How These Tanishq Stores Evoke The Local Ethos…

HYDERABAD & CHENNAI Today, there is a growing need for brands to reinvent the store experience so as to be culturally relevant in different regional contexts. Consumers more than ever are looking forward to an unforgettable buying experience that goes beyond product purchase. Successful brands thus ensure that the store design is culturally relevant, capturing the local flavours and idioms. Tanishq, the jewellery brand, which has always stayed ahead of the curve, adds a dash of local culture to its store design, while retaining the sophisticated edge and in the process evoking a sense of belonging on the part of its customers. Here’s a look at how the brand introduced the local flavour organically to its original design in its two stores – Hyderabad and Chennai.

- Mohit Manghani

Jewellery as a segment has always been driven by cultural rootedness in India. For iconic brand Tanishq, with more than 311 stores in 193 cities, connecting customers through a regionalized store design was a conscious decision. It began with the Camac Street store in Calcutta back in 2010. Since then, the brand has been reinventing its store design brief, highlighting regional flavours at all its flagship stores. The brand recently introduced regional flavour as part of a store design revamp exercise in its Hyderabad and Chennai stores.

Store Objective

Speaking about the Hyderabad store objective, Chitti Babu Govindarajan, Head-Visual & Spatial Design, Tanishq, says, “Our Tanishq showroom is located at a prime location in the City of Pearls, Hyderabad. From stucco work in the architecture grandeurs of Nizams, found in Chowmohalla palace, Char Minar & Paigah tombs, to art and craft works such as the narrations of Cheriyal scroll painting and the divine figurines of Kalamkari painting on wood and mirror and the cast iron works practiced in the city, many cultural aspects have inspired us for this project.”

Speaking about the Chennai store located at Usman Road, one of the busiest jewellery hubs in Chennai, where competitive brands are already deeply rooted in the local culture, he adds, “We realized that there was a desperate need for designing a façade to resonate with regional culture and to be at par with and go beyond the neighbouring brands. Along with the facade, the large empty spaces within the store became an ideal canvas for storytelling where the heritage of Tamil culture can be depicted in various forms like architecture, furniture, visuals, art and crafts.”

Floor Layout