Political correctness aside, psychologists have long ago determined that men and women are different: they think differently and they act differently. Men are highly focused single-taskers. Women are adept multi-taskers. Men and women also shop differently. They take distinctly different approaches to how they evaluate a product and how they buy it.
This distinction between men and women brings me to a question that I have been asking for my thirty-some years of involvement in the diamond and jewelry industry: since women buy almost all the jewelry sold at retail, why are there so few women in the jewelry industry, especially at the manufacturing level where the goods are designed and produced?
Who designs most jewelry? That’s largely a male-dominated task, though forward-thinking retailers like Tiffany have long employed female jewelry designers, which has proven to be a highly successful strategy.
In jewelry retailing, the purchase process is far different from most other retail situations. Historically, most jewelry was purchased by men for women. Men are engineers at heart. The concept of a diamond’s “Four Cs” was invented for men who want to compare diamonds, just as they compare an engine’s horsepower when buying a car.
Most women, on the other hand, have only a passing interest in the diamond’s four Cs. They want a great “look,” and they are content to let the man figure out if he can haggle over the price to get a good value.
In the past, diamonds and diamond jewelry were purchased for two distinct life-cycle events: 1) men bought an engagement ring for their bride-to-be; and 2) men bought jewelry beginning at age 50 or so for their wife, children, and other loved ones (perhaps a girlfriend). Clearly, the male was making the purchase for both of these life-cycle events.
Fast-forward to the last ten years or so. That’s when two new, very distinct trends began to emerge in the American jewelry industry: younger female consumers began to buy much more fine jewelry that is “fashion” rather than traditional; and women stepped up their self-purchase jewelry spending.
How important are these two emerging markets? During the Great Recession of 2008-2009, those young twenty-something and thirty-something female shoppers kept the American jewelry industry afloat, according to an IDEX Online Research analysis of data from the Department of Commerce. The self-purchase market is more elusive, but could represent as much as 10-15 percent of all diamond jewelry purchased in the U.S. market.
In addition, our own in-store research confirms the trend that young female shoppers want something “different” and “fashion-oriented.” We recently observed a jewelry store employee trying to sell a very nice diamond pendant to a young twenty-something customer. The store associate extolled the product’s virtues, hoping to make a high-dollar sale. The young woman looked at the pendant, and said, “Yes, it is pretty. It looks like something my mother would like. I don’t want it.” Today’s young consumers are very different from boomers: boomers wanted the same thing their neighbor had, only larger. Today’s young consumers prefer different over larger.
If the diamond industry is going to target female self-purchasers and young female fashion customers, diamantaires must get women involved in their business. And the involvement can’t be just a token female here and there. Women need to be heavily involved in the entire production process, from the design of diamond jewelry to determining the marketing plan.
I’m a man. I know my limitations, and I learned long ago that I know little about diamond jewelry designs and diamond jewelry merchandising. I rely on women to help me understand these things – the same women who will be diamond and jewelry customers. This is a lesson that diamantaires need to study, learn and implement.
