The annual Qixi Festival has just passed, and the news of a "diamond ring" priced at 29.9 yuan selling over 100,000 units has become a hot search online.
Officials even came forward to combat the counterfeit, stating that the entry-level diamond ring of the brand costs more than 3,000 yuan, and anything below this price is a counterfeit product. However, it seems that consumers, who are well aware that these are fake diamond rings, do not seem to mind, and instead have a preference for these inexpensive synthetic diamond rings.
Let's take a look at the 0.5-carat moissanite "diamond ring" priced at only 29.9 yuan, plus a 20 yuan Darry Ring white ring box, and the key is that for an additional 30 yuan, you can also get a true love agreement that reads "When I give you the Darry Ring, which can only be customized once in a lifetime, it represents that you are my one and only true love." A one-of-a-kind diamond ring package in the world costs only 79.9 yuan. It is worth mentioning that when consumers scan the code, it will display a "true love code" consistent with the physical certificate. This is almost the same routine as what is displayed on the Darry Ring official website!
Apart from one being a synthetic diamond and the other being a natural diamond, even professionals find it difficult to distinguish between them, and they even have a unique identity background. Would you be tempted at such a price? We can see everyone's preferences through the online sales of 100,000 units.
Today, we will not discuss the counterfeit disputes between officials and merchants, but let's talk about what economic phenomena are reflected behind the booming sales of cheap diamond rings?
1. The overall social environment is not prosperous, and people's consumption is more rational and pragmatic.
In the current unstable global environment, especially against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and US dollar interest rate hikes, the number of conservative people and those without money has increased, so people are more keen on buying gold. This is because gold is an international currency and can preserve value and hedge against risks.Diamonds have the reputation of being "discounted upon sale," as they do not hold their value. This is because each brand prices its diamonds based on its own operations and costs, leading to price differences among brands. This means that a diamond ring of the same standard can have different prices from different brands, with some selling for 5,000 yuan and others for 10,000 yuan, yet their ultimate resale value is the same.
Moreover, diamond companies have a vast amount of diamonds that have not yet been mined, and they are not willing to buy back diamond rings. Otherwise, there would be no slogan like "A diamond is forever, a single one can be passed down." It is the jewelry stores that buy back diamond rings, which they can then sell as second-hand items. It is thus conceivable that once a diamond ring is sold, it is like a used car; if you want to sell it again, someone has to be willing to take it off your hands. If there is no one to take it, you can only sell it at a significant discount.
Artificial diamond rings, apart from being grown in a different environment from natural diamond rings, can now also symbolize love and represent uniqueness. After all, young people nowadays understand that a diamond ring is just a formality, and many only wear it once at their wedding. So why tie up so much money in something that you may never use again? It's not something you can eat or use in your lifetime, and the key is that it depreciates in value when you try to sell it.
If you have money, that's one thing; you might waste it just once in a lifetime. But the reality is that most people don't have extra money, so this kind of formalistic consumption will shift to cheaper artificial diamond rings. It is this contradiction between demand and reality that has given cheap artificial diamond rings a space to survive and develop.
From this, we can see that the consumption concepts of young people today are changing. Love, once considered priceless, is now seen as not being measured by money. People's consumption concepts have become more rational and pragmatic. This change also reflects the current global economic instability.
II. The marketing concept of "scarcity creates value" is facing a huge challenge.
The high price of natural diamonds is mainly due to De Beers' scarcity marketing strategy.
Although the global known reserves of natural diamonds are about 2.5 billion carats, Russia even claims that the Popigai crater has diamond reserves of several trillion carats, which is 10 times the total known diamond reserves in the world, enough to supply the world's diamond needs for 3000 years. If all these diamonds were to be mined, I estimate that you might not even want them for free. But they don't mine them all; they only mine 100 million carats a year, selling them in limited quantities to create the marketing concept of "scarcity creates value."
If we say they are deceiving us, we can only say that they have deceived our emotions and our perception of luxury goods. But behind this deception lies the continuous profit that the company can gain.Young people nowadays are not willing to pay for expensive natural diamond rings, which also indicates that no matter how high the price of a product, it must be worth the value, that is, where does its value truly lie? Saying it is natural and valuable because it is rare, in fact, it is not scarce; saying it has enough hardness, at most it can only be used as a cutting head. Apart from this, all the values of natural diamonds can be achieved by synthetic diamonds. Given this, why should we still buy such expensive natural diamond rings?
This also indicates that scarcity marketing is facing challenges, that is, without the premise of value for money, the marketing strategy of "valuable because it is rare" may not necessarily be accepted by the general public.
III. The Western diamond industry chain may be facing a significant shift.
At present, the global market for natural diamonds is monopolized by Western countries, but in the market for synthetic diamonds, China is the world's largest producer. Today, the total global production of synthetic diamonds is 9 million carats, and a single province, Henan, achieves an annual output of 4 million carats.
Of course, the comeback of Chinese synthetic diamonds is also due to the national industrial layout in the 1950s. Synthetic diamonds are also known as "industrial teeth." At that time, China wanted to focus on developing its second industry. If it relied solely on imported synthetic diamonds, not only were foreign production volumes low, but the quality was also poor. If it had to import natural diamonds, the prices were too high, so it was better for us to produce them ourselves.
In 1965, China's first chain-style six-face top press machine was successfully developed at the Zhengzhou Third Grinding Institute. In the same year, China manufactured the first batch of synthetic diamonds, marking the official entry of synthetic diamonds into the industrialization phase in China. Since then, Chinese synthetic diamonds have been leading the world in both production and quality.
With the continuous increase in the production of Chinese synthetic diamonds, foreign diamond merchants even say that buying synthetic diamonds does not represent love. However, it is laughable that while they say it does not represent love, they are also increasing their efforts to produce synthetic diamonds. In fact, their real intention is to prevent China from taking over their diamond market and losing their huge profits.
But now, it is not difficult to see from the explosive sales of "diamond rings" at 29.9 yuan that with the change in young people's consumption concepts and the continuous improvement of the public's understanding of diamonds, cheap synthetic diamonds have become more beloved by people.
