“Collecting is a fundamental aspect of human existence that has served to enable and enhance our evolution, offering both material and emotional value to us as individuals and communities,” wrote Professor Andrew Dillon in a column for Art Basel last year.
Dillon, a professor at The University of Texas, School of Information in Austin, described a collection as offering “life support over time, a means of trading, a basis for community and communication, a stockpile of wealth, and a mechanism of self-identity… a basis for informing and learning, providing emotional comfort and security, and marking our lives in personally meaningful ways.”
Regardless of the things collected, from fine art to pop star memorabilia, Dillon found consistent shared motivations for the behavior, including emotions, identity, value, and desire for connection. His words resonate as discussions arose in seminars at the recent AGTA Tucson GemFair about the opportunities colored stones offer jewelers to nurture their clients’ collector mentality.
“We have a basic human instinct to collect,” said gem wholesaler, bespoke designer and educator Cynthia Marcusson for the Cary, North Carolina-based Cynthia Reneé, on a panel imparting strategies to captivate clients, foster relationships and maximize sales. “We have a product, unlike any other in this world, with built in mystique, beauty and rarity. There are so many things to collect. It’s pleasurable for consumers, and really good business for jewelers.”
With diamonds, after acquiring the coveted jewelry staples, what’s next, asked the Los Angeles-based designer Erica Courtney for The Courtney Collection of “Drop Dead Gorgeous Gemstones”, a panelist alongside Marcusson. “With colored stones, there are so many ways to build a jewelry collection. For me, I can remember, oh, she has the lavender; I’m going to get her the purple. She has the light green; I’m going to get her the dark green. She has garnet; I’m going to get her a mandarin.”
Advocate Relevance
In her latest consulting work, Marcusson inspires people to see their jewelry as symbols of personal growth, connection and empowerment. She encourages clients to have a more meaningful connection with their jewelry, as she believes gems and jewels can significantly enhance our individual journey towards authenticity and fulfillment.
“This perspective keeps clients returning, seeking jewels that speak to their personal narratives, not just occasional adornments,” said Marcusson, known since the 1990s for her “infotainment” trunk shows, trademarked color palette system, and training for how to sell to the female self-purchaser.
“Helping people understand how to connect with jewelry as their personal transformation brings more vivacity to their life,” she explained. “Jewelry can express something deep inside us, our value system, internal compass, the things we want to be and feel, and when we put that jewel on, it’s a reminder of how we move forth.”
Courtney underscored jewelry’s ability to make us feel good. “During COVID, I got up, washed my face, brushed my teeth, put on my jewelry, and went back to bed to watch Tiger King. Three months in lock down was horrible. It was important for me to put on jewelry. It was the only thing I felt I had during that lonely time that made me feel better.”
When jewelry becomes relevant it becomes something that customers understand that they need, said Marcusson. “Most people don’t understand what jewelry can do for them, how it has meaning, how it can empower them, why it’s the best medium to mark a milestone, and how our love of gems and jewels is a gift passed down to us from our most ancient ancestors.”
Inspire, Teach, Listen
There are regular people, said Marcusson, who are looking for this information and looking for someone to light a passion in them to collect colored stones. While raising her children, Marcusson began working with private clients, high-end world caliber collectors who were coming to her because they wanted to get what was hard to find in most jewelry stores, knowledge and awareness of colored stones.
Her biggest takeaway with selling is to sell with passion. “Inspire your customers to be gem enthusiasts, that’s how you create gem collectors.”
Erica Courtney’s passion for colored gems has taken her all over the world.
Storytelling is instrumental in selling gem jewelry, echoed wholesaler/manufacturer and AGTA President Kimberly Collins on the panel. “I’m doing these rainbow layouts in sapphires that are so exquisite. But not everyone is a rainbow person. Still, it presents an opportunity to talk about how hard it is to gradate the colors in sapphire, from dark blue into pastel blue into blue green into yellow. All of a sudden, even if it’s not the color layout they are going to collect, customers are engaging with the piece.”
Collins said she “rainbows” her booth in how she displays. “From the saturated purple I do the full spectrum. I lay out my stones that way because I find people shop by color.”
Country of origin is of growing importance too for gem aficionadas. It can be an important connection that people have to colored stones. Courtney – who has visited many of the mines where she has sourced gemstones for her designs – recounted a story of a client who initially chose a moonstone, only to bring it back for a Mahenge spinel, four times the price, when she learned it came from Tanzania where her son had lived.
“For many people all over the world the connection with a gemstone might be the only opportunity people have to be connected, in some way, to that country of origin,” shared the Miami-based gem and jewelry mine-to-market strategist Hayley Henning in a GemFair presentation, Colored Gemstones Link People and Places. “The buyer can imagine owning a tiny bit of that location. Discussing geographic origin is an opportunity to tell the incredible stories of where gems are mined, why a stone is unique to a location, and how communities at the source are impacted. Consumers want to know.”
Along with most other industries, and perhaps even more so in the gem and jewelry world, there’s great movement from consumers to embrace the origin story and supply chain transparency, cited Henning, a judge in the upcoming Informa Markets International Sustainability Awards 2024 by Jewellery News Asia.
“Gem collectors are taking a serious look at corporate social responsibility and are interested in a gem’s journey mine to market,” Henning said. “It’s in the gem and jewelry industry’s best interest to make this information accessible beyond the trade organizations to give consumers the tools they need to make their gem and jewelry buying decisions. We need to understand that it is the taking care of our world and the people in it that will ultimately drive our businesses, big and small.”
In fact, more members of the supply chain are traveling to visit the source, shared Brecken Branstrator, editor-in-chief of Gemworld International’s Gem Guide, in its annual market report in Tucson. She believes this trend will increase for stakeholders in the latter ends of the supply chain to understand exactly how that’s working.
Marcusson reminded jewelers that storytelling at the retail counter needs to go both ways. “Only from listening to your customer’s story, and understanding it, can jewelers begin to understand how to make jewelry more relevant to their life.”
