RETAIL GOLD INDUSTRY-GLITTERING FUTURE

Au, Atomic number 79, An object of worship, Gold. Gold is forever beautiful, useful, and never wears out. Gold has a universal appeal and is worshipped in all climates, without a single temple, and by all classes, without a single hypocrite. The reason may be it is the only metal that combines lustrous beauty, easy workability, rarity and virtual indestructibility. No other commodity enjoys as much universal acceptability and marketability as gold. Gold has always been considered a sacred item by Hindus and is a must for religious functions. Jewellery industry is one such area which lags behind and not being marketing savvy. There is lack of marketing activities from jewellery companies. The gold jewellers in India operate within more rigidly defined parameters both in terms of product sourcing and sales. Today all that has changed. Afar more aggressive, but a well-defined, strategic marketing policy for creating brand awareness is the need of the hour.The Indian jewellery consumer is getting more & more trend conscious. This paper attempts to analyze growth and the changing trends of gold industry in future.


I Introduction
Au, Atomic number 79, An object of worship. Gold. Gold is forever beautiful, useful, and never wears out. Gold has a universal appeal and is worshipped in all climates, without a single temple, and by all classes, without a single hypocrite. The reason may be it is the only metal that combines lustrous beauty, easy workability, rarity and virtual indestructibility. No other commodity enjoys as much universal acceptability and marketability as gold. Gold has always been considered a sacred item by Hindus and is a must for religious functions. Indians attribute gold with Agni as Hiranyakt, "Gold maker", Brahma as Hiranyagarbha, "born from Gold", traditionally given as "streedhan" to the woman at the time of marriage, in the form of jewellery which remains as an asset that is tnjiy hers forever. Jewellery for Indian woman is not only for festivals, also for work and other casual occasions. Of-late it is being introduced in make-up and cosmetics.

History and Growth
Gold ornaments were discovered during Harappa and Mohanjodaro civilisations, i.e., thousands of years before Christ (BC). The earliest gold jewellery dates from the Sumer civilisation in between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Iraq around 3000 BC. In Egypt, gold jewellery and other artifacts have been found in Pharoah's tombs dating to around 1500 BC . The first pure gold coins were struck by King Croesus of Lydia (present-day Turkey) during his reign between 560 and 547 BC and gold coins have continued as legal tender since that time.

Jewellery 4 -C's
Jewellery is one of the oldest forms of body adornment, and the first pieces of jewellery were made from natural materials such as animal teeth, shell, wood and carved stone. 'Jewellery' is literally any piece of fine material that someone uses to adorn themselves. Derived from the word jewel, which was anglicized / in English idiom from the old French "Jouel" in around the 13th century. In Old English gelo, stands for yellow. It can be made out of almost every substance known to man and has been made to decorate nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings. The global market for Gold is estimated at 3300 tonnes. South Africa is the world's largest producer of gold, while India is the largest consumer. Major demand for gold comes from jewellery sector.

4-C's which Determine the quality of Gold
chart 1 gives a clear idea of mine production of Gold , scrap sales and Consumption. Apart from jewellery the other demand for gold comes from retail investment -i.e. from gold's use as a private reserve asset. The amount used in industry, e.g. in electronics and dental surgery.
Gold Demand ( Volume and Value*) and Gold Price (Rupees) 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005  Chart 3 -It is estimated as of now India holds nearly 14,000 tonnes of gold accounting for 9% of the world's cumulative production of around 153,000 tonnes. Indians consume more gold than any other nation -850 tonnes a year -and the market is growing at 20 per cent per year. India is currently accounting for around 22 per cent of the world's gold production in terms of jewellery. The world's largest consumer of gold jewellery, India annually imports around 880 tonnes of the precious metal, much of which is used in jewellery production. Indian consumers are well known for their consumption of the precious metal gold and prefer it to be pure, rather than mixed with other metals such as platinum and silver.

Trends in Gold Jewellery Market
Over the years, global markets have been impacted by several developments but currently the trends in the global gold jewellery market are: • Increased competition among the top producing countries.
• Emergence of different materialsdifferent alloys within gold as well as non-gold jewellery.
• Emergence of new manufacturing techniques • Requirement of stricter quality norms and hallmarking Demand for branded jewellery in India growing at the rate of 20% annually because of acceptance of branded jewellery by younger generation ie., 54% of the population is in the age group 16 to 35.
Spending on gold has hit a record high this year in spite of rising prices pushing the demand for gold jewellery. Women have been the major target segment for Gold Jewellery in spite it being worn by other Gender.

Importance of Gold for an Economy
December 1990, The foreign exchange situation was causing anxiety. It was a very critical period for Indian economy as the country was struggling with less than $1 billion in reserves, and a much higher shortterm debt. The root-cause of the 1991 crisis was a sudden lack of liquidity. India's own political situation was messy. International rating agencies had also lowered India's credit rating.
Now it has been a time for celebration on the BoP front as RBI recently reported that it has reached a level of forex reserves of $ 100 billion. This figure is magical, especially considering that with a decade back.

Present Scenario of Gold Jewellery Industry
In India jewellery is crafted not only for humans but also for Gods and Goddess (kavachas, omaments, chatri's Everyday wear / Daily wear: also called 9-5 wear mostly.

Gold -The future is glittering
Gone are the days when goldsmiths ruled the roost. Though they do still cater to a large section of society, there has been a paradigm shift in the profession over the years. Today across India there are more than 7000 retail outlets. Retail Jewellery is growing at a faster rate.

Some interesting Facts and figures ;
• India has approximately 5 million luxury consumers.
• Over 60% of the population is under 35 years.
• Over 18% of the India's population falls in the top-tier socio-economic class, which is a huge potential market for luxury goods brands.

India -A FACTUAL BACKGROUND
India is not only the world's largest gold consuming market but also the world's third largest diamond market. The Indian gems and jewellery is extremely fragmented with 97% operating as independent jewellers and the branded segment being a meager 3% and hence there is lots of scope for growth of branded gold retailing.

South India
South India is the largest and biggest market for gold and gold jewellery in India. The South India market accounts for more than 45 per cent of the total gold demand in India.

OBJECTIVES
The objective of the study are:  It is inferred from the above table 1 that 34% of the 500 respondents occupation was business, followed by 13% from sen/ice sector.

DTV HNEWSPAPERD RADIO • HOARDINGS HNOT GIVEN B INVITATION
It is clear that the major source of information to the respondents was Newspaper with 57%.    It is inferred from the above table that majority of respondents ie., 98% out of 500 believe gold market is booming and hence invest on gold.   It is inferred that neck pieces were dominating over Other articles with 320 out of 500 respondents preferring necklaces, while very few preferred full sets.

Findings
The findings of this research work can be listed as below: 1. Various factors like design, investment, etc.
influence the purchasing decision of gold jewellery.
2. Emergence of new manufacturing techniques is influencing design patterns.
3. Technology has an important role with respect to retail gold jewellery trading viz., RFID, CCTV, CAM-manufacturing, Mediaadvertising online, phones etc., 4. The latest developments are customers preference towards foreign designs, rising gold value, exhibitions, rising income level, there is increase in independence to purchase gold jewellery.
5. Business people invest more on gold as it is considered as reserve value.
6. Emergence of different materials -alloys within gold as well as non gold jewellery.
7. Newspapers still act as a major communication medium with respect to jewellery industry.
8. Gold is the most preferred metal.

Observations
• Goldsmiths 'losing out' to big jewellers in India • Aggressive marketing campaigns by jewellery firms have promoted platinum, diamonds and other gem stones as these extra options mean that gold jewellery is suffering fewer sales.
• Man-made methods -machineries are competing highly with skills of goldsmiths.

Suggestion and Conciusion
Retail Gold jewellery dealers have to focus on the technology, aggressive marketing aspects, brand equity, BIS standards, skilled goldsmiths and designers etc.. It is for sure that retail gold market is going to take over effectively, as gold is an alltime high in India.