Understanding jewelry store marketing basics is needed now more than ever by independent jewelers.
Granted, being an independent jewelry store owner/manager can seem like a daunting task.
You have to be well versed in a whole host of specialties if you expect your store to flourish in these challenging economic times.
Nowhere is there more confusion over basic terms than in the area of marketing.
Let’s start by getting the terms right.
Marketing.
The goal of marketing is to get your brand into the mind of the consumer.
Imagine marketing as a total pie that has slices such as public relations (PR), advertising, branding, promotion, publicity, and social media.
Marketing is your total message strategy.
Advertising.
This is a single component of your marketing strategy.
It is the part that involves the placement of ads commonly in newspapers, billboards, television, radio, and the Internet.
Typically it is the largest expense of marketing, though public relations normally is a close second.
Public Relations.
The maintenance of a favorable public image between the public and your jewelry store.
It is the best, most sincere form of advertising your store can have because it is one of your clients saying how wonderful your store is to someone else.
The grassroots equivalent is “word of mouth” advertising.
Easily the most sought after form of advertising.
To see marketing at work consider this,
If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying “Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday”, that’s advertising.
If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion.
If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed, that’s publicity.
If you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations.”
A quote found in “Promoting Issues and Ideas” by M. Booth and Associates, published in Reader’s Digest.
In the jewelry world, the example would be,
If you take out an ad in the newspaper that your store was hosting a fancy color diamond event on Saturday and a portion of the proceeds was going to aid the local children’s hospital, that’s advertising.
If doctors from the hospital go on the local television station to talk about how vital funding is to children’s care and research, that’s promotion.
If the state senator decided to attend at the last minute, that’s publicity.
If you get the editor from the local newspaper to write an editorial about how important the store’s event was to the community, that’s public relations.
Marketing is a process that takes time, research, investment, and a clear goal to be effective.
Think of marketing as everything that an organization does to facilitate an exchange between your jewelry store and consumers.
To squarely hit this moving target you have to understand the jewelry store marketing basics.
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The host of “Inside the Jewelry Trade” Radio Show – Jewelry Business Strategist – President of Four Grainer LLC. Author of the business books “A Reason To Chant,” and “A Reason to Chant – Jewelry Trade Edition.” Rod lives in Atlanta with his wife and two almost-human cats.