This year marks a centenary since Ben Bridge was established starting with a single jewelry store in downtown Seattle. Today, Ben Bridge operates 75 stores across the country and flaunts a well recognized brand, as well as a reputation of one of the best companies for employment. Moreover, Ben Bridge has been a family business in the course of five generations. Lisa Bridge talking to the editor of the American Bureau of Rough&Polished disclosed some secrets of success won by this company and told about the importance of relationships in business, the jeweler’s participation in the Forevermark program and why she believes the jewelry business is the happiest. By the way, Ben Bridge is the first company in the United States, which started to work with Forevermark diamonds.
Rough&Polished: It has now been a century since Ben Bridge opened its doors in 1912. How are you celebrating your first century?
Lisa Bridge: It’s been an incredible year of celebration and we really wanted this year to be a celebration of everyone who’s made our business a success. We really wanted our associates, our vendors, and our customers to be part of the celebration.
We kicked the year off by throwing the Wedding of the Century. It was an incredible promotion. One lucky couple won a $100,000 wedding. They won over $30,000 in wedding jewelry, a honeymoon in Africa, and the rest in cash to plan their wedding. The contest lived on Facebook and people entered by uploading a picture, asking their friends to vote for them. The more votes people got, the more entries they received to get to the top 100.
The top 100 won wedding bands, the top 25 won earrings, top 5 won his and hers watches and then the final couple won all of those prizes and then the grand prize.
It was fabulous. The winning couple lives in Anchorage, Alaska. My brother, Marc, and I went up to surprise the couple and they were, understandably, beyond thrilled.
You are a fifth generation in the business. Can you share with us what was it like growing up in a family of jewellers?
Lisa Bridge: It’s part of life. This is always what we were, what we did. We spent spring breaks crisscrossing LA visiting our stores. This is the business we grew up in, it is what we talked about at the dinner table.
Marc and I feel very fortunate that we decided to join the business because it’s what we love. Our parents told us to find what we were passionate about and to pursue that. Fortunately, we both decided that it was joining the business.
There’s no happier business than the jewelry business. We get to be part of incredibly special and intimate moments in our customers’ lives. That’s a great honor.
Why do you think Ben Bridge has such success with keeping the business in the family?
We have been successful for 100 years because we have stayed true to our core values but have been flexible to change. We have evolved. We stay true to our core values of integrity, quality, knowledge, and professionalism. Those things have been so for the last 100 years, but our merchandise mix, our locations, our marketing has changed. We’re now part of Berkshire Hathaway, but are still family run. Berkshire’s values match with our core values. It’s been a wonderful partnership.
What are the greatest changes you have seen since you joined the industry?
It’s been an interesting last few years. It’s exciting to see the evolution and to see people being creative with metals, creative in design, and getting more creative in interactions with customers. I think it takes a re-examination of what our customers are looking for when they walk into a store. When they come to us today they are looking for an experience. When they walk into a store they are looking for the interaction with somebody across the counter, someone who has the knowledge, the experience. I think it’s even more critical today than it ever has been before. There are challenges, but there are so many opportunities ahead for us and that’s really exciting to be a part of.
How have your customers changed in terms of gender, age, lifestyle?
I think we’re seeing a change in the last few years with the baby boomers getting a bit older. They’re still buying jewellery but they may not be in a few years. We’re refocusing on the next generation of customers. We believe very much in customers for a lifetime. We don’t want to sell to one time but we want to be there for all their special occasions, the birth of their first child, for anniversaries, for birthdays, so we need to make sure we’re bringing in new customers, younger customers into the Ben Bridge.
You mentioned in one of your blog articles that it is “very important to have the next generation coming up through the ranks”. Why do you think it is essential to the future growth of the industry?
People have been adorning themselves with jewellery for thousands of years. That desire is not going away. It’s just our job to find merchandise, to find messages that appeal to this next generation for the vitality of the industry. We want people to want that diamond dream, to have the aspiration to own a beautiful piece of fine jewellery. We need to give our customers reasons to come in, reasons to wear beautiful piece of jewellery, and an appreciation of that.
In your view, does the industry need generic advertising to promote diamond dream and diamonds in general as a product category?
I think it’s important to promote diamonds. I think it’s important that we are sharing what beautiful pieces we have to offer. It would be wonderful if there were generic promotions of diamond, but we have to really inspire our customers today to give them reasons to come into our store.
I have heard that Ben Bridge is a very relationship-oriented company. Is that so?
Absolutely. Relationships are everything to us. As I mentioned before, that goes in all directions. For example, I met a young woman a few months back when I was giving a presentation with Jon and Herb (members of the fourth and third generations respectively) about the anniversary. Afterwards, the young woman came up to me and said, “My family has been customers of Ben Bridge for three generations because Ben was the first person to give my grandfather credit. It was such a powerful moment in his life that we have been true customers since then.” We’ve been a part of special moments for generations in our customers’ lives.
The same is true with our vendors. We have incredible relationships with our vendors. All of our buyers have been with us for over 15 years. They have the expertise, the knowledge and the relationships to work with incredible vendors that bring new ideas, try new things and build a friendship. I think part of our success has been our relationship with our vendors.
The same thing is true with our associates. We have unbelievable longevity in our associates and I think that it’s because people feel that they’re part of the family. There’s the Bridge family, but really it’s the Ben Bridge family.
Jon, our co-CEO, calls every new associate on their birthday, on our anniversary, and on their first day. I don’t know too many companies with CEOs that call you on your first day of work to say welcome to the team, welcome to the family. I think it’s pretty extraordinary and I think that it’s symbolic of how important each person is to making this business a success and why we have grown over the last 100 years.
It is extraordinary. I interview a lot of jewellery companies and a lot of top players in this field all over the world and this is the first time I hear anybody speak about their company as a family. I believe that’s extraordinary.
Thank you. We want everybody to feel connected and feel like they are a part of the success.
One of our executive calls every store every single night to check in, to see how the day went, if there were any exciting sales, if there’s anything going on in the store. Our associates have constant interaction with all levels in the company. No one is just a number, they’re really important to our success.
As far as I know, Ben Bridge team visits a lot of trade shows to look for potential new vendors. What do you think is the most important in choosing new vendors these days?
It has to be a lot of things. To be a new vendor, obviously you have to have the right product, it has to be a great design, to be of high quality to be selected. We have virtually unparalleled quality control here in our office. Everything comes through here, and is checked individually. 100% of the jewellery that we are sourcing. When we select a partner, we want somebody that we can trust. We want to feel good about everyone that we’re doing business with. Ultimately, they have to have a quality product, in the right design, at the right price to become a new vendor.
How many stores do you have today?
We have 75 stores. Another couple on the way in the next few months.
What are the top sellers in your collections and how often do you introduce new lines in your stores?
There are constantly new things arriving in our stores. It depends on what our buyers find. We’re constantly trying new things and expanding those that work and not the others.
How long have you been a part of the Forevermark program?
Lisa Bridge: We were the first one in the United States to introduce Forevermark, we launched it first in our San Diego stores. That was almost two years ago. Early spring of 2011, we put it in San Diego, and then right before the holidays last year we put it into 11 additional stores.
Can you call this program successful?
We’re excited about Forevermark. We believe in the product and what it represents. They’re beautiful diamonds and we’re excited about the growth opportunity that it has. It’s going to be exciting to watch this holiday season. They’re doing lots of marketing, they’re doing TV for the first time, and there should be a greater awareness for Forevermark after the holidays, so we're excited to see the impact.
Do you think that the Forevermark program meets its original objectives and forecasts for its retail partners?
Forevermark is beautiful and it has a great message. I think that it’s a differentiated diamond brand. I think that is a wonderful benefit to retail stores. We want to be able to say that this diamond has a great origin, is beautiful, and rare.
If you could do any job other than the one you do now, what would it be?
This is the best job. I feel fortunate that I’m able to be a part of a business that I believe in and an industry that is about joy and happiness and beauty and I can’t imagine doing anything else.
What kind of jewellery do you most admire and why?
I love jewellery that has sentimental value. I’m wearing a pendant at the moment that the center is a diamond my dad gave my mom on their first anniversary. On graduation, they remounted it for me in a beautiful setting. I love this pendant. Every time I wear it, I think of my parents and I think of their love. That’s what the jewellery business is about. It’s about special moments, about love, and about beauty and it can’t get much better than that.
Olga Patseva, Editor in Chief of the American Bureau, Rough&Polished
