Case Story: Soulmate Diamond Jewelry
Consumer Products
JB Jewelry International
Brand Strategy / Positioning / New Product Brand Development
This North American diamond jewelry distributor creates a new jewelry brand celebrating life’s most enduring connections.
JB Jewelry is a global diamond jewelry marketer. Its North American subsidiary had created a line of mid-priced diamond pendant jewelry for distribution at mass retail outlets, department stores, and independent jewelry stores in the US and Canada. In a highly competitive category, management recognized they needed to define a space where they could play and win. They asked us to help them create a new brand from the ground up.
We began by focusing on the key product attribute – jewelry designs that featured keepsake diamond insets that were cut from the same original rough stone and placed in matching pendants. Most jewelry pieces of this type are commonly merchandised as stand alone pieces, one of many displayed in a generic jewelry case. Jewelry products of this type were ubiquitous. We uncovered the highly emotional associations people had with “keepsake” gift giving. Splitting a rough stone and placing it in matching or nested designs was a perfect metaphor for the enduring bonds loved ones share. After all, nothing is more permanent than a diamond.
From this learning, PULL created a value proposition and brand positioning strategy that focused solely on the enduring emotional connections consumers associated with a keepsake diamond purchase on the special occasions when these connections are celebrated in people’s lives. What mattered most to people was coming together as one. And a result, SoulMate Diamond Jewelry was born.
We created the brand’s essence, voice and identity expressed in the tagline “Become one. Again.”. We provided creative direction and guidance to the marketing team for defining the brand’s retail presence and the components for market launch. Elements of the launch phase included keepsake packaging, in-store merchandising elements, collateral sales materials distributed to retailers, and the creative direction and messaging for a branded e-commerce web site. Additionally we developed direct marketing communications used by retailers and targeting consumers purchasing for special occasions such as the birth of a child, Mother’s Day, birthdays and anniversaries.
As a result of brand development initiative, SoulMate Diamond Jewelry was enthusiastically received by independent jewelry retailers in in the US and Canada. JB Jewelry was also successful in obtaining new distribution through several major jewelry retailers like Sterling, Gordon’s and Macy’s stores in North America. In the years since its introduction, the SoulMate brand has grown distribution to key Asian markets.
