Selling Diamonds

(via Diamond Promotion Service) Budget For Communication: A great many media of communication are available to jewelers for communicating with their markets and promoting store traffic. Some are relatively inexpensive, except for thought and ingenuity. Some are relatively expensive and require the help of experts in the field.

Some jewelers spend as little as 2 percent of their annual gross sales on advertising and promotion. Others spend as much as 7 percent. The average seems to run about 5 percent.

This is for general and continuing promotion. When some jewelers want to try for an additional and new market, they estimate their possible sales and then set aside an extra 5 percent, or more, of that figure, as the budget for the special promotion.

Windows
Virtually every jeweler has a window, and this is your least expensive medium of communication because it is built in. It tells your story to the passerby, and it can be a highly effective medium for promoting store traffic.

There is no general rule about windows, except that they should be consistent with the image that you are presenting. Some jewelers get excellent results with highly dramatic windows in which only a few jewels are featured. Others load their windows with merchandise, and they get excellent results too.

But windows should be changed regularly. If you present the same merchandise, or even the same type of merchandise, in the same way, week after week, you tend to create an impression that you aren’t very imaginative.

Advertising
In some communities, the most effective medium is a daily newspaper. In others, weekly newspapers are more effective than the dailies.

A woman’s TV program can be an effective medium, and so can a TV news program. In some communities, a ‘People Speak’ type of radio program that lasts for two or three hours at night can be highly effective. Young people usually listen to disc jockey programs, whatever the time of the day.

One jeweler gets his best results from advertising in the movie theater down the street from his store. Another maintains that the outdoor theater is the only place for him to advertise.

In college communities, some jewelers get good results with complimentary ads in the campus publications. Others get even better results with selling ads.

When selecting media for advertising, you should ask three important questions. Do they fit within my budget? Do they reach the markets I am trying to reach? Does my use of them build traffic for my store? If you can afford an advertising agency to help you answer these questions, so much the better.

Whatever advertising media you choose, make sure that your windows and counter displays follow the same theme. When advertising attracts customers, windows and counters should keep reminding them of that attraction.

Selling Diamonds (continued)