For jewellery retailers the focus has always beenwomen. However, at least some jewelers have

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got serious about branding niche categories like kids and men’s jewellery and promoting them through mass media. Though men and children can never replace women in jewellery consumption, their segments are growing and also helping increase footfalls and impulse buying.

Every jeweler has separate sections for kids and men, but not all of them brand and market them using mass media. Some of the brands that have done this include Gitanjali Gems and Malabar Gold, while Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri(TBZ) has recently launched its men’s brand of jewellery named ‘The Gentleman’s Collection’.

Gitanjali has Gitanjali Men’s which is a collection of gold, silver and diamond jewellery for men as well as the Rew brand of steel jewellery. The King Collection is a collection of solitaires for men. “Men’s jewellery is an important segment for us and they are available in most of our stores. Though it has a smaller base, the year-on-year growth is around 50 per cent,” said Mehul Choksi, CMD, Gitanjali Group.

Malabar Gold’s kids jewellery brand ‘Starlet’ was launched in 2010. Starlet as a brand differentiates itself from the unbranded kids jewellery with exclusive designs and motifs.

“Usually kids contribute only five to 10 per cent to the revenue and the contribution from men’s segment is even less. We are focusing on these segments through our advertisements to increase footfalls. While the growth in kids’ purchase can go up to 15 per cent, the increased footfalls will account to more impulse buying in other segments,” said M P Ahmad, chairman, Malabar Group of companies.

Malabar also plans to launch branded jewellery for men soon.

According to Nandakumar T, CFO of Joyalukkas, though smaller in size, these segments can lead to impulse buying and additional sales. “Usually, the whole family comes in when it wants to buy jewellery for the women as it involves big investment. While the men and kids wait for the women to choose the jewellery, impulse buying can happen in other segments,” he said.

Branded jewellery in general and kids and men’s brands in particular are more popular in metros and tier I cities and in most cases customers come prepared to buy them, he added. As a step towards introducing brands in these categories, Joyalukkas has already started in-store promotion.