Is De Beers’ Lab-Grown Line a Machiavellian Masterstroke?

(jckonline.com) - Immediately after De Beers announced it was launching its Lightbox lab-grown diamond line, cutting in some parts of India virtually halted. One person described the shock as “Richter scale, 9.” Sightholders and other producers felt blindsided. Everyone scrambled to figure out what it meant. At JCK Las Vegas on June 1, the Lightbox team held a lunchtime meeting that seemed to calm down at least some people. Executives explained that they wanted to create a new market, not replace the old one. “We look at this as an additive, rather than a substitutive business,” said Lightbox general manager Steve Coe. Throughout the lunch and in interviews, De Beers executives, with a few exceptions, didn’t sound all that excited about the new member of the family. They called synthetic diamonds “not rare,” “not precious,” and suitable for “emotionally shallower occasions,” like a Sweet 16 or quinceañera. “Love, commitment, forever,” pronounced executive vice president of corporate affairs David Prager, “are not grown in a lab.” Lightbox is jewelry that, if you lost it at the beach, “you wouldn’t be quite so concerned,” said head of marketing Sally Morrison. It reminded one attendee of The Producers: like executives were deliberately disparaging their own product.