Why do most diamond ads look like carbon copies of one another? Let's ask. | |
| We don't have research on the smell, but a diamond by any other name would last as long ("forever", as the generic position has it). |
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| This is nice as reassurance, but it also poses a branding challenge to diamond marketers: a diamond is a diamond is a diamond, a piece of pressurised carbon that has glints different from different angles, and has enthralled perfectly sane mortals down the ages with its splendour. Just the ideal market conditions, you would think, for highly differentiated advertising "" in a keen contest to set one's brand apart from the rest of the glitter. |
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| Alas, at least in India, a diamond ad is a diamond ad is a diamond ad, something with a famous face wearing it in surroundings so dark that it's the stone's glitter that must provide the light necessary to recognise the face. |
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| Maybe you could argue that some brands are gaining distinction through celebrities: Amitabh Bachchan for D'damas and Kajol for Asmi. But otherwise, most of us barely remember the name of the brand at the end of the advertising. |
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| According to Gullu Sen, vice-chairman, Dentsu India, such advertising was a trend started by one company (hint-hint: the name conjures froth), and others have just stuck to it. |
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| "Nobody has really tried to bring in any innovation in the category," he says, but adds that perhaps this is to be expected, since "it's more of category-selling than brand selling". Brands enter the picture only to speak of technicalities: the quality, caratage and retail access. At the actual decision point, the consumer opts for a diamond, that's it, a generic intention. |
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| And the glitter-in-the-dark format? Says Santosh Desai, president, McCann, "Diamonds are generally shown against a dark background as there is a need to show them shining, and you can't do that with any other colour." |
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| Sagar Mahabaleshwar, group creative director, O&M, agrees to an extent. "Because the category cannot see much innovation," he says, "the advertising looks the same." |
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| In how many different ways can you really talk about diamonds? Good question. "So that could be one of the reasons why all ads look similar." |
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| At the end, as they say, it's a "product constraint". A diamond may glint different from different angles, but it's still a glint "" wavelengths of light, that's all. |
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