The layoffs come amid the TV shopping channel’s efforts to restructure and focus on live shopping through social media.
Marketing Minute: To Build Your Brand, Forget ‘Branding’
In Jim Ackerman’s opinion, jewelers should worry less about their image and more about direct response marketing.

“Branding” is the big buzzword in marketing today.
“You’ve got to build your brand.”
The term “brand” has become a substitute for company, business, service and just about any other way to describe a business function. The vast majority of people who use the term don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. They wouldn’t know what a real “brand” is if it hit them over the head.
Go ahead. Next time some hotshot millennial guru starts flinging the word around, ask him to define it. The answer is not likely to be gratifying but is likely to have little or no connection to success in business.
To build your brand, start by understanding this: No matter what you look like, your corporate culture, the “feel” of doing business with you, the awareness you have in the marketplace or how you may or may not be identified by your prospects and clients, the only real measure of a brand is … having boatloads and boatloads of happy, consistently buying and referring customers.
Anything and everything else is just window dressing.
So, what’s the best way to “build your brand?” Don’t. Instead, concentrate on selling more stuff to more people more often. And for the typical independent retail jeweler, that means focusing on direct response marketing instead of “image” marketing.
What is direct response marketing? It’s any marketing effort that is designed to get the prospective customer to take at least the next step in the buying process.
That doesn’t necessarily mean an immediate purchase, but it should at least be to surrender contact information so further marketing can take place.
If, for example, you offer a free report on the perils of buying gems online you are making a direct response offer, even though it’s not for the prospect to buy a specific item right away.
If you send them to your regular website to get the report, odds are they’ll struggle to find the report and downloads will be minimized. Or if the report simply resides on your website and you offer it for free--meaning you don’t even ask them to surrender their contact info to get it --your direct response has been wasted.
Better to send them to a “landing page” where they find out a little more about the report and are invited to download it. To accomplish that, they must give you contact information.
Once you have that, you can proactively
And of course, all of these steps are testable and trackable, so you can “genetically engineer” your marketing for ever-increasing success.
Consider this: You run a bunch of radio ads that cost you $1,000.
Ten new prospects respond by supplying contact information. Each new prospect cost you $100 at retail to secure the information. However, to convert them to a new client, you can direct mail monthly for 60 to 100 months before you actually get that first sale and still break even, compared to the original cost of generating the lead. Email and telemarketing can be even less costly.
I confess this takes some getting used to, if you’re used to throwing marketing stuff at the wall and hoping something sticks. Of course, that’s why you’re frustrated with marketing and see it as an expense instead of an investment with a predictable payback.
If you’d like to say goodbye to the throw-it-out-and-hope approach to advertising and begin getting dramatic increases in response and conversions that will truly build your brand, shift to the direct response model.
Jim Ackerman has spoken to jewelry retailers at JA New York, JCK, The Smart Jewelry Show and others. He has teamed with Shane Decker for the Ultimate Jewelry Sales & Marketing Boot Camp to be held this September. National Jeweler readers can get more information about the event and download a free report here.
The Latest

The debut event will take place in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood this fall.

The roundtable will take place May 17 ahead of the trade show’s welcome dinner.

Bench jewelers spend years honing their skills, Jewelers of America’s Certification validates their talents.

The “Peanuts x Monica Rich Kosann” collection features the comic strip’s classic vocabulary across 10 bracelet designs.


Three industry experts dive into the complexities of the material often marketed as an “ethical” alternative for metal in jewelry.

Diamonds are not only one of the most prominent gemstones, but the birthstone for those born in April.

Natural diamonds mean more than lab-grown, but when every cut is ideal, they all look the same. Customers want more—Facets of Fire delivers.

The Utah-based company known for making wedding bands has acquired Doubloon Golf.

The longtime luxury executive led one of LVMH’s watch brands, TAG Heuer, for 12 years before taking over Bulgari in 2013.

Authorities said the robbers fled with jewelry and 70 Rolex watches, later taking pictures of themselves posing with big stacks of cash.

Lotus Gemology founder Richard W. Hughes has translated Heinrich Fischer’s 1880 book “Nephrit und Jadeit” from its original German.

The ring's design features contrasting lines influenced by work from architecture-inspired photographer Nikola Olic.

The Conference Board’s index fell as consumers continued to worry about the impact of tariffs, the labor market, and the price of eggs.

However, two medieval jewels surpassed estimates at Noonans Mayfair’s recent jewelry auction in London.

The Oscar-nominated actor debuted in the campaign for the new “Top Time B31” collection, which introduced Breitling’s Caliber B31.

The Congress is scheduled to take place May 19-22 in Brasilia, Brazil.

The “150 Art Deco” collection features a Miss America timepiece and a pocket watch from the brand’s Archive Series.

Alex Wellen, formerly CEO and president of MotorTrend Group, has taken on the role.

The Impact Initiative is part of the nonprofit association’s new three-year strategic plan.

The ruby and the sapphire, which Christie’s calls a “once-in-a-generation masterpiece,” are part of the upcoming Hong Kong jewelry auction.

The two pairs of earrings, snatched from a Tiffany & Co. store in Orlando, Florida, are valued at a combined $769,500.

The time to start experimenting with video content is now, writes columnist Emmanuel Raheb.

From striking high jewelry to miniature fine jewelry, the new chapter continues to highlight gemstones featuring its signature 57-facet cut.

The jewelry giant is reducing its senior leadership by 30 percent as part of its new turnaround strategy.

The auction house's partnership with online watch servicing platform WatchCheck makes repairs convenient and accessible, it said.

The company also noted record sales in the United States and a strong performance in its jewelry category.