The Jewellery Wardrobe

I don’t hear that phrase used enough.  Every time someone is looking for a piece of jewellery, you should be asking, “how will this fit into your (or his or her) jewellery wardrobe?”  Every time someone purchases a piece of jewellery, you should reinforce the purchase by saying “this will be a great addition to your (or his or her) jewellery wardrobe.”

This is free advertisement for the next jewellery purchase.  Not only is it free, it’s also being directed to someone who is in his or her most suggestive state.  It’s like the wife asking her husband about finally fixing that fence, just after a romantic interlude.  He’s in the mood to finally say, “sure honey, I’ll get started on that tomorrow.”  That sounds awfully manipulative doesn’t it?  Does it happen in real life?  Sure it does.

When you take hold of the opportunity to plant the seeds of future purchases, you’re not being any more manipulative than any other salesperson in any other industry.  If you believe that you can survive by just sitting-back and letting people come to you and buy what and when they want, you’re delusional!  By proclaiming yourself as a retailer of jewellery, you’ve thrown yourself headfirst into a shark-tank.  This tank is filled with other jewellers, furniture sellers, general contractors, travel agents, timeshare salesmen, motor-sports dealerships, electronics outlets, plastic surgeons, investment managers, realtors and thousands of other aggressive marketers and salespeople.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not insinuating that there’s anything unethical about promoting the concept of the jewellery wardrobe.  It’s just a very ingenious way of putting “dibs” on a portion of your client’s future spending.  Classic yellow gold ensembles for coordinating with fall colors, contemporary white gold pieces with black diamonds to go with your little black dress, colored stones to coordinate with seasons or outfits, formal jewellery, casual jewellery, every-day wear.  We’d love all of our clients to aspire to accumulating an amazing jewellery wardrobe. 

If the Canadian Jewellers Association had a windfall of money and wanted to promote jewellery via a national advertising campaign, I’d want them to build a series of advertisements that promoted the jewellery wardrobe concept.  Since that ain’t happening, I suggest we start with the people who come into our store.  How about the next person who comes in?