Guillaume Barb

MARKET OPPORTUNITIES The section that provides an overview of what is happening in the market right now. Discover more on the Jewellery Trendbook 2026 : https://lnkd.in/dxs8fVC9

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De Beers Embarks on Ambitious Five-Year Plan to Lead the Luxury Jewellery Market De Beers, the renowned diamond producer currently under the umbrella of Anglo American and now up for sale, has unveiled an ambitious five-year strategy aimed at transforming itself into the premier jewellery brand in the global market Already a key player in the diamond retail sector with boutiques worldwide, CEO Al Cook plans to significantly expand De Beers’ retail presence to rival luxury giants such as Tiffany and Cartier. Cook envisions a future where De Beers evolves from a mining-focused company into a leading jewellery house, leveraging its storied legacy and market influence. "Diamonds' future extends far beyond mining," Cook shared with the Financial Times. "I'm thrilled by the potential to execute our comprehensive strategy, aspiring to establish the world's most prestigious jewellery maison—a vision that transcends traditional mining company boundaries." Central to this transformation is De Beers' "Origins" strategy, which aims to drive demand for mined diamonds by appealing to a new generation of consumers. This initiative includes revitalizing marketing efforts and adopting innovative techniques to enhance the brand’s reach and impact. De Beers is also pivoting away from lab-grown diamonds, ending a six-year venture under its Lightbox brand. While the current inventory of lab-grown stones will continue to be sold over the next year, the company is charting a future focused exclusively on natural diamonds. Strategic Retail Collaborations Key to De Beers’ strategy is strengthening relationships with retail partners. The success of the "Seize the Day" campaign, launched in September 2023 and supported by over 22,000 retail stores, underscores the importance of these collaborations. Future plans include forging strategic alliances with major retailers, exemplified by partnerships with Signet Jewelers in the United States and Chow Tai Fook in China. Having operated independently for most of its 136-year history, De Beers appears poised to reclaim its standalone status. Anglo American acquired an 85% stake in De Beers in 2011, with the remaining shares held by the government of Botswana.

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FASHION QUO VADIS? PRIORITISE IMPACT OVER ENTERTAINMENT Interesting. More and more I hear people in fashion state that “fashion is all about entertainment”. In a way, I view this as a linear extrapolation of the “Fashion brands need to become editors” which came up when the digital pure play platforms in fashion saw their market shares rise and people viewed their “curation” of products and their editorial approach as the main key success factors compared to the online and offline worlds of traditional department stores and brands at the time. And I do understand why Pharrell William’s spectacular Paris fashion premiere for Louis Vuitton was viewed as a celebration of joy and coming together and particularly as the “transition of fashion into entertainment”. I also understand where the eyeing of larger luxury players to the glamourous entertainment world on the US West coast as well as their appetite for talent agencies comes from. However, I am very confident that focusing on entertainment only or even using that as your strategic north star will be a route to failure and decline. Sure, storytelling continues to be critical, and I actually believe that we need to elevate storytelling to an entirely different level to take luxury into the future - leveraging pioneering digital (immersive) technologies as well as curated, multi-sensory approaches. And entertainment has some role in that. But at the core of your strategy needs to be something else, at least in my view, and that has just been perfectly articulated by The Future Laboratory at their annual Trend Briefing: We need to “Prioritise impact over entertainment”. The quantitative research that they executed with their Future Poll in the US and the UK clearly shows that this is what consumers really want - across all generations. Impact, not entertainment. Fashion is facing a critical decision: focus on impact or on entertainment. I believe that engineering a dream is no longer sufficient to generate desire. And desire/desirability is at the heart of all luxury. It’s time to think deeper in order to generate real relevance. Time to understand that the new luxurious dreams of the future need to be grounded in better realities. Time to rethink fashion and luxury for the future. At least if you want to build to last. #future #strategy #luxury #brands #fashion

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Tik Tok´s ranking of Perfume niche brands (views) in an interesting post by Marcus Nymand Jacobsen. Original post: https://lnkd.in/dGs75nHs Perfume category filters become viral and grow organically to impressive high viewership (see below WikiParfum’s perfume filters as a comparison with TikTok’s top ranked niche brands). 🔎 Insight: Perfume visual storytelling is very relevant for the new generation in social media. Perfume filters generate engaging conversations and the desire to try the perfumes and know more. Mario Cadafalch Garcia, Victoria Pozo Gowland, Lucía Viñuales Carranza, Natalia Shabalina, Sergio Jovani, Raquel Bernad Marín, Soledad De Rosa, Gregorio Sola Vela, Elisabeth Vidal Camille Latron, Ferran Mensa, Ana Guasch Seculi #wikiparfum #scentdiscovery #scentprofile #tiktokscent #puigtechnology #scentxp

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It’s crucial to understand and verify the authenticity of watches to avoid counterfeit products. Ensuring provenance and certification from reputable sources helps protect your investment.

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As a general manager in the premium and luxury industry, we are continuously challenged with the question ‚how can you accelerate business growth without expanding your team more and more and saving costs’. Growth is the lifeblood of any successful business, but achieving profitable and sustainable growth has become increasingly challenging in recent years. Business leaders need a strategic approach that blends courage, innovation, and a readiness to make bold decisions. Part of the answer is by using LLMs for process streamlining. In fact, a recent McKinsey study found that already today businesses using LLMs saw a 30% increase in efficiency! But is this a bold decision to make or just a no-brainer? 👀 Amid constant disruptions, top companies become "innovative growers," excelling in growth and innovation, and outperforming their peers in the process. In the past, technology drove automation. Business started using algorithms but people often created bottlenecks due to the need for manual input. Scaling processes then demanded more staff, leading to challenges in recruiting, onboarding, and training—tasks that are time-consuming and often redundant. Does this sound familiar? …and also quite depressing, right? LLMs can act as co-creators for your staff, who define the requirements, act as controllers and select what’s good, securing brand IP while streamlining operations. I believe that businesses who double down on integrating LLMs in a secure and structured way while bringing their staff along - the experts of the task - will ultimately result in exceeding their growth goals and creating a competitive advantage. Please let me know your thoughts!

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