Forevermark, the diamond brand from the De Beers Group of Companies undoubtedly carries the trust-mark with sheer commitment to the core. The brand in itself has earned the pride it deserves, but with all the shine, a bit of a gloomy side is inescapable. After all, a glittering diamond is born from the darkest coal.Kunjal Karaniya brings you variousshades of Forevermark as a brand and the Indian retailers’ reactions to it.%% Forevermark, the diamond brand from the De Beers Group of companies offers consumers a new promise in diamonds – a promise that goes beyond 4Cs. The promise is made up of rigid quality and integrity standards which includes ‘The Forevermark Inscription – The Proof of Promise’, ‘Design and Innovation’ and ‘The Forevermark Setting’. De Beers undoubtedly has a terrific record of managing the diamond business and the public sensitive of diamonds. For Forevermark too, they did so well in establishing the brand that now Forevermark diamonds are considered the world’s most carefully selected diamonds. It has earned the pride for itself, asless than one percent of the world’s diamonds are eligible to become a Forevermark diamond. “I think it is the clean diamond promise, the pipeline integrity part of the promise that works. When in doubt buy Forevermark, this is the kind of promisethat the brand echoes,” explains C. Vinod Hayagriv, Managing Director, C. Krishniah Chetty & Sons Pvt. Ltd. %% But… All this is not without a cost. History shows that they have poured in big money on advertising and marketing programmes that has given it its stature.Now, here is the twist in the tale:everyone down the distribution pipeline shares the cost. They provide the marketing, the stone marking, and the diamond grading, but it is for the retail partners to pay the premium and share the cost. Puja Punamiya from Kundan Jewellers feels the pinch and says, “Yes, we are happy to be a retail partner of Forevermark but it comes with a cost. We have to bear the premium cost, too.” %% Throwing enough money at it makes it attractive butright marketing and advertising seems to be lacking especially in the local regions. The highly talked about image building exercises have been missing since a last few months. The question is whether the initial hoopla was just a marketing gimmick? To this Puja Punamiya says, “During the launch there were hoardings but apart from that there were no local activities undertaken. It is only our loyal clients converting to Forevermark as there is no crowd-pulling activity from their side. We have not seen many print advertisements or any local awareness exercises to bring in new consumers. Basically co-branding of the retail store is missing. They have a few partner outings and one or two odd events in a year but targeted at elite consumers which is not enough.” Hence, the dealers and retailers involved have to push it as they have skin in the game. %%

On the other side, the next question arises that is the consumer ready to bear the premium for the only benefit of having a diamond with a known origin? Diamond sales are tough at retail, especially in India and the industry is seeing a glitch in the buying pattern. On this, Ishu Datwani, Director, Anmol Jewellers spontaneously says, ”I am surprised to see that people buy Forevermark jewellery/diamonds even when they know they are paying a bit more as a premium. It is the trust that they have built for the brand that works for Forevermark.”Adding to this, Bhavin Jakhia, Managing Director, OM Jewellers says, “Forevermark makes it easy to close the deal due to the trust factor and brand name involved.” Coming to the target consumer which is elite, how does it work in India? Ishu Datwani explains, “It is purely inspirational, if your role model or a famous elite personality wears it, you would surely aspire for it.” %% Coming to the designs, Indians are very peculiar about not wearing the same designs as someone else and also heavy gold jewellery is preferred over the lightweight. So what is it that makes Forevermark work except for the trust factor? Explaining the designing pattern, Costantino Papadimitriou, SVP, Brand Strategy and Innovation, Forevermark says, “I know that in India, women do not like to wear the same design which someone else already has and this is what we would to try to change by explaining them that it is not anything wrong to wear similar design. And coming to lightweight jewellery, I think people have already started accepting it, especially the working women.” Dilip Lagu, Director, Lagu Bandhu says, “It is not just for the designs, but consumers prefer Forevermark for their diamonds and customisation offered.” %% On this aspect, Forevermark is unfocused and the products are mostly very dreary and all over the map because every distributor makes their own collections. It does not seem to be a consumer driven approach. But Forevermark has the answer ready. Toranj Mehta, Manager Marketing, Forevermark, says in a very matter-of-factly-way, “We at Forevermark try and sell what we want to sell and we convince consumers to buy what we want to sell. We try to hold the control in our hands.”So then the bigger questions are:How many retailers will consider the programme a success and renew year after year? How many will evaluate that the advertising campaigns and the marketingare worth the fees and the premium prices? Only time can tell!There are surely many positives to the entire scenario, but everything has a darker side too. %%

Forevermark, the diamond brand from the De Beers Group of Companies undoubtedly carries the trust-mark with sheer commitment to the core. The brand in itself has earned the pride it deserves, but with all the shine, a bit of a gloomy side is inescapable. After all, a glittering diamond is born from the darkest coal.Kunjal Karaniya brings you variousshades of Forevermark as a brand and the Indian retailers’ reactions to it.%% Forevermark, the diamond brand from the De Beers Group of companies offers consumers a new promise in diamonds – a promise that goes beyond 4Cs. The promise is made up of rigid quality and integrity standards which includes ‘The Forevermark Inscription – The Proof of Promise’, ‘Design and Innovation’ and ‘The Forevermark Setting’. De Beers undoubtedly has a terrific record of managing the diamond business and the public sensitive of diamonds. For Forevermark too, they did so well in establishing the brand that now Forevermark diamonds are considered the world’s most carefully selected diamonds. It has earned the pride for itself, asless than one percent of the world’s diamonds are eligible to become a Forevermark diamond. “I think it is the clean diamond promise, the pipeline integrity part of the promise that works. When in doubt buy Forevermark, this is the kind of promisethat the brand echoes,” explains C. Vinod Hayagriv, Managing Director, C. Krishniah Chetty & Sons Pvt. Ltd. %% But… All this is not without a cost. History shows that they have poured in big money on advertising and marketing programmes that has given it its stature.Now, here is the twist in the tale:everyone down the distribution pipeline shares the cost. They provide the marketing, the stone marking, and the diamond grading, but it is for the retail partners to pay the premium and share the cost. Puja Punamiya from Kundan Jewellers feels the pinch and says, “Yes, we are happy to be a retail partner of Forevermark but it comes with a cost. We have to bear the premium cost, too.” %% Throwing enough money at it makes it attractive butright marketing and advertising seems to be lacking especially in the local regions. The highly talked about image building exercises have been missing since a last few months. The question is whether the initial hoopla was just a marketing gimmick? To this Puja Punamiya says, “During the launch there were hoardings but apart from that there were no local activities undertaken. It is only our loyal clients converting to Forevermark as there is no crowd-pulling activity from their side. We have not seen many print advertisements or any local awareness exercises to bring in new consumers. Basically co-branding of the retail store is missing. They have a few partner outings and one or two odd events in a year but targeted at elite consumers which is not enough.” Hence, the dealers and retailers involved have to push it as they have skin in the game. %%

On the other side, the next question arises that is the consumer ready to bear the premium for the only benefit of having a diamond with a known origin? Diamond sales are tough at retail, especially in India and the industry is seeing a glitch in the buying pattern. On this, Ishu Datwani, Director, Anmol Jewellers spontaneously says, ”I am surprised to see that people buy Forevermark jewellery/diamonds even when they know they are paying a bit more as a premium. It is the trust that they have built for the brand that works for Forevermark.”Adding to this, Bhavin Jakhia, Managing Director, OM Jewellers says, “Forevermark makes it easy to close the deal due to the trust factor and brand name involved.” Coming to the target consumer which is elite, how does it work in India? Ishu Datwani explains, “It is purely inspirational, if your role model or a famous elite personality wears it, you would surely aspire for it.” %% Coming to the designs, Indians are very peculiar about not wearing the same designs as someone else and also heavy gold jewellery is preferred over the lightweight. So what is it that makes Forevermark work except for the trust factor? Explaining the designing pattern, Costantino Papadimitriou, SVP, Brand Strategy and Innovation, Forevermark says, “I know that in India, women do not like to wear the same design which someone else already has and this is what we would to try to change by explaining them that it is not anything wrong to wear similar design. And coming to lightweight jewellery, I think people have already started accepting it, especially the working women.” Dilip Lagu, Director, Lagu Bandhu says, “It is not just for the designs, but consumers prefer Forevermark for their diamonds and customisation offered.” %% On this aspect, Forevermark is unfocused and the products are mostly very dreary and all over the map because every distributor makes their own collections. It does not seem to be a consumer driven approach. But Forevermark has the answer ready. Toranj Mehta, Manager Marketing, Forevermark, says in a very matter-of-factly-way, “We at Forevermark try and sell what we want to sell and we convince consumers to buy what we want to sell. We try to hold the control in our hands.”So then the bigger questions are:How many retailers will consider the programme a success and renew year after year? How many will evaluate that the advertising campaigns and the marketingare worth the fees and the premium prices? Only time can tell!There are surely many positives to the entire scenario, but everything has a darker side too. %%

Forevermark, the diamond brand from the De Beers Group of Companies undoubtedly carries the trust-mark with sheer commitment to the core. The brand in itself has earned the pride it deserves, but with all the shine, a bit of a gloomy side is inescapable. After all, a glittering diamond is born from the darkest coal.Kunjal Karaniya brings you variousshades of Forevermark as a brand and the Indian retailers’ reactions to it.%% Forevermark, the diamond brand from the De Beers Group of companies offers consumers a new promise in diamonds – a promise that goes beyond 4Cs. The promise is made up of rigid quality and integrity standards which includes ‘The Forevermark Inscription – The Proof of Promise’, ‘Design and Innovation’ and ‘The Forevermark Setting’. De Beers undoubtedly has a terrific record of managing the diamond business and the public sensitive of diamonds. For Forevermark too, they did so well in establishing the brand that now Forevermark diamonds are considered the world’s most carefully selected diamonds. It has earned the pride for itself, asless than one percent of the world’s diamonds are eligible to become a Forevermark diamond. “I think it is the clean diamond promise, the pipeline integrity part of the promise that works. When in doubt buy Forevermark, this is the kind of promisethat the brand echoes,” explains C. Vinod Hayagriv, Managing Director, C. Krishniah Chetty & Sons Pvt. Ltd. %% But… All this is not without a cost. History shows that they have poured in big money on advertising and marketing programmes that has given it its stature.Now, here is the twist in the tale:everyone down the distribution pipeline shares the cost. They provide the marketing, the stone marking, and the diamond grading, but it is for the retail partners to pay the premium and share the cost. Puja Punamiya from Kundan Jewellers feels the pinch and says, “Yes, we are happy to be a retail partner of Forevermark but it comes with a cost. We have to bear the premium cost, too.” %% Throwing enough money at it makes it attractive butright marketing and advertising seems to be lacking especially in the local regions. The highly talked about image building exercises have been missing since a last few months. The question is whether the initial hoopla was just a marketing gimmick? To this Puja Punamiya says, “During the launch there were hoardings but apart from that there were no local activities undertaken. It is only our loyal clients converting to Forevermark as there is no crowd-pulling activity from their side. We have not seen many print advertisements or any local awareness exercises to bring in new consumers. Basically co-branding of the retail store is missing. They have a few partner outings and one or two odd events in a year but targeted at elite consumers which is not enough.” Hence, the dealers and retailers involved have to push it as they have skin in the game. %%

On the other side, the next question arises that is the consumer ready to bear the premium for the only benefit of having a diamond with a known origin? Diamond sales are tough at retail, especially in India and the industry is seeing a glitch in the buying pattern. On this, Ishu Datwani, Director, Anmol Jewellers spontaneously says, ”I am surprised to see that people buy Forevermark jewellery/diamonds even when they know they are paying a bit more as a premium. It is the trust that they have built for the brand that works for Forevermark.”Adding to this, Bhavin Jakhia, Managing Director, OM Jewellers says, “Forevermark makes it easy to close the deal due to the trust factor and brand name involved.” Coming to the target consumer which is elite, how does it work in India? Ishu Datwani explains, “It is purely inspirational, if your role model or a famous elite personality wears it, you would surely aspire for it.” %% Coming to the designs, Indians are very peculiar about not wearing the same designs as someone else and also heavy gold jewellery is preferred over the lightweight. So what is it that makes Forevermark work except for the trust factor? Explaining the designing pattern, Costantino Papadimitriou, SVP, Brand Strategy and Innovation, Forevermark says, “I know that in India, women do not like to wear the same design which someone else already has and this is what we would to try to change by explaining them that it is not anything wrong to wear similar design. And coming to lightweight jewellery, I think people have already started accepting it, especially the working women.” Dilip Lagu, Director, Lagu Bandhu says, “It is not just for the designs, but consumers prefer Forevermark for their diamonds and customisation offered.” %% On this aspect, Forevermark is unfocused and the products are mostly very dreary and all over the map because every distributor makes their own collections. It does not seem to be a consumer driven approach. But Forevermark has the answer ready. Toranj Mehta, Manager Marketing, Forevermark, says in a very matter-of-factly-way, “We at Forevermark try and sell what we want to sell and we convince consumers to buy what we want to sell. We try to hold the control in our hands.”So then the bigger questions are:How many retailers will consider the programme a success and renew year after year? How many will evaluate that the advertising campaigns and the marketingare worth the fees and the premium prices? Only time can tell!There are surely many positives to the entire scenario, but everything has a darker side too. %%