Our marketing budget hiked by almost 100% in 5 years: Suvankar Sen, Senco Gold & Diamonds

Senco Gold & Diamonds took several initiatives starting from new product launch to super-premium store formats, from offering 3-times silver free on buying gold, to best-in-class jewellery enriched with innovative designing work, and further pairing it with a festive offer to promote the brand. 

In a chat with exchange4media, Suvankar Sen, Executive Director, Senco Gold & Diamonds speaks about the brand's festive sales, the market spends and the idea of having multiple brand ambassadors.

Sen revealed, “This festive season, the gold market has witnessed a 20-25% fall in sales. Gold prices went high and people had less money in their hands to spend. So in terms of value maybe it is almost the same, but in terms of volumes, the gold price went up and sales have come down.”

While the gold market has seen a massive downfall, diamond and platinum grew 4-5% and 34-40% simultaneously. Apart from going high on campaigns during the festive season, the Kolkata-based brand, Senco Gold & Diamonds has been making efforts to become nationally visible.

"Regional brands like us are trying to go national to reach out to more and more customers," Sen asserted.

According to Sen, being known as a Kolkata-based jewellery manufacturer is Senco's USP and will always be. Jewellery making and craftsmanship are in the blood of the people living in and around Kolkata. Most of their karigars (artisans) are from Calcutta, which is what makes them stand out from others.

However, the journey from being a local brand to becoming nationally visible for Senco was not easy in terms of marketing. Sen shared that their budget hiked by almost 100% to become a national brand from a regional player. "If I compare our marketing budget some 4 to 5 years back, with the marketing budget of the last two years, it has almost been hiked by 100% in the last 5 years," Sen added.

When asked if they consider themselves as a national brand yet or not? Sen said, “No! there is still a long way to go. We are nationally present, but there is a long way to go. We are known as a national brand but it will take us some time to reach more consumers across the nation." 

"We're an 80-year-old brand and having come over for almost four-generations, we are quite popular amongst the people of Kolkata, but the greater population may not be aware of us as a brand. Hence the biggest challenge for us is to create an identity as a national brand," Sen emphasised.

Sourav Ganguly is the brand ambassador of Senco for almost 5-years. Meanwhile, the company has also brought in other faces to the brand like Vidya Balan, 2018 Asian Games Gold Medalist and 2019 Arjun Awardee, Swapna Barman etc.

Talking about Senco's multiple brand ambassadors, Sen said, “The only reason to have multiple faces on board is to connect with the diverse Indian consumers. For establishing better communication, it's not just about picking anyone and speaking about it. Instead, the message should come from the most authentic sources. Sourav Ganguly being one of the renowned faces from Kolkata is an obvious choice for us. Vidya promoting female and handcrafted jewellery. Swapna Barman and some Femina Miss India winners promote light and casual jewellery for Senco".

To promote themselves in the digital market, Senco is spending almost 1.5 to 2 per cent of its annual turnover on marketing.

Whom does Senco see as their direct competitors? Sen said, “National brands like Tanishq, Reliance and regional brands like Kalyan and Malabar are the direct competitors.”

While jewellery shopping has been an offline deal for the customers, all these big players of the jewellery industry are emerging in the online market too. To survive in this online scenario, Senco owns its product website and a horoscope app to woo its customers.

Speaking about their creative agency, Sen said, “For the last 3 to 4 years, Rediffusion is the creative agency for Senco. Before that, Ogilvy was our creative agency.”

Senco Gold & Diamond products are also available on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart. This festive season, Senco remains one of the top-sellers on Amazon. They have other services and offers such as monthly EMI options, home delivery etc to grab more eyeballs in the online market.