This year, turn yourself into a specialist.

SHELDON MARKS, principal at SKM Branding Insights, says it is highly likely you already are a specialist; you may just need to convince yourself and get the word out.

At a time like this, when jewelers are puzzled about how to overcome not only a challenging economy, but the new shopping habits of 20- and 30-somethings, specialization may be a jeweler's salvation, Marks believes.

"Every store can specialize," he says. "There isn't a store out there that can't focus on something they do well. You don't have to reinvent yourself. Leverage what your strengths are. If you can't isolate what you do well and better than your competition, you will have a difficult time in retail."

Marks asks his clients to define their brands in one sentence. "And don't say it's customer service, because everybody says that. It has to besomething quantifiable that I as a consumer can relate to."

Look around your market, see what niche is not being filled - "even if it has to do with watches or gift products," he says, - and determine how you can meet that consumer need.

Andy Malis, president of MGH marketing agency of Baltimore, says specialization works particularly well in bridal, especially if no one else in your area has claimed the territory, because you have the opportunity to create customers for life.

"People are still getting engaged and getting married, so obviously that's a good place to specialize," he says. "It's probably the most obvious choice."

Malis designed a youthful, high-energy ad campaign for Smyth Jewelers, with the line: "Where Baltimore gets engaged." "That was putting a stake in the ground," he says. "That brought in a lot of people who hadn't thought of them in that context."

Marks says if you can't identify your own strengths or your market's weaknesses, you should either shop the competition or bring in a consultant to help you focus on where you can make your mark. "Retailers know what's going on in their four walls," he says. "Outside their four walls, most of them haven't got a clue."



How much education you need to be convincing as a specialist is, of course, a decision that must be made on a case by case basis.

Babs Noelle, owner of Alara in Montana, simply made an announcement that she was the engagement specialist in her market and already possessed the product and design knowledge to back up that statement. At the other extreme, Greg Stopka, a California jewelry designer, practiced with CAD software three hours a day for over a year before he felt comfortable enough to proclaim his status as a computer-aided design specialist.

"Of course, you do want to learn about what you want to become a specialist in," says Adam Graham, marketing manager for the American Gem Trade Association. "Knowledge is No. 1. You have to have the confidence that if anybody asks you a question about your specialty, you'll be able to answer it, or at least know where to find the information quickly. Does it mean you have to become a GG to specialize in colored stones? I don't think so. But you do need a working knowledge."

Prior to getting involved with a new specialty vendor, Graham suggests asking if they provide training.

Also important is joining organizations that provide educational and advertising coop support, such as the World Gold Council, the Platinum Guild, the Cultured Pearl Association, AGTA, et al.

In the colored-stone world - or a variety of other specialties - becoming a fashionista, or having employees with a keen fashion sense, can also add to your reputation as an expert, since clients are looking for trend advice.

Staying on top of color and fashion trends also helps to sell beads, says Cathy Cook, who has become the bead specialist of Vidor, TX.


Kathy Grenier, director of marketing for Imperial, says it's important to understand the product you're pitching from the consumer's perspective and, as a specialist, to open their minds along with your own. Be willing to question your own assumptions.

"For example, I believe that pearls have had an unfavorable portrayal because so many stores show only one quality, and it may be highly promotional merchandise, so that all you see is $150 strands of pearls," Grenier says. "I'm not saying that they aren't beautiful, but if you are a new buyer being exposed to just one level of quality, you have a limited knowledge of what's possible."

In the case of pearls, retail jewelers may think all they need is a couple of strands, a couple of studs and a ring.

"That's the iconic image of pearls, but pearls go so far beyond that," Grenier says. "Any kind of jewelry design you are exposed to, nine times out of 10, that style can be translated to pearl jewelry."

Specializing in an area also may create an opportunity to brand your own merchandise.

"The pearl world is really unbranded," Grenier says. "That's another opportunity that a jeweler has to customize it and make it seem like yours."

Another consideration? Graham points out that specializing in colored stones can improve your profit margins dramatically.


Although you won't have to and probably should not completely reinvent your store, you must take the opportunity to relaunch it.

"It's news," Malis says. "You can say, 'We're now the colored gemstone experts.' Use that as the headline or the lead in all of your marketing, website, direct mail and advertising. It gives people a reason to come into the store.

"Make sure an area of the store has some special treatments and special signage so that when people walk in it's easy to find what they were looking for," Malis says.

Whatever it is, bring it up front, Graham says, and make sure the merchandise fits what the store is about. Pick pieces that reflect your store brand, whether it's high fashion or more conservative. For example, if it's a classical store and your specialization is colored gemstones, stock blue sapphires and emeralds. If it's a fashion-forward store, incorporate colored stones or pearls into chunky fashion necklaces in silver and various price points.

Malis reminds retailers to let people know what you've decided to focus on, and then give it a chance to sink in before giving up on the idea too soon.
He says many retailers who consider specializing worry about losing customers they already have, but in his experience this fear is unfounded, since regular customers won't pay much, if any, attention, to your advertising.

"If you become known for something in the jewelry world, people still assume you are a jewelry store," Malis says. "So to differentiate yourself as a leader in one particular area does not preclude you from selling different types of merchandise but it does help you to stand out from the crowd - from everybody else who wants to be a generalist."

The people who are paying attention to your refocused advertising are the people who didn't pay attention before.

"Specialization becomes something to rally your marketing around versus just co-op or general messages or sentimental messages," Malis says. "It really does work to specialize."

NICHE>PEARLS

HIGASHI PEARLS & FINE JEWELRY
LEMOYNE, PA
OWNER: SUSAN FOTOS



IT NEVER WOULD have occurred to Susan Fotos to open a jewelry store in Pennsylvania, let alone to specialize in pearls, if she had not first lived in Japan. She purchased her first strand there and learned about them while working for a pearl distributor.

When her husband was transferred to Pennsylvania, Fotos saw a need for a non-traditional jewelry and gift store in the Central Pennsylvania Valley. Her pearl knowledge was the foundation on which she built her business. She believes that experience gave her the credibility necessary to market herself as an expert.

"Everybody's business needs to have a niche and that's what pearls are for me, something that makes me a little different. I spend a lot of time when people come to my store, explaining pearls. And I do go to Japan to buy pearls, so that extends my credibility."

Fotos often speaks to women's groups about pearls, inviting members to bring their pearls in to learn more about them and determine whether they need to be restrung.

Higashi pearls are the focus of a billboard ad every spring.

Of course, merchandise must live up to marketing. The store is well known for its wide selection of pearls, including Akoyas, white South Seas and black Tahitians.

NICHE>COLORED GEMSTONES

THE COLLECTOR
Fallbrook, CA
Owner: PALA INTERNATIONAL

OK, SO NOT every retailer has a gem-dealing parent company with an international reputation and its own tourmaline mine, but The Collector is a good example of how a retail business can become a destination store for a niche product, if the product is known to be superior.

The Collector is owned by Pala International, founded by gem and mineral connoisseur William Larson, who purchased three San Diego gem mines in 1968. The most important gem mined there is tourmaline.

The Collector is a destination store in the middle of nowhere, an area that sales associate Geri Vigil refers to as "the boonies." But it's so well known as a specialist in colored gemstones that it pulls in customers from all over the world.

Vigil says retailers interested in specializing in colored stones must educate themselves and their staffs. "Unless you are willing to do that, then you're kind of like everyone else who is selling by saying, 'Isn't that a pretty design?' What's pretty to me may not be pretty to someone else."

Advertising focuses on the Internet, the store has tight ties to the GIA, and its gemstones have been exhibited at the Smithsonian and in museums in France and Canada. One of The Collector's biggest marketing tools is its website, which Vigil describes as "like walking into a library."

NICHE>NICHE>BRIDAL

ALARA
Bozeman and Missoula, MT
Owner: BABS NOELLE

DURING HER TRAVELS in 2009, Babs Noelle began to realize that many jewelers she met referred to themselves as bridal specialists. She also realized that no one in her Montana market had gone out of their way to claim that particular title. So she started an ad campaign, including TV, Facebook and fliers at local universities, based on an idea for a promotion she read about in INSTORE: Pray for Rain, in which the cost of a couple's engagement-ring purchase is refunded if it rains or snows a designated amount on their wedding day.

"In the meantime, I also had beefed up the selection of bridal, added designers and made more samples of pieces I had made in the past," Noelle says. "But at the beginning of the campaign we had no more bridal merchandise than we had before we started the ad campaign, but by gum, all of a sudden, we were the go-to bridal store. People come in and say, "I heard you were the store to come to for an engagement ring - and they are hearing that from an ad I produced myself."

Her decision, with a minimal investment in advertising and stock, brought a 30 to 40 percent increase in revenue.

Now Noelle periodically features a bridal window display, something she had never done before. "It really was all about claiming the territory," Noelle says.

NICHE>NICHE>CAD/CAM

JEWELSMITHS
Pleasant Hill and San Ramon, CA
Owner: GREG STOPKA



GREG STOPKA SELLS imagery - not inventory - in his design studio.

Stopka, an early adopter of Gemvision's Digital Goldsmith, invested enough time in learning the CAD software program that he was able to transform his operation from five repair shops to two custom-design studios.

"What I use the programs for now is the visualization, communication and presentation aspect of my business because the program has the ability to render creative designs in photo-realistic properties."

He uses the photos he produces as slide shows and digital portfolios on touchscreens in his store, and in newspaper and magazine ads, too.

"Overhead, LCD screens run constantly and show the designs," he says. "People come in and they look at these things and think they are real. We sit down with a client in front of the monitor and we creatively sell them."

While intensive training on CAD is essential to specialization, Stopka believes the software needs to become simpler in a hurry. Otherwise, busy jewelers just won't have the time for something he considers to be more than a niche. "I believe it is the direction the small independent jeweler is going to have to go to survive," Stopka says. "What the economy has done is force jewelers to make the choice much sooner."

NICHE>BEADS

CATHY COOK JEWELRY
Vidor, TX
Owner: CATHY COOK

CATHY COOK KNEW she was doing something right when her December 2008 sales surged 80 percent over the previous December.

In part, she attributed the increase to her graduate gemologist training, which set her apart from most other jewelers in her town, and the fact her business, in its third year, was still relatively new.

But much of the credit goes to her booming business in beads.

Cook first noticed the bead frenzy five years ago in a store in Louisiana.

"I thought whatever that stuff is, when I open a store, I'm going to get it," Cook recalls. "Being a new store I knew we had to have something to drive traffic and I knew it had to be Pandora. You're hitting all price points and ladies of all ages love the versatility of it." It helps to have an eye for design and an interest in fashion, since bead shoppers want advice.

She got the word out through direct mail, TV, radio and newspaper. Cook even called a local TV station with an offer to provide holiday gift-giving advice and, as a result, appeared on a popular morning show.

When she sent out 800 postcard invitations to existing customers, half of them - 400 people in a community of 11,000 - showed up for a two-day trunk show.

It helps, too, that she has a great location. "We're on Main Street and there's a traffic light next to us, so everybody stops here at the red light and sees the posters in the window."