The Diamond Producers Association (DPA) needs to boost its international marketing budget sharply next year, Praveenshankar Pandya, head of India’s Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), said.
“We [the industry] need at least $100 million next year to make an impact on the world market,” Pandya said at the inauguration ceremony of the India International Jewellery Show (IIJS) on Thursday.
He said the GJEPC, India’s jewelry-industry umbrella organization, had signed a memorandum of understanding with the DPA during the 24th July week to support the miner-backed group’s international diamond-jewelry promotion efforts for its “Real is Rare” campaign this year.
“We have given them $2 million to be spent on international promotion this year,” Pandya noted at the newly rebranded “IIJS Premiere” show, which runs until July 31. “We will continue to do this in future years.”
According to Jean-Marc Lieberherr, CEO of the DPA, who spoke at the opening ceremony, the organization’s budget “has increased tenfold over the past year, and the GJEPC has increased its support tenfold.”
The DPA has a budget of at least $57 million this year and plans to roll out a campaign in India, including TV and digital advertisements, from October 2017.
Lieberherr said the DPA had commissioned films that were currently being prepared in India as part of the campaign.
He added that the campaign in India would target the local market and would focus on the custom of arranged marriages.
