My February’19 Column Written For Moneycontrol

The beauty about being in investing profession is that your mind is always curious and observing even when you aren’t ‘working’. Any occasion — a family holiday, house renovation or wedding — can effortlessly translate into scuttlebutt (primary research) where you experience so many products and services as a consumer, get to interact with dealers and also get to observe your family and other consumers engaging with those products and brands.

I had one such wonderful experience recently. There was a wedding in my family and like all Indian weddings, it meant shopping jewellery for the couple, relatives, gifting, etc. My family and relatives have been traditionally dealing with two jewellers in our neighborhood who belong to same community (Sindhi) – one of them specializes in gold jewellery and other in diamond studded.

This time my family wasn’t happy with the designs these two stores offered and so they visited six-seven other mom & pop stores only to find none as a good place to buy from.

I was then consulted to suggest a jeweller, and being in stock markets and having read so much praise about it, I instantly suggested Tanishq (India’s leading jewellery brand operated by Titan, a Tata company).

The suggestion was instantly turned down saying it levies a very high making charge (a common perception among masses buying jewellery from traditional/unorganized channel). I had never been to a Tanishq store earlier so I did not want to lose an opportunity to visit. Luckily, I found online that during that time period Tanishq was offering up to 30% discount on the making charges which helped me convince my family to give this place a try.

What transpired next is an amazing set of experiences which I am going to share in this post

Continue reading here: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/personal-finance/investor-diaries-why-brand-tanishq-works-but-its-golden-harvest-scheme-doesnt-3436121.html