Sadie Basadi-Botlhe Ontiretse                                48739/08014147                                       Man30032

MAN30032: CURRENT I DEAS IN MARKETING

TOPIC: ETHICS

COMPANY NAME: DE BEERS CORPORATION

INTRODUCTION

Whether or not marketing is entirely disreputable is what nearly everyone appears to be centering on currently, particularly the marketing critics. Ethics is the bough of understanding that compacts with just and moral codes and even though they show a discrepancy from organization to organization, religion to religion and society to society, ethics present the foundation for choosing whether a certain act is ethically correct or ethically wrong. In our day’s business setting, stress and anxiety to realize top aspirations and ambitions in a rigid time border can cause companies to slither into unscrupulous activities and decisions. Consequently this paper provides a vigilant look at De Beers Corporation’s marketing practices.

DE BEERS CORPORATION

BRIEF HISTORY;

De Beers Corporation is a name that has come synonymous with the diamond industry. This privately held corporation came to being in 1888.Its founder Cecil Rhodes started out by letting out water pumps to miners throughout the diamond scuttle that began in 1871, whilst an 83.5 carat was discovered on the present day South African town Kimberley. Rhodes devoted his proceeds into procuring claims of miniature mining operatives, and in next to no time his business had turned into a separate mining corporation.

NATURE OF BUSINESS;

De Beers along with other different corporations within the De Beers group are into diamond trading, diamond mining, diamond and industrial diamond manufacturing segments. The corporation is beyond doubt prevalent in all the above mentioned categories. Vibrant in all categories of industrial mining, the process takes place in South Africa, Botswana, Canada and Namibia.

MARKETING STRATEGIES;

The success behind De beers its in due part to the company’s effective marketing of diamonds as a token of love.

DE BEERS SWOT ANAYLISIS;

SWOT analysis is a means of assessing a business or an organization together with its environment. This involves monitoring the internal and external marketing environment of a business.  It is in fact the initial phase of planning and facilitates marketers to center on important issues. The word SWOT denotes S-Strength, W-Weaknesses, O-Opportunities and T-Threats.

STRENGTHS

  1. High-class diamonds
  2. Capable of manipulating prices when selling to manufacturers
  3. Possess more than 40% of the rough diamond Industry
  4. Ownership of more than 50% of the US diamond market share

WEAKNESSES

  1. Outlets found only in selected locations
  2. link to blood/conflict diamonds

OPPORTUNITIES

  1. Discovery of existing new markets in Australia, Middle East and Europe.
  2. Capable of increasing brand appreciation by intensively promoting  De Beers

THREATS

  1. Introduction of artificial diamonds to the industry
  2. Heighten ingress of rivalry
  3. Connection to conflict diamonds

MARKETING MIX;

De Beers has a marketing mix that addresses the problems and opportunities the organization is facing and will encounter in the near future. This includes:

Product

The product offered by De Beers is of superb quality, so there is no need for the organization to change the basic product. Nevertheless, with the availability of the new diamond laser engraving technology, De Beers could mark a miniature logo into the diamonds that is only visible with the help of an eyeglass. This would be a faint but successful plan in branding De Beers diamonds. Customers/clients who buy a diamond from De Beers will know their diamond producer and sooner or later they will relate the imprinted logo with the superb product quality only offered by De Beers.

Pricing

Since the De Beers diamonds are targeted at the elite group, they are a bit pricey and currently the organization does not aim to alter the price of their products because diamond prices are subject to changes with market situations and agreements. Price changes will be determined by market situations and agreements both presently and in future.

Placement

The present state of affairs is very profitable for De Beers and is the most risk adverse supply channel since every buyer of diamonds is bound by an agreement to carry on buying De Beers diamonds at any cost and for a set time period. Therefore there is no need to change the supply channel. On the other hand, De Beers should increase the number of retail jewelry stores it owns   in the word especially in the main fashion capitals. This should be done to enable their products to reach a larger part of the wealthy and stylish group of people. De Beers’ sales would soar, and would also be able to get free promotion in celebrity publications more especially if they are spotted buying DeBeers jewelry from these retail shops.  

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Promotion

DeBeers has been in existence for many decades and prior to advertisements and promotions not many people knew about the company. The Diamond is forever slogan that the company uses coupled with celebrity endorsements has helped to put it out there.

SUCCESSES;

An arm of the De Beers Group, The Diamond Trading Company sells nearly 40% of the world’s unpolished diamond by value. The corporation accounts to 80% of the world’s industrial diamonds and has over the years with its legendary slogan “A Diamond is forever” emerged extremely successful in augmenting the demand for diamonds among ...

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