Rio Tinto to share the story of its diamonds

Posted June 12, 2012 |

Rio Tinto Diamonds has launched a new trade and consumers promotion, ‘Diamonds with a Story’, to highlight the origins of its diamonds.

Rio Tinto Diamonds launched its new marketing drive, ‘Diamonds with a Story’ at the JCK Luxury show in Las Vegas last week.

Inspired by a study by The Shand Group that found more than 75 per cent of consumers are concerned about the origins of their diamond jewellery, how it was mined and the story behind a piece of jewellery that makes it special, the new initiative aims to explain the history of individual stones.

Rio Tinto general manager, diamond sales and marketing, Jean-Marc Lieberherr, said the "Diamonds with a Story" platform developed from consumer demand for more information about diamonds.

"The four Cs are still important, however for today's consumer we need to go further and explain the other layers which are the human, geological and cultural histories wrapped up in every Rio Tinto diamond,” Lieberherr said in a statement.

The ‘Diamonds with a Story’ promotion comes at an intriguing time, with the World Diamond Council last month proposing a more stringent definition of conflict diamonds. However, Jeweller’s investigations into consumer sentiment about the origin of diamond jewellery found that consumers rarely expressed concerns.

One jewellery retailer, who asked not to be identified, said she could not recall a customer ever inquiring as to whether the diamond they were inspecting was conflict free. She suspected most customers were completely unaware of the concept of conflict diamonds.

Perhaps more importantly, she said while the issue of conflict diamonds was clearly very important, the average jewellery retailer in Australia, particularly those in regional areas, had more pressing concerns to deal with in the running of their business.

A second regional retailer said he had also never had a customer approach him about conflict diamonds, and added that if he did he was not confident he would be able to explain the current definition of what a conflict diamond was anyway.

But it’s wasn’t all indifference in the community, with Michael Kearney from Purdey’s Jewellers in Shepparton saying while he was rarely approached about the issue, it was clear to him from discussions with customers it was something they were thinking about.

“They are aware of it,” he said. “It’s in the back of their minds when they are looking, but they are not asking the question upfront.”

Rio Tinto’s new marketing effort will roll out globally, and target diamond buyers, manufacturers and consumers, with a collection of promotional materials.

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