Well said. I agree that it is a refreshing change to apeal to audience in such a manner.

Thanks, Tina. Unfortunately, a few days later, I happened to walk through the Lord & Taylor store in King of Prussia, and saw that most of their fine jewelry counters had "40% off" signs. Very discouraging. To me, 40% off says the item is either a dog that didn't sell at the beginning of the season, or it was overpriced to begin with. No big surprise our industry's image is in the trash can.

Hedda-My opinion on this issue over and over again is the lack of education...and GIA, the authority in Gemology needs to start implementing electives as part of their programs. They now offer a Bachelors Degree, why not have electives on how pricing tricks affect the market, managing the business, fashion/Bridal/, selling tacticts etc. These GG's are the future of the jewelry industry. Education.

In the late 60's The Lovin' Spoonful sang a very popular song titled "Did You Ever have To make Up Your mind". It dealt about the problem of having to decide between two people. Picking one up and letting the other one ride. The days of making a simple decision are long gone. In any market, the amount of offerings is overwhelming. Our Coffee shops now offer 15 kinds of coffee, and in 3 sizes. Our supermarket aisles will offer us 12 different scents for our bathrooms, and 10 completely different varieties of milk! Oh, not to mention, you can have this in Organic too! The contents that a jewelery store now offers is no different. years ago, it was Platinum or gold, now we have paladium, titanium, stainless steel, rubber, leather and the list goes on. Diamonds, Moisannites, Cz or a list of other diamond imitations. While your jewelry won't come in small, medium or large it will come 75% off, 50% off, or below dealers cost. Todays consumer, after having to decide which of the 104 cable channels it will watch, the list of 10,000 dvds it gets from netflix, the 15 coffees to choose from at Starbucks, is now thoroughly conditioned to ask.."who do I trust?" Unlike the coffee, dvds and 42 varieties of cheese, Jewelry is a one time, long term purchase. It needs to be sold in an environment that allows the consumer to say with confidence "I can easily decide"

To Marc's point, there is definitely something to be said for editing. But we as an industry still have to reposition ourselves as selling a product that's worth what it costs--not as something to be "hondled." Luxury purveyors don't hawk their goods at 50% off. You want it? You pay full retail for it or you don't get it. That's what our industry should be aiming for! But all the discounts have made the consumer wary, and made the consumer assume the markup on fine jewelry is stratospheric. They'd be shocked to discover the markup is nowhere near as much as that handbag they just plunked down $1800 for!

Hedda, you are so right! If someone wants an item enough, he or she will pay full price for it. (There is always layaway!) I know I do. There is no reason why great jewelry should not fetch full price! That being said, we are in an interesting situation with the market being what it is today. We can build clients' and consumers' trust by pricing items properly, then sticking with that price. If they want something on the cheap, rest assured, they will find it, and discover that, as my great grandmother said, "You rarely find a bargain; you almost always get what you pay for!" If they go an do that, then perhaps they are not our kinds of customers to start with! This leads us back to marketing. Perfect practice makes perfect, and this also applies to marketing. Our first question, therefore, is "Who do we want as our customer?"

I design one-of-a-kind pieces that are not only jewelry made with gems and precious metals, but also much time is put into the design and labor on a piece. I used to sell on eBay. I couldn't sell my pieces for cost because eBay has driven down the value of my designs because many online jewelry auctioneers start bidding at $.99. This has made it very difficult for the small business to break even and they are driving down the value of all our pieces. One of the reasons why someone would buy my pieces as opposed to a chain is that they will own something that no one else has. That is what irks me about these online auction sites. Now I will shut up. Everyone have a nice sparkly day.

I design one-of-a-kind pieces that are not only jewelry made with gems and precious metals, but also much time is put into the design and labor on a piece. I used to sell on eBay. I couldn't sell my pieces for cost because eBay has driven down the value of my designs because many online jewelry auctioneers start bidding at $.99. This has made it very difficult for the small business to break even and they are driving down the value of all our pieces. One of the reasons why someone would buy my pieces as opposed to a chain is that they will own something that no one else has. That is what irks me about these online auction sites. Now I will shut up. Everyone have a nice sparkly day.