Eternity or Identity? What Diamonds Mean to Chinese Millennials

(Jing Daily) - Millennials are big buyers of diamonds. Aged 18-34, millennials from the US, China, Japan, and India contributed to 45 percent of total retail sales, worth about $26 billion, according to a 2015 De Beers report. And Chinese millennials are even bigger spenders. They account for 68 percent of diamond sales in China, a number that’s significantly higher than other markets. The diamond industry has developed a top-down approach to decoding millennials’ attitudes to diamonds in order to make the stones even more appealing. The Diamond Producers Association, which represents the world’s seven biggest diamond mining companies, launched a marketing campaign in the US last November with the new slogan “Real is Rare”. A voiceover in a short film from the campaign says, “Maybe we won’t ever get married, and maybe we will … but it will be wild, it will be kind, and it will be real.” The association is looking to expand the reach of the campaign to China in April this year. Will this resonate with Chinese millennials? There are different societal and economic factors at play.