Marketing to the so-called Millennials – those born from the early 1980s onwards is a challenge for today's diamond jewelers and retailers.
The Millennials do not see the world in the same way that previous generations did regarding the move into adulthood. They are increasingly delaying getting married, or not getting married at all. And even those who do marry are often ignoring wedding traditions, such as investing three month's salary on a diamond ring.
While baby boomers, not surprisingly, outspend Millennials by a wide margin, Millennials already represent $1.3 trillion in consumer spending, out of total spending of nearly $11 trillion
By 2020 Millennials are projected to be 50% of the workforce and by 2025 this number is expected to reach 75%. This is a group of people that grew up as digital natives meaning they had access to social networks, smart phones, tablets, and all the other technology in use today.
And marketers, manufacturers and retailers are recognizing the group’s potential as important to their bottom line: they are the consumers who will drive the economy in the decades ahead.
The problem for jewelry marketers isn't that Millennials are rejecting diamond engagement rings, but that marketers need to talk with the next generation in a way that is meaningful and relevant to their lifestyles.
"That 'Diamonds Are Forever' tagline has lost meaning for a generation that has heard the widely-quoted '50 percent of all marriages end in divorce' statistics and often times has experienced it in their families growing up."
Millennials get a greater thrill from buying technology than they do jewelry. It's not just the need to mark an engagement with the purchase of a diamond ring that Millennials are questioning.
For half of Millennials, buying technology is a category that gives them great pleasure, as compared with 25 percent who felt the same about jewelry. This finding is particularly relevant to jewelers since the commitment to pre-purchase research and spending levels are very similar for technology and jewelry.
Millennials would much rather drop $700 on the latest phone or tablet computer, than on a new pair of earrings or cuff links. Marketers and retailers need to discover how to change the conversation, so that buying jewelry is as fresh and exciting as the latest iPhone. The problem facing jewelers is how to communicate with Millennials to reassure them they already have the skills needed to buy fine jewelry and that doing so is just as cool as buying the latest techno-gadget."
This means making shopping for jewelry cool, and bridging the generation gap. Consumer expectations have changed when it comes to how they want to shop. Especially when it comes to highly considered purchases, such as diamond jewelry, consumers no longer want a traditional feel and are searching for a more unique, personal experience. We need to break conventional shopping barriers and make the diamond jewelry retail experience enjoyable and interactive fun again.
Jewelers need to learn a whole new language to connect with the next generation of jewelry customers - the Millennials. That language has to communicate not just in words and pictures, but in emotion and experience.
It has to have the cool sophistication of high tech, but also the back-to-basics values of fine design and quality.
Amongst the biggest challenges for retailers and marketing experts is that today’s young adults have more choices and so are delaying major life decisions and the large purchases that go with them. Consequently, their consumer behavior is unpredictable.
There are more 23-year-olds — 4.7 million of them — than any other age, according to census data from June 2019. The second most populous age group was 24, and the third was 22. There is no official age range for Millennials but the generation generally is defined as being born between the early 1980s and early 2000s. By 2020, they will account for one-third of the adult population.
Millennials have significant earning potential in the years to come and, because of the sheer size of the group, have the ability to reshape the economy in ways that haven’t happened since the huge baby boom generation was hitting the job market and moving into first homes.