Indian Consumers Not Into Synthetics, Seek Natural: Titan

Domestic customers at Titan Company are less interested in buying synthetic diamonds than their US and overseas counterparts, looking more for assurances that the stones they purchase are natural.  

“We’ve been trying to track the inquiries on a continuous basis across all the stores, Tanishq, CaratLane, Mia and Zoya, and so far we have not seen material inquiries for [customers wanting lab-grown diamonds],” Titan managing director C.K. Venkataraman said in an analyst call last week. “What we do hear about, what our customers are more curious about, they want to be assured that what we are selling is natural, and [doesn’t have any lab-grown in it].” 

Venkataraman noted that some customers have started to demand proof that the company’s diamonds are natural. Any stones entering the company, which are primarily sourced via De Beers sightholders, are subject to very stringent tests. The jeweler has invested “extensively” in equipment for its labs and across all its partners to ensure its supply is natural. Diamonds are tested three to four times before being sold, he explained. 

The difference in Indian demand versus that in the US and other overseas markets is due to Hollywood, Venkataraman believes.  

“If you go back to maybe even two decades ago, with American movies, where a male proposes to a bride, or the bride is showing off what she got from her fiancé, it’s all about the size of the rock, the solitaire,” he noted. “That the guy thought so much of you he bought such a big rock. And that has been at the center of the American jewelry industry, so the motivation of all those men who are proposing is to buy the best [and biggest] rock possible for the bride.” 

That media message, combined with the endorsement American jewelers have given synthetics “in a big way,” has led to their overall penetration in the market there, he said. However, in India, the desire for a man to impress a woman with the size of the diamond he’s buying isn’t even present, because there isn’t as much exposure to that cultural media. 

“Women in India are not asking men [for big diamonds],” Venkataraman reiterated. “There is little demand for something like that.” 

Separately, De Beers met with the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) in Mumbai last week to discuss strategies for strengthening the natural-diamond market in India, noting the country’s rising prominence in the diamond industry, the GJEPC said. 

Image: A natural-diamond engagement ring. (Titan Company)