Pandora Support Gets a Rap Response
Gary Roskin
Roskin Gem News Report
In a recent LinkedIn post, Samantha Lekkas, Executive Vice President of Sales and Merchandising, moved to support the concept of a Free Marketplace of Ideas by pointing to Pandora and their recent move to have Pamela Anderson as their spokesperson.
ROUND ONE
“Pandora’s latest move of getting Pamela Anderson to be the face of Lab Grown Diamond is a checkmate and here’s why… Think back to the Baywatch version of Pamela Anderson with the fake long bleached hair extensions, loads of makeup, fake tan, fake nails, fake eyelashes and fake ummmm…”beach balls?”
“Fast-forward to 2023 Paris Fashion week. A transformed Pamela Anderson emerges, make-up-free, elegant, raw and real and also as the new face of Pandora’s Lab Grown Diamond campaign. Her new look has been highly praised as daring and elegant. It goes against traditional standards and yet feels so relevant and beautiful. But most importantly her new look is synonymous with with the words natural, raw and real….all words that will be subconsciously in consumer’s minds as they watch Pandora’s marketing blitz.”
“With 1/3 of the American population’s median age over 40, Pamela Anderson (aged 56 and still gorgeous) also speaks to a powerful demographic often under-represented in marketing campaigns despite having deeper pockets. Looks like Pandora spent many nights strategizing how to ‘seize the day’ this holiday season.”
[This is tongue in cheek as “Seize the Day” is DeBeers’ latest marketing campaign which features natural mined diamond. – gr]
Martin Rapaport punches in to protect the natural diamond interest.
“Pandora and Swarovski will define the Low Value, High Volume (LVHV) synthetic diamond market. Jewelers who try and make a living in their space will go out of business. WalMart and Amazon will further reduce the price of synthetics to consumers.
“Synthetic competition will come from well designed CZ and Moissonite jewelry. All of this will destroy the value of synthetic diamonds as a valuable emotional gift. Obviously real diamonds that cost more and have higher emotional value are a different type of gift for a different type of person. Real diamonds are for real people that have real money.
“Real diamonds are not for everyone. The value of real diamonds is directly related to the fact that they are expensive. Some GenZ will want to give their fiancé a Walmart synthetic diamond or even splurge in a Swarovski engagement ring for $129. Others will put a higher value in their relationships.
“The diamond trade is well advised to focus on selling real diamonds to people who have money and want to spend it on emotional value.” – MR
In Response, Lekkas comes back with a flurry.
“Thank you for your insight. You bring up an interesting point around the emotional value of real diamonds. I 100% agree with you that emotion is a huge driver in defining a diamonds value as ‘THE gift of love.’
“Historically that emotional narrative has been shaped and guided by DeBeers. I’m shocked there hasn’t been a larger marketing campaign to take control of the narrative. They have allowed lab-grown diamonds to get a free ride and trade as a gift for love. Not to mention LGD also gets the same benefit of 0% duty when importing loose to US from India just like natural diamonds. Whereas a synthetic stone like moissonite, which is classified as a synthetic stone, is subjected to a much higher import duty (I believe around 10-12%). Seems like those two things above should had been strategically addressed five years ago and the ball was dropped.
“In the absence of a strong narrative around natural diamonds, the current stance of ‘the value of real diamonds is directly related to the fact that they are expensive’ is a circular argument that is simply not good enough anymore for a very large amount of consumers that you may not consider real, but their money is.
“Also #swarovski LGD engagement rings start at around $1,500.”
Ouch. Well, it will be interesting if that $1,500 will stand. Let’s check back this time next year. (or maybe this time next month?)
End of Round ONE
