BlueStone Marketing Mix (4Ps) & Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy of BlueStone through marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion).
BlueStone Product Strategy:
Bluestone has become one of the leading jewellery ecommerce platforms in India. Bluestone is an online retailer of jewellery and thus its offerings can be categorised into both services and products. Bluestone’s product portfolio in its marketing mix include a variety of jewellery items like:
• Rings
• Pendants
• Bangles
• Earrings
• Solitaires
• Necklaces
• Nosepins
• Bracelets
Bluestone offers more than 4000 designs in the above product categories to choose from. The products come with 100% purity guarantee and have authenticity certificates from reputed agencies. The gold products are certified with BIS Hallmark, diamonds have the certificate of authenticity from IGI, SGL and HKD and solitaires carry certificate of authenticity from GIA and IGI. Bluestone also offers services like its online shopping portal, free home delivery, free home try-on facility and next day delivery. The most innovative service offered by Bluestone is Design your Solitaire, where the buyer gets to customise gold purity and diamond clarity to suit their needs and budget. Bluestone also offers the service guarantee of Lifetime Exchange and Buy-Back for its products.
Image: company website
This concludes the product strategy in BlueStone marketing mix & strategy.
BlueStone Price/Pricing Strategy:
Below is the pricing strategy in BlueStone marketing mix strategy:
Bluestone follows a 100% transparent pricing strategy. All the prices are listed on its website in detail and lower than most of the other jewellery brands.
Each product carries complete break-up of prices based on raw material, making charges and VAT which can be very easily accessed by clicking on “View price breakup" on the product pages. Bluestone also offers full price discounts on some select products although this discounting model is not in sync with the existing norm of giving discounts only on making charges in the jewellery sector. This gives an insight in Bluestone’s pricing strategy in it marketing mix. Bluestone also has a service guarantee of 30-day money back in case the customer is not satisfied with the product. They refund 100% of payment without asking any questions. They also buy back their own jewellery and pay cash in return for its existing value. The customer can exchange it for other Bluestone product as well under the Lifetime Exchange policy.
BlueStone Place & Distribution Strategy:
Following is the distribution strategy in the BlueStone marketing mix:
Bluestone has its head office in Bengaluru and has recently installed its own manufacturing unit in Mumbai. Although Bluestone has only online channel for distribution, it does not want to be just an online marketplace, instead a brand of jewellery which offers customer delight at affordable prices and therefore this model of in-house manufacturing and online distribution channel is great for reducing the rent and inventory management costs. There are standard operating procedures in place for handling fine jewellery at all locations. All departments have cameras installed which capture every detail and process the product goes through. This helps in pin-pointing any leakage exactly where it happened. The distribution of purchased products is outsourced to trusted courier companies like Bluedart for shipping in India and UPS for international orders.
Bluestone follows a strict security protocol for its products in transit and the packages are fully insured till they reach the customer.
BlueStone Promotion & Advertising Strategy:
The promotional and advertising strategy in the BlueStone marketing mix is as follows:
Bluestone has been aggressively promoting its brand. The promotion strategy of Bluestone is a perfect blend of digital and social media marketing. It has loyal base of followers on Facebook and Instagram page. Bluestone has launched its promotional campaign with popular Indian actresses & celebrities as the brand ambassador to target the young customer segment. The focus of its ads featuring Alia Bhat is on the ease of trying out jewellery at home. ts earlier campaign focused on positioning as the go to jewellery destination for today’s woman. Bluestone also gets a lot of unpaid publicity by being in news. Being one of its kind jewellery startup, it garnered a lot of public attention when the famous Indian business magnate Ratan Tata invested in it. The CEOs and top management also feature in a lot of articles in the newspapers which serves the purpose of making their brand known among educated households.
Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Bluestone.
People:
The online shopping portal provided by Bluestone is a low contact service, and is technology intensive, therefore requires highly skilled workforce. The company also focuses on customer relationship management and therefore a friendly customer service team is important for quality service delivery. Being a young company in its growth phase, Bluestone needs highly skilled and motivated employees, but it is extremely difficult to acquire and retain talent given its start-up status. Therefore, the company tries to attract employees with higher than the industry standard pay package. Bluestone company’s HR policies are very employee friendly which aims at inculcating a great work culture among its employees. The recruitment policy also focuses on cultural diversity among other things. Employees are given freedom to experiment, innovate and have enriching experience. A power packed team of technically sound and creative professionals who focus on the things that matter is Bluestone’s success mantra for its employees.
Physical Evidence:
Bluestone is committed to providing high quality authentic jewellery. Its products are certified for authenticity and purity by trusted agencies like BIS, IGI, SGL, HKD and GIA. As an evidence of quality of service and products, Bluestone also has a Lifetime Exchange warranty for all of its products. The company is funded by renowned venture capitalists and Indian business magnate Ratan Tata which is an endorsement for it as a trustworthy brand. Business ethics are a big part of Bluestone’s policy and they try to be as transparent as possible with the customers by displaying component-wise pricing for each product and their try-on home service. Bluestone has won many awards including Outstanding e-Retail performance, Best Online Jewellery Portal and Luxury e-Retailer of the year award.
Process:
Bluestone, like all other online retailers, has a standardised operating procedure for maintaining product catalogues, taking orders and dispatching it from warehouse to the customer via partner courier services. The whole process of Bluestone is highly scrutinized and is under constant surveillance using cameras, so that leakages can be controlled. For manufacturing the jewellery, first a design is created by the design team or a customised order is given by the customer. Then the jewellery is crafted in its manufacturing facility in Mumbai and shipped to the customer. Return process is also very simple and straight forward with a no questions asked easy 30-day return policy, wherein the customer gets 100% refund. Hence, the marketing mix of Bluestone is completed in a brief.
About Bluestone:
Bluestone was established in 2011 and is one of the top online jewellery retailers in India. It has a large variety of designs in authentic and quality fine jewellery. Bluestone has a large loyal customer base in India and abroad. Its strategy is to focus on loyal customers and foster long term relationships with them. Its target segment is modern youth who don’t have time to buy jewellery from stores and are interested in buying jewellery online.
Bluestone came in limelight in 2014, when Ratan Tata decided to invest in it. It is backed by various other powerful venture capitalists such as Accel Partners, Kalaari capital, Saama Capital, Ivycap ventures and Dragoneer investment group.
Browse marketing strategy and 4Ps analysis of more brands similar to BlueStone. The Marketing Mix & Strategy section covers 4Ps and 7Ps of more than 800 brands in 2 categories.
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