Ehud's case for pricing transparency in the diamond industry was made clear in the previous Insight blog. This means making every piece of information about a diamond available to consumers. To help demonstrate how this can be put into practice, Ehud shared his own diamond pricing model, which he used for decades to price both rough and polished diamonds.
Pricing is at the heart of making the case for rarity of diamonds, which in turn is key for restoring consumer demand. Pricing, however, has also been the Achilles' heel of the diamond industry, especially in a context of increased consumer knowledge.
Ehud welcomed the generic diamond marketing campaigns that emphasized the rarity of diamonds. In July 2016, he wrote "The return of a relevant generic diamond marketing campaign is a blessing. 'Real is rare. A diamond is real' is a step forward to changing the current consumer mindset and is naturally inspired by 'A diamond is forever'".
At the same time, Ehud realized that in the current market structure, allocating sufficient funds to invest in an impactful marketing initiative is not simple, and suggested a possible solution, "In view of our fragmented sector, diamond players should consider branding alliances to jointly invest in promoting diamonds".
It is with great sadness that we confirm the news that our founder, Ehud Arye Laniado passed away on Saturday, March 2, 2019. He was 65 years old.
After living an exceptional life Ehud will be brought back home to Israel as his final resting place. He will be dearly missed by us all.
Later this week, the Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem and Pearl Show will open in Hong Kong, signaling the start of another year heavily populated by trade fairs. In a month, Baselworld will take place. In four weeks between the close of the show in Hong Kong and the opening of the show in Basel, no less than four important, yet more regional, trade fairs will take place.