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Wilson Lau

An effective training programme for frontline sales staff is a key contributing factor to the success of the Forevermark diamond campaign.
Sales of Forevermark diamonds jumped 34 per cent in the first eight months of this year compared with the same period last year.
According to Christina Hudson,  marketing director for Greater China,  De Beers Group Marketing, many jewellery retailers have not seen a sales training programme personalised to this extent.
'Diamond selling is an exercise about selling a dream. There is so much appeal to the emotions and the mystery, the uniqueness of every diamond, and the peace of mind from the Forevermark. With all these, the salespeople can focus on selling the dream,' she said.
The Forevermark is a unique symbol with identification numbers inscribed on  selected diamonds that guarantee the diamonds are natural, treatment-free and from ethical sources. The mark and the number are only visible through a specially designed viewer.
Under the Forevermark wholesale-oriented programme, launched in September 2004, De Beers supports a select group of Hong Kong retail chains that sell diamonds with the unique mark. The retailers include Chow Tai Fook Jewellery, Chow Sang Sang Jewellery, Larry Jewelry  and Just Diamond.
De Beers Group Marketing has been fine-tuning its sales training programme over the past three years.
'One key aspect is the top-to-bottom alignment. We look at how to motivate everyone involved in the programme from the management to the frontline sales assistants,' she said.
'We seek to ensure they fully understand the programme and its benefits to the consumers so that they are empowered to sell the products.'
It is also important to assure that consumers get the same sound bite - a Forevermark diamond is a genuine one and is about a journey from discovery to its owner - from the different promotional programmes launched by various retailers. The task is challenging as these retailers have multiple consumer targets. 'Forevermark offers a promise which is standardised to some extent so we need to make sure that the sound bite [featured in campaigns by individual retailers] is consistent,' she said.
De Beers Group Marketing organises with retailers regular motivational meetings and competitions.  Forevermark diamonds are displayed in specially designed counters at retailers' outlets manned by salespeople nominated by their supervisors.
The prerequisite for designated salespeople was comprehensive knowledge of diamonds, she said.
'The rest is left to training. It is also about the passion of individuals ... and their belief in the product.'
The strong sales of Forevermark diamonds were also attributable to positive consumer sentiment buoyed by the strong equity and property markets in Hong Kong and the mainland, Ms Hudson said.
The typical Forevermark diamond customer is aged between 25 and 44 and earns on average of HK$20,000 a month. They wear diamonds all the time. Apart from being a symbol of love, diamonds are seen as rewards for themselves.
Although many customers have diamond wedding rings, they will still have multiple purchases for themselves to reward certain life goals and stages.
The women-oriented self-purchase segment had a 70 per cent share of Hong Kong's overall diamond market, she said.
'Hong Kong women are empowered and able to buy diamonds for themselves.'
De Beers has added a new dimension to the Forevermark diamond programme by launching the Celebrate the Real Me marketing campaign.
The campaign highlights the different personality facets of every woman and is supported by an integrated public relations and co-op programme that includes a mini-television series for online and outdoor TV broadcast, and print advertorial.
Based on the Celebrate the Real Me concept, the retailers were invited to develop their own marketing and design concepts around the elements of me - the unique, emotional, mysterious and the eternal me, she said.
The highlight of the piece is the centre stone, which is a Forevermark diamond representing the genuine me overlaid by the other facets of a woman.
With this concept, De Beers Group Marketing adds emotional selling techniques to the Forevermark diamond programme.
'We use emotional selling in terms of the psychology of a woman,' she said. 'The salespeople add depth to the concept by appealing to the diamond dream. But rather than just in terms of generic diamonds, it is in terms of the concept.
'A salesperson may be talking about the different life stages of a customer. This is in the setting of the typical psychology of understanding an individual. It certainly does not build around canned responses but more of getting inside the head of a shopper and speaking with her, rather than to her.'



Selling the diamond dream