Hello and welcome to this episode of Brand Buzz with me Ankita Sakenna. A show where we talk about brands, marketing and everything in between. And today, well, I'm on the sets of Zoya, which is one of Titan's most prestigious and profitable brands that is launching a Kashmir inspired collection, Whispers from the Valley, that adds another jewel to Zoya's portfolio. And to give us more color on the launch, I'm now joined by the CEO of jewelry division Titan, Ajoy Chawla. Hi Ajoy. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you. Thank you. It's my pleasure.
Ajoy, you know, taking a leaf from the luxury playbook of Zoya, you've come out with a new collection called Whispers from the Valley, which is inspired by Kashmir. Talk to us about this new collection.
Yeah, we're very excited to celebrate Kashmir. Zoya is a brand which is from India. It's our very own authentic luxury brand and while it appeals to an international taste, we would love to celebrate so many aspects of India and Kashmir is one of those celebrated and perennial favorites. So, Whispers from the Valley is actually a 2.0. It has been one of our most popular collections, long-standing collections for over several years, over 10 years it's been there and it continues to grow in popularity and that is what inspired us to say can we do a Whispers from the Valley 2.0.
Um, and here in this collection actually we have also tried to connect it metaphorically to the sense of the brand and the muse of the brand. So nature renews itself through transition of seasons. Um, so we looked at the transition of seasons as an inspiration because it also lends itself to a very interesting interpretation of color. Uh, the muse, the Zoya woman actually is also on a path of perennial evolution and renewal.
Okay. Because she is unapologetically herself.
She's growing. She's evolving. Besides being a well-traveled and been there, done that kind of personality, she's also discovering a lot more about herself and her evolution is in a way expressing her aliveness. Zoya, by the way, the translation of Zoya is alive and so the metaphor was interesting. And the other important thing is Zoya has always celebrated the precious gemstones and color stones. So in a transition of seasons you see beautiful color. Uh, when you go from autumn to winter, the way the colors of the chinar leaf come alive and as they fall and the different hues that you see gives us an opportunity to celebrate those ombre colors and we have used yellow sapphires, we have used pink sapphires to create that beautiful transition effect.
And besides of course playing with the form of the chinar, not in its perfect avatar but in its varied, varied forms. As you move from winter to spring, you see this beautiful interplay between white and green. The frosted snow and the green apple of Kashmir coming alive. So it allows us to play with the emerald and the diamond layered in a very intricate form. And then as you move into summer, it's a celebration of a pop of color through tulips and red apples. And that allows us to play with a different set of colors. So I think the transition as a metaphor of renewal, as well as the color and precious stones that it allows us to play with, is what this collection celebrates.
Right. Interesting. It's a very beautiful insight. Uh, you know, the transition of a woman and the transition of the weather in Kashmir that depicts through the jewelry. But you have a beautiful muse as well as for a woman that is Sonam Kapoor. Uh, tell us what does Sonam bring to the table and her association with the brand.
See, Sonam is a style icon. Uh, her fashion sense, her style sense is really up there and it is truly international in its appeal. Sonam is also unapologetically herself. She is a non-conformist. She does what she pretty much feels like doing. She's a self-expression symbol of self-expression for us and therefore Sonam symbolizes the muse perfectly for Zoya. Internationally acclaimed style icon. And she's evolving, she has she's not stuck to just one thing, she's multi-dimensional, multifaceted as well. So I think Sonam brings a lot which symbolizes the Zoya woman so perfectly for us.
Right, uh, absolutely. Um, Ajoy, also talk to us about the fact that under Titan's portfolio you have Zoya and Tanishq. Both of them talk to us about the differentiation. But now I know that Zoya you're positioning it above Tanishq, but there's also a lot of players in the unorganized sector, you know, the family jeweler and so on, the local jewelers. Um, how does Zoya stand apart? What is your selling point?
So, um, I'll take the second one first. How is Zoya different from many of the family jewelers? Hugely different because Zoya believes in deep design stories. Uh, design is the real differentiator out there. The design of Zoya is very refined, very glamorous and extremely eclectic. The stories that we take inspiration from are nature, architecture, travel and many metaphorical stories as well, like the river and the way the river evolves, very poetic. So in fact, you're right, for us poetry is an important inspiration as well, and which is why you know Kashmir is also in a way a poetic expression of India. But Zoya therefore stands apart on its design differentiation and deep design stories which truly kind of bring alive the expression. So it is not just beautifully designed and glamorous but it also has a deeper significance which I'm not sure if many of the family jewelers were able to put that kind of effort into it.
Vis-a-vis Tanishq. See, Tanishq also ranges product offering, you know, even up to a crore actually. Um, a lot of Tanishq also sells on rare stones, rare diamonds. We have different collections there. We have the Ethereal Wonders, we have high jewelry even in Tanishq. But there's a fundamental difference in the design language. The Zoya design language is very, very contemporary. It's very eclectic as I said earlier and it appeals to an international style, whereas the Tanishq offering is a lot more Indian. It appeals a lot more to the many more traditional functions, whether it is bridal, whether it is festive.
Right. So what is the price point of this new collection? I believe the price point, the range is pretty huge here.
So this is a big collection. It's actually got 35 different designs, which is a big one for Zoya because we don't do such large collections. But now that we have a wider footprint in the country, we need to ensure it gets exposed a lot more. So we have 35 different designs and the range is from four lakhs all the way to 75 lakhs. But a large part of the offering will be between the 15 to 25 lakhs range.
