I find these words by Giorgio Armani informative.
"The difference between style and fashion is quality." Armani's explanation can be interpreted to 'style imitates fashion, and fashion endures long after copies are discarded'.
Natural diamonds are like fashion; they hold value over time. It is precisely this fact that starts to differentiate natural diamonds from any carbon copy.
Every natural diamond is a one off. Mass-produced alternatives are capable of being produced consistently in top colours and clarities. It makes no sense to produce a lower quality lab-grown diamond when the cost of production remains the same no matter what the quality. Soon lab-grown diamonds will become indistinguishable from each other. Mass production and uniformity stand out in stark contrast to the rarity, uniqueness, and the personality of a natural diamond. In this sense natural diamonds are quite different than produced diamonds.
Natural diamonds are more sustainable than the alternative because 'natural diamonds sustain people'. There is a huge difference between how natural diamonds support communities all around the world as opposed to sustaining an automated assembly line designed for a minimum of human intervention.
What is really unsustainable about alternative diamond products is the retail margins. Retailers are currently making sizable profit in spite of diminishing prices.
Currently, Indian manufacturers are weathering the slow economy by engaging their workers in producing and cutting laboratory grown diamonds. There will soon be so many of these alternative diamonds available that manufacturers will need to sell directly to consumers to facilitate cash flow. It is not complicated to sell identical top cut, pure copies of natural diamonds, without the need of inspection or diamond reports. Websites supported by manufactures will, eventually, bypass wholesalers and retailers and, in so doing, expose consumers to accurate pricing.
A basic principle in business is that one should always be considerate of a client's best interests. Retailers are taking a big risk when selling diamond alternatives, especially when these products have yet to find a fixed price level.
Loyal customers are the most valuable asset of any business. They are the builders of reputations, and it is never worth risking a hard-earned reputation by disappointing even one client.
The natural diamond business has withstood wars, depressions, recessions, and competition. Natural diamonds are a product with quantitative limitations and this fact among many others supports their value over time. Alternative products have quite a different value proposition.
Mel Moss
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