Same Sparkle, Different Sell: Diamond Marketing Tries Something New

It’s never been easier to buy a diamond. For the companies selling them, that’s increasingly a problem.

Lab-grown diamonds have flooded a marketplace once tightly controlled by a handful of big producers, capturing more than half of the market just a decade after they were first introduced. Their prices have plunged by 85 percent over the same period. Prices for natural diamonds are sinking as well, down about one-third since 2022.

For most goods, lower prices and greater availability are guaranteed ways to bring in new customers. For diamonds, it’s often the opposite: After being sold for a century as the ultimate luxury, the fact that you can buy a man-made one for a few hundred dollars with a couple clicks on Alibaba robs the stones of much of their romance. At the same time, paying multiple months’ salary for a diamond ring increasingly feels not just outdated — but even a bit of a rip-off.

Retailers of both varieties are still working out their updated sales pitch.

“If we’re going to speak to this new generation of consumers … it can’t be a fairy tale they don’t relate to,” said Sally Morrison, the natural diamonds market lead at De Beers, which coined the phrase “diamonds are forever” in the 1940s but has struggled to adapt to new, man-made competition. “People want to dream, but they also want it to be a dream they feel they can reach.”

Lab-grown diamond sellers may have disrupted the category, and while consumers are certainly more open to buying them, they haven’t managed to completely replicate the prestige of mined stones. Though they appear identical to the naked eye, lab-grown diamonds typically have a lower resale value, and can be seen as a commodity, rather than a luxury, by the industry establishment, if not shoppers.

Now that it’s clear lab-grown diamonds aren’t going anywhere, retailers are more focussed on what makes their own product unique. For lab-grown, that means focussing on sustainability and accessibility, while for mined, it’s updated messaging around emotionally-charged moments and “investment” pieces. But both need to be able sell the dream that diamonds have always been associated with while also meeting the growing demand for transparency around pricing and production.

“People buy this product for emotional reasons, not practical reasons,” said jewellery industry analyst Paul Zimnisky. “You have to create the desire for them to want to pay 10 times more for a natural diamond.”

Worth the Investment

Jewellers who use natural diamonds are turning a potential weakness — their high price — into their chief selling point.

“Once people know how much lab-grown diamonds truly cost wholesale, less than $100 a carat, it changes things,” said Olivia Landau, founder of The Clear Cut, an online jeweller that uses natural stones. “Most people don’t want to spend less on their engagement ring than the dinner that they have to celebrate their engagement.”

Starting in 2023, the retailer began offering anyone who bought an engagement ring a free ring with a lab-grown stone of similar size. The company said the latter was meant to be used when traveling — implying that lab-grown stones are a bonus, while natural diamonds are what you use to propose to your partner.

Landau’s argument works so long as natural diamonds can rely on their historic image to maintain a special place in shoppers’ minds. (Only Natural Diamonds, a magazine published by the Natural Diamond Council, a diamond trade organisation, publishes plenty of features on famous gems and their connection to royalty.)

But consumers are increasingly open to lab-grown diamonds, even for the most emotionally charged purchases: Last year, 46 percent of American couples chose a lab-grown stone for their engagement ring, up from 12 percent in 2019, according to wedding website The Knot.

Natural stones still appeal to the luxury customer who doesn’t “care what the cost difference is,” said Grace Lee, a Los Angeles-based jewellery designer who exclusively uses mined diamonds.

“Anything worth having, you have to work hard for it,” said New York-based jeweller Ashley Zhang, who sells natural diamonds. “Sometimes the price … adds value to an item.”

Telling the Right Story

For lab-grown businesses, the lack of pressure around making an “investment purchase” may turn off some engagement ring shoppers, but can bring in other customers. Lab-grown cuts can be more unique, and there’s greater access to rare-coloured stones, making it easier to market to a more trend-aware, fashion-conscious consumer.

“Before [lab-grown], if people were buying a diamond, especially a larger one, it had to be a timeless, classic piece,” said Merill Hollander, founder of the lab-grown jewellery label Fiametta. “Those are great to have in a jewellery wardrobe, but now people can buy more of these fun everyday pieces.”

Lab-grown diamonds are also sometimes pitched as a more ethical purchase, as they’re not tainted by reports of harsh treatment of workers in some mines, or the illegal trafficking of gems out of conflict zones. Natural sellers are countering this narrative by more openly discussing their relationships with mines, and the economic impact on countries where they source diamonds. De Beers, for instance, brought emerging designers to Botswana with the hope they’ll then come back home and spread the word.

“It’s really important that third parties with credibility really have time to think about this space, work with diamonds and use that almost as a vehicle to re-educate others,” said Morrison.

Lab-grown diamonds also face greater hurdles in markets outside the US, where there’s been less consumer education around the product. Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik said in the jewellery giant’s 2024 earnings in February that despite a splashy launch of its lab-grown offering, the company saw that consumer reception was cooler than anticipated, particularly in markets like Brazil or Mexico where there is “virtually no awareness” of the product, according to Lacik. Major marketing investment, he added, will be required to meaningfully move consumer sentiment in those regions.

Still, spotlighting Pandora’s lab-grown assortment has helped elevate its positioning, said Luciano Rodembusch, the retailer’s general manager for North America. Historically seen as “a $65 charm company,” he said, now “people pay even more attention to the quality of our jewelry.” They’ve also given the brand a red carpet presence for the first time, supplying jewellery for Pamela Anderson for this year’s Golden Globes.

“We’re not being taken for granted anymore and our voice has become a little bit stronger,” he added.

Meeting in the Middle

Other brands focus less on the fact that they’re lab-grown and instead on storytelling. For digitally native lab-grown brand Dorsey, that means vintage-inspired designs displayed in sleek, editorial-esuqe imagery, promoted by stylish influencers like Courtney Grow and Hannah Chody. Fiametta, meanwhile, has leaned on team-ups with the likes of New York-based fashion seller Kallmeyer — it provided the jewels for the brand’s runway show in February. It also photographs its stones on friends of the brand who don’t fit the typical profile of a jewellery model, said Hollander.

“We’re very candid and transparent that we’re a lab-grown company, but at the forefront, we really talk about our brand, seasonality and newness,” said Meg Strachan, founder and CEO of Dorsey.

De Beers is doing a version of this as well, departing a bit from its traditional, ultra-glamorous advertising. Rather than centring its message on an abstract future in which “a diamond is forever,” it’s prioritising the here and now. Recent campaigns, like last fall’s “Worth the Wait” in partnership with Signet Jewellers, feature real couples rather than airbrushed models.

The goal is to “get to that place where people feel included, but it’s also something they can dream about,” said Morrison.

It’s a balance both lab-grown and natural diamond makers must strike: Selling something aspirational enough to be desirable, but still within their grasp.

“As long as people are very clear about how they’re different and that they’re being sold to in a way that the distinction is clear,” said Kristina Buckley Kayel, the managing director and CMO at the Natural Diamond Council, ”it’s ultimately the consumer’s choice.”