MVI Marketing recently asked consumers to weigh in on manmade diamonds versus diamond alternatives, www.diamonds.net reports. The results of this study showed that consumers were highly aware of the negative issues and challenges that plague the natural diamond mining industry, with a majority of respondents reporting that they have taken actions that may lead them to reduce their purchases of mined diamonds.
Eleven percent of respondents told MVI that they had decided not to buy mined diamond jewelry, while 8 percent decided not to give mined diamond jewelry as a gift. Nearly two in ten respondents have told their families and friends about the negative issues impacting mined diamonds and 16 percent reported that when they look for jewelry, they look for diamond alternatives.
"Clearly, consumers are becoming more aware of the challenges faced in the mining of diamonds," said MVI's chief executive officer (CEO), Marty Hurwitz. "It is only natural for the consumer to consider manmade alternatives if their concerns about those challenges grow."
In answering the question "If you had to choose between a style of jewelry with mined diamonds or a style of jewelry with a created diamond alternative and both stones sizes were of equal size and brilliance, which would you choose?," the respondents were equally divided. When both styles were the same price, 60 percent chose the mined diamond and 40 percent selected a diamond alternative.
The study's price-comparison questions revealed the increasing likelihood that consumers would purchase diamond alternatives when the price differential between mined diamonds and diamond alternatives grew. Based on their responses to these questions, MVI determined that only 25 percent of those surveyed would not request or purchase diamond alternative jewelry, no matter what the price differences were. This represents a major reduction compared to the results of past studies.
After reviewing descriptions of diamond alternatives from the category's major brands —Apollo, Gemesis, Diamond Nexus, Moissanite and Asha — the respondents were asked about their preferences across a range of criteria and jewelry categories. Both Apollo and Diamond Nexus received favorable rankings from the respondents for the all-important category of engagement rings.
Diamond Nexus topped all other jewelry category and criteria questions as the brand that respondents would be most likely to purchase, as well as the brand offering the best value. MVI concluded that these results might reflect Diamond Nexus' much larger consumer recognition, based on its heavy Internet exposure.
