July 2020 - Lab Grown Magazine

July 2020 | LG | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 10 To advertise call (888) 832-1109 | July 2020 11 The Color of Profit By Dan Scott Opening a new lab-grown diamond door can unlock additional buyers and revenue. Only one in ten thousand mined diamonds is certified as a natural, fancy color diamond. Of those, a small percentage have the leading diamond grades of Intense and Vivid . According to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), these terms are specific to natural, colored dia- monds or fancies, to use the old-school term. Whatever you call colored diamonds, everyone agrees that these stones are rare. In time, growing colored diamonds will tech- nically change the rarity factor of fancy dia- monds as more color enters the market. While the natural side should own the rarity sector, this category instantly imparts leverage to lab- grown (LG) producers like never before. A new diamond door of opportunity is opening to ac- celerated benefits that can help you sell colored diamonds, with greater margins and return on investment. 9,999 Don’t Make the Color Photographed on the most famous celebri- ties and those able to afford such extravagance, colored diamond jewelry continues to evoke awe around the world. The daunting fact that only one in ten thousand stones makes the fancy grade provides a new product, new audi- ence, and new revenue to the LG community, and may move you into the universe of fashion jewelry and accessories, offering alliances that were previously not top-of-mind. This also ushers in an elevated, elite-minded customer—one prepared to pay thousands for what would normally be sold in the millions. For those who have long desired a genuine pink, blue, or yellow diamond, they may now bypass jaw-dropping costs and own a level of status recently reserved for the superrich. A Leg-Up on Marketing Colored diamonds are a story of something new connected to something old. While natural colored diamonds are rare, so is the opportunity to gain high-spending customers and enter the world of fashion and accessories with LG color. The desire for colored diamonds has been, and will forever be, in fashion. Historically, jew- elry aficionados and the general public expect to see exotic colored diamonds making head- lines. Everyone, everywhere, can appreciate the inherent luxury factor of a blushing pink, baby blue, or yellow diamond. Therefore, a wide audience has already turned a learning curve into a straight line. Typically, any product introduction or launch requires in-depth consumer research, market- ing, and public relations to align consumer de- sire with purchase. Educating and motivating the public about a new product generally needs a significant period of time. That time frame varies and may easily stretch into years of emotional appeal and defense of a value proposition. It is necessary to accurately and consistently com- municate the message in different languages, while factoring in cultural and behavioral shifts in fashion purchasing. Even household-name products diving into launch mode face these challenges, but with LG color, you won’t. This introduction of LG color comes complete with the lon- gest consumer and trade mar- keting campaign ever produced. Large-scale product marketing and PR campaigns, especially for luxury launches, often start with teaser placements. Teasers build upon the new factor and target those who want to be seen with whatever is considered new . Just think of people standing in line around the block for a new I-phone or X-Box game. To properly create a teaser cam- paign for luxury launches, piles of detailed data are first examined. The results are programed into a teaser test, tests are evaluated, and then a roll-out is activated. The current color opportunity bypasses all of that. The natural and historical progression of non-branded, earned media resonating year- over-year, century after century, gives the LG color product launch limitless leverage. When have you been able to offer customers some- thing that most have never seen in-person yet have admired from afar? And when have you been able to do so in a realistic retail price range, thus allowing for the strongest margins this industry may ever enjoy? That time is now. As we carefully reopen our businesses in this coronavirus-conditioned world, some LG manu- facturers are doing so by adding colored loose stones and finished LG jewelry designs to their product line-up. To gauge where the LG colored diamond industry is heading, this article focuses on two ends of the spectrum. On the established side, we interviewed Tom Chatham, CEO of Chatham , the first producer of U.S. grown diamonds and colored gemstones. Ontheyoungbrandside,wespokewithSamuel Jansen, CEO, Made By Man Diamonds (MBM), a start-up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The contrast between a legendary LG colored diamond and gemstone pioneer and a finance pro turned diamond grower is extreme on nearly every level. One represents decades of histori- cal advancement and caters to an established base; the other mirrors the majority in this sec- tor, those diving into an investment-aligned business opportunity that may not fall within their core competency. Faceted Facts It’s possible to transform a mined brown diamond into a fancy by artificial treatment, although the process greatly diminishes a fan- cy diamond’s value. The same hold true with natural, precious gemstones and their LG coun- terparts—the less fracture filling, annealing, heat treatments, and other enhancements that are used, the higher the price. Re- member, we are comparing the rarity and monumental expense of natural colored diamonds to thosegrownandpossibly treated. The rarest and most expensive natu- ral fancies are red, green, and blue. When those colors are dense and saturated, the diamond’s value is in the millions of dollars. While the market has seen its share of pale pinks, blues, and yellows, they are never at the cost savings LG may offer. ► Everyone can appreciate the inherent luxury of a blushing pink, baby blue, or yellow diamond. Consistency in colored LGDs is possible as shown in these faceted pinks by Made by Man Diamonds. (Photo: MBM) Faceted blue diamonds displaying a consistent shade of blue by Made by Man Diamonds. (Photo: MBM)