Building the natural diamond dream: Creating stories to inspire aspiration in millennials

The Natural Diamond Council outlined the creatives required to push young buyers to buy diamonds at the Retail Jeweller World Dubai Forum 2021

They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend. The epithet held true throughout last year, when after the pandemic, gold prices went through the roof. Suddenly, there were a lot more people leaning towards diamond jewellery as a luxury item, and in all, a completely new segment of buyers — the millennials — came up who cemented the diamond industry’s foothold in the sector.

Such a time calls for more effort and improved marketing strategies for all diamond retailers. The Middle East, which is a hub for jewellers and potential buyers who come in from all corners of the earth to partake in the pleasure of owning a piece of ‘the precious’ from the UAE, is more so under the spotlight in creating the urge within buyers to purchase the forever gemstone.

The Retail Jeweller World Dubai Forum 2021 was not oblivious to the fact and invited Natural Diamond Council, the stellar organization that takes care of every jeweller’s diamond dream. Sponsored by top mining companies like De Beers, Alrosa and Rio Tinto, the company caters to every jeweller’s marketing strategies. Richa Singh, the managing director of Natural Diamond Council, came up on stage to share her knowledge on “Building the natural diamond dream and creating consumer desirability for diamonds”.

When the forum happened the last time, the organization was called The Diamond Producers’ Association. With a great rebranding strategy, they came to call themselves The Natural Diamond Council later, to impress upon the consumer’s desire to buy more natural gemstones. “We have been working with the industry to live the diamond dream. During the discussion at the last edition of the forum, we realized that jewellery was no longer among the top five on the luxury list for consumers. People today are more keen on travelling or visiting a Michelin Star restaurant. In our zeal to go bigger and deeper, are we alienating our existing customers? So, we revamped ourselves and tried to find what luxury is to a new world,” said Singh.

Singh pointed at the generation in the age group of 18-40 years, which has a new thirst to live. “As an industry body, we want to work with all of you. After the pandemic, new things have come to the fore, and naturality is top of the list. There is a newfound respect for nature. Everything natural is appreciated now. The younger generation wants to buy from brands that are purposeful and sustainable. People are talking about how they want fewer and better things. It is not necessarily a big moment, but the smaller ones that they want to make memorable. This sentiment can be mined when it comes to fine jewellery,” she said.

Singh outlined the council’s projects. “We are industry-centric but most of our work is consumer centric. We are the one-stop shop for anything to do with diamonds. We are here to build an emotional dream globally. We help with marketing and public relations. We tell consumers about all what good the people in the industry are doing. We launched our first global campaign in July with Ana de Armas. The idea was we elevate ourselves to match any global brand. We built up around it to form a platform called Only Natural Diamonds,” she said.

Why can’t the jewellery industry create stories like the fashion industry does, and urges people to shop for new apparel multiple times in a year? “We create enough stories like fashion does. Why don’t we have four collections of jewellery every year. While brainstorming on this, we came up with a concept called T-shirt diamonds. This is a collection that is millennial-friendly and can be worn with T-shirts, a new generation go-to. They can be solitaire studs, or a minimal bracelet, stacked rings, or even a chunky necklace. Every piece is unique to an individual’s style, depending on their vibe. The collection wanted to keep up the desirability for diamonds with a simple message — you can wear a diamond with anything. This also tells the world that there is a way to accentuate yourself in your way and it is possible to create diamonds according to your style,” said Singh.

Like most other panelists and speakers, Singh also stressed on the importance of story-telling to sell your piece. “Love stories are the most-watched segments on our websites and gets us maximum traction. The idea is, whoever speaks about a topic should be an experts in their field for a holistic coverage,” she said.

Natural Diamond Council had 25 million visits on the Indian website last year. “People spend a good amount of time on our articles. We touched 2.2 million website visits in January. We have showcased 97 brands. We are also doing first reveals for brands who are willing to share the inspiration behind their collections. We have started showcasing designers. As an industry we should not be questioning the craftsmanship of the industry. We explain the difference between different stones. We also picked out the ten most-searched questions on diamonds that people ask on Google and had experts answering them. We got designers, retailers, young and old people talking about how one should choose their first solitaire,” Singh said.

Every piece of jewellery has a story and has a meaning. So, Natural Diamond Council picked people who are your everyday diamond buyers and have a strong personality. This helps the consumer connect more than a high-end celebrity. “These are strong women who are not influencers, but big believers in diamonds and value their jewellery. There is a fashion designer, a business woman, a teacher, for instance. The idea is to show how it is styled and can be styled. The press picks up such stories organically. We have women from remote areas too like the North West who otherwise get very little to no air time,” said Singh.

Singh said that her company has started doing trend reports, independently and with big fashion publications like. They covered 40 jewellers this year. They also did a series on the concept of “new heirlooms” which spin a new tale on heirloom pieces, so that the heritage of the wearer remains intact but can be styled according to their individual needs.

In the end, she summarized the consumer trends in the diamond industry today. “The young consumer loves diamonds. They need a trigger and here we are trying to make a cue for them to buy. Digital is no longer just a part of your media plan. It is the only plan if you want to reach the new target audience. Also, content cannot be a single piece. Millennials are looking for new things and want to believe that they are ahead of the curve. For them, celebrities are still influential,” she said.  

Courtesy: Retail Jeweller World News