Tag: Article

Follow Up: Good. vs. Goods, The Other Guy’s Perspective

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Well, this is convenient. Hard on the heels of my recent editorial on the current state of marketing in the jewelry industry, a features writer over at Racked (a fashion/lifestyle headline-style site) took on the issue from Signet Jewelers’ perspective — you know, the largest monopoly conglomerate covering such household names as Kay, Zales, and Jared.

The article is worth a read, especially if such figures as “$5.7 billion in annual sales” and “3600 stores” pique your interest. But free advertising and product placement aside, what does Signet try to say about their products and their massive share of the industry? They’re all about the (straight, middle class) man.

Women react to their marketing — all 10+ channels of it — with opinions ranging from “cheesy” and “gimmicky” all the way to feeling downright offended by the way the ads portray women and their relationships with men. The fairytale gifting scenarios and mass-appeal life event celebrations ring hollow for most, as is clearly removes any sense of responsibility on the part of the gifter to make an effort and understand a woman’s unique style. The emphasis is all on a come-hither ease of use, rather than any real meaning, romance, or sentiment.

The idea is to make the experience so comfortable, so ridiculously easy for the (straight, middle class) male shopper that he loses all ability to reason and simply buys what he sees the girl on the TV screen loving and crying about, with no consideration for his (ahem, or her) giftee’s desires and needs.

And this is how those poorly-chosen gifts end up here with us. They need broken delicate chains replaced with something sturdier to stand up to a tugging toddler. A watch strap that actually fits him. Three diamonds replaced in the micropave shank because she’s a hairdresser and they keep falling out. A setting lowered or swapped because the latex gloves she wears to the hospital every day are getting shredded by the prongs.

I appreciate the need for mass-market appeal, as I mentioned in my earlier post, because I believe it helps romance the whole idea of jewelry and not just that particular piece from that particular store. But this… is not what I mean. Offending an entire gender with patronization and general lack of nuance is not helpful. Convincing men to enter a store at holiday time and stand in line, zombie-like, to receive this year’s version of last year’s hit, is not the kind of experience this industry stands for.

My soapbox is starting to bend under the weight of my heavy disdain for these tactics, so I’ll leave you with this thought (from the article) for now: “Every time I see [one of their ads] on TV, I want to throw something at the screen… [t]hey are infuriating because they are an insult to my intelligence and emotions! I am not that easy to buy and gift-giving just isn’t that magical.”

Following Up: Girls in the World

On By CayIn Uncategorized2 Comments

A few weeks ago, I wrote my own response to the current hot-button issues surrounding the ridiculously poor representation of women in my industry. And then I let it go.

Oh, not that I decided to suddenly ignore the problem, or cease to care that my own gender can’t seem to shatter the glass ceiling of business leadership despite decades of policy and social reform. I simply decided to let my feelings simmer, and step away from the rapidly-overheating kitchen argument that the internet can often turn into a firestorm.

But thanks to a deeply-felt and insightful weekly meeting by our (Millennial AND female) owner and a commentary article by JCK Editor-In-Chief Victoria Gomelsky, I decided to briefly revisit the topic that had caused a “mild sensation,” as Gomelsky understated.

It seems that she shares many of my own sentiments, particularly regarding the assignment of blame. As she rightly points out, top-whatever lists are not scientific rankings, but rather a general gathering of people across as industry who wield certain types of power: influence, money, authority, etc. It is blindingly obvious to me that more women would make the list if there were more women out wielding that kind of power, which brings about the inevitable sad conclusion that we simply don’t have it yet. Emphasis on yet.

It’s easy for me to sit here and discuss the members of my gender in the second person — we don’t have it, we need to work hard to get to the top, we need to lead, etc. — but sometimes I fill in that nominative with a silent they instead. In other words, I fall into the exact same trap that many women do, which is to count myself out of an elite group of powerful individuals because I’m not already one of them. Sure, I pay lip service to having “career goals” and “leadership aspiration” but what have I done lately to put my money where my big, hopeful mouth is?

In truth, I haven’t done enough. I wake up and force myself to repeat overused empowerment phrases and pithy mantras, but we all know that if wishes were diamonds, we wouldn’t bother to sell them because the market would be saturated. (Isn’t that how the saying goes?)

Well, forget it. I’m not going to sit back and watch other women become powerful while I sit and watch. I’m going to cheer them on while I run beside them, straight up the seemingly-endless staircase, winding our way to the very top. Together. And I’m not going to just continue to say things like that in an online blog that almost nobody reads. Sooner or later, I’m going to prove it to myself and everyone else. How’s that for empowerment?

I invite your thoughts about this whole subject, because I agree with something else important from Gomelsky’s article: only through honest discussion can these issues come to light, and perhaps, find a path to solution.

P.S. Picture is of an actual fortune cookie I received just after I found out I’d be going to my first show. True story.

Wearable Tech Turns Back the Clock

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I can see it now: twelve people, ranging in age and gender from the young male post-grad recently promoted to the 30-year female VP, sit around a long, sleek conference table in a downtown highrise. They sip seltzer waters — Pelligrino, natch — and whip out shiny Cross pens to take shorthand notes on legal pads bound in Italian leather. They are the Decision Makers, the Callers of the Shots, the Mucky-Mucks who run the biz.

Halfway through the meeting, it begins.

Bzzzzz. Bzzzzz. Bzzzzz.

A collective pause.

Bzzzz. Bzzzz. Bzzzz.

Nobody moves, or takes their eyes off the VP presently holding forth on shareholder terms. Nobody wants to be accused of having a cell phone (because it must be a cell phone, right?) ringing or alerting or notifying during such an important meeting.

Glancing around the table, aware of the distraction everyone is refusing to acknowledge, that VP spots a plain plastic band poking out from underneath a starched white shirt with mother-of-pearl cufflinks. It’s wrapped around the wrist of a forty-something partner, and Ms. Veep recognizes it as one of the ubiquitous health-freak-fitness-tracker-band-thingies. Aha! The culprit must be that sad object alerting the man he’s been seated for longer than the recommended 25 minutes or something.

The VP stares at the offending partner. The whole table stares at him. He looks around, wondering what on earth everyone’s looking at, because his device’s battery is long dead from lack of use, and can’t everyone tell it’s coming from the kid behind him?

Indeed, seated just a chair away, that newly-promoted young gentleman is still feigning total engagement in the older, platinum-haired lady’s speech about people he doesn’t know. It’s his wrist that is vibrating, the pattern alerting him to yet another pre-noon wedding e-mail from his fiance. He knows it’s before 12 o’clock because he glanced at that wrist — and all it told him was the time.

How can this be?

In her recent article for JCK Online, Senior Editor Jennifer Heebner (one of my personal idols) gives a report on a budding partnership between the established Swiss watch industry — long reputed to set the highest standard in timekeeping and timepiece manufacturing — and the infant wearable technology moguls of Silicon Valley. Their new partnership appears to focus on bringing the new high-tech software of life trackers into the old-world wristwatch, giving consumers the option to connect their cellphones to their wrists while not appearing to do so. Or, put another way, you can have your classic analog watch and sleep tracker, too.

I have been keeping an eye on the development of wearable tech for some time, mainly for professional interest. I will say, however, that as a woman who treats her watch like another piece of jewelry, I have been uniformly disappointed in the styles offered by most companies — up through, and in particular, the new Apple Watch.

So this development speaks to my personal issue with the tech (namely, it’s just plain ugly) on top of addressing the broader industry complaints about a lack of cache and quality in the overall build. It appears as though form and function might make a better couple than previously thought, if the broader and perhaps older market can be tapped via their interest in upholding the quality wristwatch tradition.

Would you wear an analog-and-tech watch? Do you use a life tracker of any kind right now? Did you pull out your phone to make sure it’s silenced while you read this? Tell me more!

Swiss timepieces by 88 Rue du Rhone, a Raymond Weil affiliate
Swiss timepieces by 88 Rue du Rhone, a Raymond Weil affiliate

Featured Image from JCK Online: Helevetica No. 1 Smartwatch from Mondaine