Two percent of respondents to an online survey conducted during the holidays said they would not buy jewelry after seeing the ‘Blood Diamond’ movie. That number held true in a post-holiday study conducted Dec. 28-Jan. 3.

The most recent of the two surveys conducted by the Jewelry Consumer Opinion Council reports that a quarter of the 2,961 JCOC respondents said they purchased fine jewelry or watches as a gift this holiday season, down from 28.1 percent in our holiday 2005 study. More than one-third of those who did not purchase fine jewelry or watches this holiday season claim it was because of financial reasons. Of those respondents who did purchase, 45 percent said they spent more on jewelry and 21 percent spent more on watches than in previous years. Nearly one-quarter of all fine jewelry purchasers spent more than $500 this Holiday season.

Independent retailers and department stores were the most popular retail venues for fine jewelry Holiday purchases.

Full details of this study, including more information about are available at www.jcoc.info.

The JCOC is a division of MVI Marketing Ltd., Paso Robles, Calif. It is an Internet-based, niche market research service and is made up of a sampling panel of consumers throughout North America representing all ages, genders, income levels, buying categories, and geographic regions.

JCK