GemThoughts

Where is Everlon? Here we are in the fall season 2011 and it occurs to me that just two years ago De Beers introduced its Everlon program of knot designs. Now, not a word about it, or at least that I can detect.  It falls right into the pattern of other so-called beacon programs that De Beers has run over the last number of years.  In this case, as we saw, De Beers went much further, suing various companies for copyright infringement - suits they eventually had to drop, as the concept was old as the hills.  The industry, with Everlon just as with other programs in the past, simply came along for the ride, with De Beers and it's participating sight holders and retailers paying the fare.  Now, once again, De Beers has developed a program, Forevermark, with some enhancements intended to make the "coming along for the ride" a lot more difficult.  The underlying motivation remains the same, build added value for the channel, thereby maximizing De ...

A late summer respite does a lot for clearing one's mind. August was that for me and I have returned refreshed ...and confused. Earthquake, hurricane (returned during that) and a public malaise that runs deep and wide. Still, while public confidence has plummeted, many luxury marketers report strong sales increases. Is there hope? I would cautiously venture a yes.  Of course, it depends on where one sits.  We think of the jewelry world as having somewhat different rules than the rest of the fashion and gift world, but it isn't so.  I recently attended the monster gift show at the Javits Center and saw the same range of winners and sufferers that we see at jewelry shows.  I was concentrating on visiting jewelry companies, but took some time to see what other vendors were doing.  As in jewelry, the busy booths had products that were immediately of interest, tended towards much better quality, and were well-packaged and presented.  As would...