One of the many valuable things that the greatest mindset and business coach, David Neagle, taught me is to question my beliefs.
Why do I believe certain things?
Where do these beliefs come from?
For example:
When I was younger, I was taught to always peel apples before eating them. I never questioned why, I just assumed that the skin was inedible. Of course, now I know that’s not true.
Or, a second example, why is the idea of engagement rings a thing? To me, it feels weird to see people spend thousands of dollars on them. And some people are so afraid of losing such an expensive item that they don’t even wear it.
So I can’t help myself but to ask why.
Well, recently someone sent me an article that answered my question.
Originally, engagement rings were something that was only available for the extremely rich people. Average people, like you and I, couldn’t give a damn about it. Women rather had their men spend that money on other important things like a car or a house, and saw engagement rings as a waste of money.
But in 1943, an agency called N.W. Ayer & Son was hired by a diamond company, De Beers, to write their ads. Two main people were assigned to this account:
Copywriter Frances Gerety and her publicity partner, Dorothy Dignam.
Both of them had one goal: Get every American to believe that they need to buy engagement rings when they get married.
And so they got to work.
Frances Gerety was busy, head down on her desk, thinking of ideas and writing ads after ads. Eventually, she came with the renown slogan:
“Diamonds are Forever.”
Meanwhile, Dorothy Dignam made sure people saw diamonds everywhere. When they watched TV, they’d see someone wearing a diamond ring. When they read the newspaper, there would be at least one article talking about diamond rings. Dorothy took things further and sometimes wrote articles under a pen name, Diamond Dot Dignam.
They even created a guide to teach people how to properly shop for diamond rings.
In my opinion, all of this never would’ve happened if it weren’t for Dorothy. I’m willing to bet my left kidney that she understood the power of omnipresent marketing and used it to its full potential. Because of her, a brand new market was created and an entire society was convinced to love diamond rings.