How To Be A Customer

Professor John Quelch explains how consumers can market themselves to influence vendors + tips to become a valuable customer @ http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5780.html

Blog: Marketing Know: How

Brilliant!

Billy Wilder's Rules Of Good Filmmaking

Billy Wilder's Screenwriting Tips

As told to Cameron Crowe:
1. The audience is fickle.
2. Grab 'em by the throat and never let 'em go.
3. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.
4. Know where you’re going.
5. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
6. If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
7. A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They'll love you forever.
8. In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they’'e seeing.
9. The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.
10. The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then -- that's it. Don’t hang around.

Useful link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5503804

I think it should work in education + business as well.

Acting Is The Most Natural Thing

The Guardian profiles Morgan Freeman + his experience (s) simulating unique characters on screen and real life + Feast of Love, an ensemble drama directed by Robert Benton about the impact of love, the loss of love, divorce, adultery and grief on a group of interconnected characters revolving around Freeman's college professor @ http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2178329,00.html

Morgan Freeman is an Academy Award-winning American actor, film director, and film narrator. When he acts he has that unique otherness + age and experience (s) works to his advantage too. He is a natural.

A Free Hand

(via The Guardian) Stuart Jeffries writes about Quentin Blake, Britain's - perhaps the world's - best loved illustrators + other viewpoints @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2179032,00.html

The Case Of The Escaped Spirit

Michelle Falkenstein shares valuable info on how to handle artworks with care + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1487

Artworks are like gemstones. They should be handled with care.

Selling Diamonds

(via Diamond Promotion Service) Diamonds: The buying public today has more information about diamonds than ever before. The diamond is studied in science courses in schools and colleges. A great many articles about diamonds have appeared in magazines and newspapers. Both technical and non-technical books are published every year. Jewelers and others give many talks about diamonds, both to ‘live’ audiences and to the far larger audiences of television and radio programs. There is an increasing amount of diamond advertising.

All of this can be considered direct information. But human nature being what it is, the assimilation and retention of this information are always perfect. Therefore, the ‘pass-along’ or indirect information people get from other people is not always completely accurate. So the buying public also has a lot of misinformation about diamonds.

As a result, the customer who comes into your store has a definite interest in diamonds. He probably has some basic information, which may or may not be accurate. In most cases he will ask questions. These you must answer with the clarity, confidence and accuracy of an expert.

This section is not intended as a short course on diamondology. Rather, it is intended to present briefly the principal facts about diamonds in which customers have shown the most interest.

What is a diamond?
1. A diamond is a transparent gem made of pure carbon (like the graphite in a lead pencil) which has been crystallized, in nature, by tremendous heat and pressure. It is the hardest, the most imperishable, and the most brilliant of all minerals.

Physical Properties Of Diamond
2. The physical properties are important for a complete understanding of the long-lived beauty of the diamond and of its value in comparison with other gems. These properties are usually expressed in technical terms, but you should explain them in terms that will be clear to the customer.

3. Hardness: Diamond, by a wide margin, is the hardest substance known to man. On a scale that measures resistance to abrasion, for example, diamond is 42, while corundum (ruby and sapphire) is 9 and tungsten carbide is 12. On a scale that measures resistance to indentation, diamond is 8500, while corundum is 2200, tungsten carbide is 1500, and topaz is 1250. On the Mohs scale, a measurement for hardness of gems, diamond has a hardness of 10. This is the top of the scale, and it means that diamond will scratch but will not be scratched by minerals lower on the scale: corundum—9; topaz—8; and so on. However, this is not a true measure of the relative hardness of diamonds because on this scale there is a vast disparity between 10 and the remaining numbers. In fact, diamond is almost 100 times more resistant to scratching than the next hardest substance.

Why is hardness one of diamond’s most desirable and unique features? The hardness of the diamond enables it to be cut with precise accuracy for maximum efficiency in the handling of light. Hardness gives the surface of the diamond a luster unsurpassed by any other transparent gem. Hardness enables the diamond to last forever, in a very literal sense. Hardness provides resistance to scratching and other damage.

4. Toughness: Many people equate hardness to toughness, or resistance to breakage, and to expect a diamond to be unbreakable. This is not true. A diamond’s crystal structure, like the grain in wood, had ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ directions. A blow of sufficient force, in a very exact direction, can crack, chip, split or even shatter a diamond. This characteristic is important for the cleaving step in the cutting process. It is also a warning for the wearing of diamond; a diamond ring shouldn’t be worn on hands that are doing rough work.

5. Refractive index: The refractive index indicates how much a ray of light bends when it passes from one medium into another. For example, when you put a pencil half way into water it seems to bend, because water has a refractive index of 1.333. The refractive index of diamond is 2.417, the highest of any precious gem. In general, the higher a gem’s refractive index, the greater its power of dispersion, or the ability to break up light into colors of the spectrum. Ruby has a refractive index of 1.770; emerald is 1.585.

Selling Diamonds (continued)

Extreme Makeover

Good Books: Jennie Yabroff writes about A. J. Jacobs, who spents one year following every rule in the Bible + his experiences @ 'The Year of Living Biblically'

Useful link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20910659/site/newsweek/page/0/

Walking A Tightrope Without A Net

Kelly Devine Thomas writes about auctioneer's style and expertise + the invisible factors at play + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1486

De Beers Seeks EC Diamond Origin Legislation

Chaim Even-Zohar writes about the concept of origin labeling and quality branding by DTC in order to protect its interest + European legistlations and protection of consumer's rights + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp

Innovative Diamond Tools

Here is what DATA Diamond Technology’s site says about the products:

Handheld Diamond Weigher: VIBE-130 Where conventional weighing scales need to placed on a level base, and require preparation to ensure that air conditioning and drafts do not distort results, D.A.T.A. Diamond Advanced Technology Ltd’s innovative tweezer called the VIBE-130 both weighs and measures the diameter of the diamond in an instant. Using pioneering technology patented around the world, the VIBE-130 weighs all shapes of polished stones, from 0.005 to 1.5 carats. The information is instantly transmitted to the company’s computerized inventory or Excel sheet thus by-passing the need for manual inputting of data. The advantages are clear: diamond offices save time and are able to completely eradicate any possibility of error whether human or due to an unstable working environment. Light-weight and designed to be easy to hold and work with, the VIBE-130 is the only such device in the world. It operates using a specially developed vibration technology that the company has created over the past five years.

Gem Count: DATA Diamond Technology’s Gem Count is designed to bring a highly sophisticated level of automation to one of the most basic activities of colored gemstone manufacturing. To fill customers’ orders, manufacturers often need to count many thousands of gemstones, a process that invariably requires excessive time and effort, and one that is prone to mistakes. Designed to count rough, semi-processed and polished stones in sizes as small as 0.8 mm in diameter, colored gemstone manufacturers will find that the Gem Count eliminates a labor-intensive portion of the production process, thereby making their operation more predictable and efficient, and improving their competitive edge. Like with the Diamond Count, the results of the count are instantly transmitted to the client’s inventory software or to an Excel sheet using Bluetooth wireless technology. This avoids the traditional requirement for manual input and eliminates the possibility of human error, both intentional and accidental.

Diamond Count: Counting diamonds is a labor-intensive task in which mistakes, both accidental and deliberate, can easily happen. Aiming to provide a technologically advanced solution to this problem, D.A.T.A. Diamond Advanced Technology Ltd introduces the Diamond Count machine, which counts rough and semi-processed diamonds and is the only such machine for the diamond industry. With close to 100 percent accuracy, the instrument can count 600 to 1,200 diamonds per minute depending on size. The latest generation of the Diamond Count is able to count diamonds with a diameter as small as 0.8 mm. The machine can count up to 1,700 carats in just minutes. The machine counts a preset number of diamonds and can also separate larger parcels into smaller ones. Results of the count are instantly transmitted to the clients’ inventory software or to an Excel sheet using Bluetooth wireless technology. This avoids the traditional requirement for manual input and eliminates the possibility of human error, both intentional and accidental.

M-Count: Certain companies involved in the diamond and colored gemstone industries have very specific requirements when it comes to counting rough and processed stones. It is for these firms that D.A.T.A. Diamond Advanced Technology Ltd developed the M-Count. The machine was initially developed for major mining companies, whose considerable required throughput necessitated a system with a massive processing capacity. Each M-Count can be modified to suit the demand of a particular client. The M-Count can be configured to count diamonds and colored gemstones ranging in size from 10 carats to +9 sieve sizes. Up to 7,000 carats can be processed in just minutes. The machine counts a pre-set number of diamonds and/or gemstone and can also separate larger parcels into smaller ones. Results of the count are instantly transmitted to the client’s inventory software or to an Excel sheet using Bluetooth wireless technology. This avoids the traditional requirement for manual input and eliminates the possibility of human error, both intentional and accidental.

Useful link:
http://www.data-tech.co.il

Selling Diamonds

(via Diamond Promotion Service) Selling With Information: Every salesman should know his diamonds. But he should also be careful about how he displays that knowledge.

Some young couples, shopping for an engagement ring, want to know all the technical facts about every diamond they consider. Others would be turned off by a flood of information that, in their preoccupation of the moment, they neither want nor understand. Customers for other pieces of diamond jewelry are usually less interested in diamond facts than in diamond fashions.

It is essential, nevertheless, that information be given clearly and confidently whenever it is requested.

A jeweler must be an expert in the eyes of his customers. So when a question about diamonds is asked, you have to answer it. You can’t look it up in a book or a promotion piece without losing that expert image. You can’t turn the question aside.

The language you use is important. One customer may be able to absorb all the technical terms you have; he’d feel you were condescending if you talked to him in simple terms. Another customer might need the translation of technical talk into terms of his everyday life; he’d feel you were snowing him if you talked over his head. It’s a matter of judgment to decide what terms to use with what customers.

Your information about diamonds should always be directed toward their individuality. As the symbol of love, a diamond is a very personal thing; and personal things should be individual. The infinite combinations of the characteristics of carat weight, color, clarity and cut makes each diamond unique. That is important to impress upon your customers.

When information is requested, be sure that you give it by demonstration as well as by words. Not every customer will want to look through a loupe or a microscope. Nor would every customer be able to see subtle gradations of color, even when pointed out. But they should be given the opportunity to do so, if they show the interest.

Selling with information is selling with facts, with confidence. Both should be solid.

Selling With Fashion
Fashion means different things to different people. Many are convinced that fashion is a conspiracy of planned obsolescence; what’s ‘in’ this year is ‘out’ next year.

Actually, fashion is whatever makes each woman look, and feel, her best. Therefore, diamond fashions are permanent, because the diamond is permanent in the way it makes a woman look and feel.

The settings for diamonds can change from year to year, from decade to decade. The same diamond can be put into different settings during its long life. But the diamond is always in fashion.

The diamond engagement ring, for example, may have the classic simplicity of the solitaire Tiffany mounting. Or it may have an infinite variety of settings, with center stone, side stones and precious metal all making integrated contributions to the intricate design. But each setting, be it classic or modern, is fashionable because it is personal.

Many couples are afraid that the ring they select may go out of style. You’ll be selling with fashion if you convince her that, as long as the setting continues to mean to her what it means on the day she first wears it, her ring will be her style. And should there come a time when she changes, as women often do, she can have her diamond put into another setting that will be her style then.

Fashion is highly important in the selling of other diamond jewelry. A diamond is a gift of love, be it ring, pin, watch, earrings, necklace or bracelet. But a diamond gift is also something to be worn as a fashion accessory.

One aspect of selling with fashion is the demonstration of your fashion sense by showing the capabilities of the different styles of diamond jewelry. The traditional is classic and timeless, and it can be worn with almost everything. The antique and the modern can also be worn with almost everything, but for different and special effects.

Another aspect is showing the versatility of a single piece; the more ways it can be worn, the more valuable it becomes. It’s simple economics that the more often a diamond piece can be worn, the less it costs for each wearing.

For example, a pin or brooch is usually worn at the shoulder. But you can show, with today’s fashions, that it can also be worn on a sleeve or cuff, on a belt, at the neckline, or on a hat or in the hair. Ear clips can be worn on a neckline, or even on the shoes. A necklace or bracelet can be wired for a tiara. Even a ring can double as a jewel for belt or scarf.

Your women customers will be particularly impressed when you sell with fashion. But even a man who is buying a gift for a loved one can be impressed with the versatility you can show him, to show her.

Selling with fashion is selling both for today and for always.

After The Sale Is Concluded
The consummation of a sale at the counter should be a beginning, not an end. You have established your market potential. You have brought traffic into your store. You have made the sale at the counter. A shopper has become a customer.

The next step is to make that customer a client, one who will naturally turn to you for all his diamond jewelry in the future. Your merchandise and salesmanship have made a customer. Interest and service will make a client.

Interest can be shown in many ways. For instance, you could take a picture of a young couple as they buy their engagement ring. Since the girl will wear her ring constantly, she has no need for the ordinary ring box; so you could package her ring in a box that could be used later for another purpose. You could send a card of congratulation on their wedding, after the birth of each baby, on each anniversary. You could call or write to any customer whenever you have something of special interest for her, or him.

Your study of your market potential can show you what types of expression of interest can be most effective for you. Service is simply interest applied for a specific purpose. At regular intervals you could call or write to suggest that a ring, or watch, or pin, be brought back for a cleaning and any necessary adjustments. And a client’s visit for such a purpose is store traffic.

Market potential. Store traffic. Counter sales. Clients. They all add up to more sales of more diamonds.

Selling Diamonds (continued)

Nizam's Jewelry

Economic Times writes about Nizam's jewelry exhibition via National Museum, displaying one of the largest and richest collections of jewels in India @ Nizam's jewellery on exhibition in Delhi...

A Day In The Life Of A Diamond

Prem Panicker finds out how gems go from rough pebbles to brilliant stones @ http://specials.rediff.com/money/2007/sep/17sld1.htm

Top Photo Collectors

Kelly Devine Thomas profiles select active photography collectors @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1474

Selling Diamonds

(via Diamond Promotion Service) Other Promotions: Some jewelers have been very successful with special parties. A party could honor a visiting jewelry designer, or it could exhibit a special collection of unusual jewelry. The personal touch in the invitations is highly successful here; so is the relaxed and festive atmosphere of the party itself.

Direct mail, telephone and personal contacts are all useful and successful ways of inviting people into your store. One very effective form of personal contact is speaking engagements, if you have a flair for talking in public; as a diamond expert, you would be welcome on a great many club programs in your community.

Don’t forget publicity. Cultivate the editors of your community papers and the commentators on your TV and radio stations. Show them new and exiting diamond pieces and they will talk about them.

No one ever won a war by taking potshots at the enemy, and no one ever won a market with sporadic and disassociated promotions. Consistent and continuous planned programs for promoting your store and diamonds do get results, do bring traffic into your store. For example, stage an annual Diamond Week, in which your advertising, windows and interior displays focus attention on the gem.

From this point on, it will be up to those who actually sell the diamonds to take advantage of the opportunities for sales created by your promotion efforts.

Selling At The Counter
You have studied your market and have stocked merchandise for those to whom you wish to cater. You have established your image, done your promotions, and attracted traffic into your store.

Now comes the payoff—selling at the counter.

Every diamond purchase is highly important to the purchaser, whether it be a quarter-carat or a five carat engagement ring, a gold pin with a single 10-point diamond, or a necklace with dozens of carats.

Therefore, every diamond customer must be treated individually. No matter what your store image—even pressure cooker—your diamond sales will be easier, surer, if you give the customer more individual treatment than you give customers for other merchandise.

There are three principal appeals on which the best diamond salesmen draw, sometimes only one to a sale, sometimes a combination of all three:

- Romance—a diamond is a gift of love and a diamond is forever.
- Information—a diamond is for real.
- Fashion—a diamond is for now.

These are more than appeals. Actually, each contributes to the background and the framework for the selling situation, whether the purchase is a diamond engagement ring or a diamond gift.

Selling With Romance
No two diamonds in the world are exactly alike. They are as individual as fingerprints. They are as unique as the love each man feels for his beloved, and she for him.

Diamonds are a miracle of nature, just as love is. The hardest of all minerals, they will endure forever. Unique in their structure, like little prisms, they will reflect all that is put into them, just as love will.

It is no wonder, then, that this jewel of such beauty and such meaning is the symbol of the single most important emotion known to man.

When a young couple in love enter your store in quest of the symbol of love, they are enjoying a very special emotional experience. Try to remember what it is like. Help them to find the very diamond that will capture and hold these moments for them forever.

You are a part of their adventure. So there’s no place in this scene for an insensitive salesman. You have to understand love, and in-love-ness. No one expects you to be gooey about it. Just have the empathy to take pleasure with the couple in search of their diamond. Be a happy jeweler.

A diamond room is part of selling with romance. There’s a certain togetherness when you and the couple are alone with the diamonds under consideration, away from the rest of the store. If your security arrangements permit your leaving them completely alone for the moment of final decision, so much the better.

Granted, price tags are not very romantic. But times have changed. It used to be a sign of consideration for his fiancée if the young man came to the store first to discuss the price range he could afford for an engagement ring. A general selection of stones was made in the acceptable price range and the boy would then bring in his fiancée for the final selection. But there is a growing trend in the other direction. An intense feeling of togetherness among young people today tends to make it unnecessary for the young man to shield his fiancée from the reality of price. Some young couples are vitally interested in price while others lean more toward style. Style is usually a better starting point, of course. Once you resolve the style you can easily determine the proper price range without upsetting the aura of romance.

Selling Diamonds (continued)

Why The Future Keeps Catching Us Out

Richard Watson explains why innovations succeed/fail + other viewpoints @ http://www.fastcompany.com/resources/innovation/watson/future-catching-out-092507.html

Masters Of Design

Fast Company profiles the new superstars of design 2007 + newcomers @ http://www.fastcompany.com/design

Useful links:
Yves Behar
Bob Greenberg
Sam Lucente
Paola Antonelli
Philippe Starck

Smell Test

Joan Raymond writes about the science of smell + other viewpoints @ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20836711/site/newsweek/

Beatlemania

(via The Guardian) The Rolling Stone interview Audio: John Lennon speaks to Jann S Wenner in this historic interview, released as a series of podcasts.

The Great Pretender: http://www.guardian.co.uk/greatinterviews/story/0,,2155883,00.html
Official Beatlemania: http://www.guardian.co.uk/greatinterviews/story/0,,2155884,00.html
Paradise Lost. Reality regained: http://www.guardian.co.uk/greatinterviews/story/0,,2155885,00.html

I thoroughly enjoyed the articles. They are unique reflections of people who knew John Lennon's character.

Lock, Stock And Chinoiserie

The Economist profiles Fortnum & Mason + other viewpoints @ http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/artview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9854799