b'THE STATE OF THE THE JEWELRY THE COLOREDMAJORS DIAMOND DESIGN STONE MARKETINDUSTRYBefore delving into the nitty-gritty details of branding, both Wise and Mortimer advise that a company, whether it employs one personJEWELRY BRANDS or 100,000, must clarify exactly who it is and what it stands for. You have to start with articulating your brand, says Wise. WhatDOING IT RIG HTare its values, what is its DNA? I like to call it your ethos, which means, whats your brand essence? Whats your reason for existing? Jacquie AicheShe says successful branding means consumers immediately un-derstand what that brand is. She gives Burberry as an example, citingSimon Mortimer: Jacquie Aiche is building a story through more of its tagline: Burberry is a global luxury brand with a distinctly Britisha visual representation, sort of a lifestyle narrative. Thats a very good attitude. example of how the personality of the brand has come to life through Thats its ethos, she says. Thats the one line that sums it all up. visuals rather than verbally. On her Instagram you Both Wise and Mortimerget a sense of who she is and what shes about.advise companies to create an internal set of documents explaining their brand ethos, essen-tially defining the lens with which you approach every design and every opportunity that comes your way, Wise says.Wise calls these doc-uments a brand book, which could be as brief as a one-page dossier. Creating and referencing it helps a company figure out what message it wants to send and check that it is doing so consistently in all marketing.[A brand book] can have things like your story, your manifesto,Kataokayour vision, your values, personas, your target demographic, she says. It should distill your brand ethos, or the one-line descriptor onSM: Even though its biggest market is the U.S., Kataokas brand why you exist. story is still very rooted in this idea of handmade, sustainably sourced Mortimer refers to these same basic documents as a brand artisanal Japanese craft. Designer Yoshinobu Kataoka becomes part of platform, and recommends breaking it down into specific catego- the story as you go on its website. You can see him there making the ries, or pillars, which provide a useful exercise in crafting a compa- jewelry so theres also this little look behind the scenes.nys narrative. The first pillar is brand mission, similar to what Wise describes as a brands ethos. That means, whats your greater purpose? Mor-timer explains. Why do you exist as a company?The next pillar is brand vision, defining where your company wants to go in the future.He says you should ask yourself: What are we working toward as a brand? Where do we see our-selves in the coming years? In what direction are we headed? Even if youre just launching, envisioning where you want to be in five years, or decades into the future, will help cultivate a brand platform that is evergreen and consistent over time.You have to be very consistent in your message or you will lose customers attention very fast, says Wise. A lot of people build for the short term instead of the long game and thats a huge, huge misstep. 54 STATE OF THE MAJORS 2019'