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Father-Daughter Team Make Successful Partnership at Romance Diamond Co. Jewelers | October 30, 2013 (0 comments)
Fayetteville, AR--Romance Diamond Co. Jewelers is a family-owned business from a family of jewelry people. Co-owners Patric Brosh and Brittany Brosh Adair are a father and daughter team as well as second and third generation jewelers, respectively.
"My grandfather had a store in Eastern Arkansas that opened in 1944 (Brosh-Long Jewelers in Newport, AR) and my uncle Kevin Brosh is in jewelry, on the manufacturing side with a company called Armadani. We opened Romance Diamond Co. Jewelers in 1996," says Adair. "For a short time, my grandfather's store and this one were both open. Today we're in the Fayetteville store."
Exterior of Romance Diamond Co., Fayetteville, AR.
Brosh has worked in jewelry for more than 40 years, 30 in manufacturing and the last ten in both manufacturing and retail. He's known as a gifted salesperson, while Adair always knew she wanted to be a business owner. She obtained her degree in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management from the University of Arkansas. "I love not having to do the same thing every day," said Adair. "It's never the same two days in a row. I get to wear the buying hat, and the marketing hat and the ownership hat."
Adair enjoys the partnership that she and Brosh have at work; they became co-owners in 2003. "We build on each other's strengths and weaknesses. It worked out where my strength is managing our day-to-day operations so that's where I focus. Plus, I love getting to know our customers."
Above and below, interior shots of Romance Jewelers. The tree displays in the foreground above are shown close-up at top of page.
Fayetteville is largely a college town with a population of just over 75,000 without the students. The University of Arkansas' main campus is located there. Adair says the store's customer base is two main groups: students and more mature customers. "Our younger customer base is always changing. They are bridal focused and we see new kids every day thinking about getting engaged. But our older customers are our backbone. Many of them are bridal customers the second time around." Adair says this group turns to her store for rare and exquisite fine jewelry. She stocks large diamond and semi-precious pieces for this group. "Jewels by Star is our premier jewelry line for special pieces."
So how does a single store effectively market to two such diverse groups? "It's sometimes challenging to have two different campaigns going at the same time," Adair admits. But even so, she has a plan for each demographic. "For the college kids, we do lots of Facebook; lots of campus advertising; student programs such as QBOT; and sorority and fraternity jewelry. We also focus bridal ads towards that customer."
Some examples of the sorority and fraternity jewelry.
Adair says that bridal is about half of the store's business. Fine diamond jewelry and watches is the other half.
For the older base, Adair places some newspaper ads, plenty of non-newspaper print, a lot of direct mail and an email newsletter. "We capture their information when they come in the store. We try to keep close contact with them."
Along with the specific outreach, Adair invites her customers to Romance Diamond Co. Jewelers' special events. "We do a bridal event twice a year for new customers. It's a full-on bridal fair in our store. We invite a local florist, photographer, wedding dress shop, venues, caterers, cake, etc. We invite them into the store for three days, twice a year, in October and May. We find it's a good time for people starting to look for rings."
With all those vendors under one roof, if even for a few days, one might think that Romance Diamond Co. Jewelers is a giant store. It's not. "We have about 2,000 square feet and five full-time employees," says Adair. "But we can get quite a few people in here. We're also located next to some larger venues within walking distance that we've partnered up with from time to time."
Adair's cross promotional strategy of partnering with both companies and venues works well for the company and its clients. Along with the cross-promotional bridal event, billed as a 'semi-annual bridal experience,' the company has two or three other annual special events. One is a big Christmas party. "We try to be different about our Christmas parties," says Adair. "A few years ago we did a local private bar complete with models and jewelry. This year, we're underwriting a local theater company event and we'll have them in-store, dressed in costumes modeling jewelry."
Romance Diamond Co. Jewelers carries a variety of brands. For bridal, they feature JB Star, Armadani, A Link, Cordova, Diana and C Gonshor Fine Jewelry. The jewelry brands include JB Star, Kwiat, Marco Bicego, Spark, Soho, Pianegonda, Diana, Armadani, A. Link, Rebecca, Cordova, Memoire and C. Gonshor Fine Jewelry. And for the watch brands: Tag Heuer, Breitling, Philip Stein and Fruitz.
And the name? After all, what jewelry company hasn't thought that 'romance' would be a great part of a company name? "My dad came up with the name," says Adair. "He wanted the company name to speak about what we sold, so he came up with Romance Diamond Co. Jewelers." A fitting name for a company created by a family of jewelers.