Everlon and Love’s Embrace: Great Minds?
Commenter “Weisfeld” recently noted that there seems to be similarities in designs between DTC’s Everlon Diamond Knot and Love’s Embrace from Sterling, which is one of the few major retailers to not get involved with Everlon. Click the links, and see for yourself.
Now, there are also obvious differences: All the Everlon designs are built around knots, and Sterling’s aren’t. But it is fascinating that the products do, at least at a quick glance, look so similar, even if they both seem to have been developed separately.
Moreover, the Everlon is advertised as “the strength of love, forged in a knot.” The “Love’s Embrace” tag line is “You will always be surrounded by the strength of my love.”
Those similarities came up at Sterling’s recent investor day (PDF). Here is what COO Bill Montalto had to say …
[Everlon] is jewelry that is in the style of a knot, and it has, if you will, a similar concept and that it is meant in these particular times because both organizations did research …
We chose not to [participate in Everlon] because, first of all, we were out in the marketplace with this back in the spring season. We had it in the market. We had results. We were doing very well with it. We believed we had a better product design. We believe we had a better concept in the terms of how we were conceptualizing that concept, that creative. It was exclusive to us, of course. It is not going to be generic.
We built an ad, I think, that has a very strong ad, very strong emotional appeal. We are not going to have to tag it as we would have had to have done if we were using the generic advertising. We are not going to be in, if you will, a sea of sameness with all of the other retail doors that are doing this.
ringmaker commented:
Everlon is only in approx 6 majors and approx 250 independents. By comparison, Journey was everywhere - every independent and every chain from WalMart to Mayor's. There was no minimum dia size, no min dia quality, and no license fees were paid by participants. There will surely be competition, but the prices cannot possibly be driven done anywhere like they were with Journey because of the minimum requirements and the fact that DTC has the ability to enforce the rules legally, where Journey was a free-for-all. So, it's not as exclusive as having the brand all to one retailer, but considering the amount of TV ads that will begin now and the limited number of participants, I predict it will be the highlight of the season and that those who did not participate will be regretting it come January, with the possible exception of Sterling.
Florida Jewelers commented:
It's not so much disparaging those who are carrying Everlon, it's more of pointing out Sterling wasn't going to let happen to them what happened before with Journey. You made it out to seem that only a few stores carry Everlon, when it's actually much more. Even though they might have "exclusive styles," the styles are more likely to be very similar and can run into the same problem we all had with Journey, which was the heavy discounting.
I will agree, however, that hopefully everyone does well with their programs. Let's see what happens.
Ringmaker commented:
Gee, that "sea of sameness" is obviously a dig at Neal Goldberg, who coined that phrase after joining Zale. Neal has taken numerous initiatives to differentiate Zale's merchandise from the rest of the major retailers, as has Sterling in recent years since starting with the Leo diaomond. As Everlon is only carried in a handful of chains - with many of them featuring exclusive styles as well as the featured items - all of the participiants should be commended for making an effort to differentiate themselves this year, and the fact that Sterling chose to go their own way does not justify them disparaging those who are carrying Everlon. Let's see in January who had the best plan, and in any event it's in the best interest of the industry if it's all succesful.
