Excuse Me - Is That A Brand? Day Two of the Antwerp Diamond Conference

"Just what is branding?" This was the topic of the day during the final sessions of the Antwerp Diamond Conference. The morning began with the DTC’s Gareth Penny addressing this subject under the title of the “Diamond Marketing Mix”.

As Penny repeatedly stated  - it’s People, Product, Place, Price, Promotion and Publicity. These five Ps were to form the backbone of many of the speakers’ presentations. Penny also urged attendees to think outside the box when it came to marketing their goods. "How do consumers perceive the value of the product?" he asked. "How is the value reflected in the price strategy? How does discounting impact consumers’ perceived value?”

To highlight this point, Penny showed a mock advert for Gucci - two beautiful women in this year’s iconic red Gucci evening dresses, with a huge 50% off plastered across the layout. The advert provoked laughter from the audience, but it underscored how other luxury goods never advertise based on price points and would certainly never show their goods to the consumer based on the idea of discount selling.

Addressing the issue of ‘what is branding’, Glenn Rothman, the charismatic CEO of Hearts on Fire stirred up the auditorium with his passionate address. "Branding is passion for the product, passion for the promise of a brand. It’s an emotional involvement."

On the other hand, Antwerp’s most talked about diamond dealer, IDH’s Daniel Horowitz took a different view of the brand-boom. In his speech, ‘Diamonds, Branded or Generic’, Horowitz stated that he had yet to find a branded diamond. "And," he asked, "just what is a branded diamond? Is it the retail brand, the diamond manufacturers brand, the jewelry brand?”

The conference ended, with participants feeling hungry for more information. Is the next big thing ‘brown diamonds’? (Yes you read right). Are synthetics really going to destroy the consumer’s confidence in diamonds, or is there room for ‘cultured diamonds’ - as one speaker referred to them. Is the industry’s marketing revolution going to reshape the way diamonds are sold? Only time will tell.