How Much Should You Spend On An Engagement Ring?
Posted by Mr. Thoughtful on April 2, 2008
If you thought it was only two months salary, you are behind the times. It used to be only two-months salary, but DeBeers upped it to three. Can you imagine the maker of any other product putting out the word that you should spend a certain percentage of your income to buy their product? I can’t imagine it would be successful if, say, GM were to advertise that “You should spend nine months salary on a new car.”
I recently read an article in “The Atlantic” magazine on how this impressive marketing strategy became successful. Reduced to its essentials, it is this:
The South African diamond producers realized they were mining a lot of diamonds. Knowing the law of supply and demand, they realized that a huge supply of diamonds on the market would reduce the price they were able to get. So they formed a cartel, a big company that controlled the supply of diamonds pretty much worldwide. It helped that almost all the diamonds in the world were found in South Africa.
In the late 1930s DeBeers went to an excellent advertising agency in NYC and paid them to undertake a decades-long campaign to boost diamond sales in the US. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression and few people could afford to buy diamonds. Even when they did buy diamond eng. rings, they were inexp. little diamonds of poor quality. So DeBeers wasn’t making much money. Yet.
The agency told DeBeers that times were hard and they would have to convince guys to spend quite a bit of money on diamonds, which meant they couldn’t spend as much on food, clothing, and shelter, you know, necessities.
The agency developed the strategy of selling the idea that only a diamond meant love and commitment. Among many other techniques, they sent speakers to public schools making this kind of presentation, convincing a generation of young girls that they needed to get a diamond ring before giving it up (the speakers weren’t this direct, of course, but that was the effect).
Years later the agency figured out a way to increase their already-vast sales: convince women that they needed another ring, ten years or so after the marriage. And now this too is seen as necessary. So instead of putting $10K in college fund for the couple’s children, or a 401(k) so they won’t be poor in retirement, the couple spends it on another diamond ring.
What a remarkable advertising campaign. Expensive for guys though.
Posted in Marriage, Relationships | Tagged: engagement rings; diamonds; cost; | 2 Comments »
