Lab-grown vs mined – the debate rages on. While both sides can be argued in their favour, only the consumer can decide which comes out on top. Both have a varied clientele, but lab-grown diamond brands are hot on the heels of any new social media and e-commerce trends –and they’re beginning to win the hearts of savvy consumers.
Let's take a step back in time to the pandemic. It was a time when the last thing on anyone's mind was buying jewellery. Eventually, it became possible to celebrate life’s milestones once again, and the ones usually accompanied by a piece of jewellery would indeed still need that special something. And people were also just looking for pieces to spark joy in an otherwise stressful and morbid time. The traditional engagement ring store experience involved going in person, alone or with your significant other, and trying on rings to understand the style, cut and size of ring you like. With lockdowns placed on every corner of the world, there was a race to see who could solve this dilemma.
It wasn’t until the pandemic that lab-grown stones got the credit that was due to them. Lab-grown diamond brands thrive in innovation, and this isn’t down to only the product. The gap that the pandemic presented was the perfect opportunity for lab-grown brands to demonstrate their ability to think outside the bejewelled box. In-store appointments were replaced with virtual consultations, store experiences were replaced with smart e-commerce interfaces, and try-ons were replaced with postal ring sizers and AI virtual try-ons. While this made a smarter buying decision at the time, it made smarter business sense, too. Not needing a physical store or army of staff sets overheads back significantly, allowing the brands to keep prices competitive. This is only made all the more critical as pursestrings tighten for luxury consumers.
But the success of these lab-grown diamond brands hasn’t been limited to just the pandemic. They attracted young millennial and Gen-Z consumers who weren’t interested in visiting stuffy, intimidating mass-consumer retail spaces. They enjoy the process and convenience of shopping on digital channels, and this is something that mined diamond brands have been unable to keep up with even now. While traditional brands focus on tradition and heritage with their branding, it too often holds them back from experimenting, not wanting to be seen straying too far from the essence of their brand.
So what have we learned? The worldwide lockdown delivered a blank slate, which in turn presented a great opportunity for innovative brands. While lab-grown brands were around before the pandemic, many tried to replicate traditional jewellery brands' marketing styles and sales channels and saw limited success. Both are in the category of fine jewellery, but other than that, their consumers, their brand stories and how they sell their products should not be the same. Lab-grown diamond marketing is nearly always centred around innovation, which must continue to be at the forefront of the brand.
Traditional marketing was more about the allure and design of the jewellery rather than the stone itself. With Lab-grown diamonds, the innovation and technology needed to create the stone are worth talking about, and mined diamonds don’t exactly have the most ethical journey from mine to hand. Lab-grown diamonds broke the mould, and now, mined diamond brands are trying to beat them at their own game with campaigns like the De Beers' A diamond is forever campaign, which doubles down on mined diamonds' claim to rarity.
It’s clear to us that lab-grown brands needed this tabula rasa to have the opportunity and space to experiment in an industry that has operated the same way for far too long. If fortune favours the bold, we are already seeing trends being set by brands that are embracing new ways to create value that speaks to their customers in a way that mined diamonds never could. In the example of Clear Neutral certifications, innovative brands are already dominating the environmentally conscious consumer market. Get in touch to find out how.