role in offering this benefit to the customers across India.

Response from the customers has been phenomenal. Because of our campaign, they are realising that they are paying up to Rs 400 per gram of gold more than their counterparts in other states even though the gold is BIS hallmarked quality. Consequently, we are seeing steady footfalls in our stores and sales have picked up significantly compared to the pre-campaign levels.

How will the end consumer be benefitted from this ‘One India One Gold Rate’ concept? How is this different from the competition? Will this increase the sale of jewellery and have you introduced the scheme keeping the festivity in mind?  

One India One Gold Rate assures the customer of a uniform price for gold purchase across the country. Usually one sees that customers in certain part of the country like North & West pay higher gold rates than those in the South. Within the South states also, there is considerable variation in gold pricing. All this disparity in pricing is done away with the introduction of One India One Gold Rate and customers can shop assuredly from Malabar Gold & Diamonds knowing that they are getting the best price.

No other leading jewellery brand is currently offering anything like this. After all, when customers are habituated to paying more in a certain part of the country, why would anyone like to charge less?

At Malabar Gold & Diamonds, we are not looking at One India One Gold Rate as a festival offer. This is a policy initiative and we have included it as part of our Malabar Promises, which are a set of commitments to the customer from our side. Hence, you should view it as a permanent addition to the set of offerings from Malabar Gold & Diamonds.

There is a campaign released with celebrity actor Anil Kapoor. What was your objective of this campaign? Why did you choose Anil Kapoor for this campaign and will you have a different celebrity for the south market?

Anil Kapoor has been the face of our brand for a number of years. He is a veteran artist and brings with him great credibility, which is very important for delivering a message like this. Anil Kapoor was a natural choice for us once we decided on the messaging route for the campaign. Apart from Anil Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor and Tammannah Bhatia continue to be our brand ambassadors. Our choice of celebrities in a particular market is tactical and is based on the product category and market acceptance of the talent.

Jewellery making requires high labour and intense craftsmanship. How are you running and managing your manufacturing units during these times when there are a lot of restrictions from the government? What safety protocols are you following for your workers and artisans?

All COVID-19 related protocols are being followed at all our office premises, factories and manufacturing units. We are ensuring thermal scanning, social distancing, masking and frequent sanitization of the premises as per prescribed guidelines. Apart from these precautions, we have also insured our team and made provisions for treatment in the unfortunate event that someone contracts COVID-19. The safety of our team has been the topmost priority during the past many months and continues to be so.

How is the festival season looking for Malabar Gold & Diamonds? What kind of promotional activities have you planned to generate demand? Are you using E-commerce as a channel to promote your brand as people are not still freely moving out and shopping?

Apart form One India One Gold Rate, which assures customers of the best gold rates for their jewellery, we have introduced a special festive collection keeping in mind the Diwali demand. These exquisite pieces of jewellery are available to browse and shop on our website and stores. They have also been specially priced for the festive season. We have introduced a microsite that talks about One India One Gold Rate initiative in detail and also ensured that a wide variety of our product offerings are visible on the website. We are currently in the process of setting up more e-commerce infrastructure and enabling omnichannel shopping for the benefit of our customers. The introduction of One India One Gold Rate provides additional fillip to this because it ensures that rate is not a barrier anymore when it comes to shopping for jewellery.

Jewellery brands need aggressive promotion and be highly visible during festival season. How have you planned your media strategy to create an impact and presence in the market?

Apart from a high decibel TV and print campaign, we have focussed more on digital this time around. We have brought out two digital films – one focused on the price advantage and another focused on responsible sourcing – that help us explain the One India One Gold Rate initiative in a detailed manner, which is not always possible with a TVC or a print ad. That apart, our social media messaging has become sharper and more platform-specific. All in all, this festive season has seen a digital push like never before.