What helps keep diamond prices high and what keeps diamonds attractive as consumer goods? For many decades, this was taken care of by DTC (De Beers) as a quasi-monopoly, which promoted diamond sales with their famous campaigns. More recently, De Beers invited Gem Diamonds, Dominion Diamond Corp, Petra Diamonds, Lucara Diamonds and Rio Tinto Diamonds to share the mission; in 2015, the Diamond Producers Association (DPA) was formed with the challenging task of strengthening the perceived value and desirability for diamonds among consumers who are increasingly seduced by offers of alternative products. The initial USD 6 million budget, which should soon increase tenfold, made it possible to start a new campaign called “Real is Rare”, which targets Millennials, a consumer group that is more likely than other generations to shop for self-gratification and less likely to follow the old conventions associated with engagement diamond rings. In the first few months of 2017 the DPA and UL, previously Underwriters Laboratories and Signet – the largest retail jewellery group in the US – announced that they intend to launch a new project for testing the efficiency of synthetic-diamond detectors. According to Rapnet, there are currently 16 dedicated devices on the market and many new projects in the pipeline (e.g. Alrosa, which will present a new product in Syracuse in May), with prices ranging from USD 4,500 to 350,000. A diamond is forever campaigns winked at the middle class and revealed some sort of aggressive marketing towards consumer market groups; today, on the other hand, the use of strategic campaigns aimed at protecting the industry by selecting the right fraud detection system shows a cautious approach: real is rare works, if we are always ready to guarantee the quality of our natural diamonds.
Gem News by Trasparenze News, published on Rivista Italiana di Gemmologia #1, May 2017.
