Understanding the Basics of a Creating a Successful Jewelry Brand

Apart from finely designed and well-crafted pieces, how do jewelry business set themselves apart from their competitors? They do it by developing a strong and successful brand. It can’t be stressed enough – a strong brand is the foundation of a successful jewelry business. Creating a distinctive jewelry brand with its exclusive branding are vital for any jewelry business to create a special place for itself in the jewelry world.

Very often people equate brand with branding. The truth is that these are two different, but related concepts. Your branding, which includes, among other things, your logo, packaging, store design layout, and website design, are the visual representations of your brand.

However, your brand is much more than your branding.

What is a Brand?

Your brand is the personality of your business  It is defined by the mission, vision and story of your company. Sometimes, a brand is also called the voice of your company, or the way your company interacts with its consumers.

Put simply, your brand is how people think of your jewelry business, or the emotions and feelings evoked by idea or thought of your jewelry business.

Jewelry is an emotional purchase, and a strong brand allows your business to connect with jewelry buyers in an authentic way. This means that for a jewelry brand to be successful, it needs to understand its consumers. In this way, your brand represents the relationship between your jewelry company and your jewelry buyers.

Brand Guidelines and Brand Voice

Brand guidelines are a set of rules that help you build your brand voice. Your brand voice is the messaging and style that makes your jewelry brand distinctive and memorable. The more consistent and identifiable your brand voice, the stronger your brand’s identity, thus making it instantly recognizable.

Your brand guidelines should include the following:

Brand Mission

Why does your jewelry business exist? What difference will it make in the lives of jewelry buyers?

Brand Values

What are the beliefs that your company stands for or ideals that guide your jewelry business? These values help guide the day to day activities of your jewelry company and also set the tone for your long-term direction and decision making.

Brand Story

What led you to start your jewelry business and how would you like to continue with it? Your brand story should be honest and your jewelry buyers should find it genuine and relatable.

The key to a strong brand voice (and brand) is consistency – it is important for your style, feel and messaging to remain the same in all the different ways you communicate with your jewelry buyers, especially through your digital channels. These different, digital channels include your social media posts, newsletters, and your website. This is because today your digital channels are the primary and most common ways for your jewelry business to interact with your current and potential jewelry buyers.

For instance, Boucheron is renowned for their innovative and exciting jewelry designs, for pushing the envelope on design aesthetics and use of unique jewelry and gem materials. Their social media posts on Instagram mirror this important aspect of the jewelry company’s brand voice. Instead of traditional jewelry images and formal written language, the company interacts with its audience through playful videos, colorful photographs, and short yet clever captions. As a result, their social media messaging reflects the dynamism that is so much a part of Boucheron’s brand.

Branding and Brand Identity – The Visual Elements

Working hand-in-hand with your brand voice are the visual representations of your brand, or your brand identity. In the least, these include your logo, packaging, and colors. Together these are the essence of your branding.

Once you have figured out the overall aesthetic of your jewelry business, your branding design automatically follows.

Branding design consists of several important tasks:

• Designing your logo. Think of it as the signature of your jewelry business.  Your logo should reflect the essence of your jewelry business. Do you handcraft your jewelry pieces? Does your jewelry have a contemporary aesthetic or does it embrace techniques and styles of an earlier era? Also think about the places where your logo will go, such as on your website, business cards, product packaging and store front. Your logo should be unique and stand out from the logo of other businesses.
• Choose the colors and fonts for your brand. Your brand’s color palette should be distinctive so that jewelry buyers recognize it instantly. In addition, try to use the same font, as much as possible, for your business cards, jewelry boxes, pouches and bags. Streamline the colors and fonts wherever possible.
• Design your product packaging using your brand colors and don’t forget to embellish your jewelry boxes, pouches and bags with your logo.
• Decide on the overall aesthetic for your photographs and videos. Once again, try to use a style and concept for your photographs and videos that is in sync with your brand voice and personality.

Take for example, jewelry designer James Taffin de Givenchy, who handcrafts exquisite high jewelry pieces with a luxurious and elevated, minimalist aesthetic. This same minimalist aesthetic is reflected in the logo design, packaging and even on the website of his jewelry brand, Taffin.

Brilliant Brands – Tiffany & Co.

Tiffany & Co. is one of the most successful, global jewelry businesses, with an exceptionally robust brand, brand voice and brand identity. The Tiffany Blue Box is as instantly recognizable as is the trademarked Tiffany Blue, a tone of aquamarine-blue color which is now known by its custom Pantone name “1837 Blue” commemorating the year Tiffany & Co. was established.

In the mind of a jewelry buyer, Tiffany & Co. is associated with elegance and sophistication. Also, to many jewelry lovers, Tiffany & Co. means beautiful jewelry that are a part of beautiful celebrations. This is because their brand story emphasises the company’s heritage, exceptional quality and craftsmanship and it luxury, which reflect the mission and vision of the company.

At the same time, the brand’s story builds a sense trust with the audience, especially through many of its recent celebrity endorsements. As a result, you instantly know you are getting something special, when you get that Tiffany & Co. blue box. The brand voice strong and the messaging has remained consistent.

However, the biggest testament to the strength of this brand is that in January 2021, Tiffany & Co. was acquired by LVMH, a French luxury conglomerate. Following this, the company underwent a change of executive leadership. Despite all these changes, the brand remained stable and as impactful as ever. It continued to stand for everything it has always stood for – high quality luxury jewelry from a heritage jewelry business, that makes your special moments even more wonderful.