At De Beers’ annual breakfast at the JCK show, held Friday morning, CEO Al Cook announced the company was introducing a new brand as well as a new “beacon” in an effort to boost natural diamond demand.
Cook said De Beers has committed to its highest marketing spend in a decade, to “transform category marketing.”
The new brand, Origin: De Beers Group, will be available at select retailers this fall. The new beacon—a product backed by De Beers that’s available for the entire industry—is called Ombré Desert Diamonds, and will feature different color options. It will appear at Signet, and De Beers hopes to get other retailers involved, too.
De Beers’ Origin brand will be built around the story of how “your diamond is born and its journey through the world,” Lynn Serfaty, De Beers general manager for natural diamonds, said at the breakfast.
“Consumers want a diamond that is meaningful to them,” she said. “Origin matters a great deal. Our customers are looking for products that reflect their values.”
She noted that De Beers has forged a partnership with The New York Times to tell positive diamond stories.
The Ombré Desert Diamonds beacon is based on the idea that natural diamonds have become “standardized, almost commoditized,” said Serfaty. “This is all about diamonds reclaiming their soul.”
She said that Ombré’s marketing will talk about how diamonds are “celestial objects” that “connect us to our origin, deep with the earth and high in the stars. We are both earthy and cosmic at once, and so are [diamonds].”
Cook added that De Beers is “doubling down” on the work it does on traceability through its Tracr platform. He announced that GIA has become an “equity investor” in Tracr, so the platform is now an “industry solution.”
Paul Rowley, De Beers’ executive vice president for diamond trading, told the audience that the natural diamond business is emerging from one of the worst crises he’s ever seen, given the popularity of lab-grown diamonds and the drop in demand from China. But there are positive signs in the market, he said, citing recent stats that show natural diamond sales outpacing overall jewelry sales in the U.S.
De Beers Brands CEO Sandrine Conseiller spoke at the breakfast about changes in the De Beers retail chain, which has been rebranded De Beers London. She noted that Forevermark has morphed from a wholesale brand into a retail one, and that Forevermark intends to set up 100 stores in India.
Cook said De Beers plans to slash another $30 million from its bottom line, on top of the $100 million it’s already cut.
He also said the company’s tech subsidiary, Element Six, will soon begin making its first diamond wafers at its facility in Portland, Ore.
“It will produce some of the world’s most advance polycrystalline diamonds,” said Cook. “We see the future of synthetic diamonds in technology.”
Top: Imagery of the Ombré Desert Diamonds collection (photo courtesy of De Beers Group)
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