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Industry News: DEF’s New Retailer Program; Diamond Conference Urges Generic Advertising; More April 29, 2015 (0 comments)
DEF Announces Diamonds Do Good Consumer Initiative; Free Materials Available To Retailers
Chicago, IL—Today’s customers increasingly want to know that the companies they do business with are a force for positive change, and the Diamond Empowerment Fund (D.E.F.) is launching a special program for retailers to show how their stores are such a force.
During both the “Power Panel” and “Connecting Powerful Diamond Stories with Customers” seminars at the Smart Show Chicago, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, D.E.F. co-founder, stressed the need for retailers to connect the positive stories behind diamonds with customers.
“Storytelling has always been the way to connect diamonds with the heart,” said Chavis. “We have the good stories customers want to hear, we just have to start telling them”.
D.E.F has created materials to help retailers and their sales associates communicate these stories to consumers both in-store and online. These positive stories behind diamonds are part of its Diamonds Do Good Initiative, launched in December 2014.
The website DiamondsDoGood.com and its accompanying social media efforts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, acknowledge the aggregate ongoing good of the global diamond and diamond jewelry industry through personal stories. It is a real-time interactive repository of the collective good works and impacts of the industry on communities where they do business, whether these communities are in Africa, India, China, Australia, Canada, Russia, or the United States. Retailers are encouraged to share their own individual stories of giving back with the Diamond Empowerment Fund.
The retailer materials include a core visual component: the “We Support Diamonds Do Good” seal that has been made into a window cling for display on storefront windows (shown above left), and for digital/website use, clickable back to diamondsdogood.com. The materials also include sales associate training materials on the Diamonds Do Good message; a digital brochure on D.E.F’s own Diamonds Do Good mission to share through each store’s own social media channels; a 12-month digital content calendar of the stories behind diamonds to help a store plan their posts on a monthly and weekly basis; counter cards, and a one-page customer brochure.
These materials are available to retailers at no cost. Contact Nancy Orem Lyman at n.lyman@diamondempowerment.org or (212) 359-4219.
Separately, D.E.F.’s Diamonds In The Sky Las Vegas event will be held May 28 at the Four Seasons Ballroom in Las Vegas. The event will honor H.E. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Government of the Republic of India. Click here for tickets and information. Chavis and Lyman also will be giving seminars on “Communicating the Diamonds Do Good Stories to Customers” at the JCK Show, Saturday, May 30 from 4 to 4:45pm at Tradewinds C/D, Pool level in the Mandalay Bay convention center.
Conference Addresses Need For Return Of Generic Diamond Advertising
Dubai, United Arab Emirates—Generic diamond promotion and advertising needs to be a top priority for the industry, but all players in the pipeline need to support it, said Alex Popov, chairman of the World Diamond Mark Federation, at the second Dubai Diamond Conference last week.
The golden thread that ran through all the presentations and the panel discussions at the event was that no matter where companies are in the supply chain, all industry participants need to invest in making diamonds more desirable to the end consumer.
"Our presentation followed a day and a half of intense discussions during which a variety of distinguished speakers lamented the protracted absence of a joint industry effort to promote diamonds," said Popov. "Our contention that only a united, industry supported effort can bring about tangible results was well received by all participants in the conference, including the ministers of mining and other government officials of various African diamond mining nations, such as Angola, Botswana, DRC, South Africa and Zimbabwe. I believe that with the detailed report we presented on our latest achievements, future plans, and a solid funding model, we have taken yet another step toward getting the entire pipeline behind the WDM's efforts."
Alex Popov urges the industry to gather together and fund generic diamond advertising to build consumer desire.
Jewelry And Watch Brands Still Slow To Go To E-Commerce
New York, NY—Luxury brands in general tend to be online laggards, but a thin majority of jewelry and watch brands now do support some kind of transactional path to purchase from their website product pages, says a report from L2 Thinktank. 45 percent of brands support e-commerce, 38 percent of brands support e-concierge services, and 28 percent support
both.
Still, jewelry and watch brands have been more reluctant than fashion brands to embrace direct-to-consumer e-commerce. 88% of fashion brands support direct purchase on their brand sites, almost double the rate of jewelry and watch brands. Of the jewelry and watch brands that don’t offer any kind of transactional path online, nearly 90 percent still do not provide transparent pricing information.
VicenzaOro Dubai Hosts More than 6,000 Visitors
Dubai, United Arab Emirates—The first edition of VICENZAORO Dubai, a new show organized by DV Global Link, closed on April 26 with more than 6,000 visitors from 110 countries. DV Global Link is a joint-venture company between Fiera di Vicenza and the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC). The inaugural event was billed as the leading B2B jewelry platform for the Middle East, Africa, Central and Southeast Asia, and Russia, with more than 500 brands from over 25 countries showing in four categories: global brands, fine jewelry and national pavilions, gemstones and diamonds, and packaging and supply.
VICENZAORO Dubai’s successful debut underlines the strategic collaboration between DWTC and Fiera di Vicenza.
“In-line with our expectations, the debut of VICENZAORO Dubai achieved very positive results,” said Corrado Facco, vice chairman of DV Global Link and managing director of Fiera di Vicenza. “Despite unfavorable economic circumstances and geopolitical contexts in notable major markets for the global jewelry industry, the success of the inaugural event has strengthened our resolve to continue expanding the show over the next few years—especially in tactical capacity areas such as high-end consumption and luxury product absorption.