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De Beers Returns To Generic Diamond Advertising; Mega-Stones Hold Their Value Amid Price Plunges | August 26, 2015 (0 comments)
Gaborone, Botswana—With diamond sales lagging around the world and prices on the decline, De Beers announced Tuesday that it will return to generic diamond advertising this fall, something it once said needed to be a shared effort across the industry.
But after De Beers stopped generic advertising, the closest any brand came to filling the void was holiday advertising from Sterling’s Kay and Jared divisions, rounded out by some from rival retailers Helzberg and Zales (prior to its acquisition by Sterling). But only some of those ads emphasized diamond jewelry; the rest featured a variety of other product.
Later—after its jeweler partners complained about the lack of television ads—a heavy rotation from Forevermark returned to TV airwaves in Q4 2013. Forevermark learned its lesson and never made that misstep again. In Las Vegas this year, the brand announced it is bringing the iconic “A Diamond Is Forever” slogan back after a decade of retirement, and promised a very heavy rotation of TV ads again this holiday season.
But do Forevermark ads bring new consumers to diamonds as a category or drive consumers already predisposed to buy a diamond to choose that brand? Either way, De Beers is taking no chances and will make what it has deemed a “major investment” in holiday marketing to stimulate demand for diamond jewelry during the holiday 2015 season. Though De Beers declined to name figures, its additional investment will complement both Forevermark spending and that of major retailers advertising diamonds, says Kristen Lawler-Trustey, brand spokesperson.
The additional marketing investment will be made in both the United States and China, its leading markets for diamond jewelry. The campaign, titled “Seize the Day” will target men purchasing diamond jewelry as gifts for their partners and will employ a combination of marketing approaches, including a new focus on digital channels to drive demand from a rapidly growing base of online and mobile media users. The campaign will draw on “Seize the Day” ads from the past, but not necessarily directly repeat them. It will focus on newspaper, magazines, digital, mobile and social media as well as out of home such as wallboards and transportation hubs located across major US cities, Lawler-Trustey told The Centurion. No additional television is planned for Seize the Day, she said.
“We will be creating new lines that are simple, yet attention-grabbing. These ads will be directed at men, to create a sense of urgency this holiday season. The 2015 De Beers “Seize the Day” ads will be updated to reflect the Forevermark brand (black text on white rather than the original white text on black in the historical ads) and all will be signed off from Forevermark,” she said.
A mock-up “Seize the Day” ad: it’s not final but gives a good idea of what the final ads will look like and how they will incorporate Forevermark while still focusing on generic diamond jewelry.
The ad strategy is the same for both the United States and China—targeting men during key diamond-giving occasions—but they will be customized to each market and, of course, run at different times. The U.S. ads will run prior to Christmas (beginning in late November), the Chinese ads between Christmas and Chinese New Year.
But jeweler tagging isn’t in the plan, says Lawler-Trustey. “At this time, there aren’t plans to create partnership versions of the ads. However, we encourage our Forevermark partners to take advantage of the partnership assets available for the new ‘A Diamond Is Forever’ campaign, which will feature some of the same classic piece types.”
While generic, the Seize the Day ads will subtly incorporate the Forevermark brand.
While there will be a few images featuring engagement rings, Seize the Day is intended first and foremost to drive overall diamond demand. Forevermark, meanwhile, will target bridal and affluent women, says Lawler-Trustey. De Beers CEO Philippe Mellier announced in a statement that Forevermark will “incorporate an exciting new product initiative, to be announced in the coming weeks.”
Separately, Bloomberg.com reported Monday that De Beers cut diamond prices as much as 9%, after its efforts to reduce production in lieu of prices failed to support the market as hoped. Read the article here. On Tuesday, Rapaport reported the cuts went even deeper, to 10.7%.
But even with prices plummeting, don’t expect to find a bargain on big stones, says the CEO of Gem Diamonds Ltd. Stones over 10 carats are holding their value compared to smaller stones: a 3% dip, compared to as much as 30% in smaller goods. The London-based company has mines that produce both large and small stones. The 603-carat Lesotho Promise—the largest stone unearthed this century—came from its Letseng mine.
Top image: A 76.41cts flawless diamond cut from the 603-ct. Lesotho Promise, found at Gem Diamonds Ltd.’s Letseng mine. Image: Bloomberg.com. Photographer: Carl De Souza/AFP/GettyImages