It’s by no means been simpler to purchase a diamond. For the businesses promoting them, that’s more and more an issue.
Lab-grown diamonds have flooded a market as soon as tightly managed by a handful of massive producers, capturing greater than half of the market only a decade after they had been first launched. Their costs have plunged by 85 p.c over the identical interval. Costs for pure diamonds are sinking as nicely, down about one-third since 2022.
For many items, decrease costs and better availability are assured methods to usher in new clients. For diamonds, it’s usually the alternative: After being offered for a century as the last word luxurious, the truth that you should purchase a man-made one for a couple of hundred {dollars} with a pair clicks on Alibaba robs the stones of a lot of their romance. On the similar time, paying a number of months’ wage for a diamond ring more and more feels not simply outdated — however even a little bit of a rip-off.
Retailers of each varieties are nonetheless figuring out their up to date gross sales pitch.
“If we’re going to talk to this new technology of shoppers … it could possibly’t be a fairy story they don’t relate to,” mentioned Sally Morrison, the pure diamonds market lead at De Beers, which coined the phrase “diamonds are without end” within the Nineteen Forties however has struggled to adapt to new, man-made competitors. “Folks wish to dream, however in addition they need it to be a dream they really feel they’ll attain.”
Lab-grown diamond sellers could have disrupted the class, and whereas shoppers are definitely extra open to purchasing them, they haven’t managed to fully replicate the status of mined stones. Although they seem similar to the bare eye, lab-grown diamonds sometimes have a decrease resale worth, and will be seen as a commodity, slightly than a luxurious, by the trade institution, if not customers.
Now that it’s clear lab-grown diamonds aren’t going anyplace, retailers are extra focussed on what makes their very own product distinctive. For lab-grown, meaning focussing on sustainability and accessibility, whereas for mined, it’s up to date messaging round emotionally-charged moments and “funding” items. However each have to be in a position promote the dream that diamonds have all the time been related to whereas additionally assembly the rising demand for transparency round pricing and manufacturing.
“Folks purchase this product for emotional causes, not sensible causes,” mentioned jewelry trade analyst Paul Ziminsky. “It’s a must to create the will for them to wish to pay 10 instances extra for a pure diamond.”
Definitely worth the Funding
Jewellers who use pure diamonds are turning a possible weak spot — their excessive worth — into their chief promoting level.
“As soon as individuals know the way a lot lab-grown diamonds really price wholesale, lower than $100 a carat, it modifications issues,” mentioned Olivia Landau, founding father of The Clear Lower, an internet jeweller that makes use of pure stones. “Most individuals don’t wish to spend much less on their engagement ring than the dinner that they should rejoice their engagement.”
Beginning in 2023, the retailer started providing anybody who purchased an engagement ring beneath $15,000 a free ring with a lab-grown stone of comparable dimension. The corporate mentioned the latter was meant for use when touring — implying that lab-grown stones are a bonus, whereas pure diamonds are what you utilize to suggest to your accomplice.
Landau’s argument works as long as pure diamonds can depend on their historic picture to take care of a particular place in customers’ minds. (Solely Pure Diamonds, {a magazine} revealed by a diamond commerce organisation, publishes loads of options on well-known gems and their connection to royalty.)
However shoppers are more and more open to lab-grown diamonds, even for probably the most emotionally charged purchases: Final 12 months, 46 p.c of American {couples} selected a lab-grown stone for his or her engagement ring, up from 12 p.c in 2019, based on wedding ceremony web site The Knot.
Pure stones nonetheless attraction to the posh buyer who doesn’t “care what the price distinction is,” mentioned Grace Lee, a Los Angeles-based jewelry designer who solely makes use of mined diamonds.
“Something price having, you need to work exhausting for it,” mentioned New York-based jeweller Ashley Zhang, who sells pure diamonds. “Typically the value … provides worth to an merchandise.”
Telling the Proper Story
For lab-grown companies, the dearth of strain round making an “funding buy” could flip off some engagement ring customers, however can usher in different clients. Lab-grown cuts will be extra distinctive, and there’s better entry to rare-coloured stones, making it simpler to market to a extra trend-aware, fashion-conscious client.
“Earlier than [lab-grown], if individuals had been shopping for a diamond, particularly a bigger one, it needed to be a timeless, traditional piece,” mentioned Merill Hollander, founding father of the lab-grown jewelry label Fiametta. “These are nice to have in a jewelry wardrobe, however now individuals should purchase extra of those enjoyable on a regular basis items.”
Lab-grown diamonds are additionally generally pitched as a extra moral buy, as they’re not tainted by reviews of harsh therapy of staff in some mines, or the unlawful trafficking of gems out of battle zones. Pure sellers are countering this narrative by extra brazenly discussing their relationships with mines, and the financial affect on international locations the place they supply diamonds. De Beers, for example, introduced rising designers to Botswana with the hope they’ll then come again residence and unfold the phrase.
“It’s actually vital that third events with credibility actually have time to consider this house, work with diamonds and use that nearly as a automobile to re-educate others,” she mentioned.
Lab-grown diamonds additionally face better hurdles in markets exterior the US, the place there’s been much less client training across the product. Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik mentioned within the jewelry large’s 2024 earnings in February that regardless of a splashy launch of its lab-grown providing, the corporate noticed that client reception was cooler than anticipated, notably in markets like Brazil or Mexico the place there’s “nearly no consciousness” of the product, based on Lacik. Main advertising and marketing funding, he added, can be required to meaningfully transfer client sentiment in these areas.
Nonetheless, spotlighting Pandora’s lab-grown assortment has helped elevate its positioning, mentioned Luciano Rodembusch, the retailer’s common supervisor for North America. Traditionally seen as “a $65 allure firm,” he mentioned, now “individuals pay much more consideration to the standard of our jewellery.” They’ve additionally given the model a crimson carpet presence for the primary time, supplying jewelry for Pamela Anderson for this 12 months’s Golden Globes.
“We’re not being taken without any consideration anymore and our voice has turn out to be just a little bit stronger,” he added.
Assembly within the Center
Different manufacturers focus much less on the truth that they’re lab-grown and as a substitute on storytelling. For digitally native lab-grown model Dorsey, meaning vintage-inspired designs displayed in smooth, editorial-esuqe imagery, promoted by trendy influencers like Courtney Develop and Hannah Chody. Fiametta, in the meantime, has leaned on team-ups with the likes of New York-based vogue vendor Kallmeyer — it supplied the jewels for the model’s runway present in February. It additionally pictures its stones on buddies of the model who don’t match the everyday profile of a jewelry mannequin, mentioned Hollander.
“We’re very candid and clear that we’re a lab-grown firm, however on the forefront, we actually discuss our model, seasonality and newness,” mentioned Meg Strachan, founder and CEO of Dorsey.
De Beers is doing a model of this as nicely, departing a bit from its conventional, ultra-glamorous promoting. Quite than centring its message on an summary future through which “a diamond is without end,” it’s prioritising the right here and now. Latest campaigns, like final fall’s “Definitely worth the Wait” in partnership with Signet Jewellers, function actual {couples} slightly than airbrushed fashions.
The aim is to “get to that place the place individuals really feel included, but it surely’s additionally one thing they’ll dream about,” mentioned Morrison.
It’s a steadiness each lab-grown and pure diamond makers should strike: Promoting one thing aspirational sufficient to be fascinating, however nonetheless inside their grasp.
“So long as persons are very clear about how they’re completely different and that they’re being offered to in a means that the excellence is obvious,” mentioned Kristina Buckley Kayel, the managing director and CMO on the Pure Diamond Council, ”it’s finally the patron’s selection.”
