Gemstone Industry Must Market To Survive

Colored gemstone producers, manufacturers and retailers must learn to be marketers if they are to survive. It is no longer enough just to produce pretty colored gemstone jewelry and hope shoppers will buy it.

That was the message and theme that every speaker emphasized to the 150 members of the trade attending the ICA's 2005 Congress in Bangkok

During the first full day of programs yesterday (Saturday), ICA President Joseph Menzie spoke in his welcome speech of a "totally new world" where the balance of power has tilted toward the consumer and away from colored gemstone manufacturers.

The keynote speaker, Eric Braunwart, President of AGTA, said the colored gemstone industry has expansion potential in the low, middle, and high end of the market. During his speech, titled "Bringing Color to a Mass Market", he said "colored gemstones are a high-end product, even if you don't think of them in those terms. They are showing up more in high-end magazine fashion stores and in high-end jewelers' stores". He encouraged industry producers to create more high-end products.

Braunwart was followed by a succession of speakers who gave "real world" examples of how colored gemstones were presented and marketed in various countries around the world.

The afternoon session of the Congress kicked off with the introduction of ICA's proposed program to raise the global market share of colored gemstone jewelry. Entitled "The Gem Millennium Campaign", it has an initial budget of $3 million, to be funded by trade organizations, private enterprise, and governments. When funding is obtained, the ICA will begin putting together an organization to promote colored gemstones and jewelry to global markets. While some audience participants expressed skepticism, most conference attendees felt the program was a good blueprint for a longer term effort.

The final panel of speakers talked about how gemstone dealers could raise their profile in the media. PR professionals and writers on the panel included Susan Sagherian of Concepts & Design (Switzerland), Deborah Yonick of Yonick Writing Company (USA), and Ya'akov Almor and Steven Benson of Market Direct Business Communications (Israel).

Saturday's program sessions also included a seminar on ‘Marketing across borders’ and the Launch of the ICA Colored Gemstone Marketing Program by Jim Littman of the DMB Partnership in Encinitas California.

On Friday, the opening day of the ICA Congress at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok, Menzie spoke about the theme of this year's Congress, ‘A changing world of new opportunities’, at the welcoming dinner with about 300 people in attendance.

Armed with new marketing plans, the ICA plans to significantly increase its market share of the global jewelry market. One spokesman, who declined to be named, said that the ICA's marketing programs are specifically targeted to take market share from diamonds, which currently hold about a 50% market share worldwide.

At the Friday evening gala, ICA ambassadors from around the world were introduced and there was a fashion show featuring models in native costumes.