CaratZales says 67% of its core shoppers now buy for themselves
The Signet banner's new campaign is built on its own finding that two thirds of purchases among core shoppers are self-purchases. Two of its three style stories need no occasion at all, and the imagery includes men.
§1A number, and a campaign attached to it.
Zales has published a number about its own customers that is worth more than the campaign attached to it. Sixty-seven per cent of purchases among its core shoppers were made for themselves, on the retailer's own data, cited in its announcement of a campaign called You Are The Occasion. The campaign's argument is that fine jewellery should not be held back for milestones, and the figure underneath it is the reason the argument is being made now. Zales is a Signet banner, which makes this a reading of the largest specialty jewellery retailer in the United States on its own counter rather than a survey of the category.
The campaign is merchandised as three style stories rather than pitched as one message. Everyday Elevated covers tennis bracelets, rivière necklaces, ear stacks and solitaire pendants. Stacking and Layering covers mix-and-match gold chains, bracelets, bands and pendants. Bridal and Engagement is split into four aesthetics named Iconic Classic, Ethereal Romance, Grand Glamour and Modern Muse. Two of the three are built entirely on repeat purchase of pieces that require no occasion, and only the third depends on the event calendar the campaign is arguing against. It runs in store and across digital and social channels.
§2What is actually being merchandised.
The imagery includes men wearing watches, gold chains and other accessories, which is the part a trade reader should notice. A self-purchase strategy aimed only at women is a change of occasion. A self-purchase strategy that puts men in the frame is a change in the addressable customer. Amanda Rather, Zales' vice president of style and trend brand marketing, framed the intent as helping women "make their own rules, celebrate themselves." That is the same ground the retailer's Own It campaign covered last year, which is the honest way to read this: an iteration on a strategy already in market, now with a number attached, rather than a first move.
Sixty-seven per cent of purchases among its core shoppers were made for themselves
§3What a self-purchase counter changes.
What a 67% self-purchase rate does to a jewellery business is change three things at once. It breaks the gift calendar's concentration, because a woman buying for herself does not wait for December or February. It moves the price point down and the frequency up, which is why the campaign leads with stacking and layering rather than with a centre stone. And it changes who has to be persuaded in the store, because the person wearing the piece and the person paying for it are the same person, which shortens the sale and removes the reassurance a gift-giver needs before spending someone else's idea of enough.
The campaign is advertising and will be judged as advertising, but
the 67% is a disclosure and should be read as one. A retailer of Signet's size does not publish a figure about its own mix unless it has decided to reorganise around it, and this one says two thirds of what leaves a Zales counter is not a gift. Almost every convention of this trade was built for the other case: the window displays, the holiday staffing, the discounting rhythm, the bridal-led floor plan. The independent jeweller reading this does not need Zales' campaign. It needs Zales' number, checked against its own till, because if the figure is anywhere near true across the market then a good deal of this industry is merchandising for a customer who has already left the building.
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