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ABSTRACT
This report is basically to understand the buying behaviour of imitation jewellery in India. Nishka Jewels is founded and promoted by Mr. Rahim Muscatwalla. It is a jewellery brand for an Indian woman who is filled with aspiration and a feeling of independence. The research was conducted only in Mumbai because the company Nishka Jewels first wanted to experiment in this city and then expand across the country gradually. A judgemental sample was chosen i.e. 34 women respondents between the age group of 24-39 years in areas of Andheri east, Andheri West, Bandra East, Malad East and Borivali West. A primary research was conducted in the month of May, 2011 in the form of the survey. For this, both an open-ended as well as a close ended questionnaire was designed which consisted of questions related to the information required meeting all the six different objectives of the research. A hypothesis was also framed to find if there is any relationship between the income of the respondents and their purchase intention and it was analyzed by using Chi-Square test. After collecting the data, it was analyzed and the results were interpreted, and if required recommendations was also provided.

From the survey it was found that most women were inclined towards imitation jewellery. Being a lifestyle product, imitation jewellery is purchased mainly for wedding and casual wear and it is mostly obtained from the malls. Women claim that the shift from gold jewellery to imitation jewellery is mainly because it is affordable as well as a wide variety is available. One of the facts observed was that women do consider imitation jewellery as a gift item. Also, the purchases of the imitation jewellery do depend on their income.

INTRODUCTION
According to the latest report i.e. in the year 2009, the artificial jewellery market in India stood at around Rs 2500 crore out of which 70 per cent of which is unbranded. The ratio of organized vs. unorganized is said to be 30:70. The jewellery industry in India is highly unorganized but still it has a huge potential simply because of the customers it caters to women. They are shopaholics and never satisfied with the amount of jewellery she possesses. However, rising prices of gold are forcing women to hold their desires back. Hence, there is an increasing trend towards artificial jewellery. In addition, India is the worlds second-largest manufacturer of imitation jewellery after China. Indian imitation jewellery enjoys a huge demand and has potential for growth in markets such as the US, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia and many Asian countries. The availability of skilled artisans at low cost and the availability of base metals, faux gems and stones have encouraged the sectors growth in India. Though artificial jewellery has no resale value, still the demand for it has seen a constant rise. Multiple brands such as Sia Art Jewellery, Silver Maya, Peora, Estelle, etc. are now a part of this sector.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The entire research was conducted based on the six research objectives.

To determine reasons of why women buy artificial jewellery To find out how often women buy artificial jewellery To determine the places from where women buy artificial jewellery To find out at what price do the women buy artificial jewellery

To find out whether artificial jewellery is considered as a gift item To find whether there is any relation between the income and the buying of imitation jewellery

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research was conducted by primary as well as secondary sources to gather information. The secondary research has been carried out by referring to various relevant articles and news items in books, magazines and newspapers. The primary research in turn was conducted in the form of a survey. A judgemental sampling survey was conducted based on women who wore imitation jewellery or those who were likely to wear imitation jewellery. The sample size chosen was 34 respondents between the age group of 24 to 39. These respondents were housewives, professionals or students.

DATA ANALYSIS
In the survey it was found that 91% of the respondents do wear artificial jewellery whereas the other 9% do not wear artificial jewellery. This is a clear indicator of the popularity of artificial jewellery among the women. The reason for not wearing artificial jewellery is that it causes rashes to some of the respondents. When asked about the type of jewellery being preferred it was found that 48% prefer wearing artificial jewellery. This was followed by 36% preferring both the type of jewellery (branded & unbranded) and lastly 16% of the respondents said that they prefer wearing unbranded jewellery.

Of the consumers surveyed, 35% said that they buy jewellery during weddings, 32% said that they buy artificial jewellery to wear on a daily basis, followed by 15% prefer buying the same for office/ college wear, 12% said that they buy artificial jewellery to wear in the parties and lastly 6% said that they buy artificial jewellery during other occasions. In addition, it was surprising to find that 82% of the respondents do gift artificial jewellery to their loved ones whereas about 18% of the respondents do not consider the same as a gift item. Also, when asked about the reasons for buying imitation jewellery, 27% said that artificial jewellery is trendy, 25% said that they buy jewellery matching their clothes whereas 23% said that buying artificial jewellery is affordable. And lastly, 14% said that it is safer to wear such kind of jewellery and 11% prefer this kind of jewellery as there are a lot of varieties. Moreover it was found that 33% of the imitation jewellery purchasing was done in malls followed by 29% of the respondents brought artificial jewellery from the departmental stores and lastly 24% of the respondents purchased jewellery from the street stalls. As indicated in the research, designs of the jewellery are one of the most important influences while buying artificial jewellery. The second most important influence is the quality of the product and thirdly, price was considered as the next influential factor. Also, when asked about the preferable price for making a imitation jewellery purchase it was found that 32% preferred to buy between the price range of Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000 followed by 26% brought between the price range of Rs. 100 to Rs. 500 and lastly 24% would prefer buying between the range of Rs. 1000 to Rs. 3000.

Also, most of the respondents belonged to the income bracket of 2 Lakh to 5 Lakh followed by 18% belonged to the income between 5 Lakh to 10 Lakh and lastly 9% were below 2 Lakh. And lastly, in order to determine the relationship between variables income and purchase intention (buy), SOFA Statistics, well known statistical software has been used for the analysis of this hypothesis through the Chi-Square test. For this the hypothesis were framed where: Null hypothesis (H0): We set up the null hypothesis that the two attributes viz purchase intention (buy) and income is independent. In other words, there is no significant relation between buy and income. The SOFA statistics has automatically calculated the p value which is 0.652. But at 5% level of significance, the p value is less than the alpha value i.e. 15.507 and so we reject H 0 and accept H1. Thus, by using Chi-Square test, we can conclude that at 5% level of significance level, the purchase intention and income are significantly associated with each other.

MAJOR FINDINGS
From the research it was found that women in Mumbai do prefer buying imitation jewellery and those who didnt buy was mainly because it caused rashes. Secondly, it was found that women between this age group are fashion as well as price conscious and also they do prefer gifting imitation jewellery as it is reasonably priced and also a wide variety is available. In addition it was seen that most of the purchases was done in malls because of the respondents indisposable income and also women these days not only want quality products but also good

service along with it. And lastly, the preferred price for a purchase of imitation jewellery is between Rs. 100 to Rs. 1000.

RECOMMENDATIONS
From the research it was found that some of the women did not buy imitation jewellery as it caused rashes. But however these rashes are caused due to a high presence of the metal nickel and most of the branded imitation jewellery has less content of nickel. So it would be better for the company to educate these non-users the safety issues of wearing artificial jewellery. It was also advised to the company to have their presence in the malls too. Also, they must have good window display, excellent service, and attractive interiors to grab the attention of the customers. In addition, the company was asked to stock more jewellery between the price range of Rs. 100- Rs. 1000. It was also advised to stock jewellery which could be worn in weddings and on a day-to-day basis. And lastly when it came to the gifting option, a suggestion was made to the company to use gift cards or gift vouchers. However, gift vouchers would be more preferred as it is easy to handle as well as safe especially when the card gets stolen, then the card could be blocked and the amount in it would be safe.

CONCLUSION
From the survey that was conducted, we can conclude that most women are inclined towards imitation jewellery. Thus we notice the shift of women preferring traditional jewellery to imitation jewellery. The survey showed that women between 24-39 years are trend conscious as well as brand conscious. Being a lifestyle product, imitation jewellery is being purchased

mainly for weddings and casual wear and they prefer buying it from the malls. Among the jewellery articles, earrings, bangles and rings are mostly purchased. Women claim that the shift towards imitation jewellery is mainly because it is affordable as well as a wide variety is available. It can also be concluded that women do prefer gifting jewellery to their loved ones. And lastly we can say that the purchases of imitation jewellery do depend on their income.

REFERENCES
Books The Marketing Whitebook 2011-2012, Businessworld The Marketing Whitebook 2009-2010, Businessworld Rajendra Nargundkar. Marketing Research, Edition 2008, Tata McGraw Hill Ramanuj Mazumdar. Consumer Behaviour: Insights from Indian markets, Edition 2010, PHI learning Pvt. Ltd. S Sumathi and P Saravanavel . Market Research & Consumer Behaviour, Vikas publication Henry Assael. Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Action, 6th Edition Asian Books Pvt. Ltd Leon G. Schiffman & Leslie Lazar Kanuk. Consumer Behaviour, 8th Edition, PrenticeHall India, Websites http://lifestyle.in.msn.com/fashion/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4279651 http://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/14/1327/junk-it-up1.asp http://jewelleryaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/demand-for-imitation-or-fashionjewelry.html http://b2binformation.blogspot.com/2010/10/artificial-jewelry-great-designs-and.html http://www.franchiseindia.com/articles/Opportunity/New-Franchises/Cherish-YourDream-to-Be-an-Entrepreneur-362/ http://www.afaqs.com/news/story.html?sid=19394 www.franchiseindia.com/.../Costume-Jewellery-Offering-Genuine-Profits-362/ www.franchiseindia.com/article-tags/imitation-jewellery-franchise/ retail.franchiseindia.com/magazine/2008/.../Jewels-of-imitation_21-2-2/ http://www.franchiseindia.com/article.php? title=Enchanting+Jewels+Traditional+to+trendy www.franchiseindia.com/buyrepNbooks_fashion.php 36

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-economy/article1044277.ece http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-economy/article1044277.ece http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_imitation-outshines-silver-jewellery-ingujarat_1531502 http://www.financialexpress.com/news/global-firms-are-eyeing-india-for-fashionjewellery/339659/5 http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/kitindian-market-for-imitationfashionjewellery/378812/ http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/silver-isnew-gold/438821/ http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-0613/ahmedabad/29652254_1_imitation-jewellery-kundan-sets-jodhaa-akbar http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2011/06/12/fin02.asp http://www.kitco.com/charts/popup/au0365nyb_.html http://www.kitco.com/charts/popup/ag0365nyb_.html http://www.ibef.org/download/GemsandJewellery_sectoral.pdf

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I sincerely thank my Project Guide, Prof. P.S. Francis and the Director, Dr. Thomas Mathew of St. Francis Institute of Management and Research for guiding and correcting various documents of mine with attention and care.

I am extremely thankful to Genuus for giving me the opportunity to complete this project in their esteemed organization. I wish to express my most sincere gratitude and appreciation to Mr. Amit Tandon and Mr. Bhagwan Jadhav for their guidance, patience and encouragement throughout the development of the project.

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My special thanks to Mr. Moin Uraizee, Mr. Commander Shariff and Mr. Nolan Tellis for their support. And lastly, I extend my heartfelt thanks to my family and friends.