Jewelers of America is working with the jewelry industry as a whole to grab the interest of affluent young women, and focus it on fashionable, fine jewelry.
The goal is to launch a generic advertising campaign to generate awareness and affinity for consumer jewelry purchases that would be on the level of the “Got Milk” ad campaign.
Dave Bonaparte, Amanda Gizzi and Molly Fallon of the Jewelers of America, along with industry consultant Mark Smelzer, have been working over the past two years to bring such a campaign to life. They outlined their progress during a session called “Update on the Jewelers of America Consumer Marketing Initiative” during the American Gem Society Conclave last week in Seattle.
“Let’s come together as an industry to tell the same story,” Fallon said. “By promoting this, everyone should benefit.”
The tagline they’ve begun to test is called “Another Piece of Your Story,” developed by the advertising firm Cramer-Krasselt, and based on the idea that there’s an emotional connection with jewelry that’s far different from how consumers relate to any other luxury product. Each piece of jewelry a woman chooses to wear becomes another piece of her identity.
And of course, affluent, self-purchasing women are recognized as having largely untapped potential in the jewelry industry.
Working with a market-research firm, they identified one target audience of 30-something, jewelry enthusiasts, married with children, living in a city or suburb, with a higher household income. They represent 8 percent of the population.
The other target is 20-something women, who are single, with a higher household income who have been largely indifferent to jewelry. They represent 11 percent of the population.
Also integral to the campaign are the following research points:
Authenticity is a top-ranked value among women.
Wearability is important as the culture becomes more casual: 40 percent of women 18 to 34 like to mix and match expensive pieces with inexpensive pieces.
Sixty-eight percent of women 18 to 34 buy fine jewelry to treat themselves, an activity they see as empowering, personal and also view as an investment strategy.
For example, women who buy diamonds for themselves today represent one-third of all diamond jewelry sales in the U.S., a $43 billion diamond market that grew 4 percent in 2017, according to De Beers Group data.
Harold Dupuy of Stuller, who spoke in a separate Conclave session about “Jewelry Industry Insights,” said that the average sales ticket in that category is $1,300. Generally, women are buying on impulse or for a personal milestone. Nearly half are buying fine diamond jewelry with no specific occasion in mind.
The Diamond Producers Association is also focused intently this year on female self-purchasers with “For Me, From Me,” its third wave of the Real is Rare, Real is a Diamond marketing campaign.
Conclave featured speaker Kelly McDonald said that women who like what they buy – no matter what it is — also have a multiplier effect. “Women are exceedingly enthusiastic about sharing whatever they like or don’t like. They’ll tell a million people either way. Women trust other women, even women they don’t know.”
Appropriately, the JA ad campaign will reflect that research by including a focus on influencers as well as more traditional forms of marketing.
JA is currently seeking funding from within the jewelry industry to test this ad concept over the summer in a single market in Los Angeles, representing five zip codes with a high percent of JA jewelry store members, a high household income, a high percentage of millennials and a high amount of social conversation that focuses on jewelry.
Matthew Tratner, GIA’s global director of business development, says a successful generic ad campaign can help the whole jewelry industry. “If more jewelry gets sold, it helps everyone in the room.”
For more information, contact Amanda Gizzi, director of PR & Events for Jewelers of America, agizzi@jewelers.org. To become a sponsor, contact Mark Smelzer, mark@marksmelzer.com