Fura Marketing Council: The engine of growth for precious coloured stone industry

Precious colour gemstones have had an elite fan base. Throughout history, they have taken envious spots in treasure chests and have become crown jewels. Even as the society advanced, rarities of color gemstones lay lost to the world for decades. 

This stands to change with Fura Gems, a leading player in the colour gemstone mining industry steadily acquiring new mines and expanding its portfolio of Australian sapphires, Colombian emeralds and Mozambique rubies over the last four years, producing millions of carats each year.

Continuing its upward trajectory, Fura unveils Fura Marketing council (FMC), a remarkable initiative consolidating all three gemstones under one trade promotion umbrella.

FMC upholds ‘Rough to Retail’

The area where FMC has already scored well is assessing the trade-support needs in the colour gemstone category. Backed by thorough research work, the council has identified crucial areas of improvement to overcome the barriers for sales.

The data determines that consumers wanting to buy color-gemstones shy away due to lack of knowledge and inadequate ability of sales staff to instill trust in the category at point of sale. Consumer education and rigorous training of front end retail staff are the barest necessities to build the category.

Furthermore, the findings also point out how the colour stone industry comprising of several players without a shared vision has kept the recall value of this category sporadic at best. The FMC underlines the lack of cohesive category marketing and promotion strategy as another gap area which is relegating the category to the sidelines.

Raising responsible mining to new standards and adopting a top-down approach, Fura under the banner of FMC is allocating funds for both b-2-b and b-2-c support.

 It will offer manufacturers and retailers the much-needed co-op support to power up communication and educational training about colour stone quality. It aims to boost the category awareness and aspiration through effective advertising and retail promotion and hand hold each stakeholder by building support for higher sell- through at retail.

FMC also marks the importance of telling the origin-story to the young and curious buyers looking to buy products from ethical sources.

All members stand to gain by being part of the chain of custody program that assures complete transparency and mine – of –origin certification for Fura gemstones in jewellery.

“With the slew of benefits under the banner of FMC, Fura envisages to trickle down a momentum of change right down to the end-consumer that will increase the color gemstone jewellery market share,” says Dev Shetty, CEO, Fura Gems.

FMC builds exclusivity

FMC is an invitation-only platform for industry stakeholders interested in revolutionizing the colour gemstone jewellery trade. The FMC brings visionary manufacturers and progressive retailers a common platform to work in close coordination with a strong promotional support down the value chain.

With the goal of increasing its members’ sales, it is designed to support companies who sell FURA emerald, ruby, or sapphire. It is committed to promote sales through-out the supply chain with initial focus on North American, India and Australian retailers.

It opens up a new window of opportunity for manufacturers’ world over who can reap the benefits of becoming the top 10 founding members of the Fura Marketing Council for decades to come. This apart, the council welcomes all retailers to participate and bring in a sea change in the colour stone jewellery industry.

FMC creates new possibilities

The FMC survey delineates several reasons why the colour stone industry packs a punch globally. Colour gemstones command the highest margin and remain a favorite amongst millennial. However, lack of promotion has made retailers and manufacturers reluctant to invest in the category.

“FMC envisions harnessing the true potential of the category by extending a holistic and planned marketing program to those interested in maximizing the imminent opportunities,” says Rupak Sen, Chief Marketing Officer, Fura Gems.

All in all, the data reveals a strong platform is necessary to build, sustain and grow the category of colour gemstones, a vertical with far greater varieties than what is setting trends in jewellery fashion. If put to plan perfectly, the variety in colours, price margin and traits can create respective demand of their own and make the jewellery market far more heterogeneous, versatile and profitable for all stakeholders.

History stands witness to the ascent of diamond, thanks to the relentless trade collaborations and marketing marvels by the De Beers group. Let’s draw some parallels from those learning and create a new narrative for these wondrous color gemstones by joining forces with the FMC which is launching with a US$2 million marketing budget for the three gemstone verticals in 2021 alone.

Courtesy: Soma Bhatta, Shubham Das Gupta