Category: Marketing / Advertising

And About Time, Too

Marketing / Advertising

Saith Reader Mike G (who sent me this little piece):  “I just read this and thought it might interest you…”

Diamonds and the prestige that they’ve held for literal millennia are starting to slip. And the reason why is an interesting mix of cultural shifts, economics, and technology. Let’s break it down.

Since practically the beginning of time, diamonds have been sold as something bigger than a luxury product. They held this image and idea of permanence, romance, rarity, and status. Heck, even royalty. But now that image is slipping big time.

Natural diamond prices have fallen sharply, and lab-grown stones have dropped even harder. Just to put it in perspective, a natural diamond now costs 26% less than it did two years ago, and lab-grown diamonds are now 74% cheaper than in 2020.

That’s not just a small dip. That’s a massive fall from grace.

And of course, the company that’s being hit hardest is… [drum roll]  my favorite corporation:

De Beers, the biggest name in diamonds, reported last month that it began 2024 with a huge $2bn stockpile of diamonds and had not managed to shift it by the year’s end. The company has cut production in its mines by 20%, and its owner, Anglo American, has put it up for sale.

Wait, wait…  [pause to let my howls of scornful laughter die down]

So their $2 billion has magically turned to… errrr what’s the price of gravel, again?

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of thuggish shitbirds, say I.  And how I really feel about all this?

For my earlier rants about them, go here and here.  Oh, and here.

Consolidation

Marketing / Advertising, Retailing, Toys

According to this rather lengthy video, Rolex is dropping hundreds of smaller Rolex “dealer” outlets and instead creating Rolex megastores in “prime” locations such as London (!!!) and Manhattan (!!!).

It would appear that the main reason behind this is that Rolex wants to protect their brand by limiting the number of outlets, dropping smaller stores (regardless of relationship longevity) so that they can control the whole “Rolex buying experience” and provide their customers with the proper treatment with fine ambience, better-trained staff and so on.  Also, these larger stores can carry the extensive Rolex range that a smaller store couldn’t.

It all sounds well and good, except that the actual reason, it seems to me, is that during the sales spike caused largely by the Great Covid Panic of 2020, the people who really made money weren’t Rolex themselves but the profiteers who bought their watches and resold them on the “grey” market — and Rolex, like Ferrari, wants to keep as much of the market to themselves.  (Same tactics, different product.)

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing. As long as there are people willing to pay the inflated prices of their products, then good luck to them.

My own personal take on the thing is that I’m indifferent because (regardless of any lottery winning) I would never be a Rolex  sucker  buyer in the same way as Ferrari would forever be outside my list of automotive choices (except maybe a Dino, although given the current price list of same… nah, never mind).  Sorry, I’m no longer impressed by brand names, especially when the brand’s “value” is artificially pumped up by fools and suckers with more money than sense.  And even more so when the brand operates in a commodity category like watches.

And finally, I happen to think that those big, blocky things like the Submariner are just… ugly.  I’m not a scuba diver so I’ll never need one, and anyway, there are other watches just as good for half the price and a tenth of the Rolex attitude (once again, see:  Ferrari dealers).

A pox on all their houses.

Loss Leader?

Marketing / Advertising, The Gun Thing

Reader Brad_In_IL suggests that Palmetto State Armory has an overstock of the excellent S&W Model 686;  that, or they’re just using it as a loss leader — the retail term that is used to describe an advertising campaign which features a product at a ridiculously-low price to attract customers into the store, where they’ll buy not just the featured loss leader but (hopefully) other products at regular retail prices (which carry higher profit margins).

Here’s the aforementioned S&W 686 from PSA:

Phew.  Okay, that’s really tempting.  [checks bank account]

Shit.