As Signet struggles continue, what's next?

[US retail jeweler] Signet still hasn't found the magic formula to turn its struggles around. The retailer, whose main banners include Jared, Kay, Zales, Piercing Pagoda, Peoples Jewellers (in Canada), and e-tailer James Allen, seems to take two steps back for every step forward. Following an ongoing series of personnel shuffles and prior legal troubles, it recently reported another down quarter and more leadership changes.

Earlier this month, Signet said it would close another 150 stores on top of the 262 it already closed in the past fiscal year, bringing the number of doors closed to more than 400 and reducing the company's retail footprint 13 percent in three years.

Though results were mixed by nameplate, same store sales overall dropped 2 percent for the period, after a 1.3 percent drop in holiday sales. The Zales, Peoples, and Piercing Pagoda divisions were up; Kay, Jared, James Allen, and the firm's UK stores were down.

Despite lower comps at James Allen, online sales were a bright spot for the retailer- about 10 percent of Signet's total sales now come from online. And overall, its revenue - while down 6.1 percent year-on-year - beat expectations, as did its earnings.

But if a 6.1 percent decline still beats analysts' expectations - and if the company is making its numbers through cost-cutting - what's going to happen when there's nothing left to cut?

While the luxury sector continues to be the strongest part of the jewelry industry, mid-market competitors Ben Bridge and Helzberg - both owned by Berkshire Hathaway - are doing well, which proves there's clearly a market for the kind of stores Signet operates. (Berkshire Hathaway's annual report doesn't break out individual results for either chain, but its retail and services division of which jewelry is a part was up 29 percent year-on-year from 2017 to 2018.) And even Signet's own results are inconsistent, with half their nameplates up and half down.

Signet CEO Gina Drosos told analysts Signet needs to get better at understanding product life cycles, citing the Ever Us two diamond product and beads as key examples of products past their prime.

Even without a specific hero product or a heavy ad push from De Beers/Forevermark (which still has a robust product selection on the Ben Bridge site), two-stone diamond jewelry is easy to understand and adaptable to a wide variety of tastes and budgets. And DPA's new generic advertising, with its focus on authenticity and individuality, makes the category a natural for personal storytelling. (Helzberg isn't an Ever Us dealer, but it has its own version called Exclusively Us. It's still two-stone jewelry with the same kind of messaging.)

To be fair, Signet has had many non-product woes that competitors haven't had to deal with. But there was a point when Kay and, to a lesser degree, Jared, had virtually filled the void for jewelry marketing for the entire industry. After De Beers pulled its funding for generic diamond advertising to focus on its own Forevermark brand, "Every Kiss Begins With Kay" and "He Got It At Jared" were almost de facto ad slogans for the industry. Both were so recognizable that I heard little kids going around singing the Kay jingle! And a few Facebook friends had happily posted pictures of jewelry gifts with "He Got It At Jared!" announcements, so surely there were more than just those. If kids are singing your jingle and happy customers are singing your praises on social media, this doesn't sound like a company that should be struggling as much as it is just a few years later.