Forward of the milestone anniversary, the Kansas Metropolis, Missouri-based jewellery retailer, which sits at No. 18 on Nationwide Jeweler’s 2024 $100 Million Supersellers listing and No. 7 on the High 50 Specialty Jewelers listing, has undergone a rebrand.
Essentially the most notable change is dropping the phrase “diamonds” from Helzberg Diamonds.
The corporate, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, additionally has a brand new brand and model shade, and has revamped its in-store and on-line choices to enhance its trendy makeover.
In a current interview with Nationwide Jeweler, Helzberg CEO Brad Hampton shared the thought course of behind the retailer’s rebranding, its new digital capabilities, and the way it strengthens buyer relationships.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
Lenore Fedow: Why did you all resolve it was time for a rebrand?
Brad Hampton: For the final couple of years, we’ve been actually investing closely within the buyer expertise at Helzberg. Traditionally, we’ve been recognized for an incredible in-store expertise and we’re very pleased with the expertise we ship for our prospects in our shops.
However we’ve been working to broaden that to a extra omnichannel perspective and produce the Helzberg expertise to life in a branded and experiential method for our prospects, whether or not they’re interacting with us on-line, by way of social media, or in our shops, simply wherever all these touchpoints are for Helzberg.
We actually felt like bringing the brand new model positioning ahead was the suitable time to share with our prospects all of the work we’ve been doing and produce a recent new look ahead for the corporate.
LF: The obvious change to me is that you just’ve modified your title. So, why drop the “Diamonds” from Helzberg?
BH: Helzberg is simpler and maybe extra enticing to a broad vary of customers. We don’t need to slender the notion that we solely promote diamonds. We’re clearly a full-scale jeweler. We promote a broad vary of bijou and gem stones and all various kinds of merchandise for all various kinds of customers. And we expect Helzberg is a less complicated, simpler option to categorical that and share it with customers.
It’s sort of like when Dunkin’ Donuts went from “Dunkin’ Donuts” to [just] “Dunkin’” to mirror their broader choices. I feel we took some inspiration from that kind of a transfer.
LF: That’s a superb comparability. You even have a brand new model shade, so inform me what went into selecting “Helzberg Blue?”
BH: I feel burgundy had develop into a bit of drained, perhaps, within the market. We felt prefer it was time to carry a extra welcoming [color].
Blue has a really welcoming, heat really feel. It’s a nod to blue sky or to Kansas Metropolis. Our dwelling metropolis is the Metropolis of Fountains.
We simply assume it’s a way more trendy and welcoming shade. And so we’ve a very stunning gentle dusty blue and likewise a darker wealthy sort of navy blue which might be our hallmark colours now that we’re actually enthusiastic about.
Helzberg has adopted a brand new model shade, dubbed “Helzberg Blue.”
LF: It’s very fairly. I prefer it lots. You even have new shopper experiences just like the Diamond Room, a personal session the place prospects can be taught extra about diamonds and engagement rings. What are you hoping your prospects are going to get out of that non-public session?
BH: The Diamond Room is likely one of the issues that actually distinguishes the in-store expertise at Helzberg.
While you’re shopping for a automobile, you need to look underneath the hood and know what you’re getting. It’s the identical, I feel, when prospects are investing in a bit of bijou, particularly in the event that they’re shopping for a giant diamond for the primary time. That may be sort of an awesome expertise. The Diamond Room is admittedly all about training and connecting with the patron.
It offers them an opportunity to stand up shut and private to their diamond, and it’s an opportunity for us to teach them not solely in regards to the diamond, however [also] to teach them on the advantage of being a part of Helzberg and that relationship we construct with them.
When prospects have a chance to expertise the Diamond Room, their web promoter rating is way greater. (A web promoter rating refers to a buyer’s probability of recommending a enterprise to others.)
Their propensity to come back again and store with us once more is way greater. They’re simply a way more engaged and happy client. That’s actually essential for us.
We’ve been investing in some new know-how within the Diamond Room that we expect will actually improve that have. We’ve a brand new proprietary piece of apparatus that we name GEMs. It’s a Gemstone Analysis and Magnification device that actually brings that have to life for the client. It lets them see their diamond magnified in such a method that they will see the sunshine traits of their explicit diamond and the sunshine efficiency.
We’re all about training and transparency. We would like the purchasers to make your best option for them with all the data accessible and that that is actually a key a part of that course of.
LF: And also you all assume this hands-on expertise goes to be one of the best ways to do this, together with your GEMs know-how and these one-on-one classes?
BH: Completely. We discover that we actually construct a relationship with prospects by way of that course of.
The enjoyable and thrilling half in regards to the jewellery business, as you realize, is that these purchases and people investments signify milestones in folks’s lives, and it’s a chance to construct that connection. That connection actually occurs by way of that consultative gross sales course of within the retailer.
We’ve been investing not solely within the in-store course of but additionally on-line. We need to carry that very same alternative to life on-line, so we’ve invested in some actually cool experiences on our web site as effectively to start to carry that very same kind of training and expertise to life in a digital method.
LF: The Helzberg web site additionally has a brand new customized ring builder. Is that new to Helzberg completely or an replace?
BH: We’ve all the time had some functionality on our web site to construct customized rings. This one is a brand new builder that we launched in June. It offers a very nice consumer expertise for patrons to have the ability to design and construct that customized ring, but additionally to have the ability to work together with it, to see it in a giant method, to have 360-degree views, to have the ability to actually stand up shut and private with that particular piece of bijou that they’re constructing and creating.
LF: I’m getting the sense from a few of these new updates that personalization is more and more essential to your prospects. Is that honest to say?
BH: That’s completely honest. Shoppers have rather more attachment to the piece of bijou and the which means behind it after they’re concerned within the creation. That may very well be so simple as, “I need to choose the precise diamond that goes into this setting,” or it may very well be as detailed as, “Hey, I noticed this ring on Pinterest that I actually like, and I’m going to do one thing comparable however make it distinctive.”
We’re bringing all of these capabilities to our prospects. They’re rather more linked to the model and to the expertise after they have an element in designing.
LF: I can positively see that.
BH: We’ve an important customized marriage ceremony band functionality each on our web site and in our shops. And you are able to do every kind of wonderful issues. There’s every kind of cool supplies and designs and options you could actually personalize a marriage band. And that’s develop into so standard with our prospects.
That’s actually develop into our primary providing in that area versus among the conventional males’s weddings bands that you just might need considered prior to now. So, it’s actually been enjoyable to see prospects adapt that and need to be concerned in that personalization and customization.
LF: That’s tremendous enjoyable. I really feel like that know-how is proscribed to engagement rings more often than not. Now, you even have the Love and Marriage Studio. Are you able to stroll me by way of what that personalization expertise is like?
BH: The entire intent there was this concept of bringing the superb Helzberg expertise we ship in our brick-and-mortar places to life on-line.
The Love and Marriage Studio is known as a place that’s personalised and customised as our prospects expertise that on-line.
On the very starting, it’s a spot to study engagement rings, to study weddings, something to do with engagements and weddings. That’s an important place to begin on our web site, and it lets the purchasers tailor the expertise.
They may already know what they’re on the lookout for and simply need to go straight to our rings and store and discover. They could need some inspiration, and so they might want some training. They could need to be taught in regards to the 4Cs of diamonds and the way to pick the suitable diamond.
We’ve been constructing that with lots of buyer analysis and buyer information based mostly on how prospects need to expertise that kind of course of on-line. We’ve been actually excited to carry it to the market.
We simply launched that in September and the preliminary outcomes are actually encouraging.
(Helzberg additionally makes use of a fifth “C,” alternative, inviting prospects to decide on a pure or lab-grown diamond based mostly on what works finest for them. “We have been an early adopter of lab-grown diamonds and we’ve a reasonably in depth providing, however we’re not likely taking a stand when it comes to ‘Is mined higher? Is lab higher?” I feel they each have locations and so they’re each distinctive and have a compelling worth proposition to customers. We’re all about giving prospects the chance to decide on,” stated Hampton.)
LF: I feel that’s a cool concept. I take pleasure in figuring out all these issues simply from my line of labor, however I feel for those who don’t, it may be very intimidating to enter a retailer and ask a gross sales affiliate all of those questions if you’re making such a major buy. And it removes that barrier if I can simply go onto your web site and skim up earlier than I get there.
BH: Proper. We all know customers immediately very not often purchase one thing in a retailer with out having researched and appeared on-line. We predict connecting that have has been actually essential.
By the Love and Marriage Studio, we provide prospects the choice in the event that they need to full the acquisition on-line, and that’s nice. If they need some assist with a digital agent, we’ve a digital promoting studio, and we will join such as you and I are connecting now and get some private recommendation.
They will textual content and join with one in every of our jewellery consultants, or they will make an appointment and are available to a retailer and end the method there.
So nonetheless prospects are comfy, nonetheless they need to expertise the method, we need to make it simple and, to your level, take a few of these obstacles down to purchasing jewellery.
LF: I feel that’s a very enjoyable option to do it. Helzberg additionally now has one thing referred to as “an inside infinite possibility tremendous app.” What’s that, and what does that imply on your prospects?
BH: As we’ve been investing on this entire omnichannel buyer expertise, we needed to provide our gross sales associates a chance to work together with prospects, once more, how and each time they need.
So, what that app actually does is it permits our gross sales associates to supply prospects product choices that aren’t bodily in our circumstances within the retailer, whether or not that’s a customized ring that they need to design or it’s a part of the expanded assortment that we provide on-line however not in retailer.
This offers our gross sales associates a very easy portal to entry all of that product and likewise to supply it as much as our customers, both in retailer or if the client is digital, to have the ability to talk with the client.
It’s a clienteling utility as effectively, however it additionally lets our associates serve up, for instance, a prepopulated basket of things they could have checked out within the retailer or their want listing from within the retailer, and so they may ship a hyperlink to the client that’s simple for the client to click on on and end the acquisition at dwelling.
It’s a relationship administration device for our associates to construct these omnichannel relationships throughout the channels with our prospects.
LF: That is my final query for you. What’s an important factor that you really want prospects to know in regards to the new Helzberg?
BH: Helzberg is all about care and craft and constructing a relationship. And what I would like our prospects to know is that we’ve been right here for over 100 years. We’ve this superb heritage and legacy, and we’re going to be right here for our prospects sooner or later.
What we discover is that when prospects come to us, it’s a relationship that we construct with them, and that’s the actually thrilling half about what differentiates our model.
We simply need our prospects to know we’re right here for them and that we’re constructing all the pieces we will to make the interplay probably the most optimistic and that we’re going to be right here for the subsequent 100 years.
