Wedding rings have been around for a very long time, but engagement rings are a relatively recent invention. Thanks to brilliant marketing campaigns, we now generally accept engagement rings and wedding rings as practical necessities when getting married.
How exactly did this evolve? And what can we learn from it as marketers?
The Engagement Ring Story
According to the work of Edward Jay Epstein, particularly Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?, the concept of the diamond engagement ring can be traced back to the emergence of South African diamond mines in the late 19th Century. Diamonds, which were historically rare and difficult to mine, began to flood the market.
However, as anyone familiar with basic economics can tell you, this can be a problem for business; if supply increases too much, prices will fall precipitously, undermining the profitability of the operation. Business owners realized this and took action, creating the De Beers cartel in 1888. Once this cartel was created, the company held near-universal control over diamond production and trade, artificially limiting supply to push prices higher.
To take things a step further, De Beers attempted to increase demand. In 1938, the company worked with N. W. Ayer, a New York ad agency, to make diamonds more attractive. Together, they came up with a central advertising concept: that diamonds represented romance. And by extension, the measure of your worth as a romantic partner is symbolized by the size and quality of the diamond you purchased for your partner.
Over the next decade or two, relentless advertising campaigns, and the new slogan “a diamond is forever” seized hold in the minds of the general public. Before long, everyone was buying a diamond engagement ring to propose marriage.
Engagement Rings and Wedding Rings Today
Today, diamond engagement rings and wedding rings are still popular, though they’re not as popular as they used to be. Diamonds are still the top choice as a center stone for an engagement ring, representing 82.3 percent of all sales, but with rising interest in alternative stones (and the emergence of lab-grown diamonds), consumers have more options than they used to – and they’re not as spellbound by traditional engagement ring marketing campaigns.
Key Lessons for Marketers
What are the most important takeaways for marketers to understand from this?
· Advertising shapes public perception. First, we all need to recognize the power that advertising has to shape public perception. Despite the fact that diamonds were flooding the market, people still perceive them as rare and unique. Despite the fact that diamonds can be easily chipped, smashed, and destroyed, people still perceive them as practically indestructible. If you create the right message at the right time, you too can find ways to change how people think about your products and services.
· A single tagline can stick around for decades. Even if you never knew about the origin of the tag line, you’ve probably heard the expression that a diamond is forever. Some advertising taglines are so concisely powerful and so impactful on our culture that they stick around for decades. Accordingly, you shouldn’t pick out a tagline the same way you pick out an outfit in the morning; this is a huge decision, and one that requires a significant investment of time, consideration, and potentially money.
· Audience targeting matters. We also need to understand that audience targeting matters. Targeting young men eager to prove their love was a genius move by De Beers; if they had targeted a different audience, they may not have had as much as success. At the very least, they would have needed to design a completely different messaging strategy.
· The best campaigns start with a fundamental concept. The marketing and advertising of diamond engagement rings was complex and multifaceted, but the core concept was simple: diamonds symbolize romance. You’ll find parallel paths across a multitude of famous marketing and advertising strategies. Strong fundamental concepts lead to much better applied work.
· Old-school tactics don’t always work (and don’t last forever). Obsession with diamond engagement rings has lasted for many generations, but we’re starting to see signs of this momentum fading. If you want your messaging to remain relevant indefinitely, you need to constantly update how you position your products and how you reach your audience.
You may never be able to come up with a tagline as impactful or as creative as “a diamond is forever,” but you can still learn and apply these concepts to your current and future marketing endeavors.
With a better understanding of the psychology of the general public, and a firmer grasp on the most important marketing fundamentals, you’ll be in a much better position to market your products and services appropriately.