WFDB PRESIDENTS’ MEETING FEATURE

professionaljeweller.com August 2015 | PROFESSIONAL JEWELLER 37

Mueller states: “Worldwide, the con-sumer market for luxury products will continue to grow, with a spending power of potentially trillions of dollars. This bodes well for diamonds too, provided the diamond industry and retail jewel-lery sector invest focused efforts in en-hancing the desirability of diamonds among consumers”.

In summation, Mueller states that there is a huge need for generic

marketing for diamonds, and the need to change

the way the industry views its market-ing. He adds there is a need to make diamonds “sexy” in order to make them

more desirable.Inhale a deep in-

take of breathe — did someone say the word

‘sexy’ in the presence of all these diamond industry ‘States-

men’? Well, he got everyone’s attention and attendees seem convinced when Mueller demonstrates some ideas for tasteful luxe marketing campaigns — no overt improper content at all.

His argument is fairly concrete; Gen-eration X and Millennials are not spend thrifts when it comes to technological or fashion products but their spending habits are entirely different to the gener-ations before them and we as an industry must learn how they think.

I’ve been saying this for some time to my industry peers so, I come away in-spired and am surprised afterwards to read a report by the Wall Street Journal that states: “Chanel bags increased pric-ing by up to 70% in five years, Jimmy

Committee allows me to speak to attend-ees specifically about the results various initiatives have delivered for LDB.

After a very swift lunch we are well into the afternoon session, including a visit to Israel Diamond Exchange. Here we meet with GIA vice president and chief laboratory officer Tom Moses who updates us on the lab’s most recent work.

Quickly onto a networking opportu-nity at the opening of a new exhibition called ‘Diamonds on 45’, held at The Harry Oppenheimer Diamond Muse-um, during which Ernest Blom, WFDB president explains to us that “keeping diamonds in the public eye is of utmost importance for future sales”.

The evening presents a wonderful opportunity to informally meet with all our friends and colleagues from the global diamond industry as we are now in the Hilton Grand Ballroom Garden. Its business, but everyone is very socia-ble and I meet David Lasher again — he is my counterpart at the Diamond Dealers Club in New York.

Lasher also sees great potential for his home bourse and has great ideas for the future. We met last year at the WFDB Congress in Antwerp having entered the industry around the same time. We exchange tales of our bourses and the interesting world we share, albeit oceans apart. Most significantly, we note that the average age of attendees has changed enough to be extraordinarily noticeable. We pledge to continue as the older gen-eration around us have, to stay in-touch and keep information and ideas flowing for the good of the industry.

I’m noticing at this event that there are a few younger faces that I have seen, whilst we dart between meeting rooms.

Over the course of the evening, I meet several conspicuously younger profes-sional men and woman who are there in different but important capacities; no-tably a London-based business woman from De Beers, who is not only attending the conference but somehow finding the time to meet her clients around our very tight schedule.

Even more remarkable was meeting a Parisian lady representing a French diamantaire. We discovered a mutual in-terest in affecting fur-ther positive change in the diamond in-dustry and we later also ascertain that we are both inter-ested in other ar-eas of the business, particularly bringing younger talent through to learn from the industry veterans around us. Again, we pledge to stay in touch for business.

Monday is soon upon us and an 8am start. First order of the day, the opening sessions. We hear speeches from indus-try insiders regarding the direction of the global diamond trade and the chal-lenges it faces. Industry guru Chaim Evan-Zohar is on the bill to discuss prof-itability and he delivers an insightful and well substantiated commentary on the state of the diamond industry.

However, I’m excited to hear from re-nowned international luxury marketing consultant, Dr Frank Mueller, about his views on the competitive challenges the diamond and diamond jewellery mar-kets are facing in the global luxury con-sumer product market.

London Diamond Bourse

president Harry Levy

London Diamond Bourse chief

operating officer Victoria McKay