Navigating the High Jewelry Industry’s Future: Sustainability and Brand Diversification

The article addresses key challenges and opportunities within the high jewelry industry. It explores how brands can target sustainability and diversification demands by consumers from the supply side. It details sustainability-oriented market trends and resulting challenges and opportunities for high jewelry brands, in particular regarding artificial lab-grown diamonds, without being solely focused on this option alone. The study implements a qualitative research methodology, using semi-structured interviews with eight professionals active in different parts of the high jewelry industry, thus covering a large share of all high jewelry companies. The interviews provide an in-depth understanding of the obstacles and opportunities faced by both traditional and new high jewelry brands. The findings of this study reveal the changing trends in the high jewelry industry. Sustainability has emerged as a key driver in consumer decision-making, with ethical concerns now taking a central role in brand strategy and supply chain practices. Diversification has emerged as a strategy to meet this demand without losing the brand’s luxury essence and to build brand power without compromising exclusivity and creativity. The study concludes by proposing an SOR-type framework for the interplay of sustainability and diversification deduced from the interviews.