When Harold Stevens Jewelers decided to shift its focus to bridal, it was a turning point for the San Diego, California, retailer.
“We saw that the fine-jewelry category was slowing down,” recalls marketing director Ryan Krasner. “We decided to dedicate our marketing efforts to the first-time bridal customer. Our approach was to select and curate collections from unique bridal designers who were exclusive to us in San Diego.”
This drive to keep evolving is his response to the changing retail environment independent jewelers are facing. It is a philosophy he shares with Harold Krasner, who began the business in 1979. Together, they have taken a proactive approach, changing not just their business model, but also their location.
Downtown San Diego has always been home to the company, which started out on the ninth floor of a local jewelry building, later moving to the third floor of a financial office building.
“We had a lot of private clients, but we needed to grow,” explains Ryan. And indeed, a third move in 2003 to its current street-level presence resulted in a fivefold sales increase.
Marketing makeover
While Harold Stevens still creates custom designs, bridal now accounts for 70% of its sales. This new direction required a new marketing campaign as well.
“We stopped all our magazine ads that showcased fashion,” Ryan recounts. The jeweler also updated its logo to create a more modern look and redid its website “multiple times” to ensure it conveyed that Harold Stevens was “the place to go” for distinctive diamond engagement rings. Among the technological enhancements was the addition of an e-commerce platform three years ago.
“Our website has to be as top-level as our store,” says Ryan. “Our goal is to drive people to the store.”
‘We don’t cut corners’
From the beginning, exceptional quality and dedicated service have been essential to the Harold Stevens brand, and Ryan embraces that tradition.
“The detail and precision of materials in custom may be a micro-detail in the consumer’s eye, but it is a huge and very important component of the beauty and longevity of the ring,” he states. “We don’t cut corners to fit into a customer’s price point, as some jewelers do. We make a bespoke ring.”
Yet online competition presents its own challenges. “We can articulate our distinctive brand value through interaction with the customer,” he says. “But we can’t change what [jewelry e-tailer] Blue Nile will do. We can only do what we know best.”
Image: San Diego's Harold Stevens Jewelers specialized in bridal.Article from the Rapaport Magazine - July 2018. To subscribe click here.