The goal for this research was to gather Global Voices from jewelry retailers and consumers to understand their opinions on the biggest change to the fine jewelry industry since the early 90s when the Argyle Diamond mine came online.... Rapid acceptance of lab-grown diamonds (LGDs).
Read the Report›0:00:00.0 S1: A copy. And send us your questions through the Q and A. And the chat section on your zoom program. How did this research come about on colored gemstones.
0:00:17.5 S2: So a mining company approached us last year and said that they wondered more about the US market, what kind of stones were the most valued, how consumers visualized colored stones as opposed to betray... What were the opportunities in the market? I mean, pretty broad questions. So we set out and conducted a very large consumer and trade research study, over 1000 consumers completed it in the US, and we did over 100 interviews with trade trade people everywhere, from Johnstone dealers all the way to retailers, including major retailers and independent store retailers. So when we got the data back, we of course went through it, we did a lot across calculations, where is really the essence of the information, we gave that to the client, we gave them a presentation, we said, You know what, we're finding real disconnects between the three groups, there's consumers, there's retailers, and then there's a supply chain, and all three of them have disconnects with each other, so they thought about this for about a month, and they came back to us and they said, Well, what's the solution so everyone can sell more color gemstones so we thought about it for a while and we said, You know what, an opportunity here is to realign to get rid of these disconnects and to make sure that the supply chain is as robust as possible to sell more product to consumers who really want more color Johnston, they want more options and they want more gemstone Jewelry In showcases, so we gave them some ideas, we hashed it over, and we ended up developing what's called a for Marketing Council to help the entire industry sell more color on stones in a focused on Ruby and olden satire, because that's what this mining company minds, but they know that if rubies are doing better, all color Johnstone will do better.
0:02:46.9 S2: So that's how I ended up launching this...
0:02:49.7 S1: Very good, very good. So why don't we start looking at your results and anyone that has a question, cause I know and I got something here in the chat, let's see. Good morning from Judy. And we've got a few... Good morning. So let's get going. You go ahead and share your screen. I dot my video and I'll let you know if... During our question. Okay. It's all yours. Take it away. Can
0:03:21.6 S2: You see my screen? Yes. Beautiful. Okay, So URA is the name of the mining company that hired us originally to do the research, so the fewer Marketing Council wasn't even drunk at that point, we just wanted to investigate what was happening again with these three groups, and from there is really the backbone of why, the fear Marketing Council was developed
0:03:50.0 S1: In like to re-assert something that you said that due to the answers on this survey, we are focused on Ruby, Emerald and South fire as far as color goes, and it's fascinating. The results you came up with, and thank you to... For sharing this information, because I think everyone reading through it, you're gonna deliver it, but they'll have a chance to look through it and see how does this affect what you're gonna do for your business... Let's go to this. Okay.
0:04:26.4 S2: So I just wanted to re-introduce our company, MBI marketing, a lot of people may Ole actually launch campaign diamonds worldwide for what's now known as Retinitis was really the Arco mind in Australia. That was back in 1990, or actually 89, we started with them. Which campaign diamonds. We help produce the C1 through C7 chart. A lot of retailers that are probably listening in now, champagne diamonds probably sells, there's lots of joy manufacturers, a lot of the major retailers to Champagne diamonds, but then we also develop... Shortly after the champagne Donna program, we developed the Indo-arcadian Council. Now, that's less known, but it was really a way to take the product that was coming out of the India, the loosened and the minister, and make them more helpful to the US market, and because our God-produced reduced because it just closed pretty small sized diamonds, fashion diamond jewelry really took off because of these programs. Very good. So the research that we did, which by the way, at the end of this presentation, you're gonna see a code to go to our website and get a free copy of the full research report. I'm just gonna highlight some things here that I think are maybe the most important for this conversation today, so probably not a shock to anyone, but 93% of jewellery shoppers in our research, we really only to consumers that are somehow engaged in fine jewelry, because we have found, we do a tremendous amount of consumer research that is really 50% of all of our business, and when you just do what they call run aoun population, it can be a little skewed because as we all know, there are families that just are not involved in fine gory, it's just not something important to them, so we really wanted to talk to families that somehow find jewelry is involved in their family, they give it as gifts and how engagement rings.
0:06:50.0 S2: And so looking at those people, 93% love her like or Belden satire, I mean, they just love color, these are the primary... You know, three precious color jump stones. So it sort of validated what we all think, 92% of jewelry manufacturers, 75% of retailers say that their margins are even higher on color jumps tones, not just Ruby, I'm on South PARS, but all college Rumson. So the reason I put this right up front is why we hear today... What is that disconnect I alluded to before? And how do we realign that? So this is really important, the consumers love the product, they love all jump colors, but especially rubies and the train makes more margin on color compared to Diamond. How much higher is that margin that these are from over 100 interviews with straight people in America. So retailers say that their gross margins are 65% for color as opposed to 33% for Diamond, so there's a 32% increase that they give for collar Johnstone jewelry over dim and Joel. And even on the hostel level, it's 10%, but what was interesting is a lot of hotels don't even know what their margins are on color, because you do so much with your raw materials, it's a little hard to monitor, but at least 10% was what they were telling us, now, what is the trade doing about this information right now, jewelery specialty stores, which really me, like changers the hell, birds and the sales of the world, they do about 9% of their business in color jumps tones.
0:08:53.4 S2: Just 9%. And yet, you saw that 92% of consumers love precious color Johnstone, and for all color jumps does it's very high like in the 90s anyway. But yet, the retailers only doing 9%, not every segment of retailing, but the chain stores... This is about average. There definitely is some opportunity there, but he lies... Are you wearing your microphone 'cause I think we're getting a little interference... Oh, well, let me just make sure my founders of...
0:09:32.3 S1: Okay. It's not there, I'll let you know.
0:09:36.1 S2: Okay, is this a little better? I think so. Okay, so as a trade, it's only 9% if we could raise it just by 1% each time, you're looking at maybe an estimate of 270000, sorry, 70 million, just with the specialty stores, that's not the whole industry, just with this specialty stores, we could be raising a 270 million. So what are those barriers that we need to sort of realign so there's not such a disconnect, what are the barriers to sell more and to give the consumer really what they want, so jewelry manufacturers say that retailers don't know how to sell color, and retailers say, Join manufacturers don't advertise or offer coop advertising support at all, so all over a sudden, we already see where the disconnect can be, this is, you know, reiterated in many questions in the full report, which you'll see, So what are more barriers to selling to retailers, say, even though it's only 9%. Train or promote color jumps. Don't join that. They're really satisfied with that 9% of effort that they're putting out, yet 60% of consumers wanna see more color jumps to Joey injury stores, so here's the tray putting up with is rounded up to 10% of effort, and yet 60% of consumers wanna see more.
0:11:25.8 S1: That's certainly interesting information, the people that are on here today, what are your barriers in doing a business in color... If you wanna put that in the chat, I'll review it as we go along. But put it in the chat. What do you... Baryons MERS
0:11:46.7 S2: Wanted by traditional fresh as collar gemstones, we asked them about lots of different college jumpstart, 46% of consumers purchased satires already, Ruby and emeralds, 41%. 69% of consumer says that they're somewhat... Or likely to buy Ruby within the next two years. I mean, these are numbers where action will happen, we have what we call a research, the pendulum. So the pendulum number, it varies depending on what the category is, but in this category, it's about 40%, so 40% or more of consumers say that they're gonna take an action, they usually do at some level. So we have over 40% here for traditional precious color gemstones already to purchase with Zoom next two years. They also like non-traditional color jump stats, so we particularly put in all these different color satires because few reminds these color satires in Australia, so we wanted to know are these of interest to consumers, is it really something that is perhaps an under-developed opportunity for the whole train. So within this research, we even research party satire, party satire is sort of a local Australian term for tri-color satire. I was right out of Australia, in the north-eastern part of Australia.
0:13:27.9 S2: And it has usually, it has the blue cream, yellow all in the same stone, so 78% of consumers like them, only 18% of retailers and suppliers already sell them, then there's also black afire. Now, you know, black diamonds are pretty popular, especially as canoes, and to highlight other colors, black Sunfire ranked pretty well too, as you see that star Safir, which is the way I always think of black afar too, is sort of a men's product, you know that cabin star solar consumers love the idea. Yeah, that hasn't been researched. Not really, none of these different color or South butters have been researched, and I don't know how long, maybe forever. And then we get into the fan of colors, the blue... Sorry, the yellow to greenish yellow, the greenish blue, bluish screens. Consumers are fascinating. A long time ago, we found the same thing with champagne, diamonds, consumers were fascinated that diamonds even came in color, and that in those days, a lot of sales people didn't even know that diamonds came in teller, so when you show consumers color Johnstone that... Traditionally, they look at it this way and you give them options of looking at it multiple ways, they're innately interested because consumers love EBEW know that.
0:15:00.0 S2: So something else about mining, we're all seeing this day in and day out about mining, consumers want to know the origin of their products... You see this with coffee. You see what chocolate, they wanna know where it comes from. How did you get to the store? They're buying it was everyone treated well. So we talked about transparency and chain-a-custody in the research, and consumers thought was really quite important to understand this, it's interesting because more men, slightly more men were more concerned about a transparent chain of custody than women do a lot more, but somewhat more. So that was interesting. Now, it just so happens with this research, the client is the origin, they are minors, they mine all this Robison sofas in several different countries to have the origin ability to start from the origin, then China custody can fall into line relatively well. So this may help other minds too, it may help a lot of color on Stones coming out of different parts of the world.
0:16:25.3 S1: Well, we know it's become increasingly important with diamond, so it stands to reason that it would be important with color as well.
0:16:35.7 S2: That's true. That's very virtue. And Tiffany has a whole story about the domino gun and other designers and brands are getting into that. It is really the future. We're gonna have to make sure that the whole industry has the ability to not just make claims at retail, but to have third-party certified claims that retail that, Yes, this is the origin of the product and this is how it went through the supply chain, and came into the store and that everyone was treated well, going through through the whole process, when we want to feel good about the product that we're putting into jewelry stores and certainly Jules one, I feel that way. So this client, FERA, they mine in three different countries, so they know their origin, so they mind emeralds in Colombia, Mozambique rubies, multi-color, all those different colors of satires in Australia. So knowing this is gonna be really important to... Especially to retailers. And it's interesting 'cause in the research, a lot of different levels of the industry did not know where their color comes from, never really asked, and a lot of it, of course, does not train a custody, it's all mixed together.
0:18:05.5 S2: It all ends up at trade shows, that's all kind of been our norm, and certainly everyone, all most have participated in that, but now that we see the consumer is becoming more aware of asking questions about where the product comes from, we're gonna have to make sure that we're educated on that, and that is a third party verified independently third-party orifice... So the reason I'm putting this up there is, you're talking about product, which say that you are dealing with your product, you need to be able to show and of course your role support it with printouts and little brochures that you can train your staff and yourself about... Their Evander relying and their minds in Australia, with all the different South bars, you're gonna get this or you shouldn't be getting this type of support from lots of different suppliers into the pipeline.
0:19:05.6 S1: So we're December of the marketing council, would with a supplier become a member of the Marketing Council, they can... They can definitely become everyone within... I'm gonna explain this, but everyone within the supply chain can become a member of the Marketing Council
0:19:28.8 S2: On retailers. So why are colored Johnstone a rainbow possibilities. Thank you for that title, by the way, cause becomes a random of opportunities because jewelry shoppers have told us over and over and over that they wanna see more color jump Stones, even when we do Diamond research, it comes up. And I think it's because Colorado's tend to have a great visual appeal, it shows up in store showcases, it has a great story to it. A lot of the stones are all identical, so it makes a little more unique, Man, these are great attributes that sales people use all the time, of course, when they're selling color, but the fact is, is that the wide on white, like diamond, white metal, you know it's been running now since platinum took off within our industry from us 20 years, and really consumers would like to see more color in the store, collodion, color jumps tones, color metals, you know, there are different column metals coming into into play now. All this is great, super. Love to see color, uniqueness, freshness. That's what they want.
0:20:50.5 S1: Is how is that epoch of our audience here we have a question, or our customers about the quality of our gems, Dunham might be part of the chain of custody and information that's in that era, they use this to assure the quality of Jensen to their custom.
0:21:15.3 S2: So very, very good question, because this is all about education, product education, and also sales training. So the fur Marketing Council is putting together both, by the way, right now, we're putting together an active video series and handouts and online, we have a website, so we have download abilities online for this type of information. But really, it has to start with the chain, where are your suppliers getting their product... You're usually buying jewelry finished or color stone finished jury, where do your suppliers get their stones, what are the Stones, what kind of treatments have they had, what's their origin... All that information, it's really gonna be up to the retailing on the retailer guides everything, and then of course, the retailer is guided by the consumer, but the trade is guided by the retailer, the retailer starts asking questions of their suppliers, in fact, I know the retailer that has a form that they make their suppliers fill out about every style or collection that they bring in, because they wanna educate their sales people all the time about what it is that's in that product and how I got here. So the best form of information is your chain of supply, and to make sure that they are telling you what treatments for me, what the origin of the stones are, this isn't gonna happen overnight, it's gonna take a little time, but I think retailers should start asking...
0:22:56.7 S2: So then up the supply chain back, they will start making sure that the product comes with this type of information.
0:23:07.2 S1: I have a content here about a TA, and I know that your marketing council and four are members of the GTA, so I'm sure the addicting standards from a GTA are applied to the chain of command and custody that you're speaking about now.
0:23:25.6 S2: Correct? Correct, while we're just putting together all of our supply chain attributes plus plus by the end of this year, I think, I believe Jura will be a member of the Responsible Jewelry Council. So they're putting in steps to track and trace and have a complete chain of custody for the product. Yes. Wonderful. And by the way, we're coming up with some training and education and these other groups of training, the train has training and education about college gemstones too. So I encourage everyone to take advantage of every type of opportunity out there to self-educate and be supported in educating. So back to the presentation, so again, we did this big research study, we did all these interviews with the trade, we looked to see where help was needed, and from that we formed the fewer Marketing Council, so it's really for all levels of the pipeline, so the mind we know the origin, that's fur, they mine in three different countries, but then you have stone cutters, you have dealers, you have during manufacturers and then you have retailers. So the membership is all for those groups, dealers, cutters, joy manufacturers and retailers, membership into the council, so if yours put up two million and said, Look, we wanna start realigning these opportunities out there for everyone to do better with color.
0:25:11.2 S2: So we just launched it. It's very new. We will be at the ATA, we're having a pre-event at a GTA this year in Las Vegas to do our formal announcement, plus that will probably be where we announce our educational program, and we have a booth there, and then we have a booth that Jack also
0:25:36.1 S1: Wonderful, that education is important. I'm looking at your figures here, and the number of sales people that don't know or uncomfortable selling color, and education is key, and there is education at in the industry, and it would be nice to see what specialized based on this, on this are serving... Now, the supply chain, you're supporting the entire pipeline, how was that information captured the mine to the retailer? What are the steps? I know you're probably using technology like blockchain, can you clear that up for me, so
0:26:20.7 S2: You know all of these different methods out there, which by the way, they were really launch for Diamond, so now we're trying to get those different groups to focus on color. So URA is now developing the protocols, I should say, they're developing a hearing to the protocols for these third-party certification companies, and then the third party certification companies would work with pura, they'll work with where the product goes next, sometimes it's directly to a cutter who... By the way, may be the Dorian factor and who sells directly into a retailer, so that whole process can be very tight like that, or to be a little bit looser, other levels to be added in, but for those companies that want to have the product show up at retail, third-party certified of its origin, then they need to have worked with fur at the beginning, so for needs to start the whole pipeline with the right protocols, adhering to the right protocols. So the different companies, I don't wanna mention any company yet, 'cause everybody is really just putting together how this system is gonna work, they're gonna... Some of them are already doing it for diamonds, so now they're going to adjust it for color, and they're working with fur of how that can operate smoothly.
0:27:51.4 S2: So it's very exciting, this is like just on the forefront of how we can do this for color now, there are things that are much more available, like for instance, for a just had its first option of worlds. So the sheer number of emrs is much less, and it is for SAP fire, so some of those purchasers of The Emeralds are already starting a tracking system to make sure that those special roles can end up at retail displaying the origin that it came from, the mine in Columbia, so it's all new days here, the one is working around the clock on most to make sure that we can put together what that great chain of custody is gonna look like. It may take a little while, but I think retailers, one of the retailers press back on the supply chain and start demanding things faster, everyone's gonna work to give them what they want, but we do have someone asking the question here, being a B and B company providing services to jewelry retailers, how can we promote the retailers to buy gems guns from us?
0:29:15.5 S1: So it just sounds like a supplier looking for that supplier to retailer connection.
0:29:21.1 S2: Right, right. So let me just go through a few more slides here 'cause I think we can address some of this, so what is the fewer plan... What is it that we sort of worked out with fur, they basically said to us, Look, you guys have decades of experience, you know the train, how can we get this going? And so what we really came up with was seven different focuses, all in a chain here, basically, we wanna unite the industry, not just one message, which worked well for diamonds decades ago, we wanna embrace the brands out there, the looks out there, the different types of jewelry that all use color. We wanna enable not just one message, but multiple messages and hitting consumers on different levels, 'cause we know now consumers are getting their information all over the place. Number two was they wanted to raise responsible mining to a higher level, here is very concerned about this, when... They're not an old company, they are a pretty young company, and when they went in and took over leases from all these different mining operations, they were already working mining operations. The first thing they did was Health and Safety, new protocols, new equipment, new tools for the workers, they're very concerned about responsible mining, all of the executives at fur have decades of experience in mining, so they knew what these locations should really look like and how people should be operating in them, so they wanna make sure that they're part of the lead in responsible mining, so number three was they wanted to show the trade also they wanna make sure the trade understands that they're gonna be a reliable source.
0:31:19.6 S2: Something came up in the research is that even retailers didn't have a lot of confidence in the supply chain for color, if they got a certain color or a certain... The collection of jewelry that they were manufacturing, they always had a feeling that they wouldn't be able to match those stones, are they somehow there wasn't gonna be continuity or understood this, and they're working on that a lot... Number four was that Shanks Ady, which we just talked about. Number five was quality standards, but also the color communication and education, that's what I was alluding to. We are putting together videos to train really everyone in the trade, and if consumers see them all the better about all these different color jump stones, but also how they come to market and how the education can really help the trade in how to sell and Romans the stone, this is part of that disconnect where manufacturers say, Jordan, retailers don't know how to sell color, you know in color, and retailers said, Well, we can sell more color if you supported us more, so we know that the comfort and confidence level of sales people in the store are really important.
0:32:42.6 S2: So we're working on that. Number six is that they're partnering with users to support their own brand, so this is on the back-end level all throughout the whole pipeline, including the retailers, people who are developing business with, especially with her being molded software, they wanna help embrace them, make sure that they can help inspire them and support them to develop more of this work, they're not gonna dictate... We told them straight up, let's don't go into the market and try to dictate what should be happening, let's take all the good stuff that's already happening and elevate it, and number seven is it's all about selling that product out the door, every retail is gonna tell you it's those last 1 mines that matter. So everything we're doing is really focused on retail and in the long run... So let me just back up to that question that you had asked, So the participation, based on what I just told you, is everyone in the pipeline...
0:33:51.9 S1: Everyone can be a member.
0:33:53.4 S2: Now, the fuel Marketing Council is a paid membership. Now we have a lot of money to give away and call it average advertising support, B to B, so it's on the back end, B to see. So if suppliers, joy manufacturers want help their retailers, we can give them funds for that retailer and we can give that retailer marketing assets, new video, new images, new messaging, new new social media ads, whatever it is that they want. So it's a paid membership. It's on an annual basis. We're really focused on the North American market, the Australian market, and the Indian market right now. The
0:34:50.5 S1: Membership is 25000 a year. We're gonna probably be giving out for each company a lot more color advertising dollars in 25, but it's 25000 a year. Retailers is free.
0:35:06.4 S2: So retailers are really the beneficiary here because again, we know those last 18 inches are so important to get the product out the door and make those customers happy, so for retailers that are a pure retailers... The membership is free. So everyone is welcome. We have a website, I'm gonna show you that on the last page, you can go in and fill in application, we wanna meet you, we wanna meet you at the shows in person that are coming up, GTA and Jack also. So let me also tell you here on this last page, we do have the full multi-page research report that's on our website, and you can use this code when you go into our website, envy dot com premium reports up there and does a drop down... What do we do? You'll see reports on there, you get premium reports, you'll see the report that aligns with this whole study, and you can put in a code and get a free copy and download it, and we have a website down here at the bottom, FMC Jens dot com questions.
0:36:35.6 S1: Hey, we have questions here. We don't have any sitting in here now, but to understand just how the marketing group came about, there was fear who wanted to know what was happening in the colored gems going business. They asked MBI to do a major research project for them, in doing the project, they saw opportunities to help through the supply chain to end up with more color in the consumer's hand, so that's how the marketing year marketing came to be and... Congratulations, and I think this is a great project.
0:37:21.7 S2: Thank you. It's a multi-year project, by the way, it's gonna take a while, you know anything new takes a while, and we're really trying to change and expand opportunities that that are there and create new opportunities and to engage the entire pipeline. So it's quite exciting. We're really looking forward to it. It's interesting to see where we are today and we'll re-run a lot of that research and then another year or so, and to really look at our progress...
0:37:54.0 S1: Okay, I'm going to... When this is done, I'm going to put the website... Actually go back to that slide chair again and go back to the website side or people that wanna get picked that up. Sure. Okay, so we have a slide up here with the access to the survey, so going ahead and copy that, but when you continue your research on that, something I would really like to see... And rubies, emeralds, South fires could be a good place to start. Is price points that retailers are stacking compared to price points that retailers are selling... I wanna make sure, I wanna see what that sweet spot is or where the opportunities for more inventory or less inventory of that case. But I think that would be very interesting. Okay, okay, we'll look at out of that. Okay, any more questions here? Well, it looks like we don't have any questions here, but you all know how to reach her, she has her... The website available here. So if they go to... Why don't you give them your email address that you're like of just... You can go to live at FMC Jens dot com. Okay, beautiful, beautiful.
0:39:20.8 S1: I appreciate you spending the time with us today, and I think it's wonderful that you were able to share this information with the audience, and there's someone here, the ones... Details on the subscription plan, how do they get details on the subscription plan? Can you tell them... Would they just find out at FMC gems? Yes.
0:39:47.4 S2: So the membership plan is that you could probably go to FMS dot com, if you go under membership, there's an application there, you can fill in, even if you're a retailer, if you're a dealer, a cutter, or join manufacturer, if you're a designer. Please, we're welcoming the entire industry to come in, you can sign up for our newsletter, even if you don't wanna join, you could still sign up for our newsletter on the website, we have news, and you can sign up there for our newsletter. So we're building a big 10 here because everybody wants more color, the trade wants to sell more color, and the consumer wants to see more color and buy more to learn...
0:40:36.0 S1: Well, I was certainly gonna selling up to the news there because I'd like to stay informed about your progress and what's happening with the marketing, but on our
0:40:48.6 S2: First newsletter is coming out July 1, can we just launched the whole program, so our first newsletters coming out July 1 and we will be, if anyone is visiting a GTA will be at GTA and jackass.
0:41:05.5 S1: Well, that's wonderful, I hope to see you there. And unless there are more questions, I just want to remind you that you will receive a recording of this webinar, and this is giving you the information to get the report, and we'll put that on the follow-up as well, so you will get that very interesting. And I invite you all to join us next week where our webinar is going to be with jewelers mutual. We had some webinars talking about the changes in the challenges over the past year, and some of you wanted to know, what do we need to do to make sure that our insurance covers all of the various aspects of business challenges? And especially looking at the last year. So join us that, and then we're gonna go dark for a few weeks and we'll see you back in June, but thank you again, this for a beautiful presentation. And everyone, please join us in Atlanta, October 23rd and 24th for our two-day show less, I hope you there. And we will have the pre-show conference on Friday. October 22, thank you all for being here. Thank you for supporting the has webinar series and connected education, and we'll see you again next week.
0:42:35.9 S1: Thank you. Is Beautiful to everybody I live.
