DPA released a new poll.
When buying luxury goods such as diamonds, millennial women are looking for authenticity and long-term value, according to a new study commissioned by the Diamond Producers Association.
The poll of nearly 1,000 millennial women found that nearly 9 in 10 (89 percent) look for authenticity in such items. This tendency was even greater among high-earning millennials, with 85 percent saying they would be embarrassed knowing that they owned a knock-off, especially for luxury items.
Millennial women seek long-term value – emotionally and financially – from such purchases. Seventy-five percent saw diamond jewelry as an investment in themselves and 82 percent saw it as a long-term investment. Among the highest-earning millennials ($150,000+) these numbers these numbers were higher, at 94 percent and 91 percent, respectively.
The DPA said these statistics help explain why millennial self-purchase of diamonds continues to grow. A recent De Beers report stated that self-purchase by U.S. millennials accounted for 31 percent of all non-bridal diamond sales in 2015, compared with 25 percent in 2013.
“Millennial consumers in particular are defining luxury beyond price,” said Deborah Marquardt, chief marketing officer for the DPA. “When evaluating luxury purchases, they seek items that are genuine, unique and not mass-produced, and have inherent meaning and value. This preference speaks directly to the diamond promise – in an increasingly artificial world diamonds remain authentic, rare and precious.”
Luxury goods offer modern women a way to visually express their self-confidence, with 66 percent of millennial women saying they feel more confident in themselves when wearing diamond jewelry, according to DPA.
On behalf of DPA’s “Real is a Diamond,” the survey was conducted online by KRC Research from July 10 to July 14 among 995 millennial women between the ages of 18-34 in the U.S. with a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.