Reimagining Marketing in the Diamond Industry

(thediamondloupe.com) - It is no secret that since De Beers stopped shouldering the promotional burden for the diamond industry more than a decade ago, investment in category marketing has steadily declined. The Diamond Producers Association (DPA) was created a couple of years ago, but by their own admission their efforts alone are not enough, and more funds are needed. Two weeks ago, Shashin Choksi, a second-generation diamond trader from Antwerp and director of Swati Gems, together with his son Siddharth Choksi, who has held a number of internships in the diamond and jewelry industry, penned an opinion piece published by Rapaport to address this very issue. Entitled "An Urgent Call to Invest in Marketing", the father-son duo laid out an ambitious strategy to inject the diamond industry with significantly more marketing funds to be used to the benefit of all in the diamond trade; namely, by imposing a small fee on all diamond exports. "We must collectively work to restore the appeal of our product among consumers," they write. "We must reinvent the way the industry tackles marketing, and to do that we need to increase our budget radically." Their missive sparked considerable discussion and left some questions unanswered. The Diamond Loupe had the good fortune to catch up with them in Antwerp.