One of the biggest traditions that happen for many over the Christmas holiday is getting engaged, which comes with a diamond ring that is supposed to cost at least two months’ salary for the purchaser, right? Always fun for the bride-to-be to be the center of attention showing off her hands’ dazzling eye candy ring to her new family (and hundreds of social media followers) while everyone is ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’. But, why a diamond? Well, that story goes back about 75 years, and it’s not steeped in some tradition. It was peak marketing ideation plain and simple and the love-struck world adopted it as an unbreakable rule of protocol in the game of love. So, let’s get you ‘engaged’ into the backstory…(I love puns…I do…)
Once upon a time, a bunch of clever ad guys on Madison Avenue decided to make love measurable and put a price tag on our feelings for their benefit. Back in the 1940s, only one in 10 engagement rings had a diamond stone. Nowadays, if you don’t post a close-up pic of that perfectly manicured hand wearing your new sparkly two-plus carat rock on Instagram, did you even get engaged?!? So how did we go from “meh” to “must-have” when it comes to diamond rings?
Enter De Beers, the South African-British diamond bigwigs, and their agency’s masterclass in marketing of 1948.
The Diamond Scheme
De Beers started as a small-time mining operation back in 1888, but they had big dreams! They grew faster than love at first sight, gobbling up most of the world’s diamond production. By the 1930s, they were sitting on 90% of the precious stone diamond market. But there was a problem – nobody was buying diamonds. Diamonds hadn’t been assigned a meaning or purpose. After two world wars and a depression, no one really cared about diamonds. What’s a diamond monopoly to do? Create demand by assigning meaning and purpose.
Enter the Mad Men
If ever there were to be a ‘Mad Men’ TV show prequel, they should really tell this story. In 1938, Harry Oppenheimer from De Beers marched into N.W. Ayer, a New York Advertising Agency, with one mission – make diamonds popular. The agency’s plan was brilliant, but simple; convince everyone that diamonds equal love and romance…the bigger the stone, the greater the love! They went all out:
- Gave diamonds to movie stars (early influencers!)
- Planted stories in magazines about celebrity engagements with diamonds (product placement and earned media)
- Got fashion designers to gush about diamonds on the radio (paid testimonials)
And then, they came up with the slogan…one designed to encapsulate the security and eternal romance that comes with owning a diamond…four little words still used to identify diamonds even today, coined in 1947 by N.W. Ayer’s agency copywriter Mary Frances Gerety:
“A diamond is forever.”
Prestigious industry magazine Advertising Age (now Ad Age) named it “The Slogan of the 20th Century” back in 1999. It even inspired the title of a James Bond movie “Diamonds Are Forever”.
The Two-Month Salary Requirement
Ever wonder why men are supposed to spend two months’ salary on a ring? The ad guys simply made that requirement up too! They just kept repeating it until everyone thought it was some ancient rule passed down and made it a mandatory ‘rule of engagement’. Men have grown up knowing if they don’t go all in with at least spending two months’ salary for a ring, the answer they seek to “Will You Marry Me?” could be ‘NO’. Today, many realize the average mark-up of a diamond engagement ring from a luxury retailer is 250-300%, so shop wisely if you want your two months’ salary to buy big. Luxury diamond retailer Jared created their catchphrase, ‘He went to Jared!’ to show that WHERE you buy your diamond ring can be perceived (again, because of marketing) to matter nearly as much to her as the ring itself!
The Diamond Persuasion
The marketing geniuses didn’t just target men either. They went after the ladies too, convincing them that a diamond ring was as essential to a proposal as him getting down on one knee. They even sent people to give “educational” talks to young girls about courtship and engagement rings. Marketers sewed the dream of girls marrying their Prince Charming into the Princess/Fairytale fabric of American courtship and living happily ever after, and the public swallowed it hook, line and sinker!
The Sparkling Success
In just three years, diamond sales in the U.S. shot up by 55%. The cost of the ring was implied to be proportional to the level of love and desire the man felt for the woman while making the woman feel special and valued. By the time a whole generation had grown up with this idea, skipping getting down on one knee with an open ring box housing a sparkly diamond ring and making the ask of their hand in marriage was as unthinkable as forgetting to saying, “I do.”
The Legacy
What a prime example of the undeniable power that great marketing ideas can wield. A bunch of marketing professionals didn’t just change American culture – they invented a whole new way of advertising that brought rituals into the dating/mating game and culture. They weren’t selling a brand; they were selling a tray of emotions and created a sustainable market model where there wasn’t one. And they did it so well that De Beers kept their iron grip on the diamond market until the 21st century. Even today, with synthetic lab-grown diamonds muscling in on the action, De Beers still controls nearly a quarter of global production. Not bad for a company that basically invented a need for their product out of thin air. So, if you’re looking to ‘pop the question’ this Christmas holiday season, at least you’ll now know why diamonds symbolize the bond of marriage…because some clever New York fat-cat marketing professionals in 1948 told us so!
~Bruce Thiem, CMOco Director of Integrated Media
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