In today’s 21st century marketplace jewelry companies only have two sources of competitive advantage: They can

learn more about their customers than their competitors and they can turn that customer knowledge into perceived

superior value propositions before the competition.

The real battle in today’s jewelry market is in creating individual customer strategies. The most valuable assets in any

jewelry company are not the inventory, but rather its customers. When jewelry companies cannot be sold, what

happens? There is a liquidation of assets. Jewelry store buyers are looking for jewelry stores with loyal customers

who consistently purchase. It’s time to manage the relationship with each customer in a more deliberate and

strategic manner.

The jewelry industry has joined the interactive era and that means that loyal customers expect to receive more

relevant information in more timely fashion. For decades jewelry stores have used the strategy of carrying the best

brands to create a competitive advantage. This has helped stores leverage the creation of brand awareness of their

own store brand. What needs to change is the approach to the customer. Now jewelry stores have the opportunity

through interactive marketing to listen and learn more about each customer’s needs, wants, demands and desires.

Jewelry stores can improve their offerings of brand name jewelry and reinforce customer loyalty to their own store

through improved on-going dialogue with each customer.

Jewelers need to do more with their point of sales software systems. Jewelry marketers should be using these tools

to develop customer specific objectives and customer specific sales and action plans. Mass marketing communicates

to all the customers with the same message. Today, customers expect marketing communication messages from

their favorite companies to be personalized and tailored to their individual approaches to fashion, accessories, and

jewelry. This is the essence of customer relationship management.

Customer relationship management takes your point of sale software beyond tracking transactions and inventory

management. It is a viable approach to merchandising management because an interactive approach to customers

will better project true demand for specific jewelry items from individual customers. Using a point of sale system to

only track inventory is an example of efficiency. Using a point of sale system to support more interactivity with

customers and learn more about each customer before the competition and deliver perceived superior value

propositions before the competition is the means to operating more effectively. Make 2012 the year your company

focuses on developing more sophisticated approaches to customer relationship management and

interactive marketing.

Take away messages:

1. Expand the company’s point of sale software to include customer relationship management

2. Begin to further understand how to implement interactive marketing

3. Create competitive advantage by better understanding the needs, wants, demands, and desires of

individual customers

4. Use customer knowledge to create superior value propositions

5. Prioritize effective marketing strategies over operating efficiencies

6. Create more brand awareness for the jewelry store through customer relationship management and

interactive marketing

7. Some customers are worth more to your jewelry company than others and customer relationship management

can improve customer lifetime value