Russian gold fever

Luxury items appear to be in great demand these days in Russia. There has been an incredibly rapid development in the jewelry industry in the course of the past several months. Several jewelry boutiques are opening right before the New Year. Among them is boutique "Korloff" which opened in Moscow's "Crocus City Mall." The world’s biggest black diamond "Korloff Noir" commemorated the opening ceremony which took place earlier this month. The diamond was brought to Moscow for just one day. Market analysts and experts attempt to explain people's interest in diamonds. They claim advertising is to "blame." Russians are forgetting those times of crises and return to normal lifestyle.
While understanding public demand, entrepreneurial jewelers offer more expensive diamonds to their customers. This year, for instance, some stores displayed wrist watches fully decorated with diamonds with tiny, barely visible faces. Obviously, such watch is not meant for timekeeping but for purely aesthetical purpose. The size of the stone is all that matters. Director of the "Korloff" boutique in Moscow Sergey Komarov informed RBC Daily of the fact that Russian consumers have become more scrupulous in choosing a particular jewelry brand name. “People prefer popular, well-known brand names,” says Mr. Komarov. “They slowly refuse from “no name” jewelry items, which is basically entire Russian collection.” Customers are willing to spend a lot of money on jewelry. One should know that price of any jewelry piece does not solely depend on a particular stone or metal. A jeweler's job itself is of great importance as well as the actual brand name of the product.
According to numerous experts, diamond demand has considerably risen in the course of the entire year. Such trend became especially noticeable right before the holidays. “A diamond is the best present that is capable to express all men’s love towards his beloved,” considers Sergey Komarov. “Besides, diamonds are perfect gifts, since you can present them to someone who has basically everything already. After all, one can never have too many diamonds. Also, do not forget that these stones possess magical qualities and people believe in them.”
Diamond sale rapidly increases before two major holidays: March 8th (Women's Day) and New Year. According to Komarov, jewelers collect about twice or three times more profit during these times of year.
Russian market appears exceptionally alluring for diamond dealers. Russians enjoy expensive things. Automobiles, for instance, which cost a fortune (up to a million USD) are remarkably popular among Russians. Therefore, our people will not refuse to purchase diamond jewelry for 20,000-60,000 without any hesitations. Despite such huge demand of about one thousand Russian millionaires, jewelry dealers still have to struggle for their customers. President of the marketing company MARGAM Market Research Marina Malikhina claims that this year’s advertising has drastically increased in comparison to previous years. “This has mainly to do with current competition on the market,” states Malikhina. “There has been rapid emergence of new brand names on the market. They have to undergo major competition. Obviously, they use the most flashy jewelry items like wrist watches covered with diamonds in order to attract people’s attention.” Advertising experts note that expensive jewelry items should be promoted by means of unique advertising campaigns.
“All of the advertising campaigns are mainly targeted at men,” says Marina Malikhina. “Women on the contrary, are much more selective when it comes to jewelry. They barely pay attention to any advertising.” Besides, men are the ones to purchase diamonds before the holidays. There are exceptions however. This year, many of the jewelry stores displayed a whole variety of diamond pieces for men. Apparently, Russian men love cool trinkets. Sergey Komarov claims that starting this year “men's wrist watches decorated with diamonds are in fashion.” Interestingly, such fashion trend has become popular only in Russia. Usually, it is only Arab and Russian men who enjoy flashy lavish jewelry. The rest of the world considers it to be mainly women's thing.
Psychologists consider that this year's gold fever can be explained by the tremendous amount of oil money in the country. Also, people are starting to forget previous times of crises. “Nobody has been purchasing jewelry right after the crises of 1998,” said RBC daily psychologist Boris Novoderzhkin. “Not only did people simply intend to spend money, but to invest it in diamonds. Today, Russians seem to fully recover from the crises and begin to pay attention to jewelry. Personally, I consider investing in diamonds to be a rather primitive occupation. Some of my clients however disagree with me on such account. For them, wrist watches of a certain brand name serve as some kind of a distinguishing mark.”
 

Source: RBCdaily