It is no exaggeration to say that diamonds sell at sky-high prices, which should be the most powerful marketing in the 20th century, because their prices are completely artificially hyped.
The designers of this scam are diamond giants De Beers, De Beers. Established in 1888, this nominally South African company was controlled by diamond miners all over the world and once controlled 90% of the global diamond mining share, making it the undisputed diamond boss.
/kloc-for more than 30 years, De Beers has continuously acquired newly discovered diamond mines; Control the diamond inventory and keep the price stable. Technically, it sets a standard for the grade of diamonds, that is, the "4C" standard including the number of carats, clarity, cut and color. De Beers' more important operation is to cooperate with celebrities, maintain the noble public relations image of diamonds, and even adjust the advertising strategy at any time according to the products of diamond mines. For example, A dimond isforever, the most successful marketing copy of19th century, tied a rare stone with "true love".
Diamond dealers always emphasize that diamonds are very rare, so they are expensive. But in fact, the reserves of diamonds on the earth are very large. There are three diamond mines in China, Wafangdian in Liaoning, Mengyin County in eastern China and Shui Yuan Valley in Hunan. But the scale is not large, the output is small, and the annual output is about 200,000 carats.
More than 200 years ago, diamonds were really rare, because mining technology was limited at that time, and they were all collected by hand. After a year's efforts, humans can only collect about 20 kilograms of diamonds, which can only be found in a few places in India and Brazil. Rare things are precious, and there is no difference in the price of diamonds. However, in 1870, South African miners accidentally discovered a large diamond mine. With the industrial capacity at that time, several tons of diamonds could be dug up every year. When the output is large, diamonds are worthless. As a result, British diamond dealers panicked. In order to ensure that their products can be sold at a high price, several major diamond dealers around the world jointly established De Beers Company. As soon as they joined hands, all the diamond mines in the world were in their hands, and then the marketing of De Beers began.
The first step is to control the output.
People have mines, and they try their best to dig more, but De Beers is very clever. No matter how many diamonds there are, they are worthless. Since I own all the mines in the world, why should I sell them quickly? As a result, they quit the diamond digger. Obviously, there are still many diamond mines, and only a little is dug every year to sell. The market is in short supply and the price of diamonds is stable.
The second step is to plan publicity.
Is that people have to buy diamonds. At first, diamonds were used in industry, but since the appearance of synthetic diamonds, diamonds have been useless at all. In order to create demand, De Beers did one thing: bind diamonds to love. De Beers spent a lot of money on advertising to insert diamonds into the film. Whenever a handsome man proposes, he will kneel in front of the beautiful girl he loves and take out diamonds to propose. Diamonds bear witness to their love. The film Pink Panther is the first film with diamond marketing.
Stars have the strongest ability to carry goods. Ordinary people like to imitate the behavior of stars, so with the big sale of movies, the concept of "proposing marriage with diamonds" that De Beers spent a lot of money on quickly took root in people's hearts.
However, it is absolutely not enough for everyone to buy diamonds. After all, diamonds are expensive and cheap. So they made great efforts to publicize: "The more money you spend on diamond flowers, the more sincere your proposal will be." Let everyone buy expensive ones. In the movie "Sweet Home Alabama", when the hero proposed with diamonds, the lines implied that "diamonds should be the biggest and brightest".
Many virtuous wives will feel sorry for their husbands and will stop them from buying expensive gifts. De Beers told her husband, "You should have a surprise when you send diamonds. You should secretly buy the best diamonds and then suddenly give them to your wife to make her feel happy. "
In that era when people generally didn't understand marketing, diamond marketing was really a model in the industry. In four years, De Beers' sales increased by 55%. You know, in this war-torn era of 1942, everyone is generally poor. After World War II, people began to have money, and everyone could buy diamonds. So, in the first publicity campaign of 1946 after World War II, De Beers bought the page of 125 newspaper and invited dozens of Hollywood stars to speak for them and promote diamonds.
Someone wants to ask: "After more people buy, if customers resell second-hand diamonds, will the price drop?" However, it didn't. In order to maintain the quantity of diamonds in the market and prevent people from selling diamonds, De Beers Group produced a series of diamond ring advertisements at 1938 through Eier Advertising Company. "Diamonds last forever, and one lasts forever" has become the most classic marketing copy in the world. This classic advertisement is to advise you to keep the diamonds when you buy them, and not to sell them! When the number of diamonds on the market is stable, the price can also be stable, and De Beers can continue to sell high-priced diamonds. 1947, De Beers also sent lecturers to high schools all over the United States to give lectures and perform plays, and skillfully implanted the concept of "diamonds and love", so that 70 million high school girls began to yearn for diamonds before they got married, and achieved the ultimate. De Beers failed.
The third step is alliance monopoly.
Because the diamond mines are in their hands, this routine is very stable, but unexpectedly, 1959 also found a large number of diamond mines in Siberia, the Soviet Union! Moreover, the industrial strength of the Soviet Union is super strong, and the speed of mining diamonds is much faster than that of De Beers. Once the Soviet Union starts selling goods, the price of diamonds will surely plummet. As a result, De Beers quickly found the Soviet Union and wooed the diamond dealers in the Soviet Union. Both sides agreed to control diamond production and make money together. After the alliance, De Beers changed the previous propaganda, no longer promoting diamond rings, but promoting "broken diamond ornaments". 1960 series diamond products are mainly ornaments composed of many broken diamonds.
The fourth step is to hit the face.
After wooing the Soviet Union, African warlords came again. At that time, many of these warlords earned their military expenses by selling diamonds, which was also reduced in Nicolas Cage's film Lord of War, and diamonds were exchanged for arms.
Warlords are collected by hand by prisoners of war, with almost no cost. Although the output of a single warlord is very small, it is unbearable for all armed forces in Africa to do so. When the price of this diamond rises, the price will fall again. In order to stabilize the price, De Beers thought of another trick. Although warlords have a lot of diamonds, their processing technology is terrible!
Therefore, De Beers began to process diamonds. Under their call, five cutting methods became popular, such as round, pillow, square and horse's eye cutting ... What do you need? In short, there is only one purpose: the more trouble the better. As we all know, every cut consumes diamonds. Doing these cutting methods naturally wastes a lot and requires buying all kinds of expensive equipment, but the more complicated the process, the more difficult it is for competitors to imitate, and it is impossible for warlords to catch up with their diamonds in price. Moreover, even if African warlords are willing to spend a lot of money to buy equipment and learn skills, De Beers and their successors in a few years' time will value the 4C standard of diamonds. They are both referees and athletes. I want to say that your diamonds are not good, but you are not. Nothing makes sense. After defeating African warlords, De Beers has been firmly in the position of monopoly giant for decades.
Since 1965, China has independently developed a cubic press to manufacture synthetic diamonds. By the 20th century, our industrial level had advanced by leaps and bounds.
By the end of 20 17, more than 90% of the global synthetic diamonds came from China. How skilled are China people? It only takes China a few weeks to get a flawless diamond, and the cost is only half of that of a natural diamond. At the same time, these artificial diamonds are almost indistinguishable from natural diamonds in color and texture. Even the most experienced diamond dealer can't pick out defects with the naked eye. In terms of clarity and refractive index, we do much better than natural ones. To sum up: both product quality and money-making efficiency are crushed by all aspects. Looking at our synthetic diamonds, we are completely abused in all aspects and can't sit still. What should they do? Change the advertising words!
In 20 15, De Beers' slogan was changed again, and this time it was changed to: Real goods, real goods are diamonds. The implication is: synthetic diamonds are not real and worthless, so don't buy them! To this end, they spent 45 million dollars to build a "synthetic diamond appraiser", saying that it can distinguish between "natural" and "artificial" diamonds, but it is useless, because artificial diamonds look no different from natural and ordinary people, as everyone knows. Isn't it just that people see me buying diamonds? Since it looks the same, why should I pay 10 times the price for natural products? Seeing that this trick didn't work, De Beers had to come up with a big trick-making synthetic diamonds himself. ...
? On May 29th, 20 18, a tweet from De Beers Company exploded the whole circle of jewelry friends. The general contents are as follows: De Beers Group announced the establishment of a new company named Lightbox Jewelry, which will officially start selling synthetic diamonds (diamonds cultivated in the laboratory) jewelry in September, providing consumers with high-quality synthetic diamonds that are cheaper than now. Delbis also pointed out that Lightbox will be the only jewelry brand that uses synthetic diamonds in the technology provided by Delbis subsidiary Element Six Diamond Lab.
To tell the truth, are there very few good ones? What is the difference between appraisers and appraisers?
De Beers' marketing is rampant 130 years, and De Beers will definitely not give up. In order to maintain his diamond scam, De Beers will start a new business (sudden) sales (leisure). For example, De Beers' synthetic diamonds have a unique mark (defect). For example, diamonds ground by hand are more valuable than diamonds processed by machines. In a word, Derbys said: Don't buy other diamonds, buy ours!
There will be no permanent dynasty in this world. If one day this industry is really subverted, I don't think it will be Russia, the United States or South Africa. I believe it must be China and WeChat business.