Jewelry Brand Concept. Part II.

“Ingenious Jeweller” type brands
This class belongs to relatively new, but very successful brands which marketing models are based not on “the History of a Family Company”, but “the Personality of an Ingenious Jeweller”. 

H. Stern is among twenty most successful World jewelry brands. The company was founded in 1945 in Brazil by an emigrant from Germany Hans Stern. The brand is closely connected with the personality of the company founder who is regarded as an outstanding jeweller, designer and businessman. “In the 60s, 70s, 80s the young jeweller won many design prices, obtained the recognition and caused the admiration of kings and queens, presidents and celebrities throughout the World who visited the famous goldsmitheries and the H.Stern museum in Rio de Janeiro. Before the expression “design jewelries” was coined worldwide H. Stern cooperated with celebrities who inspired his design team to create modern jewelry collections. The first such project was the creation in 1984 of the Catherine Deneuve collection which became a bestseller…” 

De Grisogono. The company was founded in 1933 by Fawaz Gruosi whose “ingenious personality” is the cause of the information flow generated by company market experts. “Fawaz Gruosi made himself a career of a jeweller thanks to desperate experiments that always miraculously led to a public success… Fawaz Gruosi who perfectly knows both the jewelry market and competitors’ works does not intend now as he always did to amaze his devoted female clients, offer them something exclusive and unusual. His “chocolate” jewelries either rings, earrings or watches additionally encrusted with diamonds and multicolored sapphires have a tangible seasonal glamourous note… It is due to the traditional for Florentine Gruosi carnaval play which never failed. Creative and tireless Fawaz Gruosi was the first one in the watch and jewelry world who offered ladies’ watches with shagreen bracelets...” 

Ananov.Appeared in the market in early 90s of the ХХ century. It is hardly the only Russian World jewelry brand. It is associated completely with its founder and owner Andrei Ananov. Being a stage director by his first speciality A. Ananov professionally controls the information flow. He is an author of several biography books, film and TV stories, numerous articles and interviews dedicated to his own extravagant adventures in upper spheres and certainly containing ingenious essays about the jewelry work. “Andrei Ananov is the most famous jeweller of Russia. Moreover, he is a social phenomenon symbolizing our life of last decades, nearly a literary character with stories of stage direction, underground jewelry work, the rush of a young capitalist and the confidence of the new Russian wealth… A. Ananov: my goal is not money, the goal is to go down in the in the Russian history as the great Russian jeweller” .

These types of brands to which French JAR, Italian Nouvelle Bague etc can be attributed generally are not as powerful as the “historical brands”. From the information point of view they are very vulnerable: death or withdrawal from the business of a “genius” determining the brand may create difficulties for its existence. Even most successful in this class H. Stern seeking to turn into the “Historical Family Company” is obviously experiencing significant difficulties of creating an image of the successor of “ingenious Hans”: “In the 80s Robert Stern, Hans’s son jointed the family business, despite the lack of experience in the jewelry industry. “Being unfamiliar with jewelries I brought new ideas to the business” says Robert who is a creative director of the company. Robert suggested that his design team monitor people’s behavior, fashion, art, music. He followed his creative talent, looked for new ideas, trained designers to accept every new challenge…” Such messages generated by H. Stern’s market experts only prove that it is extremely difficult to convince a consumer, especially a regular customer that instead of the genius another more ingenious descendant will come. In this context the principle of “school traditions succession” characteristic to the “historical brands and allowing very wide interpretations gives a more stable content than a fantastic “alternation of geniuses”.

Conceptual brands
One can often come across the word “conceptual” in publications dedicated to the jewelry business. However, more often this word implies some sort of design surveys whose essence can be explicitly explained neither by an author, nor by market experts. We by the “conceptual jewelry brand” mean a marketing technology suggesting that the information flow by means of which the brand is promoted in the market is based not on the “History of a Family Company” or the “Personality of an Ingenious Jeweller”, but the “Global Social Idea” which is a priori of a demand for a great number of potential customers.

Duce. A blatant example of the conceptual brand openly exploiting some fascist ideas, fashion for which is apparently increasing today. The epigraph to the advertising copies is an ambiguous citation from revelations of ex-Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi: Mussolini did not kill people he simply sent them on vocation”.

The advertising copies themselves are quite clear: “Duce is a symbol of unity, strength and justice! Duce is a style of new leaders! Leaders who realize their mission and represent people who go ahead. Such a leader should say great words; inspire people for great deeds and great ideas. People who are free, strong and able to fight! Since the fight is a source of all things, because life if full of contrasts: love and hatred; white and black; day and night; good and evil; and before these contrasts come to a balanced state the fight as the highest fatality will always be the core of the human nature. Eventually, it is good to be like that. There is now a military, economic, ideological fight, but the day when we no longer fight would be the day of melancholy, end and collapse. However, this day will never come. Should we return now to peace, calm and silence the fight against today’s trends of the present dynamic period would begin. We should be prepared for new contingencies and a new fight. We represent the moral and spiritual power. We should possess spirit and moral invigorating our decisions and causing obedience. We do not believe in a singe solution whether it is economic, political or moral; we do not believe in a straightforward solution of vital tasks as life is not straightforward, it can not be limited to a basic needs segment. We deny the materialistic conception of “happiness”, we deny the equality: “prosperity-happiness” would turn people into animals who think about one thing: to be happy and fed i.e. limited to a simple and purely vegetable life. Our idea is the will to power and domination! Duce is the dictatorship of style”.

Naturally, the picture of Benito Mussolini appears on the branded packing and certificates. In connection with the ban imposed against the swastika accepted in all civilized countries the theme of the Roman Empire symbolics is being explored in the jewelry design, but stylized so that it could cause obvious associations with the epoch of flourishing of fascist dictatorships of the ХХ century. Some jewelry (for example, Duce cuff links) openly copies the stylistics of uniform rings of SS officers.

Argentum Aurum. Jewelry collections of this brand are clearly associated with certain historical periods and accordingly with social ideas dominated at these periods. For example,   the IMPERIUM ROMANUM collections are presented as follows: “In the IMPERIUM ROMANUM collections the antiquity archetypes are embodied in replications of Roman rings and in modern interpretations of the ancient culture. Each item has its own history; each of them has its special implication! They contain the fate of the great civilization! Caesar’s triumphs and the glory of Roman troops, death of Quintilian Var’s legions and Traianus’ victories! The firmness of princeps and the gallantry of a citizen. The remembrance of glorious men who brought the glory to the Republic and created the might of the Empire. The mightiness of eagles of Roman legions whose iron footsteps are remembered by the Mediterranean lands”.

The NOTRE DAME collection includes jewelries associated with the key events of Christianity and accordingly evangelic stories and direct citations of canonical texts are widely used in the information flow. The HIERO SOLIMA collection is dedicated to historical secret societies and religious orders, their outstanding leaders and founders. The ANUBIS collection is associated with mysteries and legends of Ancient Egypt.

Generally, Argentum Aurum is a successful attempt to use the various and rich historical content for creating the information flow by means of which the brand is promoted. Not only have the abovementioned collections in general had their magnificent “history”, but every item of one or another collection.

Love&Pride. This brand entered the market in 2003. The author and owner is designer-jeweller Udi Behr, a citizen of the USA born in Israel. The brand is oriented to sexual minorities, a specific culture which is now flourishing. (Further in this text this subculture will be referred to as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite, LGBT-audience, LGBT-culture, LGBT-market etc.).

According to U. Behr Love&Pride was initially developed as one of the means of the battle for civil rights of the LGBT-community. Therefore, U. Behr’s web site apart from jewelry sections contains the monitoring of civil rights violations of LGBT, news about remarkable events, interviews of outstanding persons among LGBT etc. Thus, the activity of the jewelry company is presented as the work of rights advocates which is apparently favorably perceived by the target purchaser group (i.e. LGBT).

As a matter of fact U. Behr has brilliantly solved an antithetic problem: using the energy of an actually deep conflict, he has developed a unique marketing strategy allowing him for the shortest possible time to reach a high sales level (in 2006 jewelries of Love&Pride were being sold in more than 30 boutiques only in the USA). The “rights advocation” is nothing else than a means of creating the respective information flow through which the brand created was being promoted. (It is noteworthy that U. Behr himself is a normal heterosexual and family man).

The LGBT-community is really an attractive purchaser group in economically developed countries due to some reasons out of which the following are worth mentioning:

- The LGBT-market is rather stable (nearly 6% of population of the developed countries) and has a relatively high capacity. According to "Out Now Consulting" experts (whose clients are Barclays, Hilton, Lufthansa, IBM, Citibank) the sales volume of the LGBT-market only in Britain is 70 billion pounds per annum. In 2006 American companies spent more than $ 200 million for advertising in order to promote their goods at the LGBT-market;

- LGBT-community representatives generally are more credit worthy than heterosexuals since for this category “children’ expenditures” are practically not applicable;

- in some countries where luxury goods dominate the market, in 2005-2006 laws were adopted like the British “Equality Act” aimed at eliminating the LGBT discrimination in the consumer and advertising areas which will undoubtedly encourage the intensive development of this market in the near future;

- belonging (real or declared) to the LGBT is now a factor contributing to the career and commercial success in movie, show, model businesses, artistic environment etc professional clusters whose “dwellers” are traditional consumers of luxury goods;

- conflicts connected with the LGBT are a permanent subject for all types of press that creates a favorable information background which can be modulated by respective “injections” within the framework of a marketing challenge;

- the most important psychological feature of the LGBT is a constant need in the hypercompensation of its abnormality. This quality seriously affects the competition in this market since the brands which are intended to be successfully sold should have clearly expressed accents, at least to be loyal to the LGBT, to “help in the struggle for civil rights”, always pointing out “the subtlety of style, high creative energy and artistry” of the LGBT and to a maximum extent propagandize the LGBT’s way of life. It is obvious that for many powerful brands whose main target group is heterosexuals it is impossible. Relating to the jewelry market it means that the most powerful brands of the “historical” type have very limited possibilities in the LGBT-market because there is no room for the LGBT in the classic “History of a Family Company”, otherwise it would turn into a ridiculous farce with zero marketing potential.

Though the creation of jewelry brands is rather new phenomenon, but essentially it is a sort of “whorl” in the jewelry marketing. Historically, jewelries often bore the conceptual stamp, acted as an identifier of an owner’s belonging to certain social class or confession, played a role of the prize for certain deserts, certified the adherence to certain ideological doctrines. This approach is undoubtedly promising for creating the brand since it ensures at least a required number of facts for filling the respective information flow (without resorting to the creation of the “History of a Family Company” and the “Personality of an Ingenious Jeweller”) and sometimes allows you to count on an impressive effect of the “information resonance”, if a concept perceived ambiguously by the modern society is used as a basis. It seems very promising, but it is worth mentioning that so far there is no brand of that type comparable by power with the “historical” brands.

Thus, the information task of promoting the jewelry brand has three known practical solutions. While designing a new brand we can move in any of these directions: to reanimate the “dead” historical brand (for example, Faberge), “find” an Ingenious Jeweller, use any scandalous concept. Any of these strategies in principle may lead to a relative commercial success.

However, it is possible to synthesize all three options and create a super brand using a system- based creative mechanism of these successful strategies.

Robert Kon

To be continued