If you had to pinpoint three factors from the diamond business that are affecting the retail world of fine jewelry, what would you pick? I ask because this is something I’ve been thinking about over the past few days in preparation for a panel I’ll be participating in at the Smart Show in Chicago next week.

 

I hope it won’t be too much of a spoiler for the panel if I share my thoughts here. After giving it a lot of thought, my top three picks (and there were many to choose from) are lack of promotion, lack of a good story and a lack of faith in consumers.

 

We all know that there is a problem with lack of generic promotion in the industry. Ever since De Beers gave up its place as the diamond industry “caretaker”, there has been no one championing the cause of diamonds. Where is our Gold Council, our Platinum Guild or our Silver Promotion Service? Why aren’t we seeing gripping, clever – and non-patronizing – adverts along the lines of the brilliant “Got Milk” campaign in every consumer magazine?

 

In short, how can the industry expect to keep diamonds top of mind with consumers if there is no one working to push and promote them?

 

I know, I know, it’s a tired old story, but really, how hard can it be for all of the diamond miners and other vested parties to cough up some cash and just get a representative body going rather than spending so much time having secretive meetings and making what seems to be little progress?

 

Tied into this lack of promotion is my second topic – lack of a good story. What exactly do I mean by that? In many ways, it feels that the industry as a whole isn’t taking a look at what people want and what the consumer zeitgeist is. Consumers these days want a product that comes with a good story. They want to know where their coffee, clothes and food come from. They are comforted by the thought that the product they have bought is a “good” product, that it is not harming the environment, that it is not harming people and that by buying that particular product they are doing something “positive.”

 

Coffee buyers are willing to pay a significant premium for a “Fairtrade” cappuccino, even though the cost of using fair trade coffee is pretty much irrelevant to the coffee shop, with the price of milk, electricity, wages, etc making up the bulk of the cost of the cup of joe. Even if they know this – consumers are still willing to pay a premium because it gives them a warm, fuzzy feeling (quite apart from the caffeine buzz) inside.

 

Why is the industry not harnessing this? Why are diamonds – or enough diamonds – not being sold with a story? If I were in the market to buy a diamond, I would pay a premium to know exactly who mined my diamond, where it was mined and that a percentage of the price of my diamond was going back to the community from which the diamond was mined. Tell me a story, sell me an experience and let me know that I am buying a product that will be doing some good to communities the world over, be they in Canada, Australia, Russia or Botswana or Namibia.

 

The mining companies are doing tremendous work in the communities in which diamonds are mined, but is this getting across to the average consumer who enters a store to buy a diamond?

 

As for my final topic – lack of faith in the consumer – well, this is a slightly controversial one I know, but the diamond industry seems bent on not letting consumers decide what sort of diamond they want to buy – a mined diamond or a lab grown diamond. It seems to want to make this decision for the consumer by not giving them anywhere near as much as choice as it should.

 

There is a fear that if lab-grown diamonds were to become less of a specialized and more of a common item then the very foundations of a very traditional industry would begin to crumble.

 

I don’t think so.

 

Some people simply don’t want to buy a mined diamond. They perceive it to be harmful and destructive to the environment and the people mining the stone – until we have a promotional body that can spread the gospel otherwise – then so be it.

 

But why not have a product that speaks to these people? That keeps the cutters and polishers of the industry employed, that allows people to make a profit and that allows people who cannot afford the mined stone of their choice to have a share in “the diamond promise” that we talk about?

 

Giving people a real choice will reap real benefits.

 

Do you agree or disagree vehemently? I would like to hear what you think are the major topics affecting the jewelry industry – and I look forward to seeing some of you in Chicago.

 

Have a fabulous weekend.