Column: Looking Back and Thinking Forward, Part II

--The jewelry industry seems to resist change; the jewelry consumer seems to love change. The industry has learned very little from the disruptions of the ‘70s-‘80s. It now employs defensive strategies by looking over its shoulder for breakdowns, focusing on margins and prices, and worrying more about showroom motif than consumer tastes.

It looks inward for answers, instead of outward for innovation.

Here are a few outward-facing, consumer-focused marketing strategies that entered my imagination. There are, of course, hundreds more.

1) Create a “New York Jewelry Week” with a glamorous red carpet (flash bulbs, limos and all) and a consumer product partner (i.e., luxurious watch, automotive, hotel or clothing company).

2) Negotiate with a major newspaper to have a page in their Sunday edition matching jewelry with celebrity outfits. (Note: Very little jewelry is shown--or worn--by celebrities and trend-setters in any national newspaper.)

3) Attend the annual South by Southwest Conferences and Festivals in Austin, Texas. Develop relationships with tech leaders and discover new ways to blend jewelry, or jewelry distribution channels, with technology that has consumer appeal. Has the innovative wearable technology movement already bypassed the industry? Was anyone watching?

--Mergers and acquisitions. Major changes--i.e., globalization, tech advances, price changes, management weakness and thin margins--are confronting today’s jewelry leaders. How to meet these problems should be one of management’s notable challenges.

Mergers or acquisitions occur when two or more organizations decide their combination will create greater value than if they did not combine their companies. The economic gains from these combinations, called synergistic gains, can be substantial. Please remember, M&A is the fastest way to grow a jewelry firm, diversify or acquire a competitor’s brand, compared to the traditional organic approach

Sherwood Management, for example, started with three family stores in southern California and, through a strategic M&A strategy, has grown to 72 stores. Sherwood, also known as The Daniels Company, is by no means unique. There are literally hundreds of U.S. and foreign jewelry firms that have grown from one independent unit to a business with multiple locations through M&A. 

Once you’re involved in the M&A process, you’ll have moved away from your comfort zone of diamonds, gold and showroom décor and be transformed into a dynamic and enthusiastic strategic thinker. You will possess a new and exciting outlook on life.

--The industry needs leadership; a bona fide federation of trailblazers. With all the store closings, sales declines and inventory cutbacks, etc., it seems obvious that our industry has lost its ability to do things differently, its innovative focus. Gone are the days we can look to De Beers for a  “A Diamond is Forever” consumer campaign or to anyone else, for that matter, to rescue the floundering industry.

What’s needed, simply, is a group of people, a committee of sorts, to look at the industry and shake it up to stop the negative “bleeding.” They will develop fresh initiatives, perspectives and, if necessary, replicate how things are done in industries that had similar issues.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
The “Rainmaker Committee” is a properly funded organization and led by a non-jewelry executive who’s been through these issues in the past.

Here are a few of my “new guard” nominations. You should have others.

-- Chairperson: Martin Lindstrom, revolutionized supermarket industry
-- Andrea Hill: e-commerce and social media expert
-- Andrea Hanson: big-picture thinker, branding expert
-- Mindy Grossman: CEO, HSN
-- Paola de Luca: global trend forecaster
-- Harvey Kanter: CEO, Blue Nile

Jan Brassem is a senior partner at MainBrace Global Partners, a global jewelry advisory and M&A firm with offices in New York and Hong Kong. You can e-mail him at Jan-at-MainBraceGlobalPartners.com.