Advertisement campaign: De Beers - A Diamond is forever - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages In 2011, it has recorded sales revenue of $7.38 billion, with a profit increase of 72% from the preceding year. This depicts the success of the company in attracting the mass public by giving a new perception of diamonds (ABAZIS, 2012). The success of one of the most brilliant advertisement concepts in the history of marketing is because of its strategy to link a tangible, a diamond, with intangible thing that is love and romance. ‘A diamond is forever’ ad campaign has not only allowed the company to make more sales than before, it has simply changed the way diamonds were perceived and valued by people. By many, it is still considered as one of the most influential and everlasting advertisement concept of all times, which has turned a luxurious item to a necessary item (Stern, 2004). This paper is aim to provide an insight of the marketing strategies used in the Forever Diamond ad campaign, and how it helped the company in getting more sales. To cover these aspects, the paper will give a brief review of the advertisement campaign and will relate it to few models of advertisements and marketing, in order to analyze the concept behind De Beers approach and objectives. Company Background The name De Beers added in the list of corporate organizations in the year 1988, a few years later after 83.5 carat diamond was found in the mountains of Colesburg Kopje, which is presently known as Kimberley city of South Africa. Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the company was the second dominant person in the diamond mining business, with another strong competitor Barnato, constructing diamond mines in the same region. In 1988, both parties merged with each other to become one strong entity and dominant the entire diamond industry (Stern, 2004). The initial focus of the company was on the mining and distribution of rough diamonds, which were mostly purchased by the allied classes of the society. It proved to be a good strategy as it allowed the company to win over 80% of the total market share of the world diamond industry. With several mines in South Africa, the company was marching speedily on the road of growth and expansion. The pleasing situation for the company became unstable with several events in the early 1890s. The Second Boer War in the 1899 between the English Empire and the Africans caused a great damage to the mines of the company and also resulted in disability in the country’s economy. This directly affected the diamond mining rate of the company and buying rate of customers, both in Africa and several other parts of the world. Moreover in the same period, several diamond mines was also found in Canada and that also divided the total market share of the company. A huge sales drop of 85% to 45% was experienced by the company due to all these events and that urge owners and executives of the company to think wisely so to bring back the royalty and fame of the company (VOA, 2007). Overview of the Campaign It was necessary for De Beers to think of a new strategy for selling its diamonds as the current selling strategy was not proving to be effective enough. This was the time when Harry Oppenheimer, one of the board members of the company, and N.W. Ayer, a marketing specialist, were able to bring the company right on track. They discovered the idea that instead of fashion and status being symbols for diamonds; it should be such which relates to the mass public. Hence, they associated symbols of ...Download file to see next pagesRead More