Somewhere in the United States right now a man is walking into a jewelry store to buy a diamond engagement ring for his girlfriend. His fingers nervously tap the glass display counter as the jeweler brings out a tray of rings for him to choose from. He picks a ring that he is sure his intended is going to love when he proposes and then proceeds to write a check for an amount that could have easily been confused with a down payment on a new car and leaves. In the future, he will present this purchase tp her and say the four words that will change both of their lives forever, “will you marry me?” What this man has probably not considered is why he is proposing with a diamond engagement ring in the first place.
The diamond engagement ring, might be an emotional asset and a symbol of love and commitment, but in the financial sense of the word, it isn’t actually an asset at all. It is hard to believe that it has been less than a century since the diamond became the symbol of wealth, power, and romance they are in America today — and this can all be accredited to a groundbreaking multifaceted marketing strategy executed by advertising agency N.W. Ayer in the early 1900s for their client, De Beers. This campaign was known for the fact that it used marketing and advertising to create and manipulate demand for diamonds from nothing.
When initially brought on by De Beers, N.W. Ayer was tasked with the responsibility of determining what American’s perceptions of diamonds were at the time. What they found was that diamonds were considered a luxury reserved only for the wealthy and that Americans were spending their money on other things like cars and appliances.
To sell more and bigger diamonds, Ayer would have to market to consumers at varying income levels. Seeing as diamonds weren’t worth much inherently, N.W. Ayer needed to figure out a way to link diamonds with something emotional, and they also had to keep people from ever reselling them. What was emotional, socially valuable, and eternal? Love and marriage.
Frances Gerety joined N.W. Ayer in 1943 as a copywriter in the midst of the development of the De Beers advertisement campaign. Gerety was brought on to give the “female angle” to the campaign, and she is tasked with developing a slogan for the campaign, and she is accredited with developing the famous slogan “a diamond is forever”. According to The Advertising Century, a special edition of the Advertising Age, “the number one rated advertising slogan of the 20th century was De Beers’ memorable “A Diamond Is Forever”.” This simple four-word tagline has survived over 50 years of social, cultural, and economic turbulence and remained an example of the power of persuasion.
This slogan alone is not solely credited for the great success of the campaign, as the print advertisements turned out to be equally as influential. The powerful stylistic tool employed throughout this advertising campaign that allowed for its great success was the fact that the advertisements themselves provided little to no education in relation to the product.
According to Dr. Jason Chambers, an advertising professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, “the goal of these advertisements was never to make a direct sale, thus why no prices or mention of the cost of the product were ever listed … instead the advertisements told stories; stories about the people who gave diamonds or were given diamonds, and how happy and loved those diamonds made them feel”.
In addition to the catchy slogan and the unique stylistic choices made for the print advertisements, this campaign achieved its success through its clear understanding of who its target audience truly is. Despite the fact that women are the predominant wearers of diamond wedding rings, the intended audience for this advertising campaign was actually men.
This became increasingly apparent in the copy of the advertisements, as the copy of the advertisement often contained gender-specific pronouns and phrases such as “her gift from you” thus implying that her partner — who in relation to these advertisements is a man — will be the one who will be doing the purchasing of the product. The goal of this gender-specific approach was to make men buy diamonds, as well as make women expect diamonds.
In his peer-reviewed journal titled “Have You Ever Tried To Sell A Diamond?”, American journalist Edward Jay Epstein claims “it would be crucial to inculcate in them the idea that diamonds were a gift of love: the larger and finer the diamond, the greater the expression of love. Similarly, young women had to be encouraged to view diamonds as an integral part of any romantic courtship.”
It was with this breakthrough realization that N.W. Ayer was able to create scarcity from abundance, and give a product that was once thought to be an unnecessary luxury good a new meaning to the average consumer. With this technique, and over the course of a few decades, N.W. Ayer helped De Beers successfully turn a failing market into a psychological necessity.
SOURCE LIST:
Have You Ever Tried To Sell A Diamond?
- Peer-reviewed journal written by American journalist Edward Jay Epstein
- http://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/religion.occult.new_age/occult.conspiracy.and.related/The%20Atlantic%20-%20Have%20You%20Ever%20Tried%20to%20Sell%20a%20Diamond.pdf
DeBeers’ Official Website
Ad Age Advertising Century: Top 100 Campaigns
Dr. Jason Chambers
- Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
