Are you ready for the Bespoke Male?

When we think about 18-34 year old men and jewellery, most jewellers would think of engagement rings. In general, most young guys have not had much interest in jewellery for themselves but that is changing.

Enter the Millennial Bespoke Male, subject of a panel at Ad Week, Marketers call style-obsessed millennial men ‘bespoke males’. Style-conscious to the point of obsession and extremely brand-aware but not necessarily brand-loyal, these young men can be found surfing social media networks like Facebook and increasingly Google+ during most of their waking hours. In a world where every player receives a trophy just for showing up, these are the guys that still care about winning. They prefer to lead rather than follow; therefore today’s fashions are already obsolete. They are more interested in getting to tomorrow before anyone else. They want jewellery that is unique, personal and made to order. They will not follow the herd so if an item is already popular they probably won’t want it. They want to make the style.

Reaching out to the Bespoke Male takes a bit of finesse. Growing up in a digital age and being bombarded by advertising at every turn enabled them to develop immunity to most marketing. They may seem disinterested but instead they are very choosy about what interests them. Marketing needs a message beyond product sales. It needs to hit them on a more personal level.   You can play to their ego by showcasing your ability to personalize designs to fit their own style. You can work with their sense of justice, fairness and social responsibility by using ethically sourced gems and recycled materials.

Once you get them into your store don’t sell them product, sell the story behind the product. Build a tale of wonder and awe; how the forces of nature combined in just the right way to produce the stone, the efforts of the miner to find it, the mastery of the cutter to shape it into a gem, the artistry of the designer and the skill of the jeweller…millions of years and dozens of people to create one, unique piece of jewellery just for him.

Do you really want to work that hard to attract the Bespoke Male? I think you should. When surveyed, 81% of the Bespoke Males stated they are willing to pay more for quality. They will pay even more for quality + unique. They are leaders and self-starters. If they the first to find something exciting in your store they will become your best marketers because it is no fun leading if there aren’t any followers.   They will be promoting you on their favourite social networks.

With so many of the demographic segments in the jewellery industry in decline it is nice to see a new and exciting group of customers emerging on the scene. Don’t ignore this new opportunity.