On day three of IIJS Virtual, David Kellie CEO of the Natural Diamond Council (NDC) engaged in an hour-long video chat with Milan Chokshi, Convener of the Promotion, Marketing & Business Development sub-committee at GJEPC, on the Category Promotion of Diamond Jewellery in the US, China and India.
Below are some of the salient points from the discussion:
• Around the time of the change in its identity from the Diamond Producers Association (DPA), the NDC leadership decide that it should be an authority, and a content publisher of the amazing storytelling within the diamond industry.
• NDC drives traffic to its website through its social media platforms. The NDC’s India-based Instagram videos get around 250,000 views, and in some cases even get up to 1 million views. This is genuinely a huge engagement level for consumers in India. The NDC website currently gets around 40,000 visits a day.
• In the first phase of the launch of the NDC, its vision was to be a master on the digital platforms because that’s where its audience is digesting this message. So far NDC has got a very positive response, and the fruition is even better than it had hoped.
• Earlier, for the Indian market, NDC had a very localised campaign looking at insights specifically into Indian consumer behaviour. But actually this audience is much more inspired by internationalism, innovation and product newness, and they want to see new things that are happening in the world as opposed to being re-fed an idea or image that reminds of their parents.
• Sustainability, social values and ethics of what you stand for has been getting stronger particularly in luxury goods for the past five years, but that has accelerated in the midst of this ongoing health crisis. Everyone is much more respectful and concerned about our impact on the planet.
• The strength of what we’re doing now allows NDC to present so many new stories to the consumer – the work done throughout the supply chain to support local communities with such integrity is incredible and it’s our job to communicate that to the consumer.
• NDC wanted the new campaign featuring Hollywood star Ana de Armas to be more synonymous with the luxury world. NDC wanted it to be about celebrating multiple moments in her life, whether it’s on her own, her relationship with friends, family or a romantic relationship. NDC wanted it to celebrate diamonds and diamond jewellery in total rather than being a specific diamond piece.
• There’s no other luxury good that has the meaning that diamonds and diamon jewellery has. NDC wanted to celebrate the special moments that diamonds stand for. The pandemic has made those moments more relevant in today’s world and so diamonds are resonating more strongly with consumers.
• The India holiday season coincides with campaign launch. NDC will be spending all of its annual budget through the festive season as it believes diamond jewellery will play a major part in festive gifting.
• In the US, the campaign will be ramping up during the holiday season from mid to late December.
• The jewellery industry is low traffic and high value, so we should be less worried about consumer apprehensions regarding touch-feel post the pandemic.
• There is an opportunity for the diamond industry to double in size if we get it right and speak to the audience in the right way and do it collectively. This industry has the potential for innovation and uniqueness, storytelling, etc. and we must invest in building the brand of diamonds and diamond jewellery in general.