Diamonds Are Forever

Forevermark CEO Nancy Liu is shaking up the way we think about Diamond Jewellery – changing the narrative around this gem is crucial to the company’s success, she believes.

- Anne Majumdar

Diamonds have long been marketed as a ‘girl’s best friend’, but the message has always been that women have to wait to be gifted a rock, often as part of a marriage proposal. That is an old-fashioned stereotype that needs to change, according to Nancy Liu, the Shanghai-based CEO of leading diamond brand Forevermark.

Changing the narrative around diamonds is crucial to the company’s future success, Nancy insists. After all, why should women have to wait around for an engagement ring in order to enjoy the luxury of diamond jewellery? “That narrative is one that is not necessarily in step with the times today with women’s self-empowerment, their education and their income levels,” she argues. “We see clearly that in key markets around the world, women are buying diamonds for themselves – what we call self-purchase.”

Women are also buying the precious gemstones for their loved ones, but somehow this self-purchase and gifting by females has been overlooked, Nancy says. “If we can help to change that narrative, it would be very important for both the consumer and the industry,” she explains.

To commemorate the famous Millennium Star diamond in 2000, Forevermark, part of the De Beers Group and synonymous with diamonds, created a proprietary inscription that is invisible to the naked eye, to guarantee a diamond was genuine, natural and untreated. However, the trustmark was repositioned in 2008 as a consumer brand and now operates in 32 markets around the world, across 2,490 outlets.