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What’s In a Name?
The Brand Naming of Diamonds
Whether most people
realize it or not the diamond industry has been going through a
revolution over the past few years. From Baked Diamonds1,
Bonded Diamonds2, to Color Typing3, the diamond industry
is going through a major face-lift. And it isn't over yet. It
won't be long before
the slogan "A Diamond is Forever" will be replaced with
" A DeBeers Diamond is Forever" or some other name brand
or stamp to segregate themselves from the pack.
No longer will any
large diamond conglomerate do generic advertising that will benefit
the new competitors on the block. With DeBeers strangle hold of
the world's diamond market barely at 60% from their good old days
of 85%, their long held monopoly is over.Other players like Argyle
Diamond Mines from Australia, Ekati from Canada and the Russian
United Syndicate
are staking their claim to a piece of the polished diamond pie.
What this means to the consumer is, each diamond
syndicate will be stating why their diamonds meet a higher level
of excellence then their competitors. Soon you'll be doing the "Pepsi
Challenge" but with diamonds. I can just see the ads now. Let
me set the stage. A dark candle-lit restaurant; cherries jubilee
have just been served, the Dom Perignon has been poured; then you'll
see a dark haired man with chiseled good looks say "Darling,
you are the light that engulfs my life. Would you make me the happiest
man in the world and be my wife". At that moment he'll pop
open a little black box and reveal a beautiful diamond engagement
ring. The next thing you'll see is her closing the box and handing
it back and say "Listen baby, if I'm not good enough for an
original DeBeers diamond, the King of Diamonds, then I'm going to
have to say No!" At that moment the narrator will say "Why
would you take a chance on a copy cat when a DeBeers original is
where it's at. A DeBeers diamond when our one of a kind meets your
one of a kind!" Oh, brother!!
The thought of this
sickens me but I know its coming. With the breakup of the DeBeers
monopoly, DeBeers has no choice but to start marketing their diamonds
as the first, the best, the original. Whether they will use their
famous DeBeers name or market under another name remains to be seen.
Through a massive media campaign which has already started in the
U.K. DeBeers will try to intimate that they choose only the purest
ripest, most succulent diamonds in the world. (Maybe they'll team
up with Sunkist) That their standard of excellence supercedes the
Canadians, the Australians or the Russians.
Listen folks, regardless
of where you dig up a diamond or who mines it, a diamond is a diamond.
Slick advertising campaigns may have convinced women from here
to
Japan that a diamond deserves to be on their wish list but to say
that one brand name diamond, like the Millennium diamond, is better
than another of the same quality just because of who is selling
it is ridiculous.
Every diamond syndicate
will be selling great diamonds, good diamonds and crappy ones, Don't
let the new advertising onslaught that is to come convince you otherwise.
Every consumer will still have to go over the 4 C's and warranties
on any diamond they might consider buying regardless of what label
is stuck on the rock. Is Coke better than Pepsi? You decide, but
is a DeBeers diamond better than an Argyle diamond? The answer is
No!
Footnotes
1. A Baked diamond
is a diamond that has been heat treated to remove nitrogen or boron
from a diamond to improve its color. Baked diamonds are brittle
and less valuable.
2. A Bonded diamond
is a diamond that is fully warranted by the jeweler and covers breakage,
buy back, exchange and authenticity.
3. Color typing
is the divisioning of individual color grades into types to more
accurately assess the diamonds nitrogen context.
by Fred Cuellar,
author of the best-selling book "How to Buy a Diamond." More questions?
Ask the Diamond Guy®
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