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HOW THE ‘NUMBERS GUY’ AND THE ‘CHEERLEADER’ MAKE HILDGUND’S A FAVORITE WITH BOTH TOURISTS AND LOCALS | June 20, 2012 (0 comments)
Hawaiian Islands--Hildgund Jewelry’s first parking lot welcomed horses, not cars. The firm began as a company called Dawkins-Benny. Founded in 1873, it was one of the first registered companies in what would, 86 years later, become the state of Hawaii. (The photo at left shows the original building circa 1902). The name Hildgund came from that of current owner Bruce Bucky’s stepmother, who bought the store in 1969. Thanks to her love of color, it soon became known for its gemstone designs and creations. Her motto? "Elegance is simplicity and a touch of daring for leading designs and lasting impressions.”
Bruce Bucky joined the business in the early 1990’s. He attended GIA and was certified in colored gemstones, pearls and diamonds. He then worked as a sales associate for five years. In 1995, he bought half the company from his father and stepmother. At that time, there were three locations. “My father was tired of traveling,” says Bucky. Luckily, he hasn't tired of traveling, because today the firm has six boutique jewelry stores in high-end hotels on three of Hawaii’s islands: Hawaii, Maui, and Oahu. And Bucky, below left, along with his wife Shari, below right, work seven days a week.
Bucky is a former banker, in his words, a ‘numbers guy.’ “I have accountants, but I’m very aware of numbers, P&Ls, cash flow, aging statements, etc.” Shari does the bulk of the buying, along with a few other staff members. “I come in on negotiations and terms. I focus on cash flow rather than profit and loss.”
While Bucky joined a successful business, he soon made his own mark on it. In the early 2000s he added three locations and today offers a more contemporary selection of color in diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds. Hildgund also manufacturers its own line of jewelry, named Kano.
If Bruce is the ‘numbers guy,’ his wife Shari is ‘the cheerleader or the mom,’ said Bucky. Shari has been in business with Bruce since 2002. She goes to stores, takes managers and salespeople out to lunch or dinner. Either she or Bruce sees every store every week.
Interior of Hildgund's Kahala store.
Recently Bucky has been working on rebranding his stores, “to bring the company to the next century.” The new Hildgund logo (below) also comes with a new tagline, “Flawless jewelry since 1873,” and the center letters D and G entertwined.
“The DG is linked because of the family link to our company and the company link to the Hawaiian islands, plus [the center letters appearing like a] gold link chain,” said Bucky. “I wanted to get a real understanding of who we were and what the customers and my employees thought Hildgund stands for. The branding company did interviews with all our key employees and also we sent a questionnaire to our very established customers. We are now completing a complete company profile book showing a time line to our company, old pictures back from the early 1900's of designs and Hildgund on the bench, plus current designs and our company statement. This will be used for our current employees, new employees and new locations that we would like to open,” he said. “Good stories sell jewelry; we have a great story.”
About the customers and the jewels. Hildgund customers are tourists as well locals. Bucky has plenty of repeat customers from both segments, finding that his tourist clientele often visit two or three times a year. Bucky has worked hard for Hildgund to be a part of his client’s vacation activities. Often they drop in to see what’s new, often at more than one location.
Entrance to another Hildgund store.
“We want it to be an experience of what they see,” said Bucky of his tourist clientele and varied inventory. “Even with six locations, we don’t buy six of each item. We find customers will stop by two or three of our stores while in Hawaii and we don’t want them to see the same inventory in each location.” Hildgund does offer a few brand names in its inventory; for that merchandise, Hildgund maintains a statewide exclusive.
So what might a tourist or a local find in Hildgund’s showcases? Jewelry anywhere “from $50 to $800,000,” said Bucky. “We have that inventory range instore, because we sell all of it.” Bucky says it’s mostly fashion and large yellow diamonds, in the 5+ carat range.
Marketing to both groups. To reach the tourists, “we do lots of hotel magazine ads,” says Bucky (samples below). “Since we’re in resorts, we try to focus on opportunities [in each hotel]. We have TV commercials, brochures, and free cards for jewelry cleaning in each hotel. We do a New York Times ad on a daily basis in the condensed version available in the hotels.” Bucky and his staff also host parties every week in each hotel location, offering information with champagne and cocktails. It’s relaxed, he reported, not too many people. They build on quality, not quantity. “We work with a select amount of people coming in,” said Bucky. “Our closing ratio is 12-50%.” Two hotel magazine ads are shown below:
And to reach the locals? Hildgund’s Facebook page. “We’d had our downtown local business since 1909,” said Bucky. “We had a lot of local business, but many didn’t know we had moved to hotels.” In order to reach that local clientele again, Bucky did a giveaway, targeted to the locals. They give away 90 gifts in white boxes with gold bows (their signature look) containing jewelry from $100 to $8,000 totaling about $50,000 the first year. When they began the promotion, they had about 15 followers on Facebook.
Daily, Bucky posted clues on Facebook. For example, “today’s a magical day.” Locals knew that referred to Magical Island, they discussed it on Facebook, shared it with their friends and then went onto a second hint that was more specific. The clues continued until the treasure was located. FaceBook traffic peaked and Bucky estimates they hit about 25 million people through Facebook and that promotion. “Today we have 1,200+ likes.” Bucky still uses Facebook today, offering giveaways to increase his local presence.
About being a tourist destination. “Our season is different now than [the] mid2000s, when it was steady all year,” recalls Bucky. We’re not dependant on Christmas. Our season is the winter time when kids are home with the nanny and husband and wife here. The wife is looking at jewelry and the husband comes [to purchase it] to surprise her at dinner or at the pool.” Summer is Bucky’s slow time.
Each Hildgund location is open seven days a week, 9am to 9:30pm (some locations) at night, daily except Christmas. Bucky’s phone is on 24 hours a day. “I take calls all day and all night long,” he said. “We work hard and play hard.” While Bucky and his wife spend much of their time visiting stores, the various islands means they each spend about four days a week on airplanes. Bucky also notes they don’t work all the time – for instance, both enjoy several sports.
“We run six stores,” said Bucky. “We have twelve people in stores, two per store. Our total company size, including the accountant is 18 people.” Bucky says he has very low turnover; some of his staff has been with him for 25 years.
At the end of the day, Bucky and his wife have a successful business scattered throughout Hawaii. “I was offered the chance to open in a hotel in the mainland and declined,” he said. Instead he concentrated on improving the Hawaiian experience for all his clients.
If you ask Bucky about business he’ll reply, “Yesterday was good. Ask me tomorrow how today is. I never know what to expect.” Bucky may not know what to expect, but this numbers guy and his cheerleader are well prepared for whatever might arise.