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

? Advertisement Campaign: “De Beers- A Diamond is forever” Advertisement Campaign: “De Beers- A Diamond is forever” Introduction De Beers is the diamond mining and polishing industry which has been able to make a prominent place of its diamond in the global market. Recently, the company has been able to capture the market of several Asian countries, and India in particular. With its image and historical reputation built on the idea of “A diamond is forever”, the company has become the most dominant diamond distributer in the global diamond industry. 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 love and romance with a diamond so that customers feel an emotional attachment with the diamond they purchase. The entire focus of the company was shifted from market capturing to brand promotion and making diamond more valuable and precious than ever before (De Beers , 2006). In 1947, the historic tagline “A Diamond is Forever” was first launched which tried to symbolize a diamond with the relation between a couple. These four words were so influential that it took the sales of the company to a great hype and the company made a business of over $70 million with a profit increase of 50%. A feminist look was given to diamonds by showing beautiful women in their advertisements wearing diamond rings and necklace, and this helped in developing lust for diamonds in females. Unlike other ad campaigns, the impact of this ad campaign was not for a short period of time as the concept became universal in a period of few decades. All marketing and ad campaigns after this initial campaign took the same idea and thus the tagline of 1947 was never made to die (VOA, 2007). Target Audience In the ‘A diamond is forever’ ad campaign; the target audience of the company was mostly females, particularly those in a relation of love with someone. Kaplan (2013) underpins that many company in their aim to target mass public ignores the importance of selecting their target audience. If a general message is presented to the audience then it is less probable to attract any of the group in the audience. Hence, when a brand needs to identify its target customers, by their gender, status or culture and then start their marketing campaign accordingly. A Diamond is Forever Campaign: A magazine advertisement from the 1952 (Kaplan, 2013) The image above was published in 1952 in several magazines that show a nice young lady with a diamond ring on her left hand finger. The idea behind this advertisement was quite significant which is also illustrated from the words written on the left side of the image. The objective behind this image was to portray females as a symbol of beauty and an independent being. Diamond was used to generate a feminist appeal, where women can think of themselves as a creature worthy of praise and independent of external support (Kaplan, 2013). This strategy adopted by De Beers in this ad can be related to the Persuasive Theory of Advertising. This theory explains that values of people drive their attitude which then shapes their behaviour. When those values and emotions are connected with the brand, then it urges people in forming a positive behaviour for the brand or product. This terminology is often referred as “Pathos Appeal”, which tries to evoke a positive emotion of people on using the brand or a negative emotion on not using the brand. In this advertisement, the pathos appeal was used was to evoke the positive feeling of beauty and love on wearing the De Beers diamonds (NCTE, 2009). Ewen (1976) highlighted in his book that in most cultures women who are married or committed to a person wants to be praised and take care of by their love mates. For this reason, a flower has been a symbol of love and affection for women since years as it expresses the connection between two individuals. This concept was very adequately used by De Beers where diamond played the same role as that of a flower, and also adding the emotions of beauty and praise (Ewen, 1976). (ADME, 2013) The above image is one of the current advertisements of De Beers, inspired by the present trends in movies. It can be notice that the target audience is still the same and the company has not tried to cover any other market segment than the male or female couples. However, the approach of this advertisement is quite different from the previous one, where the pathos appeal focuses the sentiments and feelings of men. The slogan of this advertisement “And She Thought These Things Only Happen in the Movies” is an indirect message to men who wants to make a special moment with their love ones as those shown in movies. Change in Advertising Strategy As stated above, that the target audience of De Beers was shifted from the male sector to the female sector. Here it is important to understand the relation between advertisements and the feminist movement in the early twentieth century. Sivulka (1998) discusses that advertisements and movies made in the 1920s showed the image of women smoking cigarettes. This was the time of women liberation and the idea of such movie scenes and was to give the message that women are liberal and free to do anything. Hence smoking cigarette, which was prior associated with men alone, was linked with the women sector making them feel as strong and liberal as men. De Beers was not the first brand to focus on feminism but there were several other brands too, who have move along the wave of feminism (Sivulka, 1998). Ewen (1976) in his book elaborates that the period from 1940-1950 was a very crucial period in the history of the world as the concept of female rights and justice were getting much prominence in this era, particularly in the Western world. Home appliances companies were the first to take use of the feminist appeal to boost their brand reputation. Advertisements of soap detergents and dish washers were shown with a concept that women would no longer have to be spent all their time in washing and cleaning, as these products would make these tasks very simpler for them. Thus the campaign “A diamond is forever’ was started in an era where the female prominence was rising and it was a great time to switch focus from masculine appeal to the feminine appeal (Ewen, 1976). Dow (1996) elaborates that the in the late 20th century the scenario was changed once again and a post-feminist movement was started (Dow, 1996). The new advertisements of De Beers show how they have changed the nature of their ads and marketing style to fit to the new culture. Dow defines that before the start of post-feminist period, the female gender was depicted in a way that it is recapturing its dominance from the male gender, which has been in dominance since ages. Therefore, the liberation ideology of feminism has a conflicting approach against the male dominance in the society. It was in the post-feminist movement when the dominance and liberation of both genders were given due attention. Masculinity in this era was defined as dominance characteristic that can protect rights of females, and feminism was defined as liberal and worthy of love and care (Dow, 1996). Now by understating the cultural shift from the early 20th century to the later 20th century it is easy to comprehend the change in strategy of De Beers in their diamond marketing strategy. First their focus in conveying the message of status and pride was shifted towards female liberty and beauty. This can be linked with the start of the feminist period. Then their strategy was focused more on the relation of two lover partners, where a man can show his love to his female partner trough a piece of diamond, who is awaiting for such a special moment (Stern, 2004) . Media Mix De Beers has plentiful of options to market their diamond brand and the company has used almost all sources over the time. The company started by posting ads in the newspaper and magazines in the late 1930s, a decade before the advent of the diamond is forever campaign. After the new strategy was proposed, the frequency in print ads and using pictures of women to present diamond rather than simply showing diamonds grew rapidly over the years. Other than the print ads, De Beers has used TV stars and models extensively in their ad campaigns. The movie named “Diamonds Are Forever” of James Bond was a great hit of that time and that further lifted the reputation of the brand (Atkinson, 2011). It in the late 1970s, TV commercials has evolved as one of the major segment of brand promotion and marketing in the USA and other Western countries. Varda Shine, the Managing Director of De Beers stated that De Beers has always moved with the current situation and trend and this is the reason that all strategies fit with the contemporary needs and culture. TV commercials were not used by the company as a prime source of marketing before 1980s as it would be viewed by a few people and that was not the intention of the company (VOA, 2007). The company stick to the original strategy of mass attraction and started its TV commercials in the late 1980s, when this form of media has gained sufficient exposure to people. Recently, the brand has taken use of the Viral Marketing through social networking sites, Search Engine Optimization and Internet chat rooms for speedy promotion of the product. The ‘Unbreakable Kiss’ was the outdoor marketing strategy carried out by De Beers in 2009 which gained wide media coverage and helped the company in promoting the message of love and romance through diamond jewellery (Duncan, 2008). Innovation of the Advertisement The innovation of the ad campaign is not restricted to the central idea of feminism and relating diamond with love relation and romance, but it can be seen throughout the marketing procedure. The entire creativity is based on the word “forever” which has been in the tagline since it was first created. Dow (1996) defines that in the Western culture; only the relation between love couples can be associated with the term ‘forever’. So, when the De Beers diamond advertisements says “A diamond is forever” it directly associates the diamond with the strength of relation between two love partners, and giving a diamond to your partner is like making him or her yours forever. To make the impact stronger, it was necessary that the visual image nicely correlates with the hidden meaning of the tagline. One of the foremost reasons of the great success of this slogan was because they company stick to the ground idea and keep addressing it with innovative and touchy lines. (ADME, 2013) The above image shows the technique with which De Beers is urging the male audience to buy a present for their love partners. It is quite evident that there are several items that can be used as a birthday or Christmas present and diamond is not the only option to please someone. However, the artistic presentation in this advertisement has focused on the word “Hiding” and that can be related to a sense of surprise and presenting something that is not expected from the other person. Smith & Yang (2004) defines that there are three components that defines the creative nature of an advertisement; divergence, relevance ad effectiveness. Divergence is basically the measure of originality and novelty of the ad concept or idea. Relevance basically measures whether the idea is relevant to the audience or not, and does it relates to the lives and practices of people. Effectiveness is another important component that determines whether the ad concept is capable to influencing audience decision making process and their brand perception (Smith & Yang, 2004). The concept of the De Beers advertisement, shown in the image below, justifies all the three components of creativity. Unlike its other slogans, this advertisement has used a negative pathos appeal by using the term “Divorce” in the advertisement. Ewen (1976) explains that divorce is one of growing practices in the Western countries and this ad is a great illustration of how a negative connotation can be used to enhance the impact of the message. Diamond is a costly product, but undoubtedly the loss caused by a divorce cost much more, if considering all emotional and mental disturbance it cause to the couple and their entire family. Thus, this ad portrays that with a diamond the frustration or anger can be diluted and that would help in saving the relation. (ADME, 2013) Critical Review It has been observed that De Beers’ overwhelming marketing strategies has urged people to perceive diamond more as a necessary item than a luxurious one. With the association of love and feelings it has made with diamond jewellery, it has been able to restrict people in selling their old diamond rings or necklaces, considering it as a symbol of their relation. For this reason, the demand of more diamonds has significantly increased in the market and this has directly increased need of labour involve in diamond mining, shaping and other procedures. Cowell (2002) has reported that De Beers are enjoying the increased demand for diamonds without increasing the number of labours in their diamond mines and workshops. It is evident that diamond is a hard rock and its mining, cutting and polishing requires high labour work, but unfortunately employees in this sector are not paid adequately. Since, owners and managers of the company have political links, therefore no objections is raised against De Beers labour policies (Cowell, 2000). De Beers has been very successful with whatever they have planned and initiated. Hence, with such a great reputation, the company should now try to focus more on its labour policies by ensuring that it has a sufficient number of employees and proper working hours to distribute the work load nicely. List of References ABAZIS, 2012. 72% Profit Jump for De Beers. [Online] Available at: http://www.abazias.com/diamondblog/diamond-industry/72-profit-jump-for-de-beers [Accessed 9 April 2013]. ADME, 2013. Diamond forever. [Online] Available at: http://www.adme.ru/creativity/diamond-is-forever-1212 [Accessed 9 April 2013]. Atkinson, D., 2011. Diamonds are not forever: De Beers shifts the base of its auctions from historical Hatton Garden to Botswana. [Online] Available at: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2038564/De-Beers-shifts-base-auctions-historical-Hatton-Garden-Botswana.html [Accessed 9 April 2013]. Cowell, A., 2000. Controversy over Diamonds Made Into Virtue by De Beers. [Online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/22/business/controversy-over-diamonds-made-into-virtue-by-de-beers.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm [Accessed 9 April 2013]. De Beers, 2006. Living up to diamonds. Financial Report. Luxembourg: De Beers. Dow, B., 1996. Prime-Time Feminism: Television, Media Culture, and the Women’s Movement Since 1970. Research Report. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania. Duncan, L., 2008. Unbreakable Kiss Gallery of Moments. [Online] Available at: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2008/gallery-of-moments/ [Accessed 8 April 2013]. Ewen, S., 1976. Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. Kaplan, B., 2013. Forever Diamonds. [Online] Available at: http://www.gemnation.com/base?processor=getPage&pageName=forever_diamonds_1 [Accessed 7 April 2013]. NCTE, 2009. Persuasive Techniques in Advertising. Research Report. London: NCTE. Sivulka, J., 1998. Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Smith, R. & Yang, X., 2004. Toward a general theory of creativity in advertising: Examining the role of divergence. Marketing Theory, 4(31), pp.31-58. Stern, L., 2004. De Beers SA: A Diamond is Forever. Research Report. New York: New York University New York University. VOA, 2007. 'A Diamond Is Forever': How Four Words Changed an Industry. [Online] Available at: http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/a-23-2007-03-22-voa1-83131822/126825.html [Accessed 9 April 2013]. Read More