Diamond Congress: Agreement on Generic Marketing and Synthetic Labeling

The 33rd World Diamond Congress concluded Thursday with the executive members of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB), the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) and the Shanghai Diamond Exchange reiterating their commitment to increasing generic marketing for diamonds and speaking with confidence of the rapidly growing diamond and jewelry industry in China. 

Marketing consultant Michael Balerin, in a presentation to a joint WFDB and IDMA session, described the World Gold Council’s marketing plan to increase consumer and industrial demand for gold as an example of how the diamond industry could do the same thing for diamonds.

He opined that it could “definitely” be done and that the business should focus on increasing consumer demand and being prepared to subsequently meet it.

Much of the talk during the conference centered on the need throughout the entire industry to invest heavily in generic marketing with the aim of increasing consumer demand for diamonds. Leaving IDMA President Jeffery Fischer noted that this is in line with a commitment to be a leader in bringing stakeholders together to organize industry-wide marketing.

In line with this, IDMA announced plans to hold a marketing forum in Mumbai in September. The ‘diamond market initiative conference’ will be focused on developing new proposals and ideas to build jewelry demand in new markets. Examples of previous proposals included instituting a national jewelry week in the U.S. and holding contests to encourage the development of new diamond cuts.

In addition, the event saw the release of new International Diamond Council (IDC) rules for grading diamonds. The rules, standards on nomenclature for lab-created or synthetic diamonds, were prepared by a joint committee of IDMA and the WFDB, and stipulate that diamonds created in a laboratory environment must be labeled by approved terms.

Lab-grown, lab-created, man-made and synthetic can all be used to describe a created diamond, and these terms must be accompanied by ‘diamond.’ The committee emphasized that the term ‘cultured’ may not be used in reference to synthetic diamonds. Fischler said during the final press conference this was due to the fact that the word can be very easily confused with cultured pearls, which could imply an element of natural growth in the process.

“The intrinsic value of diamonds is based upon its uniqueness,” Fischler said. “Each diamond is unique. Lab-grown diamonds are in no way unique, and I think it is very important for everyone to understand the difference.”

The World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO), said in a joint statement issued by with the WFDB and IDMA that it acknowledged and accepted the IDC’s regulations relating to the nomenclature of synthetic diamonds.

Newly elected WFDB President Avi Paz reported that  that membership in the WFDB Mark Program was growing solidly, and that an Associated Member Program was launched two months ago, allowing various industry organizations to join the effort to promote the spread of the mark.

Seven of these organizations and companies were honored at the close of the congress’ second day, for their cooperation, mainly in carrying Mark Program advertising, including the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, JCK Magazine, Modern Jeweler, INSTORE, Diamond World, IDEX Magazine and IDEX Magazine in Russian and Rapaport Diamond Report.