GemThoughts

Sometime in the last month or so the seven billionth living person joined us, or so say the demographers.  We also learn that the world population grew by a billion in just 12 years, and probably another billion in the next 12 years or less.  As a reference, about 50 years ago there were three billion people on the planet.  We know the world's resources are strained now to meet the need of 7 billion people, never mind the 10 billion or so expected before the end of the century. Let us accept for the moment that the world will adapt - somehow.  A little optimism is a good thing.  But according to futurists and prognosticators, that adaptation will come at the expense of many of our treasured standards of living.  While we in the US and elsewhere in the developed world might be struggling to maintain those standards, many hundreds of millions elsewhere in the world aspire to become "Americans", to enjoy the benefits of leisure time and modern conveniences. ...

We read today that Stephen Lussier's, of De Beers, stated that there will be no changes in De Beers operations.  It would have been destructive to have said otherwise.  Such comments are a necessary part of keeping the boat from rocking.  There is nothing else he could really say.  As the closing on this sale will take time, it is of paramount importance to have "business as usual."  By the time Anglo fully takes over, Lussier's comments will have faded away. I thinking about this kind of distance between actions, I cannot help thinking there has been some pre-planning in the Oppenheimer sale.  There had been some rumblings about a sale at least a year ago.  But there were a few open issues that had to be dealt with first. First, Nicholas Oppenheimer had to quit the Anglo board, a necessary move as his presence at this juncture would once again tie him to whatever moves Anglo wants to makes.  Second, there had to be a new contract with Bot...

The news today that the Oppenheimer family has sold out its remaining share of De Beers to Anglo-American, subject to regulatory approvals, brings to a close a remarkable era, and the extraordinary tale of the Oppenheimer family.  In many ways, the diamond industry owes its success and perhaps its very existence to this family.  Observers have been commenting for over a decade on De Beers' struggles to transform itself from a near monopoly into a modern commercial operation.  At every turn, it fought to maintain control of its distribution and historical methods, and step by step it has been forced to retreat.  At the core, the issue was whether it could create an effective marketing plan that would create added profits--and justify the existence of a complex marketing and sales organization, the DTC.  European regulators forced it to sever its long-time control of Russian diamond production, and to create a cumbersome and onerous system for continuing its sig...

Just this week we read about Blue Nile selling a $300,000 diamond, and over a smartphone.  We wondered about its size and qualifications - just curiosity - but the sale itself came as no surprise.  Blue Nile has been working the loose diamond business now for years, and has amply proved that these nearly commoditized objects are well suited to Internet selling.  After all, can anyone name a company that sells diamonds that went from zero sales to $300 million plus in a handful of years. Still, there are retailers who think the whole thing is a sham and a lie.  I read the comments that appeared on JCK's web site, and was shaking my head over those that came from "deniers."  Oh, they said, this was a marketing stunt, there was no such sale, and certainly not on a smartphone.  How could anyone buy a stone that expensive without looking at it.  One retailer suggested that the buyer got a retailer to bring the stone in, learn all about it, and then bough...

I finally got a look at Forevermark's web site , and everything took forever.  I viewed it on an I-Mac with plenty of speed and memory.  I mention that up front, because this site uses lots of Flash, and it crawls.  Crawls so badly that my browser timed out waiting to load a page.  When it did load, we see a slick, spare site.  The photos are over-Photoshopped, with metal a shade of gray, and diamonds always blue.  Navigation is clumsy.  When looking at collections, for example, I had to click back five or six pages just to get to the point where I can look at another collection.  There is an app available too (click here) , where one can see oneself wearing a piece.  It is a cute gimmick, but not worth the trouble and waiting.  I looked odd wearing a necklace. No prices are shown anywhere, so it is left to the visitor to go to the retailer locator to find a store.  For the moment, the retailer outlets listed are very few....

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...