IN SUPPORT OF THE RETAILER.(diamond marketing and industry trends)

The number of ways manufacturers and suppliers can support retailers in selling diamonds is limited only by their imagination and a willingness to go the extra mile,

It's a good thing that Diane Warga-Arias is promoting diamonds and not swampland in her home state of Florida, or extolling the virtues of some Ponzi pyramid scheme. In her role as a speaker sponsored by the Diamond Promotion Service, her enthusiasm and machine-gun delivery would overwhelm even the most reluctant and resistant of listeners. But that's a good thing, because resistance has played a large role in the jewelry business.

As she tells it, with wholesalers sitting in their offices waiting for customers to come to them and retailers waiting for customers to find a reason to shop in store "A" rather than store "B," diamond sales have lagged far behind other luxury goods.

And the lack of brands in the diamond world have hurt sales, Warga-Arias contends. "Consumers love brands because of trust," she told an audience at the JA Show.

Trust, she added, …