You cannot solve today’s problem
with the same thinking that created the problem
 
Albert Einstein

Why are diamonds – the ultimate luxury product – losing out so badly to other luxury goods? Is it because other luxury industries (expensive cars, high fashion, yachts, etc.) are innovative with smart branding and customization?

A recent article in Rapaport advanced these explanations:

• Lack of design innovation makes diamonds less attractive as luxury items
• "A Diamond is Forever" established diamonds as a "need"
• Due to the omnipresent demand for grading reports, the Labs have become more important than polishers or sellers. De facto, they have become major brands.
• Labs are unable to grade new cuts however, making them difficult to sell

Innovative manufacturers encounter too many obstacles to developing new cuts and creating their own brands

As the De Beers Supplier of Choice programme clearly demonstrated, there are cutters who do want to differentiate and promote new cuts.  And yet less than 10% of the hundreds of new cuts introduced have proved profitable.

One obstacle is brand slogans such as "the most Ideal (Brilliant, Fiery,...) diamond ever". These claims serve only to diminish competing brand statements, leading to confusion and resentment on the part of consumers. In fact, anyone who now creates a new global brand tries to diminish consumer confidence in existing ones. This leads to a self-destructive spiral, which may be likened to Uroboros, the ancient symbol depicting a dragon swallowing its own tail.  

Secondly, for many, diamond is just a raw material for jewellery. Yet jewellery fashion brands are well known for promoting style and aspiration. Successful branded companies do more than add their name to jewellery. They express their designs and brand philosophy in its appearance. Can the same be done for diamonds?

Thirdly, while cutters need the freedom to enhance the value of each piece of rough, they frequently only have one or two restrictive options for achieving the ‘ideal’ result.  Having struggled to achieve this ideal, the market sets an ever-shrinking profit margin as more and more manufacturers become skilled in precision cutting.  

And last but not the least, the followers of two opposing market strategies - commoditization and customization - expend a lot of energy hindering each other’s moves. Meanwhile consumers are spending more and more money on other luxury goods.

How can we put the sparkle back into diamonds?

The first step in any change is to identify and acknowledge the problems.

Most of these are not objective, but result from stereotypes we have programmed into our own psyche and that of our clients - for example, the idea that there can be only one "ideal diamond". Or that commoditization and fashionable exclusivity cannot comfortably coexist.

Can combining new technologies with business models from other industries create a synergy between these two different approaches?  Could customization regenerate the diamond exclusivity? Would emerging technologies enable new fashion-oriented market niches? Is there only one way to assure consumer confidence?

To discuss these and other issues and become part of the solution, we are organising 2nd International Diamond Cut Conference (IDCC-2).

The following topics will be debated:

• Diamond brand development: What is missing? How does the cut contribute?
• Customer and manufacturer: From collaborative tools to consumer confidence
• How diverse is diamond beauty?
• Consumer confidence in the diamond beauty
• Diamond cutting and processing technology
• What is colour and how does cut influence it?
• Different approaches to colour grading.

Detailed conference schedule is here.

Welcome aboard!