Just prior to the 9am kick off on Sunday 1 September, fair organiser Gary Fitz-Roy acknowledged a select group of exhibitors celebrating their 22nd consecutive year at the show.
And when the doors finally opened visitors quickly flocked to Karin Adcock’s new House of Brands stand. Situated just inside the entrance no doubt encouraged the initial attention and before long Adcock was inundated with old industry friends and inquisitive fair attendees eager to see what her new company had on offer.
“We had a great first day. It was fantastic to catch up with old friends; we were busy all day,” Adcock said.
From there, the show floor grew busier and by lunchtime it was buzzing with enthusiastic attendees, perusing the aisles, attending seminars and presentations, networking with suppliers and surveying the many news ranges on offer.
On the Sunday, Duraflex Group Australia (DGA) officially launched its latest new brand Nikki Lissoni. The Dutch line uses an interchangeable coin and pendant concept and its founders, brothers Ronald and Caspar Assmann, travelled to Australia to attend the show.
According to Ronald, the interchangeable coin concept is proving popular in European markets and he expected it to be embraced in the Southern Hemisphere as well.
“Everyone is wanting customisable jewellery right now. It’s a huge international jewellery trend,” he said.
Nikki Lissoni was first introduced in the Netherlands and UK in February 2012 and is now sold in 15 countries. The range currently consists of 300 designs, is updated twice-yearly and comprises necklaces, bracelets and earrings.
The trend is set to gain more prominence with two other exhibitors, Innerpower and Designa Accessories, also displaying interchangeable coin collections at the fair.
International visitors
Swarovski Gems’ first appearance at an Australian jewellery fair was very well received, according to vice president operations, South East Asia Kurt Zbinden.
Visiting Australia just for the show from his base in Thailand, Zbinden told Jeweller most visitors to the Swarovski stand and presentations were unaware of the range of product the company manufactures.
“Most people know Swarovski for its crystals,” said Zbinden, “but they are almost amazed at the rest of our range of products, like cubic zirconia, engraved with Swarovski, and our natural gemstones, too.”
Zbinden said the company had attended this year’s fair because “the time was right and the market was ready to learn more about Swarovski Gems”. He explained the role of the presentations to was to inform jewellers and retailers about the company’s range of services designed to help them sell more product, by offering marketing and design services, training and trend forecasting.
The annual Swarovski GemVisions book is renowned worldwide for its extensive research into the world of upcoming fashion trends and how to link jewellery to these trends in order to maximise sales.
Presenter Birgit Rieder explained to the audience throughout her presentation that story-telling would help sell jewellery now and into the future. Hence, the background and forecasting marketing material provided by Swarovski would prove invaluable to jewellers and retailers alike.
Retailers benefit from Shane Decker
US jewellery sales guru Shane Decker spoke to a full house in Nationwide’s seminar area when he delivered his “selling company benefits” presentation.
Decker discussed the advantages of promoting retailers’ own integrity, as well as their company’s and their product’s integrity.
He said this attitude manifested into self-confidence which then transformed into more sales because customers were confident in their salesperson.
Decker was quick to point out the different selling techniques needed for male and female customers and gave tips on how to eliminate any negativities potential buyers might have.
He said he had observed at a previous group of around 100 Australian jewellery retailers that only seven businesses conducted weekly sales training with their staff and blamed this lack of knowledge-sharing as to why some retailers were suffering from fewer sales.
Decker told Jeweller that the knowledge base required to sell jewellery was second only to selling pharmaceuticals and that it took most salespeople around three years to accumulate enough knowledge to sell confidently. But that was only with adequate training.
Decker, who has trained salespeople in more than 4,000 stores, mainly in the US, was brought out to Australia by Nationwide exclusively for the jewellery fair and the buying group’s conference.
Spotlight on education
The new Spotlight education sessions began yesterday and proved popular among visitors. As previously reported by Jeweller, the training seminars at this year’s fair have adopted a more informal structure, now taking place on the show floor.
Among the sessions that occurred yesterday was a presentation by president of the diamond dealers club of Australia, Rami Baron, who discussed the history of diamonds and gave visitors the first official preview of the new World Diamond Mark initiative.
Other seminar topics included opals, the importance of branded jewellery and how retailers could make the most of the changing retail landscape.
Peter W Beck gets provocative
Peter W Beck provided visitors with an exclusive look at its new “bold and dynamic” consumer marketing campaign. The print and digital initiative will target the wedding ring market – specifically Generation Y – in Australia and New Zealand.
The jewellery supplier’s marketing manager, Laura Sawade, explained that aside from increasing brand awareness, the campaign was developed in response to a changing consumer landscape where people were modifying their shopping behaviour.
As part of this aim, the initiative has adopted the tagline “We Make Love”, using provocative images with accompanying phrases like “There’s one thing that’s not coming off tonight” and a print advertisement designed specifically for the homosexual community.
The campaign consists of four print advertisements and two digital videos.
Uberkate celebrates 10th anniversary
Uberkate is celebrating its 10th anniversary in business with the release of a new product range that takes its inspiration from the traditional charm bracelet.
The range, which comprises six styles of bangles on which “moments” (personalised tags) can be attached, features a very clever hidden attachment mechanism where one or more of the bangles’ links opens to add or change one or more moments.
“We’ve had a great day,” owner Kate Sutton told Jeweller, talking about the response to her range as the fair closed on the Sunday evening.
Sutton said the secret to her success was never wavering from the company’s DNA – staying true to the product, not compromising on quality and offering personalised jewellery that was primarily manufactured in Australia.
Disney Couture popular
A new line of Disney Couture products aimed at children is set to be released in October but was already receiving praise at this year’s jewellery fair.
By lunchtime on the first day the company had opened eight new accounts.
A new Lion King range was also attracting its share of attention. It, too, will be launched next month. The Lion King range will coincide with the re-release of the live production returning to theatres in Australia.
An in-depth wrap up of the fair, including further coverage of new releases and trends will follow tomorrow.
Just prior to the 9am kick off on Sunday 1 September, fair organiser Gary Fitz-Roy acknowledged a select group of exhibitors celebrating their 22nd consecutive year at the show.
And when the doors finally opened visitors quickly flocked to Karin Adcock’s new House of Brands stand. Situated just inside the entrance no doubt encouraged the initial attention and before long Adcock was inundated with old industry friends and inquisitive fair attendees eager to see what her new company had on offer.
“We had a great first day. It was fantastic to catch up with old friends