De Beers Diamonds: Billion dollar ideas

This paper explores how De Beers tackled flagging US diamond sales by focusing on the needs and emotions of their consumers. Three strategies were developed, called 'Beacons', in order to recruit more women into heavy ownership of diamond jewellery, encourage more sales at higher prices, and provide new opportunities to buy it. The communications used a multi-channel strategy, with the heart of the launch being PR-based to position the idea as a social movement, following it with advertising and trade support. The campaign added US$18.8 billion in sales, increased the non-bridal diamond jewellery sales value by 26 per cent and generated payback of US$4 per every US$1 spent