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This is the first of a series about prestige jewelers who do well in the bridal category. Look for more in the upcoming weeks, and a special new Centurion PDF Book devoted to bridal, to be published and available in mid-May.

Boston, MA—With five store locations in Massachusetts, an extensive bridal inventory, well trained salespeople, and smart marketing, Long’s Jewelers excels in bridal sales. The Centurion spoke at length with Long’s president Craig Rottenberg to learn more about the store’s success in the bridal category.

The Attitude. “Customers here in New England are often in industries like finance and tech. Most have done research and are knowledgeable before they come in our door. Our biggest focus is on being experts [in bridal],” said Rottenberg. “We do lots of training and have lots of training tools. For instance, if a customer wants to look at loose stones, we have the expertise to do that.”

“We know this [buying an engagement ring] is a major decision. House, car, diamond, those are big decisions. We take it seriously and strive make our customers comfortable. Understanding that mindset, being serious but understanding, those are key,” said Rottenberg.

The Bridal Merchandise Mix. “Bridal is about 40% of Long’s inventory, accounting also for about 40% of the firm’s business. It’s our biggest and most important category,” said Rottenberg. Long’s carries a variety of styles and metals in its wedding band selection, but platinum sales have been, and remain, strong. Rottenberg tells The Centurion what its sales associates tell customers: “We truly believe that if you spend a fortune on a wedding and all the things that go with it, spending a little more on platinum [is a good idea]. In the grand scheme of a wedding, it’s relatively small. And it’s the only thing you’ll be wearing the rest of your life. The rest is for one day – the cake, the dress, etc. Make sure your ring lasts; go platinum.”

Long’s also carries ‘recycled’ diamonds; i.e. diamonds that are not new. “The whole idea of ‘recycled diamonds’ is getting bigger and bigger. Over the last five years, [our sales] were insignificant. Now, we buy over-the-counter and take lots of trade in (when a customer is upgrading). We do consistently advertise and have periodic buying events throughout the year.”

Non-traditional bridal customers also comprise a significant part of Long’s bridal business. The store advertises regularly in Boston Spirit magazine, targeted to the gay community. “Our wedding band business for same sex couples is very strong,” said Rottenberg. “We’ve built a nice business in wedding bands.”

The Marketing Mix. Long’s has a multi-pronged marketing approach to the bridal customer, including billboards, social media, online advertising, radio, and print, along with in-store events. A recent billboard campaign, for example, featured a series of ads that were meant to be shocking and different—and it worked.

“We had lots of responses, both positive and negative,” said Rottenberg. Certainly the billboards did what they were intended to do: provoke a response. The one that was most controversial was the one that read, “Make her your wife. Before she breaks up with you.” It's shown here:

Special events are another part of Long’s Jewelers strategy. Every March, Long’s holds a ‘wedding band weekend’ in its flagship store. They host about 2,000 people over the weekend and it’s all about wedding bands. “Our traffic is strong,” said Rottenberg. “Our bridal partners (Ritani, Goldman, A.Jaffe and Memoire) were thrilled [with the most recent event.]

The Social Media / Bridal Connection and Strong Supplier Partnerships. These days, it’s taken for granted that a couple already has been online looking at engagement rings by the time they come to the store. As a result, says Rottenberg, jewelers rarely need to begin the conversation with basic 4C’s education; instead, they can start the diamond discussion farther along.

But digital marketing is key to the store’s bridal success. Rottenberg uses social media to connect with a younger audience. “We had a contest to give away a Memoire Bouquet engagement ring on Facebook. We really believe in social media and reaching that audience. It’s been a big effort, last year and this year, leveraging it to reach diamond market. This year, we’ve moved efforts to include younger audience and build a database of future diamond customers. We get people to ‘like us’ with prizes that are engagement-focused.” Long’s busy Facebook page has much to entertain and educate the bridal customer.

“In terms of social media, Ritani is a strong partner of ours in bridal,” said Rottenberg. “They have a gazillion Facebook followers. We’re planning a Facebook-driven event later in the year with Ritani. Ritani has answers [for getting the public engaged in social media].  They are getting people to tell engagement stories, how they plan to propose, etc., and the response through Facebook has been tremendous. It starts with Facebook, and leads to event in our store.”

Rottenberg also uses online advertising to target to specific customers, and not just on Facebook. “We buy a network of websites (which covers news, lifestyle, sports, special interest sites and more) and target online visitors by demographics. Facebook is a small part of our overall online advertising strategy,” said Rottenberg.

At the end of the day the training, the product and the strategies all come together to make Long’s a bridal leader in its marketplace.  “Our brand is quality diamonds in quality rings that we stand behind,” concluded Rottenberg.