June 1999
Managing:Diamonds
Millennium: Magnify & Maximize
Now is the time to plan how to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity
By Diane Warga-Arias
Diamond Promotion Service training Expert
As we bridge the gap between millennia, every occasion is magnified.
As a global community, we will celebrate everything from the last solar
eclipse of the old millennium to the first-born triplets of the new one.
Along the way, every one of us will mark our own milestone. Many of your
customers will celebrate a significant birthday or anniversary or the birth
of a child near the turn of the century. Even the holidays will be celebrated
with renewed vigor. In fact, the next 18 months will magnify the importance
of moments large and small.
What does this mean to those of us in the business of selling diamonds?
The millennium means every diamond occasion is more important, more intensely
felt than ever. Many women who experience a milestone birthday think about
a diamond to mark the occasion. A significant birthday during the millennium
justifies considering an important diamond. This same importance is attached
to significant anniversaries, whether the first, fifth, 10th, 25th, 30th,
40th or 50th.
Pulling the Trigger
De Beers' research has shown consumer desire starts with a trigger, some
idea that perhaps a diamond gift is appropriate for an upcoming occasion.
The appropriateness of a diamond as the perfect commemorative for the millennium
is part of the De Beers' marketing campaign this year. Designed to trigger
desire, advertising and special events will highlight the diamond as the
ultimate millennium keepsake.
Once customers decide they might desire a diamond, they begin to consider
the purchase. But customers will weigh the choice against other spending
or investment options. Remember they're being bombarded with millennium
messages to spend their money on everything from exotic travel and luxury-edition
cars to collectibles ranging from Christmas stockings to figurines.
How can you position yourself to rise above the din and become the chosen
source of diamonds, the ultimate millennium collectible?
- Be Ahead of the Crowd. Planning is everything when it comes
to being first in your customer's mind. Get your message out early. Customers
need to have time to focus on wanting a millennium memento, then they can
consider why a diamond will be their choice. Start this month to design
merchandising and marketing plans to take full advantage.
- Target existing customers. Use direct mail or personal contact
to get the millennium diamond occasion message out to existing customers.
Your best source of increased diamond sales are customers who already know
and trust you. You may want to design a campaign that makes several contacts
with these customers. The first contact could trigger desire for a millennium-occasion
diamond. Later contacts should reinforce this desire and suggest appropriate
merchandise.
- Design a strong point-of-sale message. Every customer who comes
through your door or peers in your windows should experience a millennium
message. Suggesting diamonds as the perfect gift for the millennium is
the perfect message for your windows and in-case displays. Many jewelers
have developed millennium diamond jewelry collections that highlight solitaires
of exceptional rarity and beauty. Of course, your sales associates must
know how to suggest a diamond for the millennium and how to maximize every
diamond sale.
Look to DPS for Support
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Check the Diamond Promotion Service booth at the summer trade shows
for the latest in advertising and marketing for the millennium opportunity.
This is the most exciting opportunity in 1,000 years to sell diamond
jewelry, and DPS will help you position yourself to do so. The Millennium
Management Resource Guide provides ideas for creating your marketing program
and training your staff.
Talented and skilled sales associates can be your very best marketing
tools for millennium diamonds. |
However, they need the skills and the selling language to maximize diamond
sales during the turn of the millennium. They need a different language
to maximize every diamond-giving occasion throughout 2000.
A free video is included with the purchase of the Millennium Management
Resource Guide. The video helps associates grasp the excitement of the millennium
and is filled with photographs and motivational messages.
– D.W. |
Copyright © 1999 by Bond Communications.
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