Diamond Marketing Psychology: How Three Slogans Create Diamond Miracles?

Starting from the history of diamond marketing, this article uses three classic diamond advertising slogans to explain three marketing packaging techniques to readers, and objectively analyzes the marketing process of diamonds becoming the carrier of concepts such as eternity and rarity. Recommended for those who want to learn marketing psychology.

Diamonds, known as "a woman's best friend", were once a symbol of luxury and love in many people's minds. However, in recent years, the diamond market has encountered a cold winter.

Affected by factors such as the decline in the number of married people and changes in consumption attitudes, global demand for diamonds has dropped significantly, and diamond prices have continued to fall. According to the half-year financial report released by Anglo American, De Beers' revenue in the first six months of 2023 fell 21% year-on-year to US$2.83 billion due to declining consumer demand and customers turning to low-value goods.

In the domestic market, the 2023 semi-annual report released by Dia Co., Ltd., the parent company of DR Diamond Ring, showed that Dia Co., Ltd.'s operating income in the first half of this year decreased by 40.45% year-on-year to 1.242 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies dropped sharply by 90.77% year-on-year to 53.41 million yuan.

Although the diamond market is currently in a downturn, it does not mean that diamonds have no value. In fact, diamonds have created a glorious history and have become one of the world's largest luxury goods markets.

According to Bain Consulting, global diamond jewelry retail sales reached US$79 billion in 2019, accounting for 52% of the total jewelry market. In China, diamonds were once the protagonist of the wedding market. In 2017, the proportion of Chinese newlyweds buying diamond rings reached 47%, second only to the United States and Japan.

Compared to gold, diamonds themselves have little value, especially after the birth of cultured diamonds, the value of natural diamonds has been greatly reduced. So why can a crystal made of carbon have such a high price and strong appeal?

The answer lies in marketing packaging.

Through a series of carefully designed marketing strategies and psychological techniques, diamond dealers have successfully shaped diamonds into a carrier of concepts such as eternity, rarity, romance, nobility, and individuality , making consumers willingly pay for each shining carbon crystal.

In the history of diamond marketing, there are three extremely classic advertising slogans, they are:

• Diamonds are forever.
• Two months' salary to buy a diamond ring
• Only one can be customized in a lifetime

These three slogans and their supporting marketing are the important driving force behind people’s great desire for diamonds and the creation of a huge market. This article will use these three slogans to talk about the marketing psychology behind diamonds.

01 Diamonds are forever, and one diamond will last forever - Scarcity Effect

"A diamond is forever." This slogan is so popular and deeply rooted in people's hearts that AdAge ranked it first among the top ten slogans of the 20th century. Judging from the profits it brought to the diamond industry, it is worthy of the title of the first slogan of the last century. The diamond giant De Beers is behind this slogan.

De Beers made diamonds a luxury item by monopolizing the supply of diamonds in the 1870s and 1880s. However, De Beers was not satisfied with just selling diamonds, it also wanted to shape the image of diamonds, making consumers think that diamonds were a symbol of rarity, eternity and romance.

In order to achieve this goal, De Beers hired the famous American advertising company NW Ayer to carry out marketing planning for it in 1938.

NW Ayer's marketing strategy has two means: one is to increase the popularity and recognition of diamonds, and the other is to enhance the emotional and symbolic meaning of diamonds.

On the first point, NW Ayer used various media, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, movies, etc., to promote the beauty, durability and scarcity of diamonds.

It also showcases the charm and style of diamonds by collaborating with celebrities in the fashion, entertainment and social circles, such as inviting Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe, British royal family members, socialites, etc. to wear diamonds to various public occasions, and reporting their stories and pictures in the media.

In this way, diamonds became a popular fashion accessory and a symbol of social status and wealth.

On the second point, NW Ayer began to perfect their marketing strategy in the 1940s. They wanted Americans to believe that a marriage is incomplete without diamonds.

In 1947, Frances Gerety, a copywriter for NW Ayer, created the slogan "A diamond lasts forever" one night. At the initial meeting, the participants did not think the slogan was very good, but it was eventually adopted.

This slogan is concise, powerful, poetic and philosophical. It links diamonds with love and gives diamonds the value of scarcity.

It not only influenced the views of generations on diamonds and love, but also promoted the popularity of rings as engagement gifts. Before the 1940s, only about 10% of American brides received engagement rings, but in the late 1950s, this proportion rose to 80%, and most of them were diamond rings.

NW Ayer's marketing campaign for De Beers greatly promoted the development and expansion of the diamond market. From 1939 to 1979, American consumer spending on diamond jewelry increased 55 times.

De Beers also reaped huge profits from this, with its annual sales increasing from US$23 million in 1939 to US$2.2 billion in 1979.

The marketing of diamonds is a classic example of the scarcity effect, which refers to the fact that when something becomes scarce or difficult to obtain, people will perceive it as more valuable and more desirable.

De Beers controlled the supply of diamonds and artificially created scarcity. It then displayed diamonds through celebrities, fashionistas, and upper-class people, making women feel that only high-end people could own such a scarce thing. Finally, the phrase "diamonds are forever, and one will be passed down forever" reinforced the scarcity, making every woman want to own this token of love.

02 Two-month salary rule - anchoring effect

There is a saying about buying diamonds called the "two-month salary rule" (also called the "three-month salary rule"), which means that men should spend two months' salary when buying a diamond ring.

To be precise, this is not a slogan, but a concept, which was also created by De Beers.

When NW Ayer advertised for De Beers in the late 1930s, the suggested cost of an engagement ring was one month's salary. In the 1980s, De Beers launched a campaign to reset the standard to two months' salary. Advertisements often featured phrases like "Isn't two months' salary a small price to pay for something that lasts forever?".

Diamonds are of course expensive, but De Beers has stimulated the diamond market, so buying diamonds has become a must-buy for many men when preparing for marriage. However, men are still confused about how much they should spend on diamond rings. If they spend too much, they can't afford it, but if they spend too little, they are afraid that their partner will have opinions.

At this time, the two-month salary rule comes into play. Two months' salary is a considerable expense for most people, but when you think about the fact that marriage is a lifelong commitment, it seems worthwhile to spend two months' salary on a diamond ring.

Here, the two-month wage rule takes advantage of the anchoring effect, which means that people are influenced by previously given information or numbers when making judgments or decisions.

The two-month salary rule has been widely spread and accepted, becoming a reference point or anchor point for people when buying diamond rings, making people tend to spend more money on diamond rings.

De Beers' "two-month wage rule" is still widely accepted in the United States.

03 Only one can be customized in a lifetime - the principle of commitment and consistency

The last slogan comes from a Chinese brand - DR. Its slogan "A man can only customize one diamond in his lifetime" has brought the company profits comparable to De Beers' "Diamonds are forever."

DR is a brand that specializes in customizing engagement diamond rings for people in marriage and love. It was founded in 2010 and has created a unique marketing model based on the concept of "lifetime, only, true love": a man can only customize one DR engagement diamond ring in his lifetime with his ID card, and give it to the woman he loves, and sign a true love agreement, promising that true love will never change in this life.

When this rule was first established, it was promoted as a globally unified romantic rule, attracting the attention of many consumers.

In fact, DR does not engage in production and processing. Instead, it entrusts external jewelry manufacturers to carry out production and processing based on consumer demand, and then sells them through its own stores.

Simply put, it does not produce diamonds, but only creates a diamond brand. It then creates a premium for this brand through advertising and marketing, and then sells the diamonds produced by suppliers at a high price. Therefore, DR's profit margin is extremely high, and its gross profit margin remains at around 70% all year round.

DR's success is largely due to the concept of giving diamond rings to only one person in a lifetime, which it created at the beginning of its establishment. This concept creates a psychological suggestion: the man who buys a DR diamond ring for you must be loyal to you. Conversely, those men who know this but do not buy DR diamond rings may not be very loyal in their hearts.

The slogan that only one can be customized in a lifetime takes advantage of the principle of commitment and consistency, that is, people tend to keep the commitments they make and maintain consistency in their behavior and attitudes.

By requiring men to sign a true love agreement and bind the recipient's name, DR Diamond Ring Company makes men make an important commitment to love only one person in their lifetime. In this way, at least logically, after buying a diamond ring, men will be more determined in their choice and work hard to maintain their feelings in order to match their commitment and image.

When a man says to a woman, "I only love you," he will find ways to prove his commitment and consistency, and buying DR is the best proof at this time.

DR's marketing strategy actually has a huge driving force for both men and women. For men, there is nothing better than buying a DR diamond ring to show their loyalty to their girlfriends. For women, they will push their boyfriends to buy DR diamond rings to express their loyalty to them.

As a diamond sales brand that does not own diamond mines, does not produce and process, but is purely driven by advertising and marketing, DR has created a legend with the slogan "You can only customize one diamond in your lifetime". From 2018 to 2020, Diao Co., Ltd. achieved revenues of 1.5 billion, 1.665 billion, and 2.464 billion yuan, respectively. On December 15, 2021, Diao Co., Ltd. was officially listed on the Growth Enterprise Market, and its share price soared by 41.18%, with a total market value of 66 billion yuan.

Conclusion: The price of a diamond lies in its meaning

The value of diamonds does not lie in the diamond itself, but in the meaning it represents. The meaning of diamonds is packaged by diamond dealers through marketing strategies and advertisements.

Diamond dealers have created a huge diamond market by incorporating psychology into marketing and advertising to influence consumers’ cognition, emotions, and behaviors. The history of diamonds can be described as the most successful “scam” in marketing history.

Author: Xunkong, Source: WeChat public account “Xunkong’s Marketing Revelation”.