Israel Blogging: A Platinum Guild -- For Diamonds?
When three speakers agree on an idea that has barely been brought up before, we may be watching the beginning of something.
So, on the first day of the Israel Rough Conference, it was interesting that De Beers managing director Gareth Penny, and Israeli Diamond Instute chairman Moti Ganz, International Diamond Manufacturers Association president Jeff Fischer all brought up the idea of greater industry participation in diamond marketing.
"De Beers has carried the diamond industry in terms of marketing," noted Penny. "It is time for us to say we can’t do it all alone."
Of course, this idea has been around of course since 2000, when De Beers launched Supplier of Choice. What’s different this time is that Penny called up for an "industry-wide effort" along the lines of the Kimberley Process, that would involve everyone in the chain, including producers, manufacturers and retailers.
Clearly, it is needed. De Beers is cutting back its marketing in the U.S. and is devoting more of its marketing resources to the Forevermark. And it has a point: It shouldn’t bear the marketing burden alone.
But could there be a Platinum Guild, or World Gold Council for diamonds? Will it involve JWT, which to this point has done "generic" marketing on behalf of De Beers? At this point, there doesn’t seem to be any firm plans for anything, but it will be interesting to see where this line of thinking goes …
Here are past thoughts on this, from Rio Tinto.
Marty Hurwitz commented:
Liz Chatelain of MVI Marketing presented a very similar idea to
Indian Diamond manufacturers and US Major retailers recently. Liz's
working title was a "Got Jewelry" campaign similar to the "Got
Milk" campaigns done by dairy producers in the US. Liz's idea was
not just for diamond jewelry however it was for all jewelry
categories. The theory being (based on several years of Jewelry
Consumer Opinion Council research) that US consumers want to buy
more jewelry and want to do it regularly- however no one in the
jewelry biz is inviting them to do it regularly. There is no
regular, consistent macro marketing for jewelry as an acceptable
consumer purchase (self or gift) other than Kay's, Jared's, Zales
and whatever DeBeers does. So the consumer gets many messages from
competitors like Apple, Sony, Coach etc...and those products grow
and have multiple purchases during the year. If we had a "Got
Jewelry" campaign we could continue to grow US consumer demand to
all jewelry categories and encourage consumers of all shapes, sizes
and demographics to buy throughout the year.
