28/09/2020
*HOW DIAMONDS BECAME A SYMBOL OF LOVE.*
In 1869 when an 83.5-carat diamond was found near the 'Orange River' in South Africa. That discovery started the diamond rush. By 1888 an English entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes founded De Beers Consolidated Miners by merging companies and buying out all the smaller miners in the area - to control the supply of diamonds in the market. As a result, De Beers became the only diamond mining company in the country. While Cecil Rhodes founded De Beers, it was Ernest Oppenheimer who put it on a path to world domination. He started a company called Anglo American Corporation, but his eyes were on De Beers over the years, he bought shares of De Beers and became the Chairman. but demand for diamonds had stalled in the 1930s.
In the late 1930s, USA was seen as the next big market for diamonds. Harry Oppenheimer, son of Ernest Oppenheimer traveled to NewYork to meet advertising agency N. W. Ayer. The goal was to create campaigns to increase the demand for diamonds in the US. Since diamonds are hard to destroy, they came up with the idea of presenting diamonds as a symbol of love and romance. They started advertising diamonds as a way of expressing one's love for another and successfully gave diamonds a new identity via print, radio and the movies. The diamond sales in the US increased by 55% in 3 years. De Beers was already controlling the wholesale supply, and now they had started controlling the demand. In 1947, a copywriter at N. W. Ayer, Frances Gerety, came up with the slogan - "A diamond is forever". The campaigns and slogan had such impact on the minds of people that by end of the 20th century, 80% of engagement rings had a diamond. Interesting thing about the campaign is that since diamonds had now become a symbol of love, romance, and "forever", majority of consumers would not resale it - further deepening De Beers hold on the market.
By 1960s, De Beers started exploring other countries and new markets to expand their business. Only 6% of the brides in Japan had received a diamond engagement ring. That number increased to 77% by 1990, thanks to N. W. Ayer's brilliant campaigns.
In 1999, De Beers' slogan "A diamond is forever" topped Ad Age's list of 'Top Slogans of the 20th Century'. Over the next few decades, De Beers controlled diamond mining, sales, marketing, prices, and how people viewed diamonds across many different markets. But as more countries and Governments with huge diamond stocks refused to cooperate with De Beers' monopoly, they started looking at creating and promoting their brands of diamonds to consumers directly.
Over the last 80 years, De Beers built their entire empire on that one identity and idea that a diamond is a symbol of love. Not sure about the Diamonds or De Beers, but the idea of diamonds as a symbol of love is forever.
Culled: Palak Zatakia
