“CaratLane’s most successful marketing strategy remains the omni-channel strategy”

India’s leading omnichannel jewellery brand, Caratlane has recently launched its digital campaign around mother-daughter relationship and first salary. Conceptualised and executed by BBH India, the campaign, titled ‘First Salary’, celebrates micro occasions that play an important role in our lives and emphasises on how jewellery can make it even more memorable.

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The ad narrates one such story around receiving one’s first salary, which is considered a major milestone in our lives, making the way for adulthood. The campaign reflects on the fact that if we can share most of our firsts with our mothers, such as first step, first word, first day at school, then why not our first salary? It sheds light on how purchasing Caratlane jewellery with one’s first salary to gift to one’s mother can make it even more special and memorable, bringing a smile to our mother’s faces.

The campaign starts with a young woman excited about receiving her first salary and reaching home at 2 am only to find her mother awake till late at night, waiting for her daughter to return home. The mother says that though it is her daughter’s first job, but feels like it’s her job only. Then an idea strikes the daughter to buy earpieces for her mother from Caratlane. The following morning, she surprises her mother with the earpieces telling her that since she always put her daughter first above her own needs, it is time for her to do the same.

In conversation with Adgully, Avnish Anand, COO & Co-Founder, CaratLane, speaks at length on the campaign, the idea behind it, its impact, and more. Excerpts:

What is the idea behind the campaign ‘First Salary’?

As a brand, we are always looking at all the smaller yet significant moments in our lives, where jewellery can add more value. In a country like India, education and getting a job is paramount to establishing success early on in life. It has become all the more important to mark this occasion with something special and memorable. It is about the moment when the child feels ready to stand on their own feet and the roles start to reverse between them and their parents. It’s a rite of passage almost. A beautiful moment between a mother and her child, which we have highlighted in the film, a homage to this very emotion. We’ve also curated a special set of designs that will make it easier to select a gift that is affordable and drawing on our customer stories, we’ve picked bestsellers when it comes to gifting a mother.”

The campaign showcases a beautiful mother-daughter relationship. Does it aim to emphasise on this as well as on the fact of how to spend one’s first salary? 

The campaign emphasises on how we share special bonds with our mothers and love to share our firsts with them – be it our first step, our first word, or our first day at school. They have nurtured us, stayed up late with us, studied equally for our tests and stood in long queues with us for college admissions. With this campaign, as the roles reverse and the child takes their first big step into adulthood, we want to highlight this beautiful, selfless and unconditional love we receive from our mom. Our first salary is as much, if not more, theirs as it is ours. It is the most and the very least that we can do for her.

What are the new marketing strategies that Caratlane has introduced over the years?

CaratLane’s most successful marketing strategy remains the omni-channel strategy that we follow. Ensuring that our customers have a seamless experience between all touchpoints of the brand – be it walking into a nearby store knowing which designs are available there or browsing online to discover designs that can be delivered within 24 hours for an important milestone – we are constantly working towards sharing more relevant information and support at every step of the way.

Furthermore, as a brand we focus on the micro occasions that are very intimate in our lives and how jewellery can play an important role in making it more memorable.

Have the two years of the pandemic brought with it new set of ideas and strategies to market and promote the brand? 
With the pandemic unfolding very quickly – from consumers staying at home completely, to now moving outdoors more often – consumer behaviour has witnessed a drastic number of changes in the last two years.

Being the first and largest online player in the category, we already had the infrastructure in place for online transactions, which gave us the advantage in the post-Covid period. Our CaratLane Live service has helped a lot of customers buy jewellery over video call. Digitisation amongst other brands has also been rapid in the past few months. As the bigger brands continue to drive this industry forward with a better digital infrastructure, the smaller jewellers are also adapting and we have seen the rise in the launch of their websites, video calling services and so on.

Better and improved technology at the stores is now making checkouts and transactions faster. Customers are already well aware of the designs available at the store, our store staff can now offer better customised recommendations to each customer with the help of our tech, we have launched fast deliveries from 8 hours to 48 hours in some of our most important cities since a majority of our customers are looking to gift a CaratLane for various occasions such as birthdays, milestone anniversaries, baby shower, wedding gifts, etc. 

How has the response as well as the impact of the ‘First Salary’ ad been?

Since the sentiment that we chose was so beautiful and relatable, the impact of the campaign messaging has worked well with our audience. From #MyFirstSalary trending in the top 3 on Twitter with countless stories pouring in with personal experiences to a very positive response on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, the campaign has struck the emotional cords of those who have either just received or about to receive their first ever salary. We have also seen a spike in our orders for mothers and first salary. This TVC has been successful in establishing this recall value of ‘First Salary’ gifting to CaratLane.

The campaign has aspects of festive gifting as well from the outside. Is it an element of the campaign?

The main focus of the campaign has been on creating recall value towards the brand when it comes to ‘First Salary’ gifting. However, CaratLane is constantly looking at micro occasions that are very intimate in our lives and leveraging this to show how jewellery can play an important role in making it more memorable. As a brand, CaratLane aims to become synonymous with all kinds of micro-gifting occasions, be it a birthday, a first date, graduation day, or even a person’s very first salary.

How has Caratlane invented and reinvented its brand vision?

CaratLane has always had a vision of being a jewellery brand that is accessible, affordable, and forever wearable. The design philosophy of the brand is also inspired by the new age women who fit today’s values and lifestyles – enabling CaratLane to grow as India’s 21st-century jewellery brand. CaratLane’s idea behind the campaign was to mainly target micro occasions in the lives of the consumers, such as the ‘First Salary’, which may not be as big a milestone as your Wedding Day, but still is a very important day in a person’s life and would be looked back as a memorable moment worth celebrating.