The diamond industry and jewelry business are traditionally retarded in terms of technology. To bridge the gap was the aim of Plumb Club Forum, a traditional meeting of companies belonging to the elite club – leaders of the jewelry, rough and polished diamond market – which was held on March 2 – 3 in New York under the slogan “The Changing Landscape of the Jewelry Industry”. At the conference, there was much talk about Web 2.0. If the first-generation sites (Web 1.0) were mere static banks of information, Web 2.0 sites are interactive and aimed at personalized services, they widely integrate various technologies, particularly multimedia, like for instance such services as Youtube and Facebook.
At the forum, there were presented specific achievements and examples of how Web 2.0 can be used. Pinny Gnivisch, the founder and Executive Vice-President, Marketing, of Ice.com, displayed some of his company’s small-outlay (just a bit over $1,000) “Youtube” videos, which paid their way many times due to the sales stimulated by this new type of advertising.
There was a more mainstream example – the customer-generated online rating and feedback system embedded in the Web site of ZLC Direct/Zale Corp. Steve Larkin, Senior Vice-President of E-Commerce, told how the opinions and descriptions of goods continuously fed by the site users permitted to expand the presentation possibilities of the online store to a great extent and particularly to manage brand sales of third-party manufacturers most efficiently. Since its launch in November 2007, more than 5500 products have been commented upon, which has helped the browser-to-buyer conversion rate. The system has also enabled to discover problems with products and even to pull a few items from the shelves of Zale Corp. because of consumer discontent with their quality.
The new survey performed by BIGresearch permits to analyze the behaviour of U.S. visitors to the largest sites (such as AOL, Google or Yahoo!) in terms of sponsored links.
Of 15,727 respondents 9% said they paid attention to sponsored links when searching for products or services on the Internet. This group of surveyed participants (roughly every tenth of them) is characterized by a bit younger average age (40.7 years vs. the rest with an average age of 44.8) and lower incomes ($53,901 vs. $56,811). 8% in this group were students, 62.6% identified themselves as “white” population.
The factors, which influence one’s attitude to sponsored links, include one’s intention to buy a jewelry piece and/or one’s plans to marry.
Among those, who are planning to buy jewelry in the nearest six months, about 15% told they would pay attention to a sponsored link of their interest. Simultaneously, only 8% responded that they would be attracted by a sponsored link under other circumstances.
7% of those who plan to have a family in the nearest six month would pay attention to sponsored links, and this is twice as many compared to adult population. Other categories of goods offered to be evaluated by those surveyed included household electrical devices, travel vouchers, furniture and home appliances and cars.
“Consumers who are influenced by sponsored links appear to be on a mission due to some event in their lives. As a result, they are self-directed when using media, which is why they prefer digital media options that allow them to get the information they want when they want it,” said Gary Drenik, President of BIGresearch. “Advertisers should look at this consumer segment as an important part of their ad mix.”
Those influenced by sponsored links are most likely to be triggered by magazines to start an online search (52.7%), coupons (50.8%) and TV broadcasts (47.5%).
