An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of an Advertisement for A diamond of De Beers
1. Introduction
1.1 Background
De Beers, a private company, which was founded in 1888 by Cecil Rhodes, is famous for diamonds (Historyhouse,2005). In 1902, De Beers dominated 90% of the diamond industry all over the world (Gemisimo, N.D); in 2000, De Beers “A Diamond is Forever” was nominated as the best advertisement of the twenty century (Adage,2005). Nowadays, De Beers increases the demand of diamonds as a symbol of love and promise successfully. (De Beers, 2009)
1.2Theories
This report employs two theories to analyse an advertisement of De Beers . One of the theories is market segmentation which means business divides a market into different sub-groups according to people with similar needs. (Hall et al, 2008:66).Another one is marketing mix. “It refers to those elements of a firm's marketing strategy which are designed to meet the need of its customers.”(Hall et al, 2008:75) There are four parts of the Marketing Mix - product, price, promotion and place.
1.3 Aims
The aims of this report are: firstly, it argues this advertisement of De Beers is effective; secondly, it aims at investigating the market segmentation of the advertisement of De Beers; thirdly, it is to analyse the marketing mix of this advertisement; finally, giving the recommendations for its marketing.
1. Methods
The method which is used to find out the information is secondary research, The information for De Beers is collected on the Internet. However, using this method to research is limited, and the resources from the Internet are scanty.
3.1 Findings and Discussion
3.1 Finding
First of all, the designer employs the color black as the background, and the diamond ring is magnified to half of the picture. In this way, a diamond ring seems more twinkling accompanied by the background. Secondly, the advertisement attracts consumers through three advertising messages “Two Months Salary”, “If she really loved you, would she expect you to spend that much on her?”, “It's just a rock”.
3.2 Market Segmentation
In this advertisement, De Beers employs demographic segmentation to decide its target customers. It's well known that De Beers is one of the most famous diamond brands in the world, it has built a good credit in the diamond market ( Luxemag ,2009). The De Beers company divides its production into different prices through market segmentation. In this way, De Beers' productions satisfy different kinds of consumers. The diamond ring in the advertisement aims at middle-class consumers. De Beers investigates people's incomes then creates the advertising slogan “two months salary” to catch consumers' eyes. Therefore,, it results in more profit than other diamond companies from marketing by expanding the group of consumers and increasing the demand to diamonds.
3.3Marketing Mix
3.3.1 Product
In this advertisement, De Beers provides diamond rings to consumers. When people purchase diamond rings, they not only acquire the products, but also acquire the mentality satisfaction. Besides, the diamond has the character of stiffness, therefore it also can consider as the love. What's more, consumers purchase a production mostly for its quality, design, brand and service. As one of the largest diamond companies with a long history, De Beers' operation involves the whole process. Therefore, it has prestige in diamond companies all over the world.
3.3.2 Price
In this advertisement, De Beers marked a clear and relatively low price to consumers. When the designer created this advertisement, he paid attention to the title “Two Months Salary”, and wishes to attract consumers through the price. Diamonds are considered to luxury, and need a certain purchasing power; a diamond also can satisfy consumers' desires. Purchasing a diamond ring is a process in which a man participates with a woman materially; however, they are always concerned about different aspects of a diamond ring. Also a woman pays more attention to the design and moral of it, but a man is concerned more about the price. Moreover, De Beers decides the middle-class as target consumers and valorize the suitable price to sell for consumers. It shows that solely cost two-month-salary, consumers can purchase a diamond ring and give the lover a promise of love. Obviously, this advertisement satisfies the need of two kinds of consumers.
3.3.3 Place
De Beers has built many shop all over the world. According to De Beers (2009b), the first exclusive agency of De Beers was opened in Old Bond Street, London in 2002. After a year, De Beers expanded its brand to Asia and set up an exclusive agency in Japan. In 2005, it spread its production to America. In 2007, De Beers' shops were opened all around America. In the competitive market of jewellry, it also attempts actively to sell its productions through the Internet. Nowadays, De Beers choose the suitable distribution channel to ensure the production can achieve the marketing target and increase the market shares of its production (De Beers,2009). Besides, De Beers produces the suitable product according to the different levels of consumption and ensure consumers can purchase diamonds through different channels such as the Internet and exclusive agencies.
3.3. 4 Promotion
De Beers publicizes the diamond ring effectively. Firstly, the diamond ring is the symbol of love through advertisements of magazines, posters, newspaper.
In addition, it designs a large size picture of a diamond ring within the advertisement and employs the message “Is she really loved you, would she expect you to spend that much on her?” to attract consumers' attention. What's more, De Beers highlights this diamond ring only cost two months salary, and it is more moving in the price than other commodities. Therefore, De Beers employs the promotion above the line to sell its products successfully.
4. Conclusion
4.1Summary
In summary, this advertisement of De Beers is effective. Firstly, the advertisement of De Beers' diamond ring makes the product pertinent, and has target consumers through demographically segmentation. Besides, it makes the calculated price. Finally, De Beers effectively publicize the diamond ring and ensure consumers can purchase the products through different ways.
4.2Recommendations
There are some recommendations for this advertisement. On one hand, De Beers should target larger consumers through this advertisement. On the other hand, for increasing the demand of diamond, it should publicize the diamond ring through added advertising media, such as cinema, television. Moreover, it should employ spokesman to publicize this advertisement.
5.Reference
Adage (2005), Top 10 slogans of the century
http://adage.com/century/slogans.html (Accessed: 10-11-09)
De Beers(2009a), About De Beers
http://www.debeers.com/page/aboutdebeers2 (Accessed: 08-11-09)
De Beers(2009b), duoring
http://www.debeers.com/page/duoring (Accessed: 11-11-09)
Gemisimo(N.D),Excellence and Simplicity in Loose Diamonds
http://diamonds.gemisimo.com/en/Diamond-Project/Diamond-Industry/Diamond-History/De-Beers.html (Accessed:09-11-09)
Hall,D,R Jones, C Raffo and A.Anderton(2008) Business Studies 4th edcation, Harlow, Essex, Pearaon Education (Accessed: 09-11-09)
Historyhouse(2005), It Ain't de Diamonds, it's de Beers
http://www.historyhouse.com/uts/debeers/ (Accessed: 07-11-09)
Luxemag (2009), De Beers: Diamonds are Forever
http://www.luxemag.org/jewellery-watches/de-beers.html (Accessed: 07-11-09)
