Background & Marketing Problem

Who are Jewelers of America and why do they need market research? The jewelry industry needed to better position itself in today’s rapidly evolving marketplace. The fine jewelry industry was starting to see a plateau in sales and wanted to improve growth overall. Jewelers of America (JA) is a non-profit trade association that was founded in 1906. The aim was to advance the professionalism and ethics of the jewelry industry. Today, the luxury brand association aims to improve consumer confidence through advocacy in public, government, and industry affairs. It also aims to enhance consumer marketing and public relations efforts. 

Objectives

Jewelers of America approached Provoke Insights to conduct market research. The objectives of the research were to:

• Get buy-in from association members
• Understand the members’ target audience
• Guide the strategic development of a national advertising campaign

Market Research Solution 

Provoke Insights designed a three-phase research plan:

In the first phase of the research, Provoke Insights developed a 10-minute online survey. The survey was open-ended in nature to garner valuable insights from association members. This round of research provided JA with an extensive understanding of trends, purchasing patterns, and customer insights among 257 association members. Provoke Insights used to aid the development of the consumer survey and to understand trends in the industry.

The second phase of research assessed buying habits, attitudes, and interests in the fine jewelry and luxury sector. It also set out to evaluate who had the highest propensity to purchase jewelry and the size of each segment. A twenty-minute online survey was conducted among 2,019 high-net-worth respondents.

Provoke Insights used advanced analytics to create a segmentation to find who has the highest propensity to purchase fine jewelry. Secondary research supplemented the segments developed from quantitative research in order to develop personas.

• • Provoke Insights found that there are two main groups of target jewelry consumers: the “jewelry enthusiast,” a woman in her 30s who is married with children with a combined household income upwards of $100,000, and the “young and indifferent,” a woman in her 20s who is single, without children and making less than $100,000. 
  • Both live in cities and suburbs, watch TV and engage in social media. The former makes up 8 percent of the U.S. population, or about 25 million people, and the latter 11 percent of the U.S. population, or about 35 million.

In the third phase, Provoke Insights created a video of the findings for Jewelers of America to use as a promotional video internally in order to generate buy-in/excitement for the ad campaign and fundraise. 

Results of the Research

Using Provoke Insights’ research and strategic direction, Jewelers of America was able to fundraise and develop an upcoming ad campaign for 2020. The advertising company hired by Jewelers of America used the research in order to inform the advertising campaign and target the segments that were recommended to them. You can read more about the campaign here. 

You can read more about jewelry and market research here.