Diamonds are eternal: dilemmas of positioning a luxury brand

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Summary

The natural diamond market has undergone several changes during its history. For centuries, exploitation, war financing, and many other scandals have created complicated situations for corporations working in the field, such as the De Beers Group. However, the technology created an unexpected competitor: lab-grown diamonds, which established a new market segment and new ways of doing business that could not be ignored. With an eye on this new market, De Beers founded the LightBox brand to act simultaneously with its original segment, natural diamonds. Now, for both to coexist in the disputed luxury market, it is necessary to establish a brand positioning and a Branding that allow the generation of value for both companies. This case is an invitation to readers to get to know the largest company in the diamond market of the twentieth century and reflect on its future in the twenty-first century and on the marketing strategies that must be adopted to generate value for all stakeholders involved.

Keywords: Marketing; Branding; Diamond Market; Luxury Goods.

Abstract

The natural diamond market has suffered several changes during its history. For centuries, exploitation, the financing of wars, and many other scandals have created difficult situations for corporations working in the field, such as the De Beers Group. However, the heyday of modernity and technology created an unexpected competitor: laboratory-grown diamonds, which established a new market segment and new ways of business that could not be ignored. Looking out for this new market, De Beers founded LightBox to work simultaneously with its original segment, the natural diamonds. Now, so that both can coexist in the disputed luxury market, it is necessary to establish brand positioning and a branding that allows value for both companies. This case is an invitation to readers to get to know the biggest company in the 20th-century diamond market and reflect on its future in the 21st-century and what marketing strategies should be adopted so that both organizations can thrive and deliver value to all stakeholders involved.

Keywords : Marketing; Branding; Diamond Market; Luxury Items.

Emergence of De Beers

Throughout the nineteenth century, the African continent was the stage for the signing of multiple agreements that led to its sharing among the great European powers. The imperialism practiced by the industrialized nations aimed to expand their access to raw materials and consumer markets in view of the recent Industrial Revolution.  It was in this context of search and exploration that Cecil Rhodes, British colonizer, then minister of the Cape colony and founder of the British South Africa Company, and Barney Barnato, a British businessman considered a gold baron and diamond magnate, emerged. Both were responsible for the discovery of multiple gold and diamond mines.

In 1871, the Kimberley mine was discovered in South Africa. Rhodes and Barnoto, then rivals, bought the right to exploit the mine from several smaller mining companies until they both became the main explorers of the site. Amid the fights to define Kimberley's trade dominance, the two businessmen increased the supply of diamonds on the market, causing prices to fall sharply. To solve the problem, the only solution found was the merger of its mining companies.

And so, in 1888, the British founded the De Beers Group, a company operating in the natural diamond market to this day, with more than 20,000 employees and an estimated turnover of US$5.06 billion, according to information released by the Group in 2021.

For decades, the De Beers Group has monopolized the world's natural diamond production chain, owning for itself the largest and best diamond producing mines, excelling in quantity and quality. In addition, until the end of the twentieth century, the Group was responsible for cutting and polishing the stones, supplying them directly to the world's leading jewelry stores.

The De Beers brand

Until the end of the 1980s, the De Beers Group acted as both a central and an intermediary company, with a greater focus on the latter. In other words, despite extracting, processing and selling its own diamonds, the company focused on an intermediary role in the production chain:

• Buying diamonds mined from other mines.
• Selling rough diamonds to the processing industry
• Buying processed diamonds from other processing companies
• Selling processed diamonds to the jewelry industry, serving companies such as Tiffany & Co. and others.

De Beers commanded the diamond production chain, selling its production to the consumer market through B2B sales ( business-to-business – commercial interaction between two companies) and B2C ( business-to-consumer – trade between the producing company and the final consumer). That said, the Group sold its stones to plaintiff companies, such as jewelry stores, and directly to the final consumer, with the company's own jewelry stores.

However, with years of domination over natural diamonds, irremediable crises began to emerge from the 90s and changed the course of the company and the market itself. The verticalization of the production chain, the Blood Diamonds scandal, commercial regulation measures and the orientation of the market by demand were some of the events that led De Beers to change its operating model to survive the new times.

The natural diamond crisis and De Beers' strategy

Natural diamond is a mineral composed of carbon crystallized under high temperature and pressure over the course of millions of years under the earth's surface. In view of this, each stone is singular, unique, making it impossible to classify the diamond as a commodity that is, a good in its raw state, produced on a large scale and with homogeneous characteristics.

Annually, the diamond market moves US$ 13 billion in rough stones, US$ 17 billion in processed diamonds and US$ 82 billion in jewelry, according to the annual average of the years 2015 to 2017. These are the three main industries that make up the natural diamond production chain: exploration, processing and transformation.

Until the end of the 1980s, in the exploration industry, whether in the open, underground, deep sea or on slopes, De Beers was present, holding extensive exploration mines, mainly located in South Africa. In the processing industry, the cutting and polishing of more than 50% of the world's diamonds was in charge of India, with an added value of US$ 10 per carat, the most competitive among the countries.

During the 1990s, African countries began to question why their diamonds were mined from their lands and processed in India. Thus, the movement of verticalization of the production chain began, with the establishment of local laws in the diamond-producing countries to strengthen the national industry. From this perspective, mines began to integrate into the processing and jewelry industry. The opposite process also happened: with the loss of direct suppliers, the processing and jewelry industries began to invest in their own mines.

All this change in the world scenario drastically reduced De Beers' market share to 65% by the end of the 1990s. This number meant a great reduction, as at the beginning of the decade, the company held 85% of the global market share, having 45% of rough diamonds and 80% of the world's processed diamonds under its possession.

The final blow was delivered in 1998, when De Beers' involvement in the Blood Diamond scandal came to light. Angola, one of the largest diamond-producing countries, was dominated by rebel forces and a civil war broke out, in which the conflicting groups used the diamonds to finance armaments. The De Beers Group continued to buy the diamonds from the conflict in an attempt to maintain its control over the already reduced market and thus tarnishing its reputation by participating in a historic event that claimed millions of lives. Amid the scandals, major companies have announced the termination of their partnerships with the Group, such as jewelry industry giant Tiffany & Co.

With so many problems around it, De Beers had to make several managerial decisions to reestablish itself in the market.

His first move was to remedy the scandal of his involvement with the Blood Diamonds. To this end, the Group has committed to selling diamonds from its own production only, no longer buying and selling stones from other provisions. In 1998 they created the Forevermark — a tiny logo placed on diamonds to identify them as conflict free (without conflicts).

The second measure was to recognize that its market dominance would no longer reach the same numbers as in the past, with all the antitrust measures adopted. Thus, the Group began to sell its diamonds on demand, no longer injecting its diamonds into the market and controlling prices. This action was possible through the implementation of the Sightholders – companies that make up a list of organizations authorized to acquire rough or processed diamonds of the De Beers brand, being formed by jewelry companies and diamond resellers that have established a contractual relationship with the Group, being able to request diamonds in "customized" lots and enjoy other benefits, in order to "ensure a greater delivery of value in the partnership".

In this sense, in 2000, the company started its special program Supplier of Choice (the "number 1" supplier for consumers' choice) aiming at these Sightholders , operating on three fronts: production and distribution, promotion and consumer confidence.

• Production and distribution: aiming for a leaner model, De Beers stopped acting as an intermediary company to focus on its own production, adding value to its diamonds at each stage of the production chain, delivering high-quality diamonds to jewelry stores Sightholders and producing its own pieces for retail.
  
• Promotion: according to De Beers, in 2000 the diamond jewelry market allocated only 2% of the economic results of its global sales to Marketing and Advertising, while the luxury goods market, in general, allocated 10% to a certain purpose. Thus, the Group offered the Sightholders the opportunity to benefit from their marketing campaigns while developing their own brands' branding plans.
  
• Consumer Confidence: Forevermark, created in 1998, was included in the program to increase the confidence of Sightholders and their respective consumers, guaranteeing a natural diamond, without treatments for cracks or color change and, most importantly, without relation to conflicts.

These measures managed to re-establish De Beers in the market for a short time. In parallel with the reconstruction of De Beers' image, innovation and technological advances created a great challenge for the newly structured company.

The rise of lab diamonds

Over the years, multiple technologies have emerged and facilitated the exploration of natural diamonds, but the environmental impact and complexity of obtaining this unique mineral has made scientists around the world look for other alternatives for its production. Thus, technology has been proving to be increasingly important, especially in relation to sustainability.

In 1797, the composition of the diamond was studied and it was found to be pure carbon. Since then, scientists have carried out experiments to create the gem in the laboratory. The first success occurred in 1954, with the creation of a carbon crystal hard enough, but without the refinement necessary to be a gemstone. At the time, General Electrics – a multinational technology conglomerate – developed machines capable of manufacturing this material to use it in cutting other substances, such as metals, ceramics and concrete. However, the production of diamonds in the laboratory was extremely expensive due to the techniques applied and the amount of energy required for their manufacture. So, in this period, lab-grown diamonds were not a viable option for commercialization.

The studies continued and, in 1971, scientists managed to produce a diamond with the necessary quality. However, its production resulted in a yellowish gem due to the infusion of nitrogen in the production process, in addition to remaining a very expensive procedure.

Finally, in 1999, the technology was able to create diamonds that "could exceed natural diamonds in carats (size), color and clarity, in a less costly production process compared to mining natural diamonds. Slowly, these gemstones entered the diamond market." (Primegems/Amanda Butrcher).

During the 2000s, the technology needed to cultivate diamonds in the laboratory evolved and made it possible to produce and, consequently, commercialize this product on a large scale. In addition, other factors (such as the more sustainable production chain of this product, when compared to traditional exploitation), have caused this market to expand. Thus, this novelty attracted the attention of new competitors and challenged traditional market players to reinvent themselves in order to remain competitive in this industry.

In the process of growing diamonds in laboratories, machines capable of producing an environment with high heat and high pressure are used, a condition similar to that which occurs in nature to obtain diamonds. However, a major difference between the two processes is that, in laboratories, it takes about four weeks to produce a 1-carat diamond, and in nature, the same process occurs over millions of years.

Lab-grown diamonds have several nomenclatures, such as: "synthetic", "man-made" and "lab-grown". It is not possible to see the difference with the naked eye between a natural diamond and a lab-grown one, only when diamond experts analyze them using microscopes. In addition, the price of a lab-made stone is 20% to 40% lower compared to mined stone.

Laboratory-produced diamonds have optical, chemical, thermal, and physical characteristics equal to mining diamonds. Thus, lab-grown diamonds are graded by the same criteria as traditional stones: cut, color, clarity, and carat.

For De Beers, natural diamond carries with it great symbolic value because it was formed over millions of years in the Earth's crust. Therefore, at first, it positioned itself completely against the entry of laboratory diamonds into the market. De Beers launched a program in defense of natural gemstones, providing its main buyers and intermediaries with the necessary machinery to distinguish them, so that the end consumer would not be "deceived".

However, De Beers did not have the ethical-environmental-social appeal that laboratory diamonds had, which gave them more and more space in the diamond market. Then, in 2018, the company realized that it was impossible to fight the precepts of sustainability and technology and surrendered to lab-grown diamonds.

Emergence of the LightBox

In 2018, the De Beers Group launched the Lightbox Jewelry brand, better known as LightBox, which produces and sells exclusively lab-grown diamond jewelry. At the time, Steve Coe, president of Lightbox, said that the brand emerged to offer high-quality jewelry and excellent design at prices lower than those offered by competitors.

At the launch of the new brand, Bruce Cleaver, CEO of De Beers Group at the time, stated that "Lightbox will transform the lab-grown diamond industry by offering customers a product they have told us they want but currently can't find: an affordable design gem that may not be forever, but is perfect for now." In this same context, the CEO stated that diamond producers in the laboratory were missing the opportunity to offer a fun and more economically accessible product.

Thus, with the support and development of technology, Lightbox emerges to offer lower prices to consumers who prefer jewelry with less environmental impact and more affordable prices. And, from the beginning, the Group's CEO stated that the brand is a small business when compared to the other sectors of the Group, but it is an opportunity to be explored, as it guarantees a new and complementary commercial opportunity to the De Beers Group.

According to the Group's strategy, from 2018 to 2022, the diamonds will be produced in the Oregon laboratory and marketed first only in the United States through the e-commerce . The planned investment for this period was 94 million dollars. In addition, the Group has developed a technology in which every diamond over 0.2 carat produced in the laboratory by Lightbox will have a very small company logo placed on the diamonds to identify them as produced in the laboratory, in addition to being a quality and product marker made by the De Beers Group.

The positioning strategy of the De Beers Group: from the best slogan of the twentieth century to the new times

At the beginning of the twentieth century, officiating an engagement with a diamond ring was a practice that was still taking hold. In addition, after World War I and the Crisis of 1929, the price of diamonds was falling, sales were stagnant, and the diamonds in circulation were small and of poor quality.

Harry Oppenheimer, CEO of De Beers at the time, traveled to the United States to try to resume the consumption of diamonds in the country and, for this, he hired the advertising agency N.W. Ayer, which made him a proposal that revolutionized the diamond market even in the midst of the crisis.

De Beers was to "convince young men that a diamond (and only a diamond) was synonymous with romance, and that the measure of his love and his personal and professional success was directly proportional to the size and quality of the diamond he bought. And young women should be convinced that a man's courtship should inevitably be a diamond" (original text by Uri Friedman for The Atlantic, 2015). Thus, in 1939, De Beers became the 1st company to promote diamonds, through engagement ring campaigns, which revolutionized the diamond market in the face of the effects of the Crisis of 1929 and the fuse of World War II.

In 1947, the company's slogan was born: "A Diamond is Forever", which was considered the best advertising slogan of the twentieth century by the specialized magazine Advertising Age. The slogan consecrated De Beers in the retail market of diamond jewelry.

The company continued to promote its jewelry—rings, necklaces, earrings, and other accessories—as a symbol of love, not just for engagement, but as a gift to your loved one, with campaigns such as: "She married you for richer or poorer. Let her know how it's going." (She married you 'in riches or in poverty.' Let her know how it's going). In addition, the De Beers Group also promoted its diamonds to upper-middle-class workers, with the campaign "how to eternalize two months of your salary", which indicated that with two months' salary, a worker would give a gift that his beloved wife would keep forever.

However, from 1970 to 2000, divorce rates increased. In the United States alone, 50% of women were not married, by choice or not, and many no longer believed in stories of "eternal love". In the face of the impending crisis, De Beers began to promote the diamond not only as the love between two people, but as an emblem of self-love. Thus, in 2001 the "Right Hand Ring" campaign was launched to promote De Beers jewelry as a sign of female empowerment and independence.

In recent years, the company has been looking for new ways to position itself to remain competitive in the market. In 2020, the company began to associate the purchase of its diamonds with humanitarian aid to contribute to the needy communities of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, in addition to the conversion of income for the protection of the African Savannah. In 2022, its latest campaign seeks to promote its diamonds as a symbol of any type of love, giving representation to the LGBTQIA+ community.

De Beers' target audience includes men and women in their 30s and above, from the upper-middle and upper classes, especially women. A recent survey conducted by De Beers revealed that, even with the pandemic and the retraction observed in the global and diamond markets, the demand for jewelry is strong, both for personal style composition and for engagements.  Research has shown that in a marital context, women are more likely to think about their engagement ring (54%) than other aspects such as marriage (32%) or honeymoon (15%) (NYAUNGWA, 2020).

Regarding the prices charged, the De Beers Group uses different price positioning strategies for each of the Group's operations. For rough diamonds, pricing follows the diamond valuation model based on the size (carats) and quality of the stone. The prices charged by the Group still influence the average price of a carat of a diamond in the global market. The price of the stones has added value at each stage of the production chain, as is the case with processed diamonds.

In its jewelry store, De Beers' prices are in line with the market. The price of an engagement ring with a 1-carat diamond costs approximately R$76 thousand (US$14.4 thousand - quotation on 03/08/2022), the same value practiced by other jewelry giants.

LightBox's positioning strategy: literacy, communication and group diversification

Currently Lightbox operates as an independent subsidiary company belonging to the De Beers Group and its mission is "Making diamond brilliance available to more people more often". Therefore, it invests a lot in technology to make diamonds manufactured in laboratories bigger, better and more economically accessible.

One of the outstanding characteristics of Lightbox's positioning is the literacy of the public regarding the market for laboratory-produced diamonds. On the company's website it is possible to access various content on the subject, such as:

• What are lab-grown diamonds,
• Methods used to produce LightBox diamonds,
• Description of the production process of Lightbox diamonds (in video),
• Quality of Lightbox diamonds.

Another striking aspect of LightBox's marketing is the pricing model Used to attract the attention of consumers looking for low cost. Unlike the traditional jewelry market, the brand uses only one criterion for pricing: the amount of carats. Traditional aspects such as stone color are disregarded, since the production process and manufacture of colored diamonds does not differ substantially from the production of colorless diamonds.

Currently, each carat (from English Carat ) costs 800 dollars and the other stones obey this proportion, that is, a 1/2 carat stone costs 400 dollars, as shown in the image below:

The final price of the jewelry is then given by the cost of the laboratory diamond used in the piece, added to the cost of the other materials used in the design (silver or gold) of the necklace, ring, bracelet or earring.

Lightbox has the Lightbox Finest Collection line, in which each carat costs US$1,500, because the stones produced go through a process of refinement of the material and thus present more clarity. In this line, all stones are complemented with 18-karat gold design. The line promises consumers exceptional diamond jewelry, "which are the epitome of high impact and high quality."

Finally, another differential factor of Lightbox is communication with different groups. The brand positions itself in favor of the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community and establishes partnerships with influencers with a youthful audience. In the United States, they still offer the possibility of service concierge virtual jewelry center, where the customer can call by video call or chat and contact a stylist of jewelry that will help you in the shopping experience.

LightBox's target audience includes the generation of Millennials and Generation Z, which, by 2024, will represent around 50% of the personal luxury market in the world, according to data from the Boston Consulting Group:

In jewelry, there is a growing concern about winning over these individuals who are often more inclined to invest in sophisticated electronics or experiences. In addition, they are more sensitive to the purposes embraced by companies. It is in this context that we begin to observe the signs of a true disruption in the world of jewelry: the adoption of cultured diamonds (Boston Consulting Group apud Rosana de Moraes, 2018)

In summary, LightBox consumers are mainly people from the new generations who have a growing environmental concern and who probably wouldn't buy a diamond if they hadn't found a cheaper alternative so that they can expose their acquisition on social networks (LABGROWNCARATS, 2022).

Natural vs. lab-grown diamonds: the future of the market

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the natural diamond market saw its numbers plummet, resulting in movements of US$ 6.1 billion in rough stones, US$ 1.75 billion in processed diamonds, and US$ 38.23 billion in jewelry (Statista), in the year 2021. Experts show a positive view regarding a resumption and growth of the market, especially in view of the numbers coming from online sales during quarantine periods. Although the global market has shrunk by 20%, sales of natural diamonds over the internet have grown and the online jewelry market is estimated to reach a value of US$ 19.88 billion in 2022 (PR Newswire, 2021).

Also, studies show that the expectation for the future is the growth of the diamond market, returning to the historical growth marks of the pre-pandemic period, with a full recovery of the market expected by 2024. The time seems opportune for De Beers to take steps to secure its market share, but some numbers are still worrying.

According to Edahn Golan, an independent diamond industry analyst, data from March 2022 showed that "the number of engagement rings sold with lab-grown diamonds increased by 63% compared to 2021, while the number of engagement rings sold with natural diamond decreased by 25% over the same period." (CNN, 2022).

"The big fear in the natural diamond industry is that consumers will start accepting lab-grown diamonds in engagement rings. Too late. It's really happening." (GOLAN, 2022).

According to Dan Moran, a third-generation diamond expert and owner of jewelry store Concierge Diamonds, lab-grown diamonds "are becoming popular as consumers are more aware and educated about them" (CNN, 2022).

An important awareness tool for companies that produce diamonds in the laboratory is TikTok and Instagram Reels, where they post content that compares natural and synthetic jewelry. This strategy reaches out to millennials and Gen Z, whose "eco-conscious mindset and ethical concerns about sourcing natural diamonds is another factor influencing their preference for non-traditional engagement rings, according to a report by wedding planning website The Knot" (That is, 2022).

In addition, the War in Ukraine has impacted the supply of natural diamonds in view of the sanctions applied by the US to the Russian government and, consequently, to Alrosa, currently the largest mining company in the world, retaining 28% of global production, which raises the prices of stones in view of the decrease in supply.

Finally, it is important to consider that, due to its formation time of thousands of years, diamonds are considered a non-renewable natural resource. In 2020, the world's largest mine, the Argyle mine in Australia, shut down due to a shortage of economically viable stones. Until then, it was known as the largest diamond producer by volume, supplying 90% of the world's pink diamonds. Although diamonds are still far from over, their exploration is becoming exponentially more difficult, resulting in the closure of mines and the need to seek new sources, with all the environmental and social impact that the installation of a mine causes in the region where it is installed.

Faced with so many uncertainties for the future, the De Beers Group faces a major managerial dilemma: how to remain competitive in the market for natural diamonds and lab-grown diamonds? – a challenge that will define its position in the luxury market.

Questions for the discussion

1. Was creating the Lightbox brand a success on the part of De Beers? Or do you believe that De Beers should have focused its efforts on strengthening the original brand? Analyze the pros and cons of this decision.
   
2. In the long term, would you recommend that the De Beers Group abandon the natural diamond line? Why?
   
3. Compare the marketing mix (4Ps) and target audience of De Beers and LightBox. Given the comparison, are the two brands direct competitors? Justify.
   
4. Can the De Beers Group's stance on social and environmental responsibility persuade its target audience?
   
5. Analyze the key Lightbox brand differentiation strategies. Are they able to reach the desired target audience?
   
6. How can De Beers and Lightbox maintain their go-to-market strategies in a complementary way in the long term?

Gallery

References

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Butcher, A. (2021) Brief history of lab-grown diamonds. Gem Society. https://www.gemsociety.org/lesson/a-brief-history-of-lab-grown-diamonds

Cawley, L. (2014). De Beers myth: Do people spend a month's salary on a diamond engagement ring?. BBC News Magazine. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27371208

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De Beers Group (2018). Our History . https://www.debeersgroup.com/about-us/our-history

De Beers Group (2022). Available at: https://www.debeersgroup.com/

De Beers' most famous ad campaign marked the entire diamond industry (n.d.) The eye of jewelry. Available at: https://theeyeofjewelry.com/de-beers/de-beers-jewelry/de-beers-most-famous-ad-campaign-marked-the-entire-diamond-industry/

De Beers Right Hand Ring Campaign (n.d.) Whiteflash. https://www.whiteflash.com/blog/de-beers-right-hand-ring/

Friedman, U. (2015). How an Ad Campaign Invented the Diamond Engagement Ring. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/how-an-ad-campaign-invented-the-diamond-engagement-ring/385376/

Grilo, F. (2021). The global diamond market promises a full recovery in 2024 after suffering from the pandemic. To the numbers!. Glamurama . https://glamurama.uol.com.br/notas/mercado-mundial-de-diamantes-promete-recuperacao-total-em-2024-depois-de-sofrer-com-a-pandemia-aos-numeros/

This is - Money (2022). Sales of engagement rings with natural diamonds are falling. This is Magazine - Money. Available at: https://www.istoedinheiro.com.br/as-vendas-de-aneis-de-noivado-com-diamantes-naturais-estao-caindo-saiba-o-porque/

Kavilanz, P. (2022).  Why Sale of Lab-Made Diamonds Are On The Rise. CNN Brasil. https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/business/por-que-venda-de-diamantes-feitos-em-laboratorio-estao-aumentando/

Kentic, J. (2022). 27 Shiny Jewelry Industry Statistics to Make You Sparkle. Capital Counselor. https://capitalcounselor.com/jewelry-industry-statistics/

Lab-Grown Carats (2022). Available at: https://labgrowncarats.com/knowledge/

LightBox (2022). Available at: https://lightboxjewelry.com/

Leikin, I. (2021). The diamond market should return to normality. Rough polished. https://www.rough-polished.com/pt/analytics/120958.html

Moraes, R. (2018). Cultivated Diamonds: the luxury market with an eye on Millennials. Modern consumer. https://www.consumidormoderno.com.br/2018/11/05/diamantes-cultivados-luxo-millennials/amp/

Paton, E. (2019). Excess diamonds produce stagnation in the sector. The New York Times by Estadão. https://internacional.estadao.com.br/noticias/nytiw,diamante-mercado-india,70003002152 .

Saraiva, J. (2019). The world's largest diamond mine will close in 2020 after 40 years. Metropolis. https://www.metropoles.com/mundo/economia-int/maior-mina-de-diamantes-do-mundo-fechara-em-2020-apos-40-anos

Teixeira, L. A. (2019). Technological advancement puts pressure on the diamond market. GQ. https://gq.globo.com/Prazeres/Poder/noticia/2019/01/avanco-tecnologico-pressiona-o-mercado-dos-diamantes.html

Complementary materials to the case: videos

Lightbox Jewelry (2019). The Science Behind the Sparkle of Lab-Grown Diamonds

De Beers (2008). Stand By Me Commercial A Diamond Is Forever De Beers 2008

About the authors

1. Nicole Alonso Santos de Sousa is a Business Administration student at the University of Brasília and a managing member of the ADM Casoteca Team. nicolealonso2000@gmail.com
   
2. Amanda Alves Silva de Melo is a Business Administration student at the University of Brasília and a member of the Casoteca ADM Team. Email: meloamanda73@gmail.com
   
3. Eluiza Alberto de Morais Watanabe is a Professor at the Department of Administration and the Graduate Program in Administration (PPGA) at the University of Brasília (UnB). He holds a doctorate (UnB) and a master's degree (UFMS) in Administration. Experiences in studies related to marketing and consumer behavior. Leader of the research group Conscient- Studies in Sustainable Consumption. He is a member of SCORAI Brazil - Sustainable Consumption Research, Action and Initiative in Brazil (http://scorai.org/brazil). Interest in topics related to sustainable consumption, sustainable marketing strategies and experimental designs. Email: eluizawatanabe@unb.br

This case was written based on information provided by the company and based on other references cited. It is not the authors' intention to evaluate or judge the company in question. This text is intended exclusively for academic study and discussion, and its use or reproduction in any other form is prohibited. Copyright infringement will subject the offender to the penalties of Law No. 9,610/1998.