Industry veteran Sally Morrison will head De Beers’ new “category marketing” effort in the United States as the company rolls out its “Origins” strategy to boost flagging natural diamond demand.
Morrison, whose title will be U.S. natural diamond market lead, tells JCK her immediate priorities will be overseeing De Beers’ collaboration with Signet Jewelers and devising a new fourth-quarter advertising campaign for natural diamonds—akin to last year’s revival of “Seize the Day.”
“Last year, [De Beers CEO] Al [Cook] made a commitment to do category marketing for the fourth quarter,” she says. “We received very good retailer feedback for that, so since then there’s been a plan to expand that.”
Morrison will also be the interim lead for category marketing in other markets, including China, where she leads De Beers’ collaboration with Chow Tai Fook.
The new setup harks back to the days when De Beers oversaw all U.S. natural diamond advertising. That mostly ended in 2010.
“It’s about taking the best of the past and re-energizing it for a modern consumer,” she says. “Some things we know worked. We will take the playbook and update it.”
Morrison’s mandate seems to overlap with that of the Natural Diamond Council (NDC), which was established in 2015 as the industry’s main “category marketing” vehicle, and is largely supported by De Beers.
“We will be working very closely with the NDC,” Morrison says. “They are our partners. This is the moment when we all have to work together to inject energy and confidence into the market.
“I think our model is a little bit different than the NDC’s. We’re creating things directly with retailers. We’re more product-focused. A lot of what the NDC has done extremely well is to add freshness and modernity to the category through things like editorial content. So we’re going to divide and conquer.”
Prior to this, Morrison served as De Beers’ director of public relations for natural diamonds. Her association with De Beers and the jewelry business dates back to 2002, when she became director of the Diamond Information Center, the PR arm of the De Beers account at J. Walter Thompson. She has also worked for the World Gold Council, the Diamond Producers Association (the NDC’s predecessor), and Gemfields, and served as chief marketing officer for Forevermark and Lightbox, De Beers’ lab-grown brand. In 2018, she won Jewelers of America’s Gem award for lifetime achievement.
Photo courtesy of De Beers
Follow JCK on Instagram: @jckmagazineFollow JCK on Twitter: @jckmagazine
Follow JCK on Facebook: @jckmagazine
