As part of the project, The Diamond Collective has a new logo with a purple colour palette and a new motto: Old Soul, New Energy.
The organisation published a 16-page explainer on 22 September detailing its objectives, which CEO Amber Pepper describes as creating a future with “more people choosing diamonds, more often."
“Over the past six months, we have listened to producers, retailers, brands, creatives and consumers and challenged ourselves on where this organisation can make the greatest difference,” writes Pepper.
“The answer is clear: create desire and turn it into demand.
“That means connecting diamonds more powerfully to culture, protecting trust and integrity, bringing the industry together and investing in work that drives category growth and sales.
“Our vision is a world captivated by the wonder of diamonds. Our ambition is to put diamonds back at the centre of culture and drive demand for the category.”
Interestingly, as a legal entity, the organisation will remain named the Natural Diamond Council. According to the document, The Diamond Collective’s strategy is centred on three core priorities.
» Unite: Bring producers, retailers, brands, designers and new voices together around shared priorities for growth.
» Protect: Strengthen consumer confidence through clarity, transparency and facts; challenge misinformation; and clearly differentiate diamonds from synthetic diamonds.
» Inspire: Create desire through culture, creativity and globally connected storytelling, with a clear path to consideration and purchase.
Pepper described the name change as symbolic of the organisation’s role as a platform for the broader diamond industry to ‘act as one’.
“We will move from individual campaigns to a connected, long-term approach; from representation to collective action; and from measuring activity to measuring desire, demand and commercial impact,” she added.
“It also means changing how we present ourselves. For too long, we have played defence - allowing the original to be defined by a qualifier, when in truth there is no worthy comparison.”
Brief history of the DPA, NDC, & DC
This is the second name change in the not-for-profit trade organisation’s 11-year history. It began in 2015 as the Diamond Producers Association and was backed by several major mining companies, including the De Beers Group, Alrosa, and Rio Tinto. Jean-Marc Lieberherr was appointed the inaugural CEO in February 2016.
Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, the organisation underwent its first rebranding exercise, including a name change to the Natural Diamond Council in June 2020. David Kellie had taken over as CEO a year earlier, and the organisation had a new motto: Only Natural Diamonds.
In early 2022, the Natural Diamond Council faced a new challenge. Russian diamond mining juggernaut Alrosa suspended its membership after conflict in Ukraine began in February 2022 and Western markets began preparing to sanction the company.
After losing a critical founding member in Alrosa, the Natural Diamond Council faced a funding crisis. One year later, in 2023, the organisation began accepting membership from other industry organisations and manufacturers beyond diamond miners to broaden its representation of the broader response.
In June 2025, details emerged of the Luanda Accord - an agreement within the broader international diamond industry to create a collective marketing fund to support natural diamonds. The fund was expected to centre on generic global marketing campaigns to promote interest in natural diamonds among consumers, to the tune of around $100 million.
In November 2025, Amber Pepper was appointed CEO of the Natural Diamond Council following the resignation of Kellie.
In August of this year, Pepper detailed the start of a global marketing campaign, including spending at least 80 per cent of its advertising budget directly on consumers and creating a data-driven ‘desire index’ to track the results of marketing material.
Plans moving forward?
Among the larger projects mentioned in The Diamond Collective document is the ‘Natural Diamond Mark’. This consumer ‘trust mark’, or logo, is intended for inscriptions on natural diamonds and jewellery, aiming to establish a globally recognised symbol that helps consumers easily distinguish these products from lab-created diamonds.
It’s been a popular proposal in the broader jewellery industry for some time – most recently, analyst Paul Zimnisky proposed a similar idea in his contribution for Jeweller's Great Diamond Debate III.
Other interesting initiatives include plans for a Diamond Desire Index, tracking consumer behaviour in the US, Indian and Chinese markets for consideration, purchase intent, and sentiment, with findings reported annually.
The index will be created in conjunction with Basis Global, an international market research and business-to-business consultant. Interestingly, it seems that the success and/or failure of The Diamond Collective’s initiatives will be judged against the index itself.
“Together, this will show us what is driving desire and where the greatest opportunities and barriers lie, giving us the evidence to focus investment and our programmes where they can make the greatest difference,” the statement explains.
“Our success will be assessed against both consumer desire and category growth, using the Diamond Desire Index alongside external market and commercial data.”
The Diamond Collective will also form ‘Global Steering Committees’ to provide insight from figures inside and outside of the trade to shape future projects.
Watch Relaunch Campaign
Unite. Protect. Inspire - The Initiative Forward