Like many people, I found a new obsession during the first Covid-19 lockdown. For some, it was baking. Others, gardening. Most, jumping around the living room at eight in the morning to a blurry live stream of Joe Wicks.

Me? I became obsessed with diamonds. No, I wasn’t begging my boyfriend for a rock to wear on my finger – I was sitting up until 4 am reading about one of the most complex, corrupt, and misunderstood industries in the world.

My feverish lockdown obsession hasn’t given me much knowledge I can use day-to-day (I really should have taken up sewing or written a book), but it did give me a glimpse into one of the most powerful examples of bad marketing in history.

Let’s talk diamonds, De Beers, and how to do marketing wrong.

The tale of how diamonds became rare and valuable (spoiler alert, they are neither)

There’s an old phrase, “A product is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.” In that sense, diamonds are very valuable – so much so that, as of 2022, the global diamond industry was still worth £86.5 billion.

Yet in truth, diamonds are largely useless lumps of compressed carbon that can be found on nearly every continent. What’s more, it takes a huge amount of energy and manual labour to unearth natural diamonds, not to mention the unsustainable environmental and human labour practices that often go with these mining practices.

So, what makes modern consumers willing to spend thousands on a diamond for the one they love?

You’ll have heard of De Beers, the diamond company that started it all.

Founded in 1888 by Cecil Rhodes (yes, that Cecil Rhodes), De Beers controlled nearly 100% of the world’s diamond supply from its inception until the early 21st century, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The company achieved this astonishing monopoly through a genius (although unethical) marketing ploy: it made consumers believe that diamonds were incredibly rare, and on top of it, sold them the idea that giving someone a diamond when proposing marriage was the ultimate sign of love and commitment. These falsities led De Beers to greatness (Uri Friedman wrote a fantastic piece about this in The Atlantic which I suggest you peruse if you want the full story).

Put simply, De Beers set the new standard for men who wanted to propose to their sweethearts. While the custom of engagement rings can be traced as far back as Ancient Rome, including a diamond in the ring came about from De Beers’ marketing efforts alone.

Even in 2025, if I asked you to picture an engagement ring in your head, I can guarantee it’s a diamond ring that you see – even though, broadly, their value is based on a flat lie.

Lab-grown stones are making it harder for bad diamond marketing to continue

Old-fashioned jewellers – who are still drinking the De Beers Koolaid and lying about the rarity and preciousness of diamonds, or in other words, are doing marketing wrong – face a huge problem in 2025.

Lab-grown diamonds.

These are:

• Chemically and scientifically identical to a diamond mined from the earth
• Visually “cleaner” than most mined diamonds
• Far less energy-intensive, typically carry fewer air miles, and are 100% traceable to source (unlike mined diamonds, most of which are traced via blockchain these days, but remain subject to corruption and conflict-sourcing)
• Cost a fraction of the price – the latest available data suggests that a 1.5 carat lab-grown diamond costs around $4,425, whereas the same quality of diamond mined from the earth would set you back more than $13,000.

As consumers flock to buy bigger, more ethical rings for a fraction of the price, mined diamond vendors are struggling to keep up their century-old bad diamond marketing schtick.

But why does any of this matter to you as a financial adviser/planner?

Stay with me…

The thing is, De Beers’ marketing strategy worked astonishingly well back then, and has had a lasting impact on Western culture. But that doesn’t make it “good” marketing. De Beers’ false claims about diamonds were just that – false – and in 2025, you can’t launch a successful marketing campaign that way. In this day and age, not only would you be breaking the law, but your tactics would soon prove ineffective and you’d lose client trust.

It’s too late to undo the damage where diamonds are concerned, but if you’re looking to improve the marketing for your financial planning business, it’s best not to start with a lie.

Let’s talk about how to get marketing right in the age of authenticity.

A diamond is worth the story it tells, and the same is true for financial advice

If you’re still reading, it’ll be clear by now that diamonds aren’t a good investment.

But ultimately, the point of buying a diamond for the person you love is not the monetary value. It’s the story.

The very notion of selecting a diamond ring for the person you wish to marry is personal; the act of giving the ring is what is truly valuable, not how much you spent on it or what you could sell it for tomorrow.

If I worked in marketing for a jeweller, that’s what I would focus on. Not how much it’s worth, not where it came from, but the story you want to tell when you pop the question. Rather than lying about the amazing rarity of certain diamonds, I’d just get to the truth. This diamond is valuable because of who will be wearing it.

Luckily, I work at Yardstick rather than selling diamonds for a living. So, turning now to your financial planning business, it’s time to start investing in your clients’ stories.

In financial services, gone are the days of shady ploys to win short-term transactions; the age of authenticity has firmly arrived, and that means focusing on the story, not on the money.

Modern marketing that tells your story

Here at Yardstick, we aren’t here to sell your clients something they won’t really get. In our opinion, that’s the epitome of doing marketing wrong.

Our job is to tell the truth about the value of financial planning and encourage your clients and prospects to discover it for themselves.

Take our video department, for instance. They don’t need to spin a fairytale about the value of your services, because your clients will do it for you in their own words. I recommend you read Ellie’s recent blog about how clients’ stories come to life when they’re in front of the camera.

Let’s consider our branding and digital teams. Together, they build beautiful, accessible websites that help users navigate your services without jargon, smoke screens, or hidden fees. They’re not selling a dream, but rather, extracting the value of what you already do every day and making it clear for the world to see.

Or our content team. It’s our job to educate, inform, and reassure your clients about the complicated world of finance. Our writing could help a client deal with the death of a loved one and the financial aftermath of this loss, or prompt them to protect their hard-earned wealth. We’re here to let your clients know that you will support them come rain or shine.

And isn’t that the truth?

If you want to get marketing right in the age of authenticity, speak to us today. Email hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call 0115 8965 300 today.