Independents
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Tired of negative news, jewelers?
Learn to make value and service part of your spin
By Michelle Graff
March 11, 2009
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| Some jewelers say media headlines like these have fueled consumer fears. |
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New York--Pull up the Web site of any major, national news organization, and you won't have to look hard to find a story about the decrepit state of the U.S. economy and consumer confidence.
"Stocks tumble as retail sales report shows sharp decline," a New York Times headline said just before the holidays on Dec. 14, as a number of luxury retailers, including Tiffany and Co., reported significant drops in sales.
That same day, two stories appearing in the business section of the Web site for 24-7 cable news giant CNN seemed likely to have readers running scared: "Fear is back" and "Recession fears hammer stocks," the headlines read.
The media does not paint a pretty picture of the current state of the U.S. economy--much to the chagrin of retail jewelers who, in interviews with National Jeweler, have fretted that all the attention focused on the economy is actually making the American public more fearful about spending than their own personal financial situation might call for.
But media experts contend that the press is accurately portraying the economic crisis. The best jewelers can do--short of sabotaging the printing press or the online publishing systems at their local papers--is provide their customers with top-notch customer service, emphasize value and look for ways to offset falling sales.
If you can't beat 'em...
Unity Marketing President Pam Danziger, whose marketing company is powered by the affluent consumer, agrees that reading the newspaper nowadays causes consumers to clamp down on spending.
"The media clearly is going to have an impact upon the consumers, but you can't dismiss the fact that the media is reporting reality," Danziger says.
There's no denying stock market declines or the drop in home values, and much as they might wish they could, retail jewelers can't change these headlines. What they can do is keep their value message front and center by emphasizing that their stores are offering quality and service at a reasonable price, Danziger says.
She points out that Unity Marketing's quarterly reading on consumer confidence among the affluent (those with household incomes of $100,000 or more a year) started its decline in mid 2007, before the tanking economy took over the front page.
"There's a whole lot of stories out there now," she says. "[But] I believe they are providing information that is really important for consumers to know."
At family-owned and operated John Anthony Jewelers in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., owner John Anthony says the press is just doing its job in covering the economic crisis, running headlines that catch the attention of the audience.
"What the press is doing is natural to the press," he says. "They have to do what they're doing. They have to make it bleed to lead."
The way jewelers can combat negative press--not just about the economy but also about other issues, such as conflict diamonds--is with knowledge, he says.
Anthony, who is a graduate gemologist and appraiser, says that when a customer comes in asking about "blood diamonds," retailers need to be versed on the Kimberley Process. They also need to accept that there are customers who genuinely have been affected by the economy.
Anthony says that this year, one of his customers who traditionally spends between $10,000 and $20,000 at Christmas, called the store to say he wouldn't be coming in because he was using his money to help out his son who was laid off.
"It's not just the media thing," Anthony says. "It's the economic thing. Customers aren't coming in here and saying, 'The media's driving this inflation.'"
Anthony says consumers will still buy jewelry to mark special occasions, even if they are spending a little less, and that jewelers need to be flexible to combat falling retail sales.
At John Anthony, sales were up 6 percent for the year, buoyed by an increase in the store's appraisal business, which helped offset decreases in jewelry sales.
"There's always ways to make money in the economy," he says. "You just have to switch gears a little bit."
Information is empowerment
Those who teach journalism at some of the country's top schools and analyze media coverage for their classes say the media has done a fair job of covering the economic crisis.
Martha Steffens, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, says the real issue with the situation is that it is difficult to cover the news without sending those who aren't impacted directly into a panic.
"We're going to write the stories that appear to us," Steffens says. "We are reporting facts that people have lost a lot of their net worth and they're going to pull back on buying expensive things."
Bob Thompson, a professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University, says while one could argue that the press has gone overboard on certain stories--such as the case of missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, whose disappearance in Aruba made headlines nationwide for months--the amount of ink devoted to the global economic crisis is proportionate with its importance.
In fact, Thompson thinks that it is too bad that more members of the press didn't start sounding the alarm about the economy earlier.
"To me, as long as it's good reporting, there's no such thing as too much information in a democracy," Thompson says. "Reporting on the economy is not a Natalee Holloway story, and it's one that should have been reported with much more volume before the big stock market crash."
Editor's note: This story first appeared in the February 2009 print edition of National Jeweler.
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