Into a new golden age
When theWorld Gold Council, an industry body funded by mining groups accounting for about 35 per cent of global gold output, wanted to launch a new advertising campaign for gold jewellery, it turned to photographers from National Geographic rather than from the glossy fashion magazines.
Michael Yamashita, William Albert Allard, Jodi Cobb and Joel Sartore are more used to taking pictures of people and landscapes in all corners of the globe than going on fashion shoots.
Steve Kershaw, creative director at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, the advertising agency that worked on the gold campaign, says the photographers were chosen because the aim was to have a campaign to show that ordinary people have a connection with gold.
"When you look inside a National Geographic magazine, the images of people are very real, whereas you open a fashion magazine and you have glamorous models in a very unnatural environment, overtly sexy women wearing diamonds or promoting luxury goods in a way that has no connection with ordinary people," he says.
The need to project a certain look for gold is important as the metal has an image problem among consumers. Global gold jewellery sales were lower last year than a decade earlier; consumers are spending more of their disposable income on other luxury goods or on electronic gadgets and holidays.
Gold has also lost its appeal to couples tying the knot in western Europe, North America and China, who have shown a growing preference in the past decade for platinum wedding and engagement rings.
"Gold's image has become tarnished - it has been used to promote other products from biscuits to credit cards, but these promotions do nothing for gold the metal and often devalue its brand from something that is unique," Mr Kershaw says.
Kelvin Williams, executive director for marketing at Anglogold Ashanti, the South Africa-based gold miner, says the metal's image has also suffered from the lack of good new jewellery designs. Additionally, the experience of buying gold is not very satisfactory.
"Many of the traditional gold stores are pre-modern; they have not changed their retail concept for 50 to 60 years," he says.
Anglogold, which is helping to finance the WGC campaign, has also launched a promotion of gold jewellery by South African designers. The Johannesburg-based mining company has taken a different tack from the World Gold Council by teaming up with the US edition of fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar. Mr Williams says the magazine "conveys fresh ideas and images".
Sarah Davanzo, chief executive of Gold R, a marketing company that specialises in promoting gold jewellery, says the link with Harper's Bazaar gives Anglogold access to the magazine's database of readers.
"We know how many 35-year olds are on $75,000, what perfume they wear, the toilet roll they use, how much TV they watch and what programmes," says Ms Davanzo. She adds that Gold R devised Anglogold's marketing strategy for gold jewellery without using an advertising agency.
"We found there was a market for gold jewellery with a good innovative design at prices that were not the prices paid in Bond Street, or Bulgari or Tiffany," she says.
Under the Anglogold-Harper's Bazaar tie-up, the mining company is selling its Saison range of gold jewellery through catalogues as well as direct marketing through its website,
www.saisonfashiongold.com. Anglogold has attempted to market gold jewellery online before. It was a partner with JP Morgan and Pamp MKS, a gold dealer based in Geneva, in the GoldAvenue.com website.
That website was set up five years ago during the dotcom mania to form a portal site, through which customers would be able to buy gold jewellery and invest in the precious metal. Neither the investment nor retailing activities of the site were commercially successful.
Ms Davanzo says selling jewellery via the internet on the Saison website has become more sophisticated, consumers seem more comfortable buying such products electronically and the company's 30-day return option also provides them with the security of knowing their choices are not irreversible.
Another factor that pointed to the need for an online strategy was time. "I only had nine months to devise a plan, to market the product, create a brand, work out the distribution logistics, and there was no way I could do all that by hooking up with a jewellery store," she says.
Meanwhile, the WGC has teamed up with Sterling, the US division of Signet, the UK-listed jewellery store chain, as part of its strategy to position the WGC-sponsored range of gold jewellery under its "Speak Gold" campaign, on which it is spending some $10m (￡5.3m).
Philip Olden, the WGC's managing director of international jewellery and marketing, says an important part of the campaign is to be more inclusive with the jewellery retailers. "Our members and the retailers we work with now understand that the challenges we face are not necessarily what they buy when they are in the jewellery shop, it is getting them into the shop in the first place," he says.
He adds that the gold jewellery sector is very fragmented and rarely collaborates on co-ordinated advertising campaigns. This contrasts with the diamond industry where De Beers, which has a strong influence over the supply of diamonds, works closely with retailers.
Mr Kershaw at BBH says that the gold campaign is focused on the US, the largest gold jewellery market by value; India, the largest by volume; China, because it is a fast-developing market; Italy, because it is the larg est exporter and the centre for design innovation; and the Middle East, where gold is seen as a store of value as well as attractive to wear.
He says the marketing campaigns in each of these markets are similar in that they all use billboards and magazines, including Elle, Vogue and Marie Claire in the US and Italy, and are supported by point-of-sale marketing material and the website
www.speakgold.com.The common approach was sought by Jim Burton, the WGC chairman, when he joined the council two years ago and was charged with boosting sales of gold jewellery. "The advertising platform focuses on the emotional bond that women have with gold and contrasts how it is used in different locations and different stages of life," says Mr Olden. Gold marks important moments in women's lives, such as the birth of children, marriage and anniversaries.
"People have a very strong connection with gold, but frankly the industry hasn't done a particularly good job of reinforcing that," he says.
With the exception of Anglogold, no mining company has previously been directly involved in marketing jewellery, even though it accounts for about three-quarters of all new gold production each year. Ms Davanzo says more mining companies are interested in marketing jewellery.
Mr Olden says that, unlike other precious metals such as platinum and silver, where most of the demand is for industrial applications, "gold is driven by consumer demand, and that is why we believe that what we are doing is more than running a nice advertising campaign".
HOW TO MAKE GOLD GOOD AGAIN
* Lost lustre: gold jewellery has been losing its shine for consumers as they spend on luxury goods, such as Cartier and LVMH brands, choose other precious metals for wedding rings, and see gold associated with such mundane objects as credit cards or biscuits.
* New setting: jewellery accounts for about 75 per cent of all new gold production but no mining company apart from Anglogold has so far been directly involved in jewellery marketing.
* Creating the right look: the World Gold Council campaign recruited National Geographic photographers in an attempt to show that ordinary people have a connection with gold. Anglogold took a different tack by teaming up with the US edition of fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar.
* By design: out-of-date designs for jewellery were damping demand. Now designers have been detailed to be more innovative.
* How gold is sold: retailers are being encouraged to make buying gold jewellery more enjoyable.
为黄金重新设计形象
当世界黄金协会(WGC)想要为黄金珠宝推出一个新的广告活动时，它选择的摄影师来自《国家地理杂志》，而不是装祯精美的时装杂志。WGC是一个由约占全球黄金产量35%的矿业集团投资的行业团体。
与拍摄时装照片相比，麦可?山下(Michael Yamashita)、威廉?阿伯特?阿拉德(William Albert Allard)、朱迪?库珀(Jodi Cobb)和乔尔?萨尔托雷(Joel Sartore)更习惯于在全球各个角落拍摄人物和风景照。
人与黄金的关系
BBH(Bartle Bogle Hegarty)广告公司的创意总监史蒂夫?科肖(Steve Kershaw)说，选择这些摄影师是因为此次广告活动的目的是为了展示普通人与黄金的关系。
“当你翻看《国家地理》杂志时，里面的人物形象非常真实；而当你打开一本时装杂志时，你看到的是在极不自然环境中魅力四射的模特。这些性感妖娆的女人佩戴珠宝或炫耀奢侈品，显得和普通人没有什么关系，”他说。
形象设计
由于黄金在消费者心目中的形象存在问题，因此设计黄金的某种形象很重要。去年全球黄金珠宝的销量比10年前有所下降；消费者将可支配收入更多地用于其它奢侈品，或者电子产品和度假上。
在西欧、北美和中国，黄金对于新婚夫妇也失去了吸引力。在过去10年中，消费者越来越偏爱白金的结婚和订婚戒指。
“黄金的形象失去了原有的光彩。它被用来推销饼干、信用卡等其它产品，但这些促销活动对于黄金没有任何裨益，反而常常使其品牌贬值，黄金本来是一种特殊的东西，”科肖先生说。
南非黄金矿商“盎格鲁黄金公司”(AngloGold Ashanti)市场营销执行董事开尔文? 威廉斯(Kelvin Williams)表示，黄金的形象也因缺少优秀新颖的珠宝设计而受到影响。此外，购买黄金的过程也不很令人满意。
“许多传统金店已落后于时代，它们已有五、六十年没有改变过零售理念了，”他说。
携手时尚杂志
出资赞助WGC广告活动的盎格鲁黄金公司，也推出了出自南非设计师之手的黄金珠宝促销活动。这家总部位于约翰内斯堡的矿业公司携手美国版时尚杂志《哈泼氏百货商店》(Harper’s Bazaar)，采取的策略与WGC有所不同。威廉斯先生称，该杂志“传递的是新鲜的理念和形象”。
Gold R是一家专业推广黄金珠宝的市场营销公司。首席执行官莎拉?达沃佐(Sarah Davanzo)说，与《哈泼氏百货商店》的合作使盎格鲁黄金公司能获得该杂志的读者数据库。
“我们知道有多少35岁的人在7万5千美元以上，他们喷什么香水，用什么卷筒纸，看多少电视，看什么节目等等，”达沃佐女士说。她补充道，Gold R在没有使用广告代理公司的情况下，为盎格鲁黄金公司设计了黄金珠宝的市场营销策略。
“我们发现，黄金珠宝市场拥有创新的优良设计，价位也与庞德街(Bond Street)、 宝格丽(Bulgari)或蒂凡尼(Tiffany)的价位不同，”她说。
网上销售
与《哈泼氏百货商店》合作的盎格鲁黄金公司不但通过商品目录出售Saison系列的黄金珠宝，还通过网站
www.saisonfashiongold.com进行直销。
盎格鲁黄金公司曾尝试在GoldAvenue.com网站上销售黄金珠宝。该网站是摩根大通(JP Morgan)和Pamp MKS的合作伙伴，后者是总部位于日内瓦的黄金经销商。
该网站成立于5年前的网络热潮中。作为一个门户网站，顾客能在此购买黄金珠宝，并投资贵重金属。这项投资和网站的零售活动在商业上都没有获得成功。
达沃佐女士说，在Saison网站上销售珠宝已变得更加成熟，消费者现在似乎更习惯于上网购买这类商品，而且公司的30日退货权也让他们放心，知道自己的选择并非不能取消。
另一个需要采用网上策略的原因是时间。“我只有9个月的时间去制定计划，促销产品，打造品牌，并解决销售物流问题。假如与某家珠宝店挂钩，我不可能完成所有这些，”她说。
同时，WGC与Sterling进行合作，投资约1000万美元，在名为“Speak Gold”的广告活动中宣传WGC赞助的黄金珠宝系列。Sterling是英国上市珠宝连锁商店Signet在美国的分部。
与零售商更紧密合作
WGC国际珠宝和市场营销总裁菲利普?奥尔登(Philip Olden)说，广告宣传活动的一个重要部分是与珠宝零售商更紧密合作。“现在，我们的会员和我们的合作零售商发现，我们面临的挑战未必是顾客会在珠宝店里买什么，而是首先如何吸引他们进商店，”他说。
他补充说，黄金珠宝领域四分五裂，而且很少在协同广告活动上进行合作。这与钻石业形成鲜明对比。对钻石供应极具影响力的De Beers与零售商合作紧密。
瞄准美国、印度、中国、意大利和中东
BBH的科肖先生表示，黄金广告活动主要瞄准美国、印度、中国、意大利和中东，因为美国是价值最大的黄金珠宝市场；印度是销量最大的市场；中国是发展最快的市场；意大利是最大的出口国，而且是创新设计的中心；而在中东，除了佩戴黄金饰品具有吸引力之外，黄金也被视为保值品。
他说，每个市场的营销活动十分相似，因为他们都使用广告牌和杂志，其中包括美国、意大利版的《Elle》, 《Vogue》和《Marie Claire》，此外还依靠销售点散发的市场营销资料和网站
www.speakgold.com。
2年前，WGC主席吉姆?伯顿(Jim Burton)加入协会，并承担起提高黄金珠宝销量的责任时，就决定这种采用统一方式。“广告平台关注女性与黄金之间的情感关系，并比较黄金在不同场合及不同人生阶段的使用方式，” 奥尔登先生说。黄金标志着女性一生中的不少重要时刻，例如孩子出生、结婚和周年纪念。
“人们与黄金之间有着坚强的关系，但坦率地说，黄金业界在加强这一关系方面表现并不出色，”他说。
除盎格鲁黄金公司外，过去没有其它矿业公司直接参与过珠宝营销，尽管珠宝用去每年黄金产量约四分之三。达沃佐女士表示，对珠宝营销产生兴趣的矿业公司越来越多。
奥尔登先生说，铂和银的需求主要是工业用途，而黄金与其它贵重金属不同，“它受消费者需求驱动，这就是为什么我们相信我们的广告宣传不会白白浪费”。
如何再现黄金辉煌
*失去吸引力：黄金珠宝对消费者失去了吸引力，因为他们把钱花在了诸如卡地亚(Cartier)、LVMH等品牌的奢侈品上，为结婚戒指选择其它贵重金属，并看到黄金与信用卡或饼干等平淡无奇的东西联系在一起。
*新的背景：珠宝约占所有黄金新产品的75%，但除了盎格鲁黄金公司外，至今没有其它矿业公司直接参与过珠宝营销。
*树立正确的形象：WGC的广告宣传活动招募了《国家地理》杂志的摄影师，试图证明普通人与黄金之间存在某种联系。盎格鲁黄金公司则与美国版时尚杂志《哈泼氏百货商店》携手，采取一种不同的策略。
*改变设计：过时的珠宝设计抑制了需求增长。现在要求设计师更富有创造力。
*黄金的销售方式：鼓励零售商使顾客购买黄金珠宝的过程更为轻松愉快。
