Imagine you have just arranged a first date with someone. You’re eager to get out of the house, eat some good food at a nice restaurant, and, of course, get to know someone new. You really don’t have high expectations, but you’ll give it a shot and hope for the best. You get to the restaurant, and your date is already there. “Don’t worry,” they say, “I already ordered you a drink. And appetizers. Wanna get married?”

That is, to say the least, moving a little too fast! You don’t know anything about them, their likes and dislikes, the quirks that you’ll find endearing and the quirks that will annoy you, whether they put the dish sponge back in the cup or leave it in the sink. Maybe they’re the perfect match. Maybe they’re a nightmare. It’s too soon to tell. What are they thinking, proposing before you even sit down for the first date?

This is a bit unreasonable, isn’t it? Expecting to see immediate results from advertising is just as ‘out there’. Good advertising doesn’t produce results overnight. It takes repetition, refinement, and patience to penetrate awareness and leave a lasting impression sufficient to motivate a call or a purchase.

Repetition

Repetition serves to make the unfamiliar familiar. Just as with our first date analogy, it takes time for potential customers to get to know you. They’re not going to settle for the first product they see, and will likely choose a more familiar brand over a less familiar one—even in B2B.

The first time someone sees an ad, it might fly by unnoticed. The second time, it might capture their attention: “I’ve seen this before…” The third, it might pique interest: “What is this company about? I keep seeing their ads.” The fourth time, they might finally click to learn more or seek out the business another way.

There’s an old concept in advertising called the “Rule of 7”: someone has to see an ad seven times before they decide to buy. While this might not be exactly accurate in the digital age, there is a kernel of truth there: you can’t just put an ad out once and expect to see a return. You have to get your message out there again and again, building familiarity with potential customers.

Refinement

Repetition only works for so long. It takes a while for a viewer to become familiar with an ad, and the business or product being advertised, but if they start seeing it too much, repetition begins to have an adverse effect. If you were watching TV in the US in the early 2000s, you might remember the commercial for headache reliever HeadOn: “HeadOn, apply directly to the forehead. HeadOn, apply directly to the forehead. HeadOn, apply directly to the forehead.” That was the entirety of the ad. Accompanied by an image of a person doing exactly that, it certainly made an impression. At first, it was effective at getting an audience unfamiliar with a new product to understand what the product was for and what it did. But after the thousandth time hearing “HeadOn, apply directly to the forehead,” it starts to grate. You don’t want to have anything to do with HeadOn.

So what did they do? They produced a new commercial featuring customer testimonials: “I hate your commercial but I love your product,” said one. “Your commercial is annoying but your product is amazing,” said another. They refined the message, recognizing in a humorous way that they had perhaps taken the advertising principle of repetition a bit too far.

It is unfortunate that as soon as an ad starts seeing returns, it’s probably time to refine the ad to keep it fresh, but that’s just the life cycle of digital advertising. Repeat your message until it sticks, refine the message so it stays fresh and doesn’t start to annoy people. And above all, remain patient throughout the process.

Patience

When a previously successful campaign starts falling off, it might be time for refinement rather than pumping more money into the campaign to keep it going. If your initial campaign isn’t immediately successful, though, you could find yourself tempted to pull the plug immediately. Don’t do it! The reality is that it might take a few months before you can really know if an ad was successful or not. If it turns out it’s not, try tweaking the image and the message until you find something that gets the clicks. It’s a lot of work at first, but once you get the hang of it, you start to understand what kinds of images and messages resonate with the kinds of customers you want, and every new ad campaign gets easier and easier. 

Following revelations of human rights abuses and environmental destruction perpetuated by the diamond mining industry, the industry suffered vast reputational damage in the first part of the 21st century. The concept of “blood diamonds”—diamonds used to fund wars in Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone—captured the public imagination and shaped public perception of the industry.

The industry took steps to redress these wrongs, developing institutions and processes such as the Kimberley Process to crack down on the trade of diamonds whose origins could not be verified. Organizations like Global Witness, Human Rights Watch, and Partnership Africa Canada have sought to go further than the Kimberley Process in bringing to light and correcting ethical and environmental abuses within the industry. While things weren’t fixed overnight, greater awareness of abuses, heightened scrutiny of the industry, and advances in technology have led to a cleaner, and in some cases more equitable, mining industry.

But how much of this does the general diamond-buying public know? Despite steps the industry has taken to clean up its act, its reputation for abusive and destructive practices persists. At the same time, the technology for creating lab-grown diamonds advanced to the point that LGD became a viable consumer product—one without any of diamond mining’s tainted history.

LGD were able to step in to fill the need consumers had for ethically and sustainably produced diamonds. While not every lab-grown diamond is more ethically or sustainably produced than every mined diamond, sustainability is still LGD’s main selling point, along with affordability. The rise of LGD coincides with the rise of a generation of consumers who prioritize sustainable practices above all else. These consumers still may view the mining industry with suspicion.

It's important that whatever type of diamond consumers choose, mined or lab-grown, they are making an informed choice. If they are choosing lab-grown for ethical reasons, there are a few factors that may show them a side of the mining industry they didn’t know existed.

Seek Out Ethical Sources

Just as every single lab-grown diamond isn’t more ethical or sustainable than every single mined diamond, not all mining companies are the same. To appeal to a demographic passionate about environmental issues, work with partners at every level of the supply chain that you know are working to make the industry as ethical and sustainable as possible.

For example, Canadian companies mining in the fragile arctic ecosystem work with local First Nations peoples to ensure that both the local land and population are cared for. Namibia and Botswana both have strong laws protecting miners from abuses, and Botswana in particular is leading the way for sustainable diamond mining.

Pursue Independent Certification

Pursuing certification by organizations like SCS goes a long way to building trust with consumers. SCS offers certification for Sustainability Rated Diamonds. Participants can achieve certification by passing independent audits verifying origin traceability and climate neutrality and adhering to environmental requirements. SCS also offers a Responsible Source – Jewelry certification for recycled or conflict-free gemstones and supply chains that adhere to rigorous health and safety criteria.

Educate Your Customers

If you’re part of a sustainable, ethical supply chain, the next step is to make sure your customers know about your commitment to sustainability. Phrases like “conflict-free,” “ethically sourced,” and “sustainable” should be a part of your marketing and merchandising if you can back up those claims. Whether you are a supplier or retailer, being known as the place to go for ethically or sustainably mined diamonds can give you a competitive advantage.

Conclusion

Transparency will lift up both the mined and lab-grown sectors. As ethical and sustainable practices proliferate in the mining industry, the lab-grown sector will have to work harder to substantiate its claims. It is in the best interest of both to be honest about its practices and strive to back up its claims with verifiable facts. Many players in the mining industry and throughout the supply chain are making an earnest effort to do the right thing. We also have to make sure consumers know that.

In 2019, Bain & Company were predicting drastic drops in diamond prices and global sales. The pandemic, however, led to an increase in personal luxury spending, especially in the jewelry sector, as luxury consumers were unable to spend that discretionary income on vacations and fine dining. As of 2023, the pandemic bubble seems to have burst, and diamond sales are once again trending downward. There is one sector of the jewelry industry that is bucking this trend, though: lab-grown diamonds.

As of June, 2023, “Diamond prices are down 18% from their all-time highs in February 2022, and are lower 6.5% year-to-date, according to one Global Rough Diamond Price Index,” CNBC reports. At the same time, LGD are increasing their share of the market, up from 2.4% in 2020 to 9.3% in 2023, according to the same CNBC article.

Sales of mined diamonds are falling while sales of lab-grown diamonds are increasing. But lab-grown diamonds still account for just a fraction of diamond sales. Will they ever overtake mined diamonds, and if so, when?

Pre-Pandemic Trends

Lab-grown diamonds have begun making inroads on mined diamond sales, particularly after De Beers introduced Lightbox, their affordable LGD brand, in 2018. In 2019, Millennials surpassed Baby Boomers as the largest adult generation. The rising purchasing power of Millennials, is also a factor, as Millennials tend to value ethical and environmentally friendly consumption over other concerns. Though the diamond industry has made great strides in cleaning up its act over the past two decades, negative consumer perceptions of mining and the diamond trade remain, and LGD marketing focused on environmental benefits stepped into serve environmentally conscious consumers.

Will Lab-Grown Diamond Sales Ever Surpass Mined Diamonds?

Industry analyst Paul Ziminsky predicts that LGD production will reach 25 million carats by 2030, but even that number will still pale in comparison to the more than 100 million carats of mined diamonds produced per year. While 25 million carats seems like a substantial market share, keep in mind that some 90% of that production ends up in industrial applications. Meanwhile, 20-30% of mined diamonds end up in jewelry. However, the low cost of LGD means we could see more of them used in industry and comparatively fewer mined diamonds used for that purpose. While higher production and greater affordability will help increase LGD market share, it is unlikely that they will crowd mined diamonds out completely any time soon.

What the Future Holds for Lab-Grown Diamonds

While LGD won’t outright replace mined diamonds, they are already carving out a niche for themselves. Ziminsky predicts that the quality of LGD will increase to the point that grading reports will become obsolete. The lack of grading reports will further depress LGD prices. One diamond won’t be superior to another identical, mass-produced diamond, and the costs saved from skipping the grading report can be passed onto the consumer.

The assumption that grading reports for LGD will become obsolete raises one question: what about cut, perhaps the most important, but most overlooked of the 4Cs? While all LGD might have equal color and clarity, two identical roughs can have wildly different values based on the quality of the cut: a superior cut creates better optical qualities and can result in greater carat weight as it will preserve more of the rough. On top of that, an expertly cut diamond can actually look larger than a larger, poorly cut diamond. Who cut a particular diamond may become a selling point for LGD.

Another factor that will boost the value of a lab-grown diamond amid falling prices is branding. Any diamond sold by a luxury brand will have that luxury cachet. To compare the implications of this to another industry, we live in an era where anyone can release music onto the internet. Some of it is very good, but some is very bad. Most of it is some shade of mediocrity in between. The role of record labels, then, is to serve as a sort of gatekeeper of quality. An album released on a label will signal a certain level of quality, a certain style, or a certain audience.

Luxury brands may soon serve the same purpose for lab-grown diamonds, functioning as a sort of seal of approval or guarantee of quality, style, or social message for consumers. While consumers are generally less brand-loyal than they used to be, they still tend to trust brand names over a name they’ve never heard before. LGD incorporated into luxury designs will still carry the value, and values, associated with a brand name.

We should also expect to see a greater segmentation of the market. We are already seeing segmentation between unbranded fashion LGD and brand-name luxury LGD, but we will also see the rise of premium brand LGD. Premium brands can take the form of more affordable versions of luxury brands, or more upscale versions of fashion brands. Either way, they will serve the same market purpose: occupying the middle ground between fashion and luxury. We will also see proprietary growing methods, particularly for colors not found in nature, as another selling point for luxury LGD.

Diamonds Are Forever—And For Everyone

The rise of LGD might bring diamond prices down across the board, but the amount of labor and the specialized skill it takes to get any kind of diamond to market suggest that prices won’t fall below a certain threshold. The ubiquity of LGD in fashion jewelry might further devalue the mystique of the diamond, but industry-wide controls on supply, luxury branding, proprietary growing methods and colors, unique designs, and expert cuts that push the boundaries of what is possible will elevate some LGD above others and maintain the product’s value and status.

Advertising is just for retailers, isn’t it? That’s what a lot of people think. After all, advertising is about brand recognition, making an emotional appeal to customers, and getting them to buy into a sense of belonging, a set of values, or a fear of missing out. What does that have to do with business to business transactions?

The benefits of advertising for retailers is obvious, but B2B companies also have a lot to gain from running targeted ad campaigns. It might not take the same form as B2C advertising, but the basic principles are the same: you need a way to introduce your business to the right set of potential customers and demonstrate what you can do for them.

The supplier-retailer relationship is typically more durable than the retailer-consumer relationship, so B2B companies probably aren’t going to be constantly advertising in search of new customers and fighting with each other to hold on to the ones they have. But when a business goes out in search of the kinds of services you provide, how will they find you? For B2B organizations, advertising lets you keep your name in front of potential customers so that when they need you, they already know where to turn.

The Importance of Positioning

Good advertising is about more than just getting your name out there. Letting potential customers know that you exist is the first step, but successful advertising goes further. This is where “positioning” comes in. When we talk about ad position, we are using the word in both senses:

• Position as in your point of view or feelings toward something: the message about your product or service you want to convey.
• Position as in the location of something: where will this ad be positioned (i.e. located) so that it is seen by people interested in what you’re selling?

In the first sense, you need a clear, simple message that will resonate with the kind of customers you are trying to attract. Just saying that you sell a particular product is not enough. There are lots of people who sell the same product; why would they choose you over another? Likewise, promoting low prices might not be effective, either, as there is always someone who can go lower.

In the second, if your ad strategy is to simply get your name in front of as many people as possible, you’re not setting yourself up for success. You’d be wasting a lot of time, effort, and money on an unfocused effort that will be seen by a lot of people, but mostly by people who are not going to be interested in your services. Poor positioning might even have an adverse effect on your business. If you put a broad message in front of a broad audience, sure, people will know who you are, but if they’re not the right audience, they will come to associate you with an annoying, confusing ad for a product or service they don’t understand, don’t need, and don’t want.

Every successful ad campaign is intentionally positioned. That is, it is focused. It’s built for a target audience, and it is shown mainly to that target audience. It knows what to say to that audience, and it knows where to find them. That’s what positioning is: getting the right message in front of the right people.

Finding Highly Qualified Buyers

When we think in terms of positioning, we’re not looking to get our message in front of the general public, or even just something as broad as “the jewelry industry,” even though that’s already a better approach. Ultimately, we want highly qualified buyers: buyers who know who you are and are already searching for what you are offering.

Targeted ads on Google or LinkedIn might help, the idea being that your ads will be shown to buyers searching online for suppliers. But running those ads still requires a lot of guesswork and trial and error to get right, and there are a lot of competitors vying for the same position.

If targeted pay-per-click ads on Google are a risk, casting your net too broadly is even riskier. You could put up a billboard on I-90 in Chicago and be seen by the 3 million commuters that come in and out of the city every day, but the vast majority of them don’t work in the jewelry industry and aren’t actively searching for a supplier or wholesaler—their just going to work or going home. Ultimately, that big billboard is not an example of effective positioning.

Placing your ad where you know qualified buyers in the jewelry industry are actively doing business, though, is much more effective positioning. Placing an ad in a trade magazine that speaks to your trade would be better positioning. The VDB Marketplace is used by 26,000 members, with 1.5 million items listed and 2 million actions performed every month. Every one of those users is a qualified buyer, and they are on the app looking for B2B companies like yours.

Success = Repetition

Just about every successful speech or article follows the same pattern:

1. Tell them what you are going to say;
2. Say what you told them you were going to say;
3. Tell them what you just said.

You might feel like you’re being unnecessarily repetitive, but your audience will appreciate your ability to really make your central message stick. To get a point across, you often have to make your case again and again over a period of time. Parents, how many times do you have to ask your kids to do something before they internalize the message and start doing it on their own? The journey from brand recognition to loyal customer isn’t a straight line. You’ve got to drive home your message again and again until it sticks.

Take the Next Step on Your Growth Journey

Advertising is a necessary step in the growth of any B2B company. To get the most out of your ad dollars, think about positioning: what are your goals, what is your message, and where are the qualified buyers? B2B contracts are much higher stakes and fewer in number than B2C sales, making it that much more important to keep your name in front of potential leads, build brand recognition, and make a case for your services. 

Not too long ago, we were in the midst of a “luxury for everyone” moment, leading to the coining of a neologism almost as unwieldy as “phygital”: “masstige,” a portmanteau of “mass market” and “prestige.” In need of new revenue streams, luxury brands like BMW, Gucci, and Tiffany & Co. reached into the middle class in search of new customers. That moment was driven by legacy brands whose old-money consumer base was aging. These companies turned to embrace the more inclusive attitudes of Millennial consumers and sought to reach them with more affordable versions of their products.

Formerly a new, exciting, and unknown frontier, ecommerce has become just another way to buy things. Consumers have expanded the limits of what they feel comfortable buying online over the years as cybersecurity and technology have progressed, and now, consumers are buying everything from groceries to luxury goods online. While the pandemic accelerated these changes, consumption habits were already trending in this direction throughout the 2010s. When you can get anything you want delivered to your door, paid for securely, why leave the house? With that attitude prevalent even over a year after pandemic restrictions have been lifted, it’s important for the jewelry industry to fully embrace ecommerce.

Periodically, the Federal Trade Commission updates their guidelines on environmental claims. These guidelines, known as “Green Guides,” help steer companies toward making qualified, verifiable claims about the environmental benefits of their products. In a time of increased consumer awareness of sustainability and environmental issues, companies have a responsibility to be honest and transparent in their environmental claims. Following these guides can help businesses stay on the right side of the law and avoid overselling the environmental benefits of their products.

These guides are especially important for the lab-grown diamond industry. One of the greatest benefits of lab-grown diamonds, in the eyes of consumers, is that they are a sustainable, environmentally friendly alternative to mined diamonds. But this belief doesn’t necessarily hold true for every single lab-grown diamond as compared to every single mined diamond. There are growers with massive carbon footprints, and there are mines that do everything in their power to leave the land in the same state they found it. And even when your lab-grown diamonds are manufactured with sustainability in mind, it is important to avoid general “sustainable” claims and get into the specifics of what makes these particular LGD more sustainable or environmentally friendly than mined diamonds.

As the 2012 revision of the Green Guides does not contain specific language concerning sustainability claims, the FTC is currently in the process of updating them. Though not much will be changing from earlier versions, now is a good time to review the FTC’s suggestions and what they mean for LGD. We want to be able to tout the environmental benefits of our products, but we have to be sure we are doing so as ethically as possible, with full knowledge of the FTC’s guidelines.

Renewable Energy Claims

The 2012 version of the guides says that if a product was made using fossil fuels, marketers may still claim that the product was made with renewable energy if the manufacturer purchases renewable energy certificates (RECs) to match the energy used in production. Furthermore, according to Section 260.15 (d), if a company “buys wind energy for 50% of the energy it uses to make the clothing in its line,” that company’s marketing materials cannot make the unqualified claim “made with wind power.” That company would have to specify that “We purchase wind energy for half of our manufacturing facilities.”

Sustainability Claims

Though the FTC is still reacting to public comment on the need to include “sustainability” language in the Green Guides, the way these guides have been interpreted includes “sustainable” in a class of terms alongside “eco-friendly” and “green.” Here’s what the FTC says about “eco-friendly” claims:

The brand name “Eco-friendly” likely conveys that the product has far-reaching environmental benefits and may convey that the product has no negative environmental impact.  Because it is highly unlikely that the marketer can substantiate these claims, the use of such a brand name is deceptive.  A claim, such as “Eco-friendly: made with recycled materials,” would not be deceptive if:  (1) the statement “made with recycled materials” is clear and prominent; (2) the marketer can substantiate that the entire product or package, excluding minor, incidental components, is made from recycled material; (3) making the product with recycled materials makes the product more environmentally beneficial overall; and (4) the advertisement’s context does not imply other deceptive claims.

As it stands, you can replace “eco-friendly” with “sustainable” in the above quote. When making sustainability claims, your best bet is to say exactly what makes a particular product sustainable.

General Claims

The Green Guides caution against making unsubstantiated, unverified, and vague claims about the environmental impacts of your products. One interesting comment from the guide suggests that marketers are responsible not only for their own use of language, but for the consumer’s interpretation of that language. Section 260.15 says, “Research suggests that reasonable consumers may interpret renewable energy claims differently than marketers may intend.” But if you follow the FTC’s guidance for substantiating your claims, you are better protected against unreasonable interpretations of your claims.

Conclusion

Whatever changes the FTC ultimately makes, it is important to remember that the Green Guides are just that—a guide to best practices. Their suggestions do not carry the force of law; however, following the guides’ recommendations is more likely to result in your business making marketing claims that are both legal and ethical. And while these guides are not legally binding regulations, they are used by courts litigating greenwashing lawsuits, as in a recently dismissed lawsuit against H&M. As sustainability becomes a major selling point for consumers, the lab-grown diamond sector should keep close tabs on the FTC’s revisions to the Green Guides and the courts’ interpretation of them.

If you’re keeping track of the latest developments in email marketing, you’ll find doomsayers, eulogizers, and evangelists alike. Social media marketing is taking email marketing’s place, some say. Email marketing is ineffective. Email is dying. Email is dead. Email is dead, but not for long. Wait—email is back! Email is better than ever! Which of those statements is actually true? The fact is, like everything else, email marketing is constantly changing. If you’re doing it the same way you were doing it in 2012, it can certainly seem dead. But if you’re embracing the latest technology and keeping abreast of what today’s consumer wants from email, it is still a highly effective marketing tool.

Personalization

We do not recommend you take a drink every time someone says “personalization” in 2023. The concept is everywhere in marketing, and it’s the key to successful email campaigns, as well. 90% of consumers use email, and 99% of those check their email every day. Do people even walk out to their physical mailboxes every day? Even though we are all constantly checking our email—sometimes up to 20 times a day—we are still reluctant to take the time to read every single message that lands in the inbox. We may sign up for a dozen promotional emails, but it’s only a select few that are able to capture our attention. These are the ones that seem to call out to us. It’s not about marketing tricks or generating FOMO; it’s about the subject lines that seem to have been written just for you, or the emails from businesses that have taken the time to build a relationship with you.

It is also important to remember that email is a two-way street. It is a communication tool, and not just for you to communicate with customers. Solicit responses from consumers in your email and publish their responses, whether it’s glowing reviews, customer service stories, or photos of customers using your products.

Artificial Intelligence

While you can get a chatbot to draft marketing emails, you’re better off letting a human being who understands building relationships, the nuances of human-to-human communication, and, most importantly, your brand’s voice take care of that. When we talk about using AI in emails, we are talking about letting it do the things that a human cannot: analyzing customer data, open rates, read rates, the day and time of day emails are opened, and so on, to help you make decisions about what kind of content to send to whom and when to do it. This makes the human work of sending the right message to the right person easier.

There is also software available that can automate responses in different situations, from cart abandonment reminders to first-time buyer welcome messages, and “just for you” messages based on a customer’s browsing or purchase history.

Segmentation

The above process of sending tailored responses to different groups is called segmentation. This is key to personalization and building relationships and communities of customers. Rather than designing one big, generalized campaign to send to your entire email list, you can use customer data to create different lists for different types of customers.

Email is a Part of Our Lives

Sometimes it seems like email replaced the telephone, and texting (and messaging apps like WhatsApp and Messenger) replaced email. But the fact is, email is still very much a part of our lives, and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon: teens use email even more than young adults. So if email marketing isn’t working for you, it’s not because email is dead. You just might need to alter your approach and adopt new technology to improve open rates, read rates, and click-through rates.

Amid this year’s AI boom, image and text generators have received the majority of the attention. That’s mainly because they produce something that we long thought to be the domain of human imagination: art and writing. They are also some of the most accessible and easy-to-use AI tools available. If you’re on a tight budget and handling a lot of your marketing on your own, or if you want to save time on mundane writing tasks like emails, these tools can increase productivity and save you a lot of time, money, and effort. Here are some tips for making work easier and growing your business with the help of AI and a few affordable apps to get started with.

What follows mainly pertains to the practicalities of AI rather than ethical or legal considerations. For that, see “Webinar and Ebook on the Legal and Ethical Uses of AI in Business Available to VDB Community,” also in this month’s newsletter.

Using AI Image Generators

AI-generated images can look incredibly impressive at first glance, especially the more whimsical, intricate creations, but upon closer inspection, you will begin to see inconsistencies and things that just don’t make sense: extra limbs in images of groups of people, extra fingers and fingers that don’t work the way fingers are supposed to, clothing and accessories that wouldn’t sit right on a human body, and fabric that doesn’t crease and flow in quite the right way.

If you keep it simple and work at refining your prompts, you can create usable images. But to get the most out of AI image generation, work in conjunction with an artist or designer to tweak the images to smooth out those inconsistencies—or have an artist create original artwork based on the AI output. AI is a great way to quickly generate concepts for an artist to work from. Handing an artist an AI-generated concept would make their work a lot easier and faster, with less back-and-forth revision. It would also give both of you a clearer picture of what you want.

Using AI Text Generators

AI writing tools are also not without their issues. No matter how much work you put into wringing a specific style out of a text generator, they rarely get the voice quite right. And the more specialized or specific the knowledge you are asking it to generate, the more prone it is to getting it wrong. On top of that, if your prompt includes incorrect information, the text generator’s input will repeat and even fancifully expand on those falsehoods. This is because its output is based on an aggregate of all of the data it was trained on. Large language models don’t actually “know” anything; they use statistics to “guess” the next word in a string of words with remarkable accuracy. But that’s not to say these tools aren’t useful. As with image generators, you just have to be very specific about what you want and work at refining your prompts.

AI can be great for checking your spelling and grammar and helping you organize your writing. If you’re a retailer in need of content for social media or your website’s blog, the best practice is always to combine the knowledge and experience of the jeweler with the craft and nuance of a writer, but for articles on well-established topics that don’t require the most up-to-date information or a refined brand voice (i.e. “How to clean your pearls”), or for documents that are not customer-facing such as emails and reports, AI writing tools can be a lifesaver for those who are not writing specialists or who dread such tasks.

One of the best uses of AI writing tools is brainstorming. The hardest part of writing is just coming up with ideas. Often, you have to come up with 10 bad, boring, bland, or overdone ideas for a blog post or marketing email before you come up with something good. In seconds, AI can generate dozens of topics that can spark your creativity.

Recommended AI Tools

AI writing tools are more than just chatbots and text generators. If you’re interested in checking out what AI image and text tools can do for you, here are some affordable AI programs to experiment with. Some of these have some pretty interesting features that you’ll probably find an immediate use for.

• Brain Pod AI: Brain Pod does a little bit of everything: text, image, text-to-speech, even sound and video. It can generate blog posts, analyze SEO, and improve the SEO of your previously written articles. It includes a number of templates, including AIDA and PAS frameworks, marketing emails, social media posts, and more. Limited-time Lifetime deal for $39.
• Neuron Writer: This tool analyzes SERPs and keywords and helps you write copy optimized for search engines. Limited-time Lifetime deal for $69.
• Word Hero: AI content writing tool that breaks down writing tasks by category. It also includes a text editor that allows you to input text and generate paragraphs expanding on your input or an outline that you can then expand yourself. Limited-time Lifetime deal of $89.
• Airbrush AI Image Generator: Airbrush wants to make it easier for you to find the perfect stock image. Rather than search through dozens of pictures only to settle on something that is just “good enough,” Airbrush will create the perfect image based on your prompt. Lifetime deal for $29.

Not Exactly “Self-Driving”

As you employ these tools, think of them like self-driving cars. If you decide to take a nap in the back seat and let the car drive itself, it’s likely you’ll wake up to the sound of horns blaring and glass breaking. Self-driving cars aren’t entirely autonomous; they still need a human supervisor. These tools are here to assist you, not the other way around. They won’t replace deep subject matter expertise, your own unique experiences that bring your business to life in the eyes of consumers, or the ability to craft a pithy turn of phrase that will land just right with a particular audience, but they can make the more tedious parts of work a lot easier. Just remember to keep one hand on the wheel.

Want to feel old? Millennials, that emerging generation who are going to change everything, are now entering their 40s. Their moment is passing, and we now turn our attention to Gen Z. The oldest members of Gen Z have graduated college, are starting families, and most relevant to us, have disposable income to spend on luxury goods. Gen Z now comprise 40% of consumers worldwide, with $30 billion in disposable income. How, then, do we make sure Gen Z are spending that disposable income with us? One way to reach this socially conscious generation is through lab-grown diamonds, provided that you can demonstrate the sustainability and ethics of the product.

Meet Them Where They Are: Online

Before you can get your message across to Gen Z, you have to know where to find them. Though there is a growing dissatisfaction with social media among young people, Gen Z still spend more time in front of screens than any other generation. They are dissatisfied with the effect social media has had on society and on older generations, but despite this awareness, Gen Z are still an “extremely online” generation. They were the first generation to hold a smartphone as children and to live their whole lives with the internet as ubiquitous as television was for everyone else. The typical Millennial probably didn’t have an internet-connected computer until high school, and even then, it was most likely a family computer with a dial-up connection. Millennials may have grown up online, but Gen Z were born there.

While Millennials might be on Instagram or Twitter and Gen X and Boomers are on Facebook, Gen Z are mostly on TikTok and that social media platform that we don’t think of as a social media platform, YouTube. Between TikTok, YouTube, and to a lesser extent Instagram, Gen Z consume 7.2 hours of video content per day. That’s not 7 hours of total screen time—that’s 7 hours on video alone.

Gen Z turn to video for everything. Where a Millennial might use Google to find a relevant article, Gen Z will turn to TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram and search for a video, whether they want to learn how to cook salmon, learn how get a glossy lip look, buy the best microphone for their streaming setup, or find ethical, sustainable jewelry. The videos they connect with are delivered in a conversational, humorous style that entertains as it educates.

Be Honest About Your Claims

Video content is the way to reach them, but Gen Z are particular about who they will listen to. A Google search will bring up articles with the best SEO, not necessarily the most relevant articles, and right now, chatbots are not at the point in their development where they can be relied upon to give factual, accurate answers to questions. It remains to be seen whether changes in search engine algorithms will privilege human-written, human-centered, helpful articles, or whether the internet will be drowned under a tsunami of machine-generated text spam. So Gen Z turn to their social networks, customer reviews, and influencers who can speak their language for answers.

Grabbing the attention and the trust of Gen Z consumers means not overselling or overstating claims about lab-grown diamonds. Gen Z are inquisitive, values-driven consumers. More than any other generation, they are interested in how, where, and by whom their products are made. They want to know that their consumption is not making the world a worse place because climate change is much more real and immediate to them than it is to many older adults. They look at their future and don’t see an unending upward slope of progress; they see a world hanging in the balance. So they will want to know for sure if that lab-grown diamond is truly contributing less to carbon emissions than a mined diamond. They want to be sure that the working conditions in a lab are not worse than the working conditions in a mine.

It is imperative, then, for retailers to be just as inquisitive about their suppliers and really understand where their lab-grown diamonds come from, how efficient their labs are, and how workers are treated and compensated. If you can point to these facts and demonstrate that your product truly is an ethical and sustainable alternative to mined diamonds, then you will find customers among Gen Z.

Environmental Issues that Concern Gen Z

Beyond contentious issues of carbon emissions per carat grown or mined, there are other environmental benefits of LGD that retailers can communicate to Gen Z consumers. Water scarcity, deforestation, and human rights are all issues that will affect Gen Z purchasing decisions. Diamond mining has become much cleaner and safer in recent years, and many mines recycle the water used in the extraction process and rehabilitate the land after a mining project finishes. But contamination and waste are still byproducts of the mining process, no matter how modern the mining facilities.

Deforestation is also an issue of concern for Gen Z. Forests absorb both carbon and heat from the sun, so it is important to young people that we intervene in the environment in ways that conserve the planet’s remaining old-growth forests.

In some parts of the world, these untouched lands are also the homes of indigenous peoples. Gen Z care about protecting and empowering the people most vulnerable to exploitation. In Canada, diamond miners work with First Nations people to ensure that sacred ground is not disturbed and that the people who have a right to the land profit from it. But in many cases artisanal mining, or small-scale mining done not by large corporations but by local people, with no regulation or labor rights for the women and children who do much of the work, takes place outside of the law. While regulations and diligent manufacturers and suppliers keep the products of illegal artisanal mines out of the supply chain, they can still find their way in. The money from these illegal mines often funds drug and human trafficking. Lab-grown diamonds are one way consumers can be absolutely sure that they are not helping to fund these activities.

Even with modern technology, regulations, and public awareness, the effects of mining on local flora, fauna, water supplies, and people remain long after mines shut down. No matter how many environmental regulations mining companies comply with, the most environmentally friendly thing to do is not mine to begin with. Overall, however, it is important to recognize the strides the mining industry has made in the past 20 years to become a less exploitative, more sustainable industry. We can extol the virtues of LGD without denigrating or making overblown claims about the mining industry, or pointing to its past failures as examples of modern practices.

Gen Z are questioning the consumption habits of those who came before them, from homeownership as an investment to car-centered development to buying cheap products from developing countries. They are also a generation that gravitates toward brands that share their values. Lab-grown diamond marketing is an opportunity to connect with Gen Z on the issues they care about, but only if it comes from a place of honesty and authenticity.

The ringtone of the smartphone seemed to sound the death knell for the landline telephone, the camera, the portable music player, and the watch. Seeing “home” and “cell” listed on a form, as though they were still two different phone numbers, seems anachronistic now, and the digital cameras of the early 2000s seem as antiquated as bulky beige CRT monitors and wood paneling on station wagons, a symbol of a time gone by. On the other hand (or wrist), however, there’s the watch. Even as its utilitarian value waned, its symbolic power endured. Why is it that even as smartphones have relegated the digital camera and the iPod to the same dustbin of history as the Walkman and the fax machine, luxury watch brands are thriving?

What It Means for Consumers

There are two types of luxury watch buyers: those who see it as a luxury accessory and those who are making an investment. The two categories can overlap, and who comprises the first is changing. If all you want is to know what time it is, you have a phone for that. But a luxury watch is so much more than a timepiece. It is a functional accessory, something that can call back to bygone traditions or can signal belonging to a subculture that appreciates the fine craftsmanship and complex expertise of the watchmaker.

The investors, on the other hand, see the secondary market as a quick way to turn a profit, buying watches on the secondary market at prices up to five times greater than retail and looking to flip them for even more. That market grew exponentially throughout 2022 thanks to these buyers, fueled, asVictoria Gomelsky wrote for the New York Times, by stimulus checks and crypto money. Luxury watches, like sneakers or NFT “art,” became the locus of so many get-rich-quick schemes.

But the future of luxury watches lies with those newcomers to the luxury market, Gen Z. What they want from watches is the same thing they want from jewelry: beauty with meaning. Ethically sourced materials, environmentally sustainable practices, and the social conscience of a brand are just as important as the status that a brand conveys. We saw this most recently following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when Louis Vuitton, Swatch, and Rolex closed their stores in Russia. These companies know their consumers, and they know what their consumers expect from them.

What It Means for Retailers

With the madness of 2022 subsiding thanks in part to the crypto crash, the luxury watch market would seem poised for a downturn. But the industry was growing even before the secondary market began to heat up, and it is expected to remain strong even as it cools off. Luxury watchmakers often produce limited editions, which means their products will always have value on the secondary market, and the most sought-after models will always be difficult to find on the primary market. But a slowdown in investment buys is fine with retailers, who will sell out of their stock regardless and would rather sell to those who appreciate the craftsmanship of a luxury watch rather than to profit-driven speculators, anyway.

There are more people than ever in the former category, and many who initially saw watches solely as investments developed a love for them. With their customer base growing, luxury watch retailers are poised to grow in 2023, even with the looming threat of a recession. High-end luxury is an almost recession-proof business, but mid-priced luxury will have to work harder to forge connections with consumers

For the new Gen Z consumers, a luxury watch is less a statement of status or achievement and more a statement of identity and feeling like a part of something with a greater purpose. They will gravitate toward brands that move away from the ultra-masculine, ultra-wealthy branding of the past to something more inclusive and purposeful. Part of this move away from a masculine brand image will be new innovations in women’s watch design as well as more unisex designs that appeal to younger consumers’ ideas about masculinity, femininity, and everything in between.

The resale market for luxury watches soared in 2022, but it seems to be coming back down to earth in 2023. Sales in the primary market, however, remain stable, which is good news for retailers as they face uncertainty in the coming recession. As it is for all luxury retailers, watch retailers can come out even stronger by knowing and authentically relating to their consumers.

Like Lana Del Rey, lab-grown diamonds were once misunderstood and derided as “fake.” And also like Lana Del Rey, lab-grown diamonds have now been embraced by the public for the precious gems they are (though I’m not sure LDR and LGD are beloved for the same reasons, i.e. lower price per carat and environmental sustainability).

What are your marketing goals for 2023? You can’t grow your business without meeting your goals, and you can’t meet your goals if you don’t make a plan. While we might experience Covid outbreaks here and there for the foreseeable future, the “pandemic era” is behind us. On top of that, inflation is likely to ease in 2023. So with the two biggest challenges of the past few years on the way out, the future is now. It’s vital that you make a plan to carry you into the future in a position of strength.

A marketing plan is a document that sets out in writing an organization’s marketing goals and the specific methods they will use to achieve them. Other than marketing goals, a marketing plan typically contains analysis of target market, ideal customer profiles, marketing strategies used, budget numbers, and KPIs. Such a plan breaks down specific marketing activities granularly, whether by quarter, month, or even week.

You may already have a marketing plan in place. But once the hectic holiday season is over and you look toward the beginning of another year, you might want to take a look at the challenges that will make 2023 different from 2022 and rework your plan accordingly.

Writing the Marketing Plan

Before you begin, get information from your entire team, whether they are involved in sales and marketing or not. Every employee has their own experience of your business and might offer some insight that you weren’t able to see. Bring your sales, marketing, and purchasing leaders together to discuss the successes and challenges of the past year and to articulate a vision of the future.

The first thing that goes into a marketing plan is a statement of your brand vision. Why are you in this business? What is the purpose of your business? What do you do that your competitors don’t? What can you offer that they can’t? Stating a clear brand vision can help you not only identify your target market, but determine the best ways to reach them.

Your plan should consider all sales and marketing channels: your sales team, your website, social media, email campaigns, content marketing, etc. Identify the channels responsible for the most growth. Which channels are driving growth, which are lagging behind and need more work, and which should you consider abandoning? Not every social media platform, for instance, will yield the same results. It might behoove you to spend less time on one in order to really focus on growing another.

Knowing what your competitors are up to will also help you come up with a solid marketing plan. Have any old competitors gone out of business? Has anyone new moved into the area? Do you expect any changes in the coming year? Look at what your competitors are doing well and where they might be struggling. Maybe they’ve tried something you’d like to try but did not have success with it, or maybe they’ve done something well that you’d like to emulate.

Finally, make sure your marketing plan is based on data and contains hard numbers: KPIs, budget numbers, growth targets, and the like.

Stick to the Plan, But Be Flexible

Make the plan as perfect as it can be, but also understand that reality is not perfect. You’ll have to remain flexible throughout the year and shift targets on the fly when necessary. One way to stick to the plan while remaining flexible is to divide your marketing plan into quarters, and reevaluate goals at the end of each quarter.

It does take a little extra work to create such a plan, especially if you haven’t written one before. But the extra effort will be worth it when you see your whole team working toward the same goal by implementing a coherent, well-researched, step-by-step strategy.

Overall, it’s important to base your decisions on as much information as possible. No matter who the final decision maker is, gather input from as many members of your team as possible. It’s hard to believe that 2023 is only a few days away. Are you ready?

When was the last time a web search took you deeper than the first page of Google results? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important part of organically attracting visitors to your SERPs (search engine results pages) and to your site as a whole. But there’s a lot more to it than loading your site with keywords and search terms.

The way lab-grown diamonds and mined diamonds are typically marketed creates an adversarial relationship between the two. Proponents of LGD will say that their product is an environmentally friendly alternative to destructive, unsustainable, and exploitative mining practices, while mined diamond advocates will say that LGD’s environmental claims are overblown and that the mining industry is much more equitable and sustainable than it used to be.

In its efforts to challenge social media giants like TikTok and Instagram, Pinterest introduced a new feature in 2021 called Idea Pins.

Email has to be responsible for 99% of the world’s writer’s block. How often have you sat in front of Outlook or Gmail and attempted to win a staring contest with that white box?

What’s your cookie policy? Years ago, you might have said “no more than one row of Oreos in one sitting,” though that’s a policy we’ve all violated more than once. Today, every website asks you to review their cookie policy. Cookies aren’t some new technology; before last year, websites would just slip them onto your computer without asking first. But websites are now asking permission because of a law passed in 2018 called the European General Data Protection Regulation. A similar law was passed in the US in 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act, which requires sites to be transparent about what information they are collecting and what they are doing with it, and to give users the option to reject cookies used to collect and sell personal information.

By: Duvall O’Steen and Jen Cullen Williams
This article originally ran in National Jeweler.

By: Duvall O’Steen and Jen Cullen Williams
This article originally ran in National Jeweler.