How the Diamond Industry Markets Brown Diamonds?
In our journey through fancy colored diamonds, we have focused on some of the rarest colors found in diamonds. But not every fancy color shade is exceptionally rare. Some are plentiful and have achieved their celebrated status more as a result of clever branding and marketing., The most common are fancy brown diamonds and a few of the promotional spin-offs that have developed from these brown diamonds.
Brown diamonds were once considered virtually worthless and only useful in industrial applications. But in many mines, brown diamonds are much more plentiful than white diamonds, meaning miners historically faced the challenge of having a large proportion of their mine production that had to be sold at very low prices. This was especially true of the Argyle mine in Australia whose production is nearly 80% brown diamonds.
Rio Tinto, Argyle’s operator, realized that they needed a new approach, a way to alter the consumer’s perception of these diamonds. They eventually coined the term “champagne” diamonds to give brown diamonds an air of luxury, elegance, and affluence. Although the acceptance was slow at first, the marketing took hold and sales of these gems began to slowly but steadily increase.
