Being diverse and inclusive comes naturally to us: Shyamala Ramanan, Mia by Tanishq

An image that went viral during the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games was that of the Indian para-archer, Sheetal Devi stringing the bow with her foot and then hitting the perfect bullseye. But did you notice the evil eye anklet around Devi’s ankle as she strung the bow and aimed for the shot.

This custom-designed anklet - made on the athlete’s request - was by Mia by Tanishq whose brand ambassador is Devi.

Mia by Tanishq had previously collaborated with female Olympian athletes and cricketers in an effort to recognise women for what they do, beyond just the glamorous avatar, and the Paralympic Games offered the brand a big opportunity. Shyamala Ramanan, Business Head, Mia by Tanishq says, “Sheetal Devi is an inspiration and I have personally been following for a while. When the Paralympic Games opportunity came by, it seemed to be a perfect fit.”

Ramanan recounts the apprehension on how they would approach Devi sensitively and what they would do with her. However, their meeting with Devi was an eye-opening experience. Ramanan says, “When we met Devi she told us, ‘I don’t know why but people keep looking at me.’ We realised that we are also guilty as charged. The insight we got was the inability of people to go beyond the form and see the person she is. This is the case for most women who are not looked at for their abilities. We realised that out proposition ‘Dekhna Hai Toh Khel Dekho’ is universal and it made sense to marry the two.” However, when the campaign with Devi was shot the team realised that the Paralympic Games was not being telecast in India and the brand started a campaign to broadcast the games. She continues, “This was an achievement for us this year and led by the marketing team. The connect between Sheetal Devi and our jewelry brand was effortless.”

Promoting diversity, inclusivity & sustainability

At its launch 11 years ago, Mia by Tanishq positioned itself as a workwear brand for women, and this was reflected in its first advertising campaign, ‘Best at Work’ which celebrated the working woman, valued for her individuality and what she brought to the table. Ramanan says, “As a new age jewelry brand and we want our customers to feel beautiful and confident when they wear Mia by Tanishq.”

In addition, the brand promoted diversity by running several campaigns to promote its men jewelry collection as well as a Pride Month campaign to promote inclusivity and to showcase that jewelry is a symbol of love and gender agnostic. Taking the inclusivity theme further the brand launched #ThisIsMe campaign – two years ago– that delved into the lives of seven unique personalities - body positivity influencer, Sakshi Sindhwani; MMA champ, Asha Roka; LGBTQ fashion model, Queen Andro, a mom blogger Saru Mukherjee; the first Indian model with down syndrome, Riza Reji; entrepreneur, Anuja Deora and rapper and singer-songwriter, Dee MC – boldly proclaiming their individuality. Ramanan states, “Being diverse and inclusive comes very naturally to us. When we are authentic about what we do, customers resonate with it.” The brand has also taken the initiative to recruit differently abled people across functions in its organisation. Another key criterion for the brand is sustainability with all the gold used in making jewelry is recycled gold. The company is now on a journey to see how it can use recycled diamond.

In tune with the times

Ramanan claims that her team, full of youngsters, is why the brand is in sync and relevant to Gen Zs and millennials who tutor and reverse mentor her on the latest trends. Every campaign goes through the eyes of seeing what a GenZ would say, with the GenZ team sharing their inputs and using words colloquial with this generation.

 With Mia by Tanishq’s legacy being the retail major, Titan Company, the brand prides itself as a brick and mortar. The brand is focusing on its app, microsite and e-commerce being seamlessly integrated into the customer's life. She adds, “We are working on beefing up our app and quick-commerce is very important for us.” Last Diwali, the brand tied up with Flipkart Minutes to deliver gold-coins on Dhanteras to its customers. In February this year, Mia by Tanishq announced its collaboration with Swiggy Instamart just in time for Valentine’s Day. This marked its entry into the quick commerce space and with its silver jewelry collection now available on Swiggy Instamart in 39 cities. Ramanan states, “We are present on quick commerce to ensure people buy us as we are among the best gifted brands, and our jewelry is beautiful and affordable Our position is that every woman would love to be called a Mia woman.” She continues, “Omni-channel is picking up in a big way. We are putting a lot of thrust on omni-channel and are training our store teams on how to engage with consumers. We've doubled what we did last year on online sales and we will double it next year too. We have set stiff targets for ourselves.”

When it comes to marketing spends, around 80% of spends is on digital. The brand advertises in newspapers to target parents of GenZ and men looking at gifting. The brand also looks at Out-of-home, focusing on innovation for the reminder medium. She explains, “Traditional media is used especially during any activation. Traditional media works effectively when we run an offer.” Another key channel is influencer marketing, “provided we do it in a smart way with innovation thrown in.” In October last year the brand partnered with actor Zeenat Aman launching a campaign inspired by the Disco era of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Innovation at play

As per Ramanan, innovation has become a hallmark and part of the culture at Mia by Tanishq. A popular design innovation was ‘The Firefly collection’, featuring a patented night-glow jewellery that contains a glow pigment which causes the centre pieces to glow in the dark. This collection has also been popular for gifting. Another innovation was magnetic bangles - at an affordable price range, which allowed the wearer to change the configuration to get multiple bangle design combinations. The brand also launched pendants that have a tiny magnet that allows the pendant to be worn as a workwear piece and in the evening spread out as a bigger piece. Last year based on customer demand for solitaries led the brand to launch heart-shaped solitaires using .25 carat (cent) diamond to keep it affordable. Another innovation done for Karva Chauth was with Mangalasutra wherein the brand introduced a series of Mangalasutras with matching earrings.

Ramanan says, “We focus a lot on innovation as innovation is a way of life for us. This year you will see an innovation every quarter and I am excited by what we have in the pipeline.” She continues, “A couple of years ago, we did something very innovative even with our gold coins. We took a mango leaf impression and used it to print gold leaves. So, for Diwali instead of coins, we had 5-gram gold mango leaves as mango leaves are considered auspicious. This did extremely well in every market that introduced it in. We have a team perpetually looking at innovations because we want the jewellery to be lightweight, so that you can wear it every day, be versatile and used in multiple ways,”

Innovation also extends to the brand’s marketing initiatives. A recent example was for Valentine’s Day where buses in Bangalore were wrapped up in the Mia by Tanishq pink color, looking like gift boxes.

Currently, revenue from online is still in single digits and omni-channel revenue is in double digits with gifting also contributing to a large chunk of revenue. A trend that has been seen is a customer who buys at a retail store, tends to make their future purchase online. Gifting also plays a big role. 

Cross learnings across the Group

Being part of the Titan Group -which also has jewellery brands Tanishq, Zoya and Caratlane in its portfolio, gives Mia by Tanishq the opportunity to learn from the sister brands. Ramanan says, “

What binds us all together is our love and understanding of our customers. Zoya is about luxury and how Zoya makes a customer feel special. At Mia by Tanishq, we make our customers feel special in our own way and how we engage and treat them in our stores. That's something we learn from across all our brands at Titan. A cross learning from Tanishq is the packaging box which is lovely and gifted a lot. We used to have a white box and then developed a pink box with a little ribbon. Another cross learning is understanding customer pain points. We always ensure that we keep customer needs and minimize customer pain points”

Commenting on the year gone Ramanan says, “The last four to five years have been fantastic for us. We’ve grown about 30% this year and touched a milestone of Rs 1,000 crores in revenues and as a brand this is an achievement.” At the start of the financial year, Mia by Tanishq had around 170 stores and is looking to close FY25 with 240 stores with stores across metros and smaller towns.