Marketing

The image of diamond as a valuable commodity has been preserved through clever marketing campaigns. In particular, the De Beers diamond advertising campaign is acknowledged as one of the most successful and innovative campaigns in history. N. W. Ayer & Son, the advertising firm retained by De Beers in the mid-20th century, succeeded in reviving the American diamond market and opened up new markets, even in countries where no diamond tradition had existed before. N. W. Ayer's multifaceted marketing campaign included product placement, advertising the diamond itself rather than the De Beers brand, and building associations with celebrities and royalty. This coordinated campaign has lasted decades and continues today; it is perhaps best captured by the slogan "a diamond is forever".^[7]

Another example of successful diamond marketing is brown Australian diamonds. Brown-colored diamonds have always constituted a significant part of the diamond production. However they were considered worthless for jewelry; they were not even assessed on the diamond color scale, and were predominantly used for industrial purposes. However, the attitude has changed drastically after the development of Argyle diamond mine in Australia in 1986. As a result of an aggressive marketing campaign, the brown diamonds have become acceptable gems.^[72][73]. The change was mostly due to the numbers: the Argyle mine, with its 35 million carats (7,000 kg) of diamonds per year, makes about one-third of global production of natural diamonds;^[74] 80% of Argyle diamonds are brown.^[75]