How do jewellery brands sell happiness in a time of deep uncertainty?
I was recently invited - by the brilliant jeweller Roxanne Rajcoomar-Hadden - to pen a piece on what sentimental jewellery means to me. If you know me well, you’ll know I could write an epic on the subject, but for those that don’t, let me explain… I’ve spent a number of my working years supporting jewellery designers along their business journey. Those talents include Anissa Kermiche, Jessica de Lotz, Annina Vogel, Gaelle Khouri and Dinny Hall. Even prior to working in jewellery, I was drawn to it, filling my jewellery box with many tales to tell.
So when asked: “What does sentimental jewellery mean to you?”, the Classics student in me immediately explored the root of the word ‘sentimentality’ — which derives from the Latin sentire, to feel.
It was that bit that got me — feelings. Typically, when we think of jewellery in traditional terms, we conjure up feelings of happiness and positivity — milestones that we typically celebrate with symbolism in the form of jewellery.
Feelings got the marketeer in me thinking. In a boardroom pitch in the very first episode of Mad Men, advertising guru Don Draper says: “Advertising is based on one thing: happiness.”
If you’re a marketer, you’ll most likely work on the basis of ‘happiness sells’. So what are jewellery marketers doing now?! In the wake of COVID-19 and yet more uncertainty on the horizon, not least weddings postponed, engagements overlooked for financial reasons and families suffering losses due to the pandemic, is anyone really feeling happy?
It’s at this juncture I would love to see the jewellery industry — my clients included — lean into sentimentality’s dual meaning: feelings of happiness, but also sadness and grief, uncertainty and lack of direction.
I’ve been reflecting on why I wear the jewellery I do, what sentiments each piece represents and how sometimes I’ve had to part ways with beautiful jewellery in order to move on. Ask me the story behind each piece I wear now, and I’ll regale you with tales of ill-fated love, achieving First Class Honours at university, a ring to get over said ill-fated love, commemorating my late grandma with a special purchase — and so many more.
I realised sentimentality is not only joy and happiness, but also pain and anguish, hopelessness and grief. My jewellery choices represent seminal moments in my life — and I don’t necessarily mean those traditional milestones that society impresses upon us, particularly as womxn.
So much of modern jewellery marketing can make you feel you’re not achieving enough — if you’re not engaged, married, expecting a baby or have a BFF, you’re not eligible for a number of the traditional pieces on offer. And that’s before we even consider looking at things from the viewpoint of the LGBTQ+ community and size inclusivity.
I’d love to see milestone jewellery for those real moments:
🥀 Heartbreak
💔 Divorce
🐾 A new pet
🙌 Job success
🩸 First period
Instead of rejecting the terrain as too tricky to navigate, why can’t those less joyous milestones be celebrated with jewellery?
I’m a known jewellery self-gifter. And I’m not alone — over 50% of jewellery purchased now can be classed as self-gifting¹. And it’s now a core facet of marketing for brands to tap into. But what if we took jewellery marketing one step further — bringing the emotional connection and sentimentality to the fore with multifaceted honesty. Why can’t we promote those lesser celebrated milestones? Desacralise diamonds, democratise the buying process, debunk the myth that partners must buy you these special pieces.
I think of the award-winning designer Jessica de Lotz, whose narrative-based jewellery can’t help but tell a story, from the clasp to the wax seal she hand-stamps. And Roxanne’s too — particularly her culinary pieces, tapping into the earthly delights of food! Whatever the piece, I’m sure the wearer can tell you what they were feeling when they made the purchase — and the story.
Even a quick review of several well-known jewellery brands’ engagement ring sites, shows a leaning towards heteronormative ideas of marriage. I recall fondly a campaign by creative Veronica del Rosario for modern engagement ring brand Vrai, cleverly entitled Partnerings: “a movement towards inclusivity, empowerment and the freedom to define love on your own terms.”
I’d love to see more of this forward movement in jewellery marketing where we take a human approach to sentimentality — capturing the full spectrum of emotions and sentiments — happy or sad — and translating those into pieces we will treasure, pass down, and that might be reinterpreted in so many different ways by their future wearers. Mourning jewellery had its heyday in the Victorian period, yet today is rather overlooked. Maybe now is time, as we experience a global health pandemic, to face all manner of truths and sentiments.
— — —
¹ Self-gifting, Net-a-Porter