(IDEX Online) - The De Beers Group has unveiled its new strategy to connect consumers to its social purpose and engage them directly with its Building Forever mission to achieve ambitious sustainability goals by 2030.
The new approach was presented at the JCK Luxury Breakfast during the keynote speech by De Beers Executive Vice Presidents Stephen Lussier and David Prager under the theme The Power of Purpose-Led Brands: How Values Create Value.
Highlighting consumers' increasing interest in buying brands that have a demonstrable social purpose, enabling them to express their values through the brands they wear, Lussier and Prager aimed to highlight the programs De Beers says it is delivering to protect the natural world, accelerate equal opportunity and build thriving communities.
Following the rebranding of Forevermark to De Beers Forevermark announced earlier this year, De Beers will invest significantly in the De Beers brand and in connecting more consumers to the positive impact of a De Beers diamond, the miner said a statement.
Further, going beyond its De Beers Jewellers and De Beers Forevermark jewellery houses, the company is developing a new trusted source program, the De Beers Code of Origin. The Code of Origin is a unique customised code that provides assurance that a diamond is natural and conflict free, was discovered by De Beers in Botswana, Canada, Namibia or South Africa, and has played a direct role in De Beers' Building Forever mission to protect the planet and improve people's lives.
In the US and China, the De Beers Code of Origin will focus on diamonds larger than 0.30 carats that have been discovered by De Beers. The Code itself is inscribed on the table of the diamond but is invisible to the naked eye and does not affect the diamond's clarity grading. The Code of Origin will also be available in India for jewelry pieces containing smaller diamonds where the Code will feature on a jewelry report that covers all the diamonds within a jewelry piece.
Speaking at the event, David Prager, Executive Vice-President and Chief Brand Officer of De Beers, said: "What if the precious De Beers diamond around your neck played an active role in safeguarding precious endangered species in the area where it was found? What if the De Beers Forevermark diamond studs you bought yourself to celebrate that new job had a role in creating 10,000 women entrepreneurs in the places where it was found? And what if owning a diamond discovered by De Beers meant you were playing an active role in the fight against climate change because the unique properties of the kimberlite rock your diamond was liberated from pulls carbon from the atmosphere and safely stores it away for a millennia, turning a diamond mine into a carbon vault?"
Noting that the majority of De Beers rough diamond production is currently sold into the market as unbranded, he highlighted the transformative potential of the De Beers Code of Origin: "For most consumers it will create a step-change in the connection they have to the story of their diamond - not just where it came from and how it was sourced - but the positive difference it made in people's lives.
"The Code of Origin is live in a development phase in markets around the world now and has had a very encouraging response. We will be working with our Sightholders and US retailers in the months ahead and will continue to look for further development partners to support our intention to scale the programme."
Lussier said the changes announced would be "???,? ?the most significant step-change to our marketing approach in the past decade. We will focus our marketing investment on driving what we call "fame and love" for the De Beers brand because the De Beers brand drives desire for De Beers Jewellers, De Beers Forevermark and awareness for De Beers Code of Origin. We have combined the marketing teams and budgets of De Beers Jewellers, De Beers Forevermark and De Beers Group. That means more compelling storytelling that has an opportunity to connect with all consumers."