Diamonds
More aggressive promotion of diamonds as a commodity category (generic marketing) was in the highlight of discussions held at the 33d World Diamond Congress in Shanghai. In particular, marketing expert Michael Balerin, the former CEO of the World Gold Council, proposed to take the similar marketing plan developed by WGC as a model. Some speakers supported the idea of a necessary investments boost by all the industry participants to promote diamonds, since this was the only way to increase the buyers’ demand. Jeffrey Fischer residing as President of the IDMA (International Diamond Manufacturers Association) expressed an opinion that IDMA being a key organization of market players should also take the lead in joining their efforts in generic marketing. It was announced that IDMA would hold a special marketing forum in September in Mumbai.
Some diamond and jewelry manufacturers are engaged in promoting certain types of these gemstones. For instance, Le Vian, which recently started promoting the so-called “chocolate” diamonds, presented their Luxury and Premier collections at the shows preceding the JCK Las Vegas Exhibition. The company’s designers spread their felicitously found color pattern to pearls and other gems.
Diamond Company Rio Tinto, which is mining such diamonds in Australia, is the most interested party in promoting diamonds of this color range to the market. In its ads they are positioned as champagne-colored gems, whereas Le Vian is convinced in marketing advantage of those called “chocolate.”
The Dalumi Company organized a competition of jewelry designers to promote its diamonds under the Yellow-Shade Diamonds trademark. Its winner was Kanubhai Vaghasia, a 24-year-old native of Mumbai. Dalumi intends to use Vaghasia’s design as the basis for a new collection.
De Beers Group Marketing developing in particular the world’s diamond retail market announced that it would change its name to Forevermark from June 12 onwards. According to DBGM, this change is reflective of the company’s “commitment for Forevermark which has the goal to become one of the world’s leading diamond brands.”
The change of name will be applied initially only to the DBGM headquarters, as well as its grading and inscribing facilities in England and Belgium. Before the end of the year the name-change will be followed by the company’s offices in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and India. As it is said in the statement released by DBGM, the brand change will not so far be spread to the U.S.A.
The Forevermark program, which is an independent part of the De Beers Group, has the task of boosting the demand for retail diamonds and building up more trust in final buyers towards diamonds.
Forevermark was first introduced to the Hong Kong market in 2004. Diamonds of 0.18 carats and above in size, SI2 clarity and above, J color and above and good quality cuts were inscribed with the Forevermark logo and an identification number.
Forevermark has been devised by De Beers as a “universal brand.” This means the access to the program will not be limited to DTC sightholders and diamonds will not be necessarily bought from the company’s sightholders.
Diamonds.net notes that the most recent unveilings from the world’s pacesetting watchmakers at international exhibitions showed that 2008 certainly could be dubbed the year of the diamond watch — for both men and women.
“The diamond watches are getting more and more elaborate,” says Denise Scala, marketing director of Jacob & Co. “Even if they’re not high-jeweled pieces, their settings or colors are exquisite.”
While white diamonds remain the favorites, colored diamonds are coming on strong. The most popular colors in timepieces are black diamonds, followed closely by brown and cognac diamonds. Most often, these are color coordinated with rich hues of gold. It’s not unusual to find brown diamonds set in rose gold cases and black diamonds set in steel for a striking black-and-white appeal.
There is another manifestation of color variegation in many of the luxury brands combining gems with their timepieces. Hublot offers orange sapphires on its watches, while de Grisogono, long the king of black diamonds, continues to offer them, but now in pairs with rubies. Similarly, Dior and Chanel offer rubies and diamonds in combination, and both have ventured into sapphire and diamond combos, as well. Brands such as Tiret New York and Van Cleef & Arpels are offering aventurine on their diamond watches, and a host of luxury firms are turning to amethyst this year, as the regal purple color takes on new luster when set next to diamonds.
Watchmakers are even using diamonds to stress special designs. Such is the case with Piaget’s Limelight New York to Paris collection, in which the brand depicts the skyline of these two cities on the dial in diamonds and engraving. The company also offers a watch whose dial uses diamonds to depict the seven rays of the diadem of the Statue of Liberty.
Other elaborate diamond watches come from brands such as Cartier, Chanel and Vacheron Constantin. In its Perles de Cartier watches, the company reconciled diamonds and pearls.
Gold
As already highlighted, the American jewelry network declared May “a gold month.” This marketing campaign was eagerly joined by Jewelry.com, a popular jewelry site, which raffled off jewelry pieces among its visitors and advertised gold products in a series of publications dedicated to this metal and to celebrities, who wore it. According to the site, relevancy and modernity are the main advantage of gold. Currently, jewelers are producing myriads of stylish gold pieces of all rainbow colors. A gold hue depends on the metal used in an alloy, so modern gold may not be only yellow, white or pink, but also green, orange, purple and even black.
Silver
Whereas many companies say gold prices do not affect them too much, Kendra Bridel Weinman, brand ambassador of Nikos Jewels and Caressa, said that spiraling gold prices were exactly the reason that Nikos Jewels launched its first silver range. “We ran an advert in Details magazine in which we tagged a number of retailers who carry our brand. They told us that they received more calls for that advert than any other in which they had been tagged. The problem was, all the callers thought that the product was silver when it was actually gold. The price of the pieces meant that they couldn’t afford to buy it.”
In response to ongoing demand for a silver range, many Nikos Jewels pieces are now being rendered in the less expensive metal (all the items are under $1,000), while a number of new pieces are being produced only in silver. Besides stone-free silver jewelry, the brand made several items encrusted with black diamonds.
American designer Toby Pomeroy is also designing more silver items these days in response to climbing gold prices. He uses reclaimed gold and silver and says that these days his line is split fairly evenly between the two metals. According to his observation, demand for silver is actually the stronger of the two.
Pearls
Pearls, conventionally fashionable, though staying in the shade, received more coverage in mass media last month. In particular, Jewelry.com declared pearls to be the gemstone of June.
We already mentioned Le Vian’s chocolate pearls collection displayed in Las Vegas. Premium Pearl predicted a boom for pearls of this color as early as April. The Cannes Film Festival picture stories circulated a pearl necklace flaunted by Dita Von Teese, a fashionable celebrity. While Carrie Bradshaw, the protagonist of Sex and the City, was displaying one of the Mikimoto pearl necklaces during the whole screen time.
Lustrous Jewelry, one of the key-note British brands making pearl jewelry, put on sale its “Have a Heart!” collection to facilitate fundraising to help people who suffered from the earthquake in China.
Lustrous Jewelry announced that 40% of each sale will be remitted to the China Earthquake Appeal, a special fund of the British Red Cross.
