Analysing the Brand
Introduction
De Beers is a jewellery brand created through a partnership between Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) and the De Beers Group of Companies (‘Diamonds: De Beers raises production’ 2009). It is the world’s leading diamond exploration and mining company. It is also engaged in the trading and retailing of the commodity. On its part, LVMH is a multinational conglomerate involved in the manufacture and sale of luxury products. De Beers mainly focuses on the use of diamonds to make jewellery. Over the years, the brand has created a vast digital and social media presence to market its wide range of products.
De Beers: Digital Communication
In the recent past, De Beers has moved away from traditional marketing communications, such as mass media, outbound messaging, and push orientation. Instead, it is focusing on digital communication. Today, the brand mainly relies on social media marketing (‘Diamonds: De Beers raises production’ 2009). It achieves this through the use of websites, micro-blogs, blogs, social media, and communication networks.
The digital campaign strategy is more effective compared to traditional methods (Dennis et al. 2009). The reason is that the use of social media helps De Beers to communicate with its niche market as opposed to the masses. The approach attracts customers to the content created by the advertiser (Chaffey 2013). The situation is different in traditional media. In the past, the marketer had to push information to a large number of people. Some of the audience were not necessarily potential customers.
De Beers is also involved in content marketing. The marketing team is constantly creating and sharing information online. The content is published to retain customers. To achieve this, the company focuses on relevance and accuracy. The information shared on social media is not only geared towards retaining the existing customers, but also towards attracting new ones.
An Audit of Owned, Paid and Earned Media
De Beers conducts its marketing. Facebook and Twitter are the major social media platforms used by the company. The two platforms help the marketing team to interact with customers on digital media. There are several ways through which this is done (‘Diamonds: De Beers raises production’ 2009). First, the marketing team engages customers in dialogue. It also interacts with users of social media who are interested in the brand. The result is the creation of user-generated content (Tutten & Solomon 2015). The dialogue between social media users and the marketing team are visible to other people on the internet. They are instrumental in promoting brand awareness. Participation has also made it easy for consumers to point out areas that need improvement.
Best Practice and Shortcomings
The main ‘best practice’ by De Beers involves the use of reviews and showcasing its wide range of products on social media pages. The practice helps customers assess the features and physical characteristics of the jewelleries under the brand. The main shortcoming associated with the practice is that people are rarely interested in reading texts (Tutten & Solomon 2015). To address this problem, the brand should concentrate more on the use of graphical content.
An Example of a Past Campaign
On the 30th of November, 2015, De Beers launched the ‘Seize the Day’ campaign. The main purpose of the drive was to increase the sale of diamond jewellery throughout the holiday season. Men were the main target of the campaign. It consisted of several bolded and catchy statements (Tutten & Solomon 2015). The text was in black. It was written on a white background. The messages were accompanied by pictures of classic diamond pieces fitted on rings, bracelets, and necklaces. The success of the campaign could have been measured using a customer journey map. To achieve this, the management listens and analyses conversations among consumers. Only information relating to the brand should be assessed.
Improving the Current Communication Mix: Analysis, Conclusion, and Recommendations
The current communication mix used by De Beers is effective. The brand has taken advantage of the existing online platforms to carry out digital communication (‘Diamonds: De Beers raises production’ 2009). Most of the marketing activities conducted by De Beers take place on the company’s social media pages. The brand also interacts with customers through the use of blogs and micro-blogs. Although these tools are effective, it is important to explore avenues likely to target a large number of customers (Dennis et al. 2009). The organisation can achieve this through the use of search engine optimisation (SEO). In this case, the brand’s site would appear more often when related searches are made. The strategy would work best in targeting new customers.
Legal and Ethical Implications
Digital campaigns should be conducted following the laws of the respective jurisdictions. De Beers is a global brand. As such, the management should adhere to the laws of the land. The company is also required to act ethically. For example, it should not give false information on its digital campaigns. It should also avoid providing substandard products.
Proposed New Digital Campaign
Campaign
To achieve better results, the brand should seek to use a digital campaign strategy that incorporates a wide range of communication tools. The management should avoid restricting itself to micro-blogs, blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. Instead, the management should incorporate other digital tools, such as mobile applications, e-mail marketing, and content advertising (Tutten & Solomon 2015). The brand can develop a mobile application where subscribers are notified of new developments (Dennis et al. 2009).
Such activities as flash and clearance sales can be communicated to customers through the platform. The tool would go a long way in retaining existing customers (Tutten & Solomon 2015). New consumers can also use the application to receive updates. E-mail marketing serves the same purpose as mobile applications. Subscribers will get automatic updates. At the same time, the company will notify consumers of upcoming events, such as discounted sales (Chaffey 2013).
Content advertising can be done through such platforms as YouTube and P-Interest. The two will help De Beers illustrate its wide range of products. At the same time, new products can be differentiated from those currently existing in the market by highlighting their features. It is also important to adopt the Word of Mouth (WOM) strategy in the digital campaign (Tutten & Solomon 2015). The tool is important in personalised selling. The management should note that WOM can be propagated through technological channels. Luxury jewels are expensive. As such, personalised selling becomes a viable option.
Press Release
Proposed Digital Campaign for De Beers
By: March 16, 2016
Today, De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond jewellery producer, retailer, and marketer, announced that it will introduce a host of new digital campaign strategies and tactics. They are aimed at building on the capacity of the existing platforms. The officials believe that the new strategies will go a long way towards improving the performance of the brand in terms of sales. The approaches will be used to reach out to a large number of potential customers.
Some of the new strategies and tactics that will be introduced include mobile applications and e-mail marketing. They are set to notify subscribers of upcoming events relating to the brand. Content advertising platforms, on the other hand, will be used to describe the features of the products. Word of mouth will also be adopted to facilitate personalised selling.
More information is set to be released in the coming weeks.
-End of release-
Visual Mock-Up of the Idea
The figure below is a visual representation of the proposed digital campaign. It is important to note that it contains some aspects of the old strategies and tactics. The reason is that it seeks to build on the achievements of the old digital campaign.
Conclusion
De Beers is the world’s largest diamond jewel maker, retailer, and marketer. Over the past few years, the brand has been conducting its digital marketing campaigns online. The approaches are associated with numerous successes. Social media is the tool widely used by the brand. Twitter and Facebook are used to interact with customers. However, it is important to change the digital campaign strategies to improve efficiency. The proposed tactics incorporate the use of e-mail marketing, content advertising, mobile applications, and WOM in personalised selling.
References
‘Diamonds: De Beers raises production’ 2009, Africa Research Bulletin: Economic, Financial and Technical Series, vol. 46, no. 7, pp. 11-34. Web.
Chaffey, D 2013, Digital marketing, strategy, implementation, and practice, 5th edn, Pearson Publishers, London, UK. Web.
Dennis, C, Merrilees, B, Jayawardhena, C & Wright, L 2009, ‘E-consumer behaviour’, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 43, no. 9, pp. 1121-1139. Web.
Tutten, T & Solomon, M 2015, Social media marketing, Sage, London, UK. Web.