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- Title
Colored Gemstone Promotion in Small Scale Markets: The Portuguese Case.
- Authors
De Carvalho, Rui Galopim
- Abstract
Despite Portugal's discovery of the sea route to India in the 16th century and the gem finds in Brazil in the 18th century, Portugal today has essentially no gem industry tradition. Portuguese consumers and trade professionals do not possess much gem-related knowledge. Portugal's national jewelry industry, though strong in its manufacturing sector, has weak response from domestic consumers, especially in comparison to competition from other luxury goods. This makes promotion of the industry essential. With the support of the International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA), many activities have been created with the goal of establishing a long-term strategy to promote colored gemstones in Portugal. Out of necessity, these activities needed a low budget, yet they required commitment and strong public relations work to inspire the involvement of others. A few examples follow: • The ICA Digital Slide Library, a resourceful photo archive, was extensively used to illustrate articles in the general and trade press as well as gemological communiqués and other releases. The local trade associations, two manufacturing and two retailer organizations, and two trade magazines (Comercio de Lisboa and Jóias de Familia), published those stories, spreading the word of color among their public and trade audiences. • ICA-sponsored seminars were held at Portojóia, the biggest national trade show in Portugal, discussing matters such as new gem treatments, disclosure, communicating and using color, from designer to the consumer. Similar events occurred during the 2006 show in September. Winning posters from ICA's 2005 Poster Competition were on display to inspire new designers to participate in the forthcoming competition in 2007 in Dubai. • Museum guided tours brought jewelry students, teachers, and the public to their collections, showing the use of gemstones from medieval times through today. More than 20 lectures were provided on these topics, often emphasizing Portuguese history. • ICA is collaborating with embassies of gem producing and processing countries to co-host events focusing on those resources, while also promoting their culture, tourism, and economy and creating a networking platform for their national companies to do business in Portugal. For this promotional strategy, spreading the word about colored gemstones is the most important aspect. Synergies in other parts of society, including the press, as well as educating the consumer about colored gemstones and nurturing the next generation of jewelry designers, are critical to creating an adequate infrastructure to increase jewelry awareness.
- Subjects
PORTUGAL; BRAZIL; GEMS &; precious stones; MINERAL industries; JEWELRY industry; ARCHIVES
- Publication
Gems & Gemology, 2006, Vol 42, Issue 3, p167
- ISSN
0016-626X
- Publication type
Article