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Brand And Retail News: Platinum Born Micaela Collection Bows; Signet On Financial Watch List; More October 02, 2019 (0 comments)
Platinum Born Debuts ‘Micaela Selects’ Collection, Co-Op Marketing For Upcoming Holiday Season
New York, NY—Following the recent announcement of its first brand ambassador, Micaela Erlanger, Platinum Born is launching ‘Micaela Selects’, a 16-piece collection curated by the celebrity stylist. (Left: earrings from the collection.)
Platinum Born, which is priced from $700 to $7,000 retail, is available at a network of fine jewelry retailers nationwide, as well as on PlatinumBorn.com. The Micaela Selects collection will be available through the end of the year and will be supported by digital advertising and social media campaigns.
“To have someone with Micaela’s eye and sense of style curate a collection propels the importance of these pieces to another level,” says Aron Suna, president of Suna Bros., the exclusive distributors of Platinum Born in the United States. “To have her seal of approval should assure consumers these are investment-worthy pieces and a strong addition to any wardrobe.”
Drop earrings and a necklace from the Micaela Selects collection for Platinum Born.
Launched in 2017, Platinum Born features necklaces, earrings and bracelets for the modern, self-purchasing female customer. Platinum Born jewelry features luminous sparkle and versatile style offered exclusively in platinum. Platinum Born pieces don’t include diamonds but the platinum components are designed in a way to capture light and sparkle like a diamond.
In addition to the capsule collection debut, Platinum Born is also launching a co-operative marketing program for qualified retailers. Based on total calendar year purchases, Platinum Born retailers will receive a 10% refund to be used towards the marketing and promotion of the brand in local and regional markets. Approved media range from print and outdoor initiatives to online and social media campaigns. Platinum Born is offering retailers unlimited access to newly debuted creative in print, digital and video formats.
Outdoor creative for Platinum Born.
Signet, Blue Nile, Neiman Marcus On Financial Distress Watch Lists
Washington, DC—Every year since the Great Recession, retail-focused B2B news website Retail Dive has compiled regular lists of retailers in shaky financial straits and/or at risk for bankruptcy. “For about the past year and a half, Retail Dive reporters and editors have generated the list with data from CreditRiskMonitor, which has a proprietary metric (FRISK) that measures the risk of a company filing for bankruptcy within 12 months,” says the site, explaining the measurements are based on several factors, including credit ratings, stock volatility, financial metrics and proprietary data around the use of CreditRiskMonitor's platform.
A list released Wednesday has some troubling implications for the jewelry industry: Neiman Marcus, Signet, and Blue Nile all are cited for some level of financial risk.
Neiman Marcus made the list of the highest risk for bankruptcy—a FRISK score of 1, meaning it has approximately 10% to 50% chance of going bankrupt in the coming year. Though not exclusively a jewelry store, Neiman Marcus’s Precious Jewels Salon is home to many luxury jewelry brands, and its regular fine jewelry department outside the salon is home to many high-end and designer brands.
Signet has a FRISK score of 2, putting it on the list of “elevated” risk for bankruptcy (between 4% and 9.99%). Some of the other retailers on that list include Container Store, Build-A-Bear, and J. Jill.
Blue Nile, while not on any of Retail Dive’s potential bankruptcy lists, was named by Fitch’s Ratings to its “loans of concern” list.
“This year, compiling the list the same way, CreditRiskMonitor data yielded 28 retailers with significant bankruptcy risk. That is more than double the number on any of our previous lists. It is an eye-popping figure, so much so that Retail Dive reached out to CreditRiskMonitor executives to make sure there were no changes in the FRISK methodology. There were not,” says the article.
Retail Dive also warns there are many retailers who aren’t rated and don’t have a FRISK score who may be in trouble.
Alastair Bickerstaff To Head Product Development And SalesFor De Beers Auctions
Singapore—De Beers Group Auctions has appointed Alastair Bickerstaff to head product development and sales. The new role is an amalgamation of two instrumental elements of the business, and as its head Bickerstaff’s role is to develop more synergy between the two functions and better address customer product needs.
Bickerstaff started with De Beers as a diamond valuer trainee in London 14 years ago. He worked in rough diamond sorting departments and business units in London, Botswana, Belgium, and South Africa, and spent much of his career in large stones valuation. He was also a technical manager in Global Sightholder Sales (GSS) in Botswana.
“The products we sell and how we sell them are intrinsically linked. Both must complement each other without exception,” he says. “The time spent with polishing factory managers has given me great learnings and insight into the importance of building rough diamond products which are relevant and reactive to our customer’s needs. “his isn’t necessarily an easy task to achieve on the scale that we sell and the size of our customer base, however we have a few new solutions to help us which we will be rolling out soon.”