Debeers

Q1. Identify the main reasons for De Beers’ success in the West- with reference to their general marketing strategy, and in particular their communications/positioning tactics.

De Beers’ communication tactics made a diamond ring ubiquitous with a marriage proposal. Moreover, through consistent positioning of diamonds a symbol of love, De Beers was able to correlate a diamond purchase with any special event marking the love, ranging from weddings to rites of passage to Valentines’ Day. Through these messages, they were able to differentiate themselves from other luxury goods, and significantly protect themselves from the vagaries of economic conditions such as depressions.

Moreover, since Western women were not shy of wearing their diamond rings every day (a behavior reinforced by De Beers campaigns), the women became ambassadors for diamond purchases on a daily basis. Further, since women did not buy diamonds for themselves, they trained the retailers to make it easy for men to make diamond purchases by discussing the 4C points of differentiation.

Q2. How will the western positioning work in Asia (with particular reference to China)? How did it work in Japan?

The Western positioning would not work at all in China, since the diamond purchase patterns and usage scenarios are completely different. First of all, Chinese consumers do not identify diamonds with love very easily. For them, status is more important in a relationship than love is. Moreover, since women don’t like to wear the diamonds on a day to day basis, it does not reinforce the importance of having a diamond to others. Finally, women make the diamond purchases in China, so the retail mechanism would also need to change from the West.

De Beers was able to make the diamond enter the Japanese mindset by positioning it as an aspirations jewel worn in the west. Further, they were able to replace pearls and other gemstones with diamonds as the precious jewel of choice during engagement...