Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT
The marketing of cubic zirconia engagement rings seems rather trivial compared to the grand theories of consumer behavior. And yet, cubic zirconia, moissanite, and other imitation diamonds have the potential to penetrate the $4.8 billion diamond engagement ring market.
Not only has jewelry shown to be a culturally embedded product class, but engagement rings further the richness of this by adding the facet of rite of passage and the backdrop of sex roles.
This paper, the third in a research stream, explores consumers' attitudes of artificial diamond engagement rings. Are artificial diamonds a substitute for a luxury product or merely inferior?
INTRODUCTION
Why does it matter what are consumers' opinions of artificial diamond engagement rings? While this may sound like a peculiar marketing question, there are several implications for both theory and practice.
The diamond engagement ring market was $4.8 billion in 2005 (Law 2006). While the average engagement ring is $3200, what would be the impact of the popularity of $100 rings? Are there ways for jewelers to exploit artificial diamonds in the market of the genuine ones?
Consumers' meanings for culturally embedded products are of particular interest to sociologists, psychologists, and consumer behaviorists (Solomon 1983) . The development of cultural meanings of products is a narrative of the society itself (Belk 1988, Hirschman and LaBarbera 1990). Jewelry is a culturally-embedded product with several consumer meanings (first author, 2006). Both luxury goods and counterfeit goods have their own soci al histories (e.g. Penz and Stöttinger 2004).
This paper, the third in a research stream, explores consumers' attitudes of artificial diamond engagement rings. Are artificial diamonds a substitute for a luxury product or merely inferior? There is scant literature on attitudes toward counterfeit products and none on artificial diamonds.
Some history of both artificial diamonds and engagement rings is given. The combining of consumer behavior of the engagement ring purchase with that of artificial diamonds creates a whole new situation with almost no applicable literature. An exploratory study investigating attitudes towards artificial diamonds among young adults is presented. Implications for both theory and practice are highlighted. Finally, suggestions for future research are given.
ENGAGEMENT RINGS
In this paper, the term diamond denotes only genuine carbon stones. Any and all substitutes for diamonds,...