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De Beers Diamond Advertising to Continue in 2016
Though the company did not provide details on its plans, CEO Philippe Mellier said more marketing is needed to stimulate demand in what’s expected to be a “volatile” year.
Gaborone, Botswana--De Beers’ CEO said this week that he expects 2016 to be a “volatile” year, one in which the diamond miner and marketer will need to continue its generic diamond advertising.
In the fourth quarter of 2015, De Beers launched an updated “Seize the Day” campaign, a reboot from the days when the company controlled the market and spent millions of dollars on generic diamond advertising every year. It also resurrected “A Diamond is Forever,” which it used in both the Seize ads and the campaign for Forevermark, its diamond brand.
Anecdotal results indicate that while the 2015 holiday season was tough for retail in general, diamond sales were strong for many retailers, and Mellier believes that De Beers’ fourth quarter push was part of the reason.
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“We will need to find the most effective method of pooling our resources, and the most effective vehicles for delivering the programs, but we saw the power of diamond marketing, and specifically De Beers’ expertise, at the end of last year,” Mellier said, “and we will ensure that consumers--young and old, eastern and western--continue to celebrate their own facet of forever with the magic of diamonds.”
The advertising announcement from the De Beers chief was part of a larger address delivered at the annual sightholder event, a party that long took place in London but now has migrated south along with the company’s sales and sorting operations.
In his speech, he also addressed the turmoil that gripped the diamond market in 2015, a year when the mining company--and Mellier personally--came under fire for high rough prices that squeezed manufacturers’ margins.
Using the words “we all” three times in rapid succession, he stressed the fact that De Beers felt the impact of the slowdown in demand as well and did its part to help the industry--it allowed sightholders to defer “unprecedented” amounts of goods, substantially reduced production and re-invested in marketing.
All these efforts will
continue in 2016, and Mellier also hinted at further changes to the sightholder system though he did not reveal specifics, saying that there is “more work to be done in this area before we can provide full details.”
One detail he did provide was the implementation of new multifunctional teams that will work directly with individual sightholders to help them develop products and services specific to their business.
“There is more work to be done in this area before we can provide full details, but I am excited about the potential benefits of this enhanced agility, both for you and for us,” he told the crowd of sightholders.
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