At the recent Amberforum held in the Baltic city of Svetlogorsk, Andrey Yanchevsky, Head of the trade representation of the LA VIVION jewelery company shared his opinion with the correspondent of Rough&Polished on the state and prospects of the jewellery and polished diamond markets. Andrey Yanchevsky has run the gamut of work in the jewellery industry, from a software developer to the Head of the representative office of the LA VIVION jewellery brand.
Your presentation at the Amberforum in Kaliningrad was eloquent. What have you gained from taking part in it, any new ideas, useful takeaways?
I attended the Amberforum for the first time and was favorably impressed by the highest organizational level of the event and the organizers’ focus on attention to detail. It was interesting to get acquainted with the speakers who touched upon a lot of issues in their presentations relating to the jewellery marketing and got the audience thinking about what needs to be changed in their own businesses. I opened the amber industry for myself, and rethought my own approaches to marketing.
What do the jewellery and amber markets have in common and what is different between these two products?
To my mind, amber has a high potential. No doubt, the amber and jewellery markets have the same nature of origin of the stones and their reserves are finite. If it is possible to create a standard system of quality and certification clear to a consumer, the amber price can grow if its marketing is correct. The similar problem of their markets is the synthetics. And so far, the moves of the polished diamond market players to separate the goods are more convincing, to my mind.
What are the specific features of the amber and polished diamond online trade?
While polished diamonds are a product clear to the customers of all-ages, the amber jewellery, to my opinion, needs interesting modern designs and rather big marketing expenses to win consumers’ hearts.
Image credit: LA VIVION
What is new now on the polished diamond market, what is the sales dynamics, what categories are in demand?
The pattern of +0,70 carat polished diamond consumption in various regions of Russia has significantly changed - while earlier, the regions showed decline in demand, now in most cases the stores order the jewellery with such polished diamonds to the manufacturer only if their client makes the prepayment. When talking about Moscow and several cities with a million-plus population, we see a strong demand for the jewellery with certified polished diamonds. The common trend is that a customer is better prepared to buying jewellery, chooses more carefully and, certainly, compares dozens of options before making a purchase. The time needed to make a decision about a purchase is longer as compared to the previous years.
Image credit: LA VIVION
Has anything changed in polished diamond marketing, how does the product advertising work in recession and under lower demand?
We are in the upper market segment, so discounts, sale-offs and etc. do not work here. The current marketing tools allow focusing the product advertising on rather narrow target audience segments, and the correct adjustment of advertising is the major challenge.
What prevents the Guild of Jewellers of Russia to achieve the understanding of their challenges by power authorities and to create favourable conditions for the jewellery manufacturing and selling?
I can suggest that our state and the Guild of Jewellers of Russia see the market differently. In dynamics, the state does not see the growth of tax revenues and at the same time, it sees the use of tax avoidance schemes, illegal trafficking and reluctance to comply with the legislation, and that is why it creates the conditions that should make the market white. The Guild of Jewellers protects its rights and the interests of that part of the market to which the state actually does not have any claims, and the Guild cannot influence the rest of the market; so, until the share of the gray market lowers significantly, I would not expect an effective dialogue and any real solving of the jewellers’ problems.
Galina Semyonova for Rough&Polished
