For her, by her

For an industry that depends on women to wear its product, surprisingly few women are in charge.

That’s not to say there aren’t any; Beryl Raff, chairman and CEO of Helzberg Diamonds, and Lisa Bridge, who became president and CEO of Ben Bridge Jeweler last year, both hold C-suite positions, and the 2018 Forbes list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women included two jewelers: Alex and Ani founder and CEO Carolyn Rafaelian (ranked 21 out of 60) and Kendra Scott (40).

Yet women are the exception rather than the rule, and in the age of #MeToo and #TimesUp, that’s particularly thorny. Even if the 2017 class-action suit calling out sexual harassment at Sterling Jewelers hadn’t been filed, the preponderance of men in positions of power makes for an uneasy balance. A 2017 Financial Times report showed that only six out of 31 luxury industry chief executives were women.

The gender disparity between customer and CEO may be more than just outdated, though; it may be bad for business.

Male-pattern marketing

The jewelry trade has traditionally taken a male-oriented marketing approach that assumes women are passive recipients, rather than active participants — and store owners need to reevaluate this, some retailers assert.

“Jewelry isn’t inherently masculine,” says Babs Noelle, owner of Alara Jewelry in Bozeman, Montana. “The majority of fine jewelry is still worn by women. But for years, what that jewelry would be was primarily the choice of men. It was a very upside-down way of bringing a product to market.”

Having more jewelry businesses run by women can disrupt that pattern, Noelle continues. “Then all the status-quo players whose sales we’re nibbling away at will have to peek behind the curtain at what we’re doing. And through that, we achieve some slow change, even among owners who aren’t female.”

Women are paying increasing amounts of attention to where they’re getting their goods, and to who’s providing them. In 2014, Walmart conducted a study of 1,200 consumers and found that 90% of female shoppers would go out of their way to buy a product marked as “women-owned.” Three years later, 84% of respondents in a Cone Communications survey said they wanted companies to support women’s rights, and 87% said they’d buy something from a company that shared their values. In addition, 41% of millennial women know who the founders of their favorite brands are, while 47% know those brands’ “origin stories,” according to a 2018 report by marketing agency Merkle and Levo.

Knowing what they like

As female customers forge relationships with retailers, having women on the business side can facilitate those connections.

“There are 1,001 advantages to having a woman at the helm,” declares Liz Chatelain, owner of Texas-based consumer research firm MVI Marketing, which focuses on the global gem and jewelry industry. “Jewelry is a female product, and the product is about self-adornment, and women know what they like and how something should be worn and how it should feel. And they know how it should look on other women.”

While men think about how they would like something to look on a woman, Chatelain adds, women think about how it will make them feel.

Noelle says store owners need to adjust the way they sell jewelry so they can better address their female customers’ needs, even when talking to men. “Part of the issue is that men focus on the ring, when really what they want is that look on her face [when she receives it],” she says. “So we’re going to ask what her life is like. Like, if you go camping a lot, don’t get her something she can’t wear camping. Women think like this because we wear this stuff.”

Emotional connections are also important with men, notes Noelle. “So many men don’t actually enjoy talking about the 4Cs. That’s just what gets shoved at them.”

Some store owners find it’s helpful to have both men and women working with customers in order to provide the best range of service.

“There’s a difference in the way my husband relates to guys and girls, what he can say versus what I can say,” says Gail Friedman, owner of Sarah Leonard Fine Jewelers in Los Angeles, California. “There are things that men say to men, and some people are more surprised if you said them as a woman” — though, she notes, “I don’t know if it’s personality or because of a man/woman thing.”

Weaving stories on the web

Retail voice matters just as much, and maybe more, in online sales. “I think the one who wins in online is whoever tells the story better,” says Noelle. “If you’re trying to sell jewelry, the storytelling will attract a lot of women. Not that women don’t like facts. But women are more interested in the people and the story. And that’s done through words.”

Chatelain agrees. “There could be more real female involvement in online. There’s not as much storytelling online as there could be. Some online shoppers love to read, and some just want to go straight to the product. But most websites don’t offer the gamut. They either have too many words, or they just go straight to the product. But there’s a happy middle.”

The ones who make the decisions

Retailers without female leadership at all levels of the corporate chain risk losing touch with their female customers, contends Chatelain.

“Pandora could have benefitted from having women in the top roles of the company,” she says, but instead of positioning itself as an affordable gifting brand, it aimed for the fine-jewelry category and found itself unable to sustain growth there.

The original Pandora product connected with women because of its emotional value, and the company faltered when it lost that thread, she elaborates. “A pair of sunglasses isn’t a gift. And that happened because they don’t have any women in their top echelon. Here’s a company that could have been something, but they went the way of Krementz & Co.” — a reference to the iconic New Jersey jeweler that sold off many of its assets in the 1990s.

Retailers should keep in mind that women influence the bulk of fine-jewelry purchases, even in non-bridal, Noelle adds. “Remember that most women this year are not getting engaged, but most women still want a piece of jewelry. Start targeting the people who are [kickstarting] the decisions.”

Sometimes that means taking chances with marketing, she says. “We did an ad that said, ‘You’ve been married 10 years and you never had the guts to tell him you didn’t like the ring.’ And one group of people who noticed that ad were women who hadn’t even gotten engaged yet. The ad was a big hit, because it was reinforcing women’s value. Like, let’s not make jewelry all chivalric, with the white horse.”

Noelle believes women empowering other women to talk about what they like and don’t like will only benefit the jewelry industry. “The steady arrival of more female fine jewelers is ultimately good for the market. The cream rises to the top regardless of gender.”

The mirror image: Sheryl Jones

Sheryl Jones, owner of Sheryl Jones Fine Diamond & Gemstone Jewelry in New York, knows her clientele.

“Many of my clients are women of color who are very well-to-do and in their 50s,” says Jones, who is 52. “They’re bankers and CEOs, and they travel a lot. They can afford to buy a $30,000 piece of jewelry, and they’re excited to see me because I’m a mirror of them. They know I’m going to say, ‘This is what I’d want to wear.’ I know that gala or conference because I’ve been there. And that’s always been the sweet spot for women selling to other women. We understand women.”

Jones has been in the jewelry business since 1998 and has had her storefront on 47th Street for six years. She sells everything from $200 cufflinks and 20-carat Colombian emeralds to $30,000 finished pieces. She sees no difference in what men and women shop for or what they’re willing to spend, but she observes that some women still don’t feel comfortable buying certain pieces for themselves. “You’re seeing more women able to purchase stuff on their own now,” she notes. “But there are still some women waiting for their husbands to do it. Sometimes I’ve even heard women say to me, ‘I really feel like he should be buying this.’”

Then there’s the other side: “A lot of the men love to buy fancy stuff for their wives, and their wives don’t necessarily want it. The man is driving the purchase, and she’s not interested in jewelry.”

In retail overall these days, “every industry is coming to terms with whether they reflect the diversity of America and of their customers,” says Jones. For her, it’s not about race or gender, but understanding: “How do I make sure you feel valued and respected? But also, how do I make sure we all feel that way?” 

sheryljonesjewels.com

The self-purchasing boom

Self-purchasing women — particularly millennials — are a driving force in the fine-jewelry business, and it’s time retailers took note. An August 2018 survey by MVI Marketing found that more than 51% of women age 25 to 40 with a household income of $75,000 or above said they self-purchased jewelry, and that diamond jewelry was the top choice. Another 17% reported buying jewelry with their partners. These consumers are the perfect target for luxury brands, according to MVI, because their 30-year spending cycle is just beginning, while baby boomers are aging out of theirs. Millennials are also just starting to form brand attachments.

De Beers confirmed this trend in its 2018 Diamond Insight Report, which said self-purchasing of diamond jewelry, particularly among younger women, accounted for one-third of pieces acquired, and that the average amount spent on self-purchased jewelry had risen to the level of gifted pieces.

Beyond that, a third of couples shop for bridal jewelry together, according to a recent survey on wedding website The Knot. While only 8% of grooms plan their ring budgets with their partners, 70% of women know how much the ring cost, the survey found.

Image: Shutterstock.

Article from the Rapaport Magazine - May 2019. To subscribe click here.