Analysis

How Jewelry Businesses are Branding Wrong

Michelle

With more time inside I have been looking at articles about what the future of the jewelry industry and retail will look like. The articles and videos I have seen have almost dreary existence for retail. In an earlier post I mentioned some of the changes stores like Nordstrom were making to adjust to the pandemic. What I have found to be troubling is that these are short term trends and how people are interpreting them and applying them to their brand is misguided. I will look at a prediction from the past and see how you should evaluate it for your brand.

McKinsey published a trend report for the jewelry industry on Feb. 1, 2014 titled, ‘A multifaceted future: The jewelry industry in 2020’. Looking back, it was good about identifying a key trend that I will focus on in this post, branding. Below are the predictions leading up to 2020:

In about 10 years their will be a growth in branded jewelry. Reading the report, you will realize that they are talking about big brands like Prada and Louis Vuitton doing more with jewelry. There is another way to interpret this trend and that is branding will be more important to even smaller businesses. This is evident now with everyone seeming to have an Instagram account and articles telling you how you need to show the ‘personal’ side of your brand for others to relate to.

Current Environment

With recent events the jewelry industry is using their business platform as a political forum and losing sight of the purpose of a business account to share about your business. If you use your account to win a popularity contest or be in with the in crowd you risk diminishing what you built.

People need to see a product not a statement. If you attract only people that agree with you that can work but what happens when you don’t share those same opinions’, or your workers don’t all agree on the subject? Boycotting products or bullying others online to support your cause is not a good way to live; many people work at making those products and may not share those views. It will be hard though to buy from an artisan that is disrespectful as you know who the money is directly going to.

One Direction you can go

In my opinion you should focus on the quality and value your brand embodies. If you can build on that you will be ahead of many small jewelry brands who try and say that ‘I am just like you buy from me!’ There are lots of counter arguments and I have heard many, but it should be the individual that makes the decision not a business dictating their stance. That is where real change will happen treating others kindly that you come across.

If you need help refocusing you brand please reach out to me: data.inthe.rough@gmail.com. Stay safe and I will be writing again next week!

Why starting a Project because you have the time is a Bad Strategy

Michelle

It’s hard to avoid the topic of the current events taking place. Many of you reading are probably in the same situation as I am requested to stay in to ‘flatten the curve’. I’ve enjoyed saving time by not commuting to work but I’m not embracing it as much as others. I have noticed several businesses trying to update their Instagram accounts more, email messages of how they are responding to Covid-19 etc. It’s good to see businesses trying to adapt but what will become of these strategies once the quarantine is over?

If you are thinking of starting a new project something to think about; is it because you have the time now? If it deals with your business would you still have pursued this if the extra time had not presented itself? No? Why? Because you did not have the time but didn’t your business still need this? See where I’m getting at. If it is important to your business you need to make the time. It’s easy to do this now that the time is available but unfortunately you are competing with lots of other businesses doing the same as you.

I started a project in November, put it on hold and started up again in March. It’s been harder the second time around but I need to do this for my business. I have a personal Instagram account that I put jewelry on that currently has over 23,000 followers. I started it before Facebook took it over and messed with the algorithm so I had a head start in growing my following versus others that started later. Now I want to get more involved with Instagram strategy and focus more on driving insights in the Jewelry Industry with data. So I am starting a new Instagram business account for my consulting agency and blog : Data in the Rough

My new IG business account

It’s got a few posts and a very small following but it’s an experiment and a way to improve my business. I have already thought of my strategy to maintain a following and increase engagement when I have to resume my commute. It’s important to make good use of this time, don’t be like the articles below:

I did a search for news on jewelry and came across two articles reporting the same issue. There is a lot wrong here but two things that are glaring why are the reports so off on the amount of jewelry licked? Also why is a grocery store even selling jewelry at a time like this? I would use that space to stock sanitizers, those will fly off the shelves quicker than the jewels. Again there is so much more that is wrong with this.

For the lesson to apply don’t try and over due your attempts for attention, big sales and guest speakers are ok but try and connect with your customers who may be suffering financially too. One more thing I saw a new trend of crafting your own jewelry in a Yahoo article some of it’s cute but some of the hand made and sustainable pieces are going too far. To see what I mean head to my Instagram account: Data in the Rough Looking forward to posting again soon!

Why doesn’t the Jewelry Industry put out a Superbowl Ad?

Why doesn’t the Jewelry Industry put out a Superbowl Ad?

Michelle

Last month roughly 102 million people watched the Super Bowl and 23.6 million tuned in to see the glamour, gowns and winners of the Oscars. Town and Country put out it’s February 2020 edition with the 3rd Annual Jewelry Awards and after the first two events I thought, who is this really reaching, and should the Jewelry Industry think about a different strategy to reach consumers?

I’ve done a more detailed analysis on the last two awards issues here and here last year. This time I’m going to ask some bigger questions that might get you thinking about how you want to market your company. Let’s first look at how Town and Country presented the awards this year.

Town and Country Jewelry Awards

The small mention of the Jewelry Awards on the cover (it gets smaller every year), had the statement: The right way to spend your money.  The first thought I had was investment pieces, but the pages showed off jewels that lacked a proper description of why you should spend for these jewels. I was also hoping for more on future designers but only about a quarter of a page with 4 designers sharing the small spotlight making it feel more like a passing thought.

T&C February Cover

The Editor’s Letter talked about the Dresden Green diamond that was not part of the crown jewels of Saxony that were stolen on November 25. The diamond was loaned to The Metropolitan Museum for the current exhibit, Making Marvels. The editor talked about how the exhibit embodies the, ‘link between technological innovation and social prestige.’ The hope was that the awards would also show some innovative designs. The pieces were nice but if no one really knows what goes into it or how valuable the materials are then there is not much prestige or social admiration for the wearer. Jewelry is a more of personal object but if you didn’t want others to see it you wouldn’t wear it.

Overall, I don’t think the issue did that great of a job educating the reading and putting a proper spotlight on the designer. The issue could have really show cased the process and the person behind the designs. With more people looking to lab diamonds for their engagement rings, show that these designers are responsibly sourcing materials and labor would be a plus in helping diminish the bad reputation the Jewelry Industry gets on mining.

Demographics of different Medias

Looking at other places to advertise the Superbowl 2019 saw 98.2 million viewers 39.95 were between the ages of 18-49. The 2020 age demographics are not in yet, but we can look at this as about 40% of viewers are between 18-49. The Oscars only had 23.6 million viewers and saw a major drop in there 2020 viewership for 18-49-year olds, in 2019 the viewership was 29.6 million. Looking at Town & Country’s media kit, their readership is 638,000 and the median age is 49.7, skewing two-thirds (66%) female.

Why the Jewelry Industry needs to think inside the box

Depending on what you are selling and who you hope to attract, being in Town & Country if you sell jewelry might be great for you but for the industry not so much. The Oscars are still good for exposure but with drops in viewership and the controversy it can bring it doesn’t allow for controlling your brand as much if you are a designer. The emphasis on reaching younger consumers the Jewelry Industry needs to look at ways to get people talking more positively about jewelry and thinking of it more than just a one-off item you buy for marriage. So why not have a Super bowl ad? I know cost is an issue but there are other alternatives; YouTube ads that you need the audience’s opinion on, create a social media campaign that puts couples in the ad or something else that gets people excited! The focus needs to be how to make jewelry a part of the wearer’s life so the over used response of, ‘It’s beautiful but where would I wear it’ comes less into play.

How I can help

If you are looking for ways to reach your audience and need help in seeing how effective it was then please look me up on Instagram and reach out to me. As a business analyst with several years of Retail Industry experience the questions of how to improve reach affect all sizes of businesses. Let me know your thoughts or questions below and thank you for reading Data in the Rough!

Diamond Shoes: Stuart Weitzman Marketing Genius

Michelle
Weitzman being introduced at Mass Art for talk held April 2, 2019

What would you think if you saw a pair of shoes designed with one million dollars’ worth of diamonds walk across a stage? You might be clapping or oohing and awing, but if you were me, you’d thought what a great way to market to a younger group! Stuart Weitzman visited the Massachusetts College of Art & Design yesterday to give a talk about himself and his company. I want to look at a few topics dealing with Stuart Weitzman’s marketing strategy that can apply to all industries!

Weitzman’s beginnings

Weitzman talked about taking a more traditional path with plans to go to school and heading to Wall Street afterwards. A friend whose father owned a shoe manufacturing company saw Weitzman’s drawing skills (a hobby at the time) and encouraged him to draw some shoe designs to sell to his father. Weitzman was honest and detailed about his process, the designs he came up with were from researching the company he was trying to design for and thinking of what would appeal to the customer. The day arrived and Weitzman laid out his drawings for the friend’s father to judge. The father picked up one drawing and said, ‘Did you trace this?’. Weitzman could honestly say none of the drawings were copies and traced from another designer, these were all his. The man looked at the picture again tore it up, crumpled it and tossed it to the ground. He then took another drawing, turned it to its blank side and told Weitzman to draw that shoe again. Weitzman did and he was paid for 19 of the 20 drawings. The importance of originality was brought up after this, Weitzman estimated in his career, he had interviewed 15-20 designers and of those only 6 or 7 could replicate a design they had just presented to Weitzman from scratch.

Weitzman was an apprentice for several years and learned the ins and outs of the industry before starting his own business. This is when his true genius comes out, not in his designs but in Weitzman’s marketing strategy. He started by making custom shoes for celebrities. Weitzman had looked at department stores and saw how hard it would be to get his shoes some shelf space. Weitzman saw a need in the market for custom shoes for celebrities because most stylists focused on jewelry and dresses, celebrities at the time bought their shoes from department stores so it was not uncommon to see several celebrities with the same shoe. That all changed with Aretha Franklin the night she won the American Music Award in 1983. You can read more on it here. Look at that marketing! After that Weitzman was getting plenty of orders.

Publicity that got Weitzman into the celebrity designer market. Aretha Franklin pictured at AMA in 1983 with her designer shoes by Weitzman

Marketing to Celebrities

Then came 2005 and the hottest actress at the time was left for Angelina Jolie. For those that can remember the beginning of the Jen-Brad-Angelina drama. The divorce was not finalized until 2008 and Weitzman wanted his shoes on Jennifer Aniston. However, Aniston never shopped Weitzman’s store, so Weitzman found out the store she did shop at and collaborated with them to create a shoe for Jen. Jen liked it and the wedge espadrille was worn throughout the summer of 2009. Weitzman even got a two-page spread in People Magazine with Aniston’s many looks with the shoe in the early stages of the recession. This was all free advertising due to Weitzman’s marketing strategy.

Weitzman talks about the wedge he designed for a store that Jennifer Aniston shopped at

He did a similar strategy to get Kate Moss to model his shoes by working with Mario Testino to create an ad campaign.

Weitzman also noted how you can not overlook the marketing of smaller stars. Weitzman mentioned how a few years back his marketing team wanted him to stop making custom shoes for TV stars, but Weitzman did not see the harm in it. They may not have the star power of Kate Moss, but they did bring some visibility and you don’t know they could be a famous movie star one day. His belief paid off; the TV show that his company was working with was Suits, filmed in Canada and once had Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s current wife. Markle frequently wears Weitzman’s shoes along with her sister-in-law Kate Middleton.

Weitzman talks about how he got Meghan Markle as a client

Creating buzz with an original idea

Stuart Weitzman wasn’t done winning over the crowd in the auditorium he then talked about creating a pair of million-dollar shoes for the Oscars in 2002, worn by Laura Harring. He could have got a bigger name at that time to wear his shoes, but he knew a less popular star up for an award would want to show off the shoes to get more attention. These shoes were created with one million dollars’ worth of diamonds and gained a lot of attention! The celebrity that helped promote the shoes the most was Joan Rivers! Weitzman recalls watching Rivers interview Angelina Jolie and interrupting their talk to see the diamond shoes on Harring! This was no surprise to me considering how much Joan loved jewelry!

Weitzman talking about actress wearing $1 million diamond shoes

The talk wasn’t over yet, Weitzman brings out a couple of pairs of shoes one being the diamond pair he just talked about to be modeled by a lady in the audience. 

Audience member modeling Weitzman Diamond Shoes

Final thoughts

Weitzman really seemed to enjoy speaking to the group and ran a little over but was happy to take questions. After he finished and I was heading back to my apartment I caught myself going to his online store. I realized how effective his talk was and knew I wasn’t alone. A girl near me asked her friends, “How did they get Stuart Weitzman?” Weitzman may have been doing the school a favor but after his talk I think he had things he could benefit from by giving the talk. Besides the free publicity, his company is probably looking for fresh talent and what a way to recruit than by giving a speech like he did with all the celebrities and glittery events! I imagine many of the students in that auditorium will be dreaming of employment at Stuart Weitzman. To me Stuart Weitzman is more than a shoe designer, he is a marketing genius!

If you are looking to improve your business and marketing strategy reach out to me, data.inthe.rough@gmail.com. I would love to help you build a better business with my many years of experience as an analyst and consultant. Thank you for reading and I hope you return soon! If you’re in the Boston area check out Boston Design week, this group helped sponsored the talk that I am able to share with you.

Marina B adds E-commerce to their Website

Michelle

Luxury and e-commerce have always been a little tricky. The brand wants to retain some mystery but still be visible to customers and aspirational buyers. Apparel has done better with adapting to social media and online sales, jewelry again has been slow to adopt new ways of doing business. Last month though Marina B updated their website and added e-commerce! If you follow David Webb, they also updated their website increasing their pieces offered that can be bought online. JCK covered it in an article from late January.

In this post I will look at some of the features on Marina B’s website, the product offerings and where they may move towards in the future with e-commerce.

The Website

The home page draws you in with Marina B’s bright colors a signature of the brand’s design. Scrolling through the page you see some of the three collections that are on the online shop: Trisola, Trisolina, and Luna.

Then you come to the Jewelry for Muses. I like seeing the celebrities that have worn Marina B through the years, but I think that this is one area that the Marina B team may want to reconsider next time. I would like to see those similar pieces when I click on the photo or see a place above devoted to ‘Who Wore It’ or ‘Worn by’. One site to consider is Kenneth Jay Lane (KJL) who has numerous celebrities wear his jewels. An example of how his site incorporates the story and the sale is Elizabeth Taylor and her famous pendant earring bought by Mike Todd. The Adverturine has more on the history, but here is the KJL version.

A photo of the celebrity wearing the jewels and the product for sale on the site.

Marina B could use Elizabeth Taylor as well who was a customer of Marina B. Marina could mention that the Portanova Diamond Ear Pendants brought in $572,500 at the 2011 Christie’s Auction. Then the website can show that variety as well as other variations of this classic showstopping earring.

A feature that I like as you scroll further is some of the Marina B book by Viviane Jutheau de Witt is available online. It is an out of print book that you can look for on Amazon or Ebay. Ebay is where I bought my copy!

You reach the end of the site to see where the Marina B boutique is located and the hours. Was thrilled to see that they are open to the public Monday through Friday! The picture is visually appealing and is making me consider a mini trip to NYC to see the space!

The Products

A quick look at the products online for sale. The table below gives the type and range of prices for the collection and types.

Trisolina is the largest collection ranging from price points of $2,150-$27,500. A few pieces from Trisolina.

The collection ranges from $1,400 to $27,500. The product mix is heavy on rings and bracelets/bangles. I would look at offering more earrings, they are so iconic and show off Marina B’s amazing designs and engineering ability.

Future of Marina B e-commerce

Overall, I like the site, major improvements from the last one. I hope to see more products and more of Marina B’s story come to the site. Also, I think the site should add a high jewelry section to really show the amazing creations that this house is capable of. Have you looked at the site? What do you like or hope to see improved? If you are looking at branching more into e-commerce or want to redo your online strategy give me an email and I’d love to work with you! Thank you for reading Data in the Rough!

The Added Costs of Jewelry at the Oscars: Looking at the Taylor-Burton Diamond

Michelle

Lots of excitement surrounded Lady Gaga for wearing the Tiffany Yellow Diamond last worn by Audrey Hepburn. Several articles on seeing this stunning piece were covered by JCK, Independent, and Town & Country .   Lady Gaga’s jewelry and performance will be looked backed on for many years but you wonder if it’s worth the cost? Business of Fashion put out an article titled, Does Oscar Fashion Still Matter? (accessible only to BOF Professional subscribers) Drawing attention to some of the numbers a recent poll referenced in the article found 44% of Americans did not watch the awards show red carpet coverage. I was in those numbers. Of the 56% that did only 6% said they watched for the fashion. (This was a sample size of 2,203) So how much does the jewelry matter? And what is the cost to a jewelry house? I can’t get specific numbers of current celebs, but I want to look back at one of the most famous red-carpet jewel and star, Elizabeth Taylor at the 1970 Oscars wearing the famous Taylor-Burton Diamond.

Elizabeth Taylor presenting at 1970 Oscars

Brief Background on Taylor-Burton Diamond

The Taylor-Burton Diamond has been mentioned by Taylor in books and interviews. The cost of the jewel was disclosed at being $1,050,000 in 1969 bought from Cartier. Taylor wore this 69.42 carat pear with diamond set necklace to the 1970 Oscars accompanied by her husband and actor Richard Burton.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor at 1970 Oscars, Taylor wearing Taylor-Burton Diamond

Taylor presented that year so many people got to see this piece on display. The cost of insuring it was $1 million by Lloyd’s of London. Taylor could wear the diamond out 30 days of the year, for all others it was locked in a safe. The diamond was sold in 1979 for between $3-$5 million to New York jeweler, Henry Lambert who sold it that same year to jewelry house Mouawad for close to $5 million.

The Added Cost of High Jewelry

Since the numbers are not available for the Tiffany Diamonds cost to be out, I will look at what it cost Elizabeth Taylor to wear that gem out.

I mentioned above the numbers from that time period, but I want to adjust them for inflation, so we see the price in today’s dollars.  You can check out other prices from the CPI calculator I found online here.

Tiffany Diamond Estimate

The Tiffany Diamond is 128 carats and valued at over $30 million by a CBS report. The diamond has not been out since the Audrey Hepburn stills for Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1962. My guess is that Tiffany bought an insurance policy for this event and if Lady Gaga did not already have jeweler’s insurance she likely signed off that she would be financially responsible if something were to happen. I found an article detailing more about celebrity jewelry policies here. This is one of the main reason stars don’t own their jewelry. The cost would likely be much greater than Taylor’s piece.

Tiffany Press

Will this really boost Tiffany’s bottom line? The reason for exposure at an award show is to create brand awareness to sell to those watching these shows. Since Tiffany is a publicly traded company, I will take a peak at their first and second quarter financials when they become available. I would be interested in seeing how the Tiffany Diamond is mentioned and displayed in the store with this new celebrity connection. What I wouldn’t give to see the numbers on the foot traffic over the year in the NYC Fifth Avenue store!

Final Thoughts

So far, the response seems mostly positive following Hepburn is a hard act, but Tiffany is trying to make their industry relevant which benefits more than Tiffany. If you are looking at new ways to market your product and need some guidance on how to measure its effectiveness. Also, if you need help making sure you are accounting for all your costs when launching a campaign or starting a new business venture. Contact me at data.inthe.rough@gmail.com ! Thank you for reading this post and for all the Elizabeth Taylor fans out there I didn’t forget Dame Taylor’s birthday tomorrow!  Return soon for more Data in the Rough!

Jewelry Store Windows on 5th Avenue Welcoming Wealth and Prosperity

Michelle

In my last post I mentioned that the Valentine Displays were a little lite on 5th Avenue. Several jewelry store windows were decorated for the Chinese New Year that started on February 5th. For this post I will look at a few factors of why that is and see if those were good reasons for the stores visual merchandising strategy. The two factors I am focusing on are spending for these holiday’s and the number of stores present in the USA and China.

Valentine’s versus Chinese New Year spending

Valentine’s is a major retail holiday in the us in terms of spending. The National Retail Federation put out some data on Valentine’s spending. Below are some highlights.

Notice the expected percentage celebrating in 2019 dropped to about 51% but total expected spending ($20.7 billion) increased versus last year. So that means spending per person is up. It’s worth noting that when breaking the data down by gender men outspend women on Valentine gifts.

Spending per person for Valentine’s Day is expected to increase 12.8% versus 2018 which comes to a total of $161.96.

Those are good numbers, but they do not come close to Asian countries celebrating the New Year. An article published this week by CNBC did a survey with several Asian countries to see on average how much they were planning to spend for this year. Below is a table summarizing the findings:

As you can see even the lowest average per person spend (Indonesia) is almost 5 times a US Valentine spender’s budget. China’s numbers were not available, but the total spend estimate was. The article is quoted at estimating China’s total spend at ‘just under $140 billion. in retail and catering services over the week-long holiday’. Above the National Retail Federation listed the US Valentine total expected spend at $20.7 billion.

This is no surprise about China’s spending power, they have over a billion people. But will changing the window displays in the US jewelry stores really make that big of an impact? What is the brand presence of these high-end jewelry brands in China?

Number of US stores vs Chinese stores

Walking down 5th Avenue and noting all the new year decorations in many of the jewelry store windows I decided to go online to get a count of the number of stores that these jewelry brands had in the US versus China. Below is the table with my research:

These numbers were found on the respective brands website and only include salons/boutiques not licensed sellers. Hong Kong (HK) is included with mainland China.

All but 2 companies have more Chinese stores than US locations. Tiffany and Harry Winston have more US than Chinese locations. Harry Winston has chosen to celebrate the Chinese New Year and from my previous post Tiffany went with Valentine’s Day.

Brand Strategy

Even though both Tiffany and Harry Winston are American-based brands, Tiffany has a more iconic American brand, so I think it made sense to decorate the stores for an American holiday. Harry Winston is probably hoping like many other stores that their New Year decorations will welcome in the estimated 6.15 million Chinese traveling abroad for the holiday. Tourism abroad is up for China, but the US has felt a decline, a report describing more of that is here. Tiffany is the only publicly traded company on the list so I won’t be able to compare sales results, but I will be interested in seeing Tiffany’s quarterly report for my own curiosity.

Finishing Remarks

The pig in the Chinese Zodiac signifies wealth and prosperity. Hopefully the Jewelry Industry experiences that this year. If you want to restart your new year and revamp your strategy send me an email at: data.inthe.rough@gmail.com . I wish all my readers lots of luck and prosperity in this new year. To end my post, I want to share some of the Chinese New Year displays I have been talking about. Enjoy the pictures below of my NYC window shopping trip last weekend!

  • David Webb Jewelry at Bergdorf Goodman’s
  • Paul Morelli at Bergdorf Goodman
  • Piaget Window Display
  • Breguet Window Display
  • Harry Winston Window Display
  • Harry Winston Yellow Diamond Jewelry
  • Cartier ruby bracelet- one of favorite pieces from window shopping on 5th
  • Cartier display with note in Chinese and English wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

2nd Annual Analysis of Town & Country Jewelry Awards

Michelle

It’s that time of the year again! The 2nd Annual Town & Country Jewelry Award results are in! I analyzed some pieces of the awards last year and you can read it by clicking the link. I’m not going to go through all those points from last year. I want to only look at one main issue I had with the awards and focus on how the awards have moved forward.

If you are a subscriber to Town & Country magazine you probably got a cover like this with your magazine last week.

Anne Hathaway in a multi-colored dress with a long rose gold earring. The rose gold earrings are by Vhernier, named innovator of the year in the Town & Country Jewelry Awards. A great designer but this earring choice was not a great statement of things to come.

The other cover on newsstands was no different in the jewelry department. This time rose gold and jet earring by the same designer, Vhernier.

There was something missing from the cover that I noticed immediately, compared to last year. Here is the last year cover if you don’t remember or if you haven’t read the post from last year.

See in the right-hand corner in red? It is the call out of the Town & Country Jewelry Awards! When I first saw this magazine, I was concerned that the awards were a one-time thing. For me that would be upsetting since I just renewed so I could receive this issue! I think for the Jewelry Awards Issue the accessories should be a bit bolder.

I was pleased to see a change in the voting. Instead of a small panel like last time (where 2 of the judges also won in the Media Category) this time more than 200 ballots were cast among Jewelry designers, collectors, T&C editors, industry experts and influencers. I was not on that list but the editor’s letter by Stellene Volandes mentioned the voting logistics in the first line. I really think this is better than leaving it to a select few that may have other interests involved. For me this issue got off to a better start.

Emmanuel Tarpin behind the scenes from Instagram account

The Categories

A list of the winners to discuss below:

I like that there are 12 categories, not too many but not too few. I do subscribe for the jewelry so I want to see plenty of it. A nice addition to the magazine was some of the categories also have finalists. For colored stones Chopard won, below is a stunning and colorful pair of earrings. The runners up were Irene Neuwirth and Martin Katz.

Chopard Earrings

Some other categories to highlight:

Bulgari’s Wild Pop Collection: Bulgari is using more color in their creations and channeling the 1980’s. I was fortunate enough to walk by the New York store on 5th Avenue and catch some of their masterpieces.

Bulgari Necklace

Tiffany’s Save the Wild Collection: I have been watching this collection since it launched in 2017. Tiffany has animal themed jewelry like the elephant brooch below from their website, in which Tiffany is donating 100% of the profits to the Wildlife Conservation Network, which includes the Elephant Crisis Fund. You can learn more on their website. What I love about this collection is the price range $250-$35,000, so you do not need a lot of money to own a piece of jewelry that gives back to nature.

Tiffany Diamond Elephant Brooch

One category not listed is for social media influencers. Again, I was glad to see the social media panelists no longer choosing the winners. I think that category was unnecessary given how little is proven on how much influence social media has on branding and shopping.

One more amazing Chopard piece from their website

Let me know your thoughts on the magazine. Is there a category you would like to see? I would like a few emerging designers, Town and Country does a lot with main stream, well known jewelry houses, that I think introducing some new faces would help make the magazine feel like a better source of what is happening in the world of jewelry. If you would like to see how to measure social media and its influence in your business send me an email and we can talk about your strategy and business goals. Return later as I get back into a more regular schedule of blogging on Data in the Rough! Thank you for visiting!

Why is the Jewelry Industry obsessed with one ring?

Michelle

The wedding season maybe over for some but as you read this someone is looking for a ring for their significant other to propose marriage. A one time event that the jewelry industry focuses on. A little strange so many jewelers chase after one type of customer when there are other segments of consumers that may be a better fit to pursue. I talk about why there is this focus on the wedding industry and see what may need to come and shake up this long standing tradition for the jewelry industry.

It sounds strange coming from a jewelry blogger but here it goes, I don’t like looking at engagement rings. Solitaire, round, halo, or whatever, if it’s in the bridal section I tend to pass by without a second glance. It’s not that I lack an appreciation for the institution or romance. I love a good rom-com as much as the next person. I’ve even caught myself referencing scenes from iconic movies in my posts. I also love to see the rings of friends and read about celebrities’ engagements, but I don’t browse the bridal section on my own.

Could not pass up some Lord of the Rings references!

Recently I attended a wedding of a close friend. The ceremony was beautiful, the couple was happy, and the food was phenomenal, and it got me thinking why is it that so much emphasis is put on one ring? The ring my friend has is a gorgeous halo ring in white gold. It is a beautiful and costly ring, but it is only one ring and that is all you should need in theory. Yet everyone that I see in the jewelry industry has a bridal collection hoping to sell that one-time ring to a couple. Why is that? The simple reason I get is ‘most people get married’, ‘it is the bread and butter of the jewelry industry’. Many designers start out creating engagement rings for friends, so I see that argument. For the next few months I am going to be looking at the trends in weddings and engagement rings to see how much of this obsession is justified and if there are ways to look at this industry differently that can help you own business or brand.

Gollum isn’t the only one obsessed with a ring!

Wedding Industry is a Red Ocean

If you have taken a business strategy course or enjoy books on market strategy you may have come across a book titled Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim. If not, then I would recommend it. The core idea of the book is that a business can be faced with times where they enter an industry that is highly competitive or there is no competition but over time the competition enters, and you find your business struggling to differentiate itself from other similar businesses. If either is the case, you are in a red ocean. The opposite is a blue ocean where you have a unique product with little competition because your brand and product are so unique that few can compete with your way of doing business. You want to get to a blue ocean for your business.

What is it about it an engagement ring?

Or Is it?

An article came out today by JCK looking at reports of Amazon entering the fine jewelry industry with a line called For Keeps. It is another interesting read to see how the jewelry industry reacts to an outside company that is not a traditional jewelry company. You get statements about the need to create an experience versus Amazon’s more basic way of shopping. I think the jewelry industry needs this shake up. If Amazon enters the industry I hope more jewelers will start looking at data gathering and analysis more seriously. What does this have to do with the wedding industry? My guess is that by the name Amazon is trying to enter the wedding industry. Where could they find their blue ocean by doing what they do best. As I have been researching the wedding industry on statistic stood out to me in relation to the Amazon issue. The Engagement Ring Bible pulled some statistics from the Knot on 2017 engagement rings stating, ‘Grooms spend an average of 3.5 months looking for the perfect engagement ring and will look at 26 different rings before purchase’. My follow ups are how much of that is online? I know it would be much easier to compare brands, styles, prices etc. in one place. Know a place online like that for other items? I thought so. I’ll be watching to see if Amazon does launch a collection, right now there is nothing official from the company

Found this online and it was too good to pass up! Expect to see this again as I follow up on Amazon’s possible entry into the jewelry industry.

What’s Next

I will not only look at wedding statistics but also trends and topics for discussion such as traditions and the changes affecting this institution. Please send me an email or leave a comment if there is something that you would be interested in learning more about on this subject. Also prepare for a few more Lord of the Rings references! If weddings aren’t your thing, I’ll be posting other analysis pieces as well, looking at rebranding efforts by companies and auctions that happen. Thank you for reading Data in the Rough and I look forward to posting again next week!

Michele della Valle Online Results: How Sotheby’s Fared in this New Venture

Michelle

Sotheby’s first online auction dedicated to a single designer, Michele della Valle ended last Monday. In this post I will look at the results of the auction and what can be learned.

Non si può mai attraversare l’oceano se non si ha il coraggio di perdere di vista la riva.

The above saying in English is: You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.  That saying feels right when talking about the recent online fine jewelry auction held by Sotheby’s.  I will look at the sold versus unsold items and their statistics as a whole, then break it down by type and finally look at some individual pieces that did well at the auction. Also read my predictions and thoughts before the results here.

Sold vs. Unsold (All)

Out of the 111 items designed by Michele della Valle for this online auction only 66 sold. The percentage was 59% sold, 41% unsold. So over half meet the reserve and were sold. The items bid on meet reserve, but what were some of the basic statistics like average dollars of the sold item or number of bids? Below is a table answering that. Note dollars in Swiss Francs (CHF).

The average item sold for 7,884 and had about 6 bids. The most frequent price that sold was 7,500 and the lot had only 2 bids.

To get more detailed we need to look at the results by type.

Sold vs. Unsold (by type)

Above is a table with the counts of lots by type. Earrings were the biggest category at 44 out of 111 lots, next were brooches, then rings. Rings did very well, all but one lot were sold. A table below looks at it by percentage.

Only 38% of brooches sold, earrings saw 32% of their lots unsold. I’m looking more closely at types with ten or more lots to get a better feel of the category. I also looked at the min/max dollars for the sold lots.

Earrings had the largest range, going for as low as 3,000 CHF up to 27,500 CHF.

So, what were some of these high priced items?

Lot with the highest bid

That was a pair of earrings, lot 22, that sold for 27,500 CHF

Lot with the most bids

Lot 14 that had 24 bids, a blue topaz ring.

Piece highest above estimate

There are pieces that are unexpected in what they go for. In this auction a few types did better than others. A table with the break out below.

The rings did the best overall, being 1.6 times higher than the estimates. Earrings were next at 1.33 times. The piece that did better than estimated was lot 97, a pair of earrings that sold for 8.2 times above what Sotheby’s estimated. The final price sold was 21,500 CHF. The estimate was between 1800-2600.

Final thoughts

Obviously, the sale could have gone better, more pieces sold, bids higher, etc. Sotheby’s did a lot right in promoting this auction; they put the auction in their emails and had a video highlighting some pieces. What do I think they could have done better? Educating people on who Michele della Valle is and why his work is something that should be collected. Town and Country just put out about designers to collect, giving some context to where the market is going.

 

From my quote above, somethings you take those risks and swim out alone. Sometimes those risks work out and other times you need a life guard to steer you to a better path. If you are looking for some guidance in your small business strategy send me an email (data.inthe.rough@gmail.com). Let me know what you’re thinking of trying or challenges you are facing. Until then thank you for reading and I hope you return soon for more Data in the Rough!