January 2020 - Lab Grown Magazine
January 2020 | LG | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 26 If It Bleeds, It Leads I’ve always found that media slang distasteful, but it was true when quoted in the 1920s, and it’s still true today. Headlines are delivered to grab attention and 98% of all news is bad news. This is true in the diamond world as well. The Bain Group and the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) forecast rough diamond sales to drop a whopping 25%, while polished dia- mond sales are expected to decline 10%, by the end of 2020. One daring blog post called this present situ- ation “The Diamond Curse,” implying karmic payback for the past blood on the hands of some industry suppliers who are “still abusing the Kim- berly Process.” Harsh words, but there may be elements of reality in the journey that some dia- monds take.And even in the finest hour of block- chain technology, those computer codes are only as good as the humans who enter them. But let’s talk about the word diamond . In all domains, it denotes a high level of product or service. There are diamond awards bestowed on individual achievements; diamond levels are given by credit cards and frequent flyers. Place the word diamond next to any other word and it instantly heightens the perception of literally anything. That’s powerful. As an industry, we’ve achieved an incredible alignment between diamonds and status. What we haven’t done well, however, is align mined diamonds with lab-grown diamonds. It behooves people in both sectors to accept each other—look at Lightbox by De Beers—there is space for both. Those of you who are reading this are real-life players, contributing to what could be either a very rewarding dual-diamond evolution or per- haps a dueling diamonds’ revolution . About the Author Dan Scott is Founder and Brand Architect with Luxe Licensing, a brand, marketing and digital agency with present and past clients that include Pirelli, Gucci Jewelry, Harry Winston, Chanel, Erbert Chong, Elf Cosmetics, Creative Being and more. Dan welcomes conversation and may be reached at dannjscott@gmail.com or +1.201.294.3697. (luxelicensing.com) ■ Diamond rotating blade used in creating lab-grown diamonds (Photo: Creative Commons)
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