Dubai jewelry group pledges $1 million for marketing
[From NationalJeweler.com, March 1, 2005]
The Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group has pledged to raise $1 million in U.S. dollars to launch an integrated, global plan for marketing jewelry to consumers.
At the 3rd Dubai Conference, held Feb. 20-21, representatives of the gold, gemstone and pearl industries agreed to establish a committee to endorse a focused marketing initiative. Paul Walker, CEO of Gold Field Mineral Services, was selected to chair the committee, which was charged with positioning jewelry for growth against other lifestyle options in the market.
Conference participants agreed that a unique opportunity had been presented for all segments of the precious metals, gemstone and jewelry value chain to act together. Gaetano Cavalieri, president of CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, publicly praised the Dubai Group’s pledge in a release.
“This is a tremendous step forward in the global effort to promote jewelry sales worldwide,” Cavalieri said in CIBJO’s announcement.
At the conference, Cavalieri spoke in a session dedicated to “Global Jewellery Marketing” In his talk, the CIBJO president warned that the newer, younger consumer markets may need special attention to convince those consumers to buy jewelry.
“In this information age, the younger consumers especially may be losing interest in jewelry products,” Cavalieri told conference attendees. “To answer these challenges, we need ingenuity and originality from the jewelry designers, and well as from the marketers. Furthermore, in the current climate, they must also be sure that their products are not linked to any controversial issues—social and/or economic—that may cause consumer confidence in jewelry products to waver. The marketing messages should be inclusive of elements of confidence.”
CIBJO’s 2005 Congress took place in Hong Kong, March 4 through 7, with the theme of “Maintaining consumer confidence as we face new challenges in the jewellery industry.”
For more information on the CIBJO Congress, visit: www.cibjo.org
