Paola De Luca’s speech becomes impassioned when she talks
about Alexandra Mor’s new Tagua jewelry collection. That’s because tagua seeds
look similar to ivory and can be carved like it. And also because the typically
diamond-devoted Mor enlists Bali craftsmen to sculpt pieces suitable for
setting into precious metal. The result is a beautiful alternative to ivory in
jewelry. It creates employment for artists in rural areas — especially those
affected by the closure of factories illegally carving elephant tusks. It also
appeals to a community of caring collectors happy to place their money in the
hands of a like-minded individual.
“That is what the jewelry industry needs — stories that
inspire emotions,” says De Luca, founder of The Futurist luxury forecasting
agency.
Diamond grading reports and other technical jewelry
information play an important role in sales, but they are not the only facts a
seller can share. Enthusiasm tends to wane when the customer hears too many
scientific terms about sparkle and not enough about a stone’s back story.
Stories about stones — like non-conflict diamonds mined in
Canada, or rubies mined in Africa with proceeds that fund schools — coupled
with truths about weight and treatments can inspire more compelling, sexier
conversations. Robotically repeating memorized terms from a gemology book will
more likely drive consumers to spend in industries like travel, which do a
better job of romancing options.
“We are not just selling a product — we are communicating a
feeling,” explains Brandee Dallow, a 20-year marketing and branding veteran in
the diamond and jewelry industry, and the current president of the nonprofit
Women’s Jewelry Association. “Every piece of jewelry tells a story, and it’s
generally a happy, wonderful story, because jewelry acts as a reminder about a
person, feeling or event.”
Better connecting with consumers through stories and
encouraging them to share their own is a great way to increase engagement and
possibly sales. That’s how Jackie Cohen came to found design company My Story
Jewelry. Cohen had a custom necklace made to remind her of her adopted
daughter, Julia, and when others inquired about it, she shared her journey to
motherhood. These listeners — largely other women who often reciprocated with
their own inspirational tales — multiplied until Cohen decided to make
contemporary family-inspired styles her full-time job.
“Sharing my story with others created openness and honesty,”
says Cohen.
Indeed, Dallow observes, “stories break down barriers and
make people feel comfortable.”
A look at how the big brands are using the diamond journey to capture
customers’ hearts and minds. Some of the industry’s biggest players know that
romancing a diamond’s long journey to market can be a powerful aphrodisiac for
in-store sales.
One way to tell a diamond’s story is to reveal its
transformation from a rough to a polished stone. Both Helzberg’s My Diamond
Story and Jared’s Chosen options provide consumers with documentation showing
the diamonds in rough form and their journeys from cutting to setting in
engagement rings. Helzberg also allows purchasers to log into the Gemological
Science International (GSI) website to verify stones’ specifications, while Jared
customers can view details about their Gemological Institute of America
(GIA)-graded diamonds from the Chosen collection online.
Meanwhile, the GIA’s Mine-to-Market program, or M2M — new
this spring — allows retailers of all sizes to control the exact stories they
want to tell, using a digital platform consumers can access with an app.
Merchants can customize information to include GIA-provided proof of the match
between rough and polished diamonds, as well as grading information,
personalized text, video, and images of the design process for a finished
piece.
The technology offers buyers “an authentic, personalized
experience for complete confidence in their diamond purchase,” explains Matt
Crimmin, GIA’s vice president of laboratory operations in Europe, the Middle
East and Africa. “For consumers concerned about supply chain transparency, M2M
is a great opportunity to add another layer of assurance.”
Rio Tinto Diamonds is no stranger to storytelling, either,
sharing its tales of diamond provenance and supply-chain integrity with both
trade and consumer audiences. The mining giant uses social media, among other
channels, to get its news out to markets worldwide. But it still envies the
power of jewelers.
“Retailers are the chief storytellers [and] hold the
greatest power in the consumer experience,” maintains Rio Tinto marketing
manager Marie Chiam. “Retailers control the depth of a story that creates an
authentic emotional connection beyond the product.”
At Brilliant Earth, which has built its 12-year-old business
on a foundation of ethical sourcing and traceable countries of origin, video
stories from customers tell the most memorable tales. A recent one shared on
social media was from a newly engaged couple with dogs. The fiancé proposed to
his bride-to-be with a video of their two canines falling in love and getting
married, presenting her with an engagement ring and popping the question in the
closing credits.
Genuine stories like these, and telling them where customers
naturally connect with family and friends, help to make brands more believable.
For Brilliant Earth and its largely millennial client base, that place is
online.
“Real images of proposals with real couples and authentic
love stories convey the heart of a brand — not just what it says it can do,”
observes Kathryn Money, the company’s vice president of strategy and
merchandising.
Others who have taken to sharing engagement stories include
jeweler members of the American Gem Society (AGS), which touts stringent ethics
and education criteria. The move connects customers to the “emotions behind
buying a ring,” notes AGS CEO Katherine Bodoh.
Not surprisingly, Charles Stanley, president of Forevermark
US, also sees great value in a good story. That’s why his brand continues to
create campaigns celebrating consumers’ personal narratives. For holiday season
2017, shoppers can expect a new merchandise concept with ads highlighting
ethically obtained Forevermark diamonds in the lives of the women who cherish
them.
“The concept is a celebration of women through diamonds,
acknowledging her as a unique and multifaceted individual and focusing on her
story,” he explains.
Stories of real-life couples give the bridal market a boost, and creative tech
is making it easier to share the experience. When selling bridal jewelry,
stories and clever technology may be the most important tools jewelers have.
And as Brilliant Earth demonstrates, consumer anecdotes reinforce a brand to
other shoppers.
“Stories go beyond the functionality of a product to create
meaning and help customers grasp the value of the token they will wear for the
rest of their lives,” notes the company’s Kathryn Money.
Severine Ferrari, publisher and editor-in-chief of online
magazine Engagement 101, is another veteran in the arena of sharing real-life
couples’ stories. Her publication has posted user-recorded videos of
engagements for the last 10 years, on both her website and social media, to
reveal the emotion of those moments.
For this pre-marriage crowd, the technology aspect extends
to researching designs and prices online. This is where many merchants fail:
not providing ring prices, and not answering shoppers’ questions quickly
enough. Ferrari says readers are always reaching out to her for ring
information they can’t easily obtain from stores and brands. “It happens every
day,” she says.
Longtime innovator Chi Hunyh is a champion of jewelry
technology. His Momento Diamond brand, which debuted in 2015, features
engagement rings with tiny near-field communication (NFC) chips embedded in
them, allowing purchasers to record messages, videos and images. These are then
accessible via the Momento NFC App. Although sales were shelved shortly after
introduction because Android was the only system to have NFC technology, that
situation was rectified this summer when Apple added it to iOS. To celebrate,
Hunyh put Momento back on the market with free NFC-embedded phone cases for
iPhone 6 and 6S models; the 7 series phones already have NFC readers built in,
though they can’t write to a chip.
By using Hunyh’s app, two Momento users can share stored
media with the tap of a phone. “NFC was designed to be used as a trigger,” he
says. “But my technology is interactive, so you can send and receive messages.”
Other innovations include the Ring Cam — which launched in
2014 and allows consumers to record proposals through tiny cameras inside ring
boxes — and the Holojem platform, which came out this spring and lets shoppers
virtually try on custom pieces before purchase.
Jewelers Mutual created Holojem to help retailers reduce
physical inventory and offer more engaging in-store experiences. The
interactive program lets them bring possible designs to life in 3D, providing a
wow factor that custom-loving millennials can digitally share.
So far, Holojem is a hit, according to Tina Olm, director of
commercial lines underwriting for the company. One jeweler has already used it
with a shopper who brought in just a vague idea for a desired design. The
retailer pulled up a similar piece in the platform, made a few modifications,
and closed the sale before the shopper left the store. The merchant was quick
to share the victory with Olm, crediting “the ability to share his custom
design through the Holojem platform as the main reason for the sale,” she says.
Image: Courtesy of Rio Tinto Diamonds, taken by photographer James Bareham for Rio Tinto's Select Diamantaire programme/Ancona + Associates, Inc. Article from the Rapaport Magazine - August 2017. To subscribe click here.