A digital and customizable floor map is one of several buyer services that will debut at the Buyers Market, Feb. 16-18, 2013, and its annual Jewelry Preview on Feb. 15, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.
Premier Jewelers occupy a pavilion together on the show floor but additional jewelry designers are located throughout the hall. In addition, Buyers Market provides gift and fashion products made by nearly 800 U.S. and Canadian studio artists.
“The combined square footage of exhibitor booths alone is nearly the equivalent of two football fields,” said Rebecca Mercado, show director. “We’re excited to introduce mobile technology to help our buyers find the merchandise they need.”
Retailers who plan to attend the trade-only show can begin charting their course on the show floor through the digital floor map already in place on the Buyers Market’s website. New exhibitors are added weekly and the artists have begun posting their product keywords in the search list.
The website is also where to register. The $35 basic registration fee includes admission for up to four members of a store’s buying staff, plus access to all retailing seminars, fashion shows and Buyers Market events. Pre-registration ends February 11. On-site registration will be $50. To take advantage of discounted rates at Buyers Market contract hotels near the convention center, register before Jan. 25. For customer service call 866.341.2001 or e-mail BMACregistration@jspargo.com.
Swiss luxury watch brand Hublot has teamed up with the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia for the second consecutive year to serve as the “Official Watch and Timepiece” of the Liberty Medal award.
To celebrate this partnership, Hublot created a limited edition US Liberty Bang 44mm timepiece to honor the recipients of the Liberty Medal. Set with a black ceramic case, the black dial features an American flag inscribed with text and citations from the American Constitution on a black rubber and gummy alligator strap.
Established in 1988 to commemorate the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, the Liberty Medal is awarded annually to men and women of courage and conviction who strive to secure the blessings of liberty to people around the globe. The medal was first administered by the National Constitution Center in 2006 to presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Other past Liberty Medal recipients include Nelson Mandela, Shimon Peres, Kofi Annan, Sandra Day O’Connor, Bono and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates was the recipient of 2011 award.
This year’s award will be presented in September. The recipient has yet to be named.
The National Constitution Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution devoted to the U.S. Constitution and its legacy of freedom. It is located two blocks from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia
The Hublot US Liberty Bang limited edition costs $11,900 and is available at the Hublot Boutique, 692 Madison Avenue, New York.
The iconic Philadelphia jewelry store, Robbins 8th & Walnut (“our name is our address”), has closed—a victim of the economy, according to a message posted on the company’s website.
The store was housed at Philadelphia’s Jewelers Row for nearly 60 years. The company, Robbins Diamonds, has been around for about 100 years. Signs posted in the store’s windows direct customers to its remaining store in Delaware. The company also closed its Allentown Superstore.
The company’s website, which includes an e-commerce business, has a note, saying:
Like a lot of folks, we've had to tighten our belts lately. As a part of that, we've had to close our Philly and Allentown locations. We've had a blast over the years serving our customers there, so we're sad to be leaving. But here's the really good news: by tightening things up and consolidating our efforts, we've created a truly cool and different way to shop for diamonds and engagement rings at our Delaware store.
Jerry Robbins, CEO, and his brother, Ron, who retired sometime ago, were the faces of Robbins Diamonds for more than 30 years through a television advertising campaign featuring the brothers backed by the '60s pop group the Dovells, singing and dancing to hit songs of the 1950s such as “Little Darlin'” and “Rockin' Robin,” with lyrics changed to identify the songs with the jeweler. The ads ran on radio and television and turned Robbins Eighth and Walnut into a household name.
The finishing touch to the campaign—which raised Jerry to iconic status—was attaching a diamond to his beard, which he wears in public and in the commercials. He also has a uniquely identifiable baritone voice that was used in the company’s ads. It helped propel the business into one of the highest volume-per-square-foot jewelry operations in the United States.
During the mid-2000s, the company went into massive expansion building three “superstores” (in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware), expanding its business from a “bridal specialist” jeweler, with a focus on engagement rings and wedding bands (a retail category that Jerry said his company pioneered), to a full-service jewelry business by adding designer brands and investing in a point-of-service automated management system to retrieve customer data in order to keep them coming back long after their wedding.
The company at that time also updated its advertising campaign across traditional broadcast media and the Internet, which features an animated version of a younger Jerry Robbins and a bigger-than-life mascot of the youthful Jerry for personal appearances.
I wrote about the new store concept and the company’s advertising campaign for JCK magazine in 2006, which can be seen here and here.
More recently, the company used a billboard campaign in which women show their empty ring finger that appears as if they are “flipping the bird,” accompanied with the statement, “She’s tired of waiting.”
In more recent years during the economic downturn, the company struggled, as it now had large mortgage payments and more suppliers to pay. The company eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, 2009, during the height of the economic downturn.
The company now consists of the Delaware store and its e-commerce operation.
