To assure customers that the jewelry his Wholesale Gem Shop offers is ethically made in a non-sweatshop environment, Aaron Rome created a video of his products being made.
Aaron says,
“I made this video because I feel strongly that everyone should know where their products come from and how they are made.”
He adds, “it also addresses the important issue of fair trade and exploitation in the jewelry industry.”
I think it’s an excellent idea for all jewelry businesses to create an educational piece – such as a video, a slideshow, or a photo series – showing customers how your jewelry is made, and who makes it.
It’s really eye-opening for customers to see the effort and skill that goes into your work, and it can be a good way to address some of the frequently asked questions about your products and your business.
Here’s the video Aaron created:
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Great idea. I’ve been toying with the idea for months now and am finally, I hope closing in on how to do it. My budget is low for such things.
Excellent idea! Customers really don’t know the time and effort that is put on the smallest piece. Last year I had a friend staying at home for a few days and she was amazed at how time consuming was the make-photogrpah-edit-list process. After she saw the long hours that were put into it, she said I should double the price of the pieces!
Bev: you can make great videos using Windows Movie Maker. I made two last year and have been a wonderful promoting tool. It takes a little time to understand the process completely, but once you do, WMM is very easy to adjust to your needs.
I think Aaron’s idea is fantastic! Very few people realize the time that is put into carefully thought out and constructed jewelry or as Carolina said, the make-photograph-edit-list process. Then there are the tag, inventory and proper storage steps. Thanks for the tip on the Windows Movie Maker too Carolina.
That’s a great tool to sell the true value of piece of handmade jewelry. After all, each piece stands for something, whether that’s a fairly treated artisan, creativity or beauty.
Several years ago, around 1999 I manufactured hand made platinum. I had a rough video ( before it was easy to share video like today) showing the various steps from what the raw pieces of platinum look like when purchased to rolling into wire or plate. Then the bending and welding of pieces together. Finally the polishing of the finished piece. People loved learning about a process usually done in back rooms and kept hidden for security reasons. It also enforced the fact that my business really did manufacture what we were selling. If you could incluse a clock showing the amount of time each step takes that would also help prove the value. I would have small write-ups describing each step and how long the jeweler worked on it.