Aliya Ladhabhoy
In 2015, seven diamond mining companies, namely Alrosa, De Beers, Dominion Diamond, Gem Diamonds, Lucara Diamond, Petra Diamonds and Rio Tinto came together to form the Diamond Producers Association (DPA).
The Association’s focus is to maintain and enhance consumers’ love, desires and confidence for diamonds through stories of diamond mines to the market. They launched their first campaign Real is Rare, Real is a Diamond in 2016, which was subsequently launched in India in 2017.
On June 2020, the DPA decided to rebrand itself as the National Diamond Council (NDC) to connect with its target audience; primarily women and their partners, from 21 – 45 years of age.
Richa Singh, Managing Director, Natural Diamond Council in India talks to LuxeBook about highlighting a diamond’s integrity and emotional connect that is even more relevant in the current world that is being driven by conscious consumption.
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Why did the DPA rebrand itself as the National Diamond Council?
The primary reason for re-establishing and relaunching the organization’s identity and brand is to be truly consumer-centric and clearly focused on representing natural diamonds: both the product and the industry.
The new name states the singular focus and the word ‘Council’ conveys the integrity, authority, stringent standards and the accountability of all the organizations that contribute to it.
The NDC will promote the desirability of natural diamonds and be the trusted resource and authority for, both, consumers and the industry. The consumer-facing platform has been repositioned under the brand name Only Natural Diamonds (OND), a definitive digital destination for natural diamonds. The aim of OND is to inspire, educate and protect consumers by being an insightful authority on the world of natural diamonds.
As an industry authority, the NDC will continue to invest in advertising globally, but will also become the go-to digital publisher for innovative and thought-provoking content on natural diamonds under themes like history, heritage, sustainability, love and pop culture.
What is NDC focussing on?
Only Natural Diamonds’ represents the consumer-facing brand of the NDC and is aimed at inspiring and educating consumers about the values and heritage of natural diamonds as well as promoting the significant innovation happening throughout the world of diamond jewellery. We want to create desirability for diamonds and build the natural diamond dream through Only Natural Diamonds (OND).
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What kind of resources will be available for retailers through the NDC?
In order to show our support to the trade community, we have introduced campaigns in various markets worldwide. These initiatives will be focused on skill-building, keeping the trade engaged and encouraging consumers to support local jewellers.
Retailers can visit our trade portal and register themselves as ambassadors. They can enjoy unlimited free access to NDC’s best-in-class marketing assets – some of which can be leveraged in-store and some on digital platforms.
How does the NDC plan to stimulate demand for diamonds?
It is difficult to have consumers thinking of jewellery, given the situation, but we believe that natural diamond jewellery is well-positioned to stay relevant and emerge stronger once things normalise. This is because of three reasons:
In the lockdown, consumers haven’t been able to interact with their loved ones to the extent they would have liked to. So, when the scenario changes, they are going to crave avenues to express their love and affection. Natural diamonds are the ultimate symbol of love, so what better way to celebrate your relationships than with a gift of a billion-year-old, one-of-a-kind natural diamond?
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As people stay home, their appreciation for the environment and all things natural is growing. And there is no better way to celebrate this shift in people’s mindset than with natural diamonds that was gifted to us by nature. The natural diamond industry works towards the conservation of the environment and uplifting the communities in which it operates.
Consumers are also becoming conscious of the choices they make. Natural diamonds fit in perfectly with the concept of slow fashion. They are versatile, they never go out of style, their sparkle never fades and they can be worn with, both, traditional and contemporary clothes. As people choose fewer but finer things, they will want to buy heirloom pieces that they can pass on, and eternal natural diamond jewellery is the perfect fit.
Tell us about NDC’s strategy and plans for India for 2020-2021.
The NDC’s mission is to create desirability for natural diamonds and to provide transparency and insight on the ethics and progress of this industrial sector.
Our portal onlynaturaldiamonds.in offers consumers inspiring and emotionally engaging content on the world of natural diamonds, and we will showcase all the sustainability efforts of our members on this platform.
We will soon be launching our new global TVC campaign, which is the first marketing initiative by the NDC. The campaign celebrates the many emotional connections created by diamond jewellery and will showcase a diverse roster of jewellery designers that work with natural diamonds in exceptionally modern ways.
The digital world is a crowded space. How will NDC ensure that its message reaches its target audience?
The needs, wants and ways of making a purchase decision are changing drastically. Hence, constantly tracking these trends and focussing on consumers is critical to increasing demand in the sector and this is a priority for us.
The digital medium is the most powerful tool we have at our disposal today. We must embrace the medium to stay connected with the consumers. Digital channels can be leveraged to create brand recall and desirability for natural diamond Jewellery. It is the first medium of discovery of, both, your brand and product by the effective use beautiful imagery, sharing information and knowledge and improving the experience of purchasing diamonds will go a long way in creating desirability for natural diamond jewellery.
