BANGALORE: Kerala-headquartered Kalyan Jewellers is planning to spend Rs 350 million in marketing this fiscal. The brand has also named Sandalwood actor Shivraj Kumar as its brand ambassador for Karnataka.

The company had spent Rs 250 million last fiscal, it informed.
 
 
Said Kalyan Jewellers executive director Rajesh Kalyanaraman, "Of the Rs 250 million that we spent last year, almost 60 per cent was towards television advertising. We are present on billboards as well on conventional print, television and radio."

Company sources revealed that while Kalyan Jewellers advertises on the Sun and Asianet bouquets in Tamil Nadu and Kerala respectively, strategies are being worked out for its presence on Kannada channels.
 
 
The brand has been on an expansion spree and plans to open 11 stores – seven of which will be in Karnataka this year. It also plans to enter Andhra Pradesh this fiscal.

It has a store count of 19 with seven stores in Kerala, 11 in Tamil Nadu and one in Pondicherry.
 
 
Kalyan plans to have a store count of over 50 in the next two years across the four South Indian states. To increase contact points for the customer, Kalyan Jewellers has launched 50 ‘My Kalyan’ service centers in Kerala, 101 in Tamil Nadu and plans to launch 15 such centers in Bangalore. The company is targeting a 100 per cent sales growth over the next two years from Rs 25 billion to Rs 50 billion.

In-house agency Nethra handles the creative work while Group M‘s Maxus handles the media buying for Kalyan.