Being Truthful in Gold Marketing and Advertising
By: Sharon Zimmerman
Tags: Marketing Strategies, Jewelry, Advertising, Ethics, Gold

Let’s get in the wayback machine and talk about 2011.

That was the year I started my business officially and began selling on Etsy. I didn’t think that I had the budget for a website and website building tools a decade ago were, uh, less than intuitive.

Selling on Etsy was already fraught even then, and one of the first things I noticed was just how many sellers were being less than truthful about the materials they were using. And I’m not just talking about the thorny issue of labeling something conflict-free (a whole other topic that I wrote about here).

Other sellers on Etsy were labeling their jewelry as gold, or 14 karat gold, or even 24 karat gold when their work was anything BUT that.

I was seeing jewelry of a similar size and scale to mine and labeled with similar materials, but their prices were so much lower — what in the actual eff?

The difference is that they were using silver plating or gold plating (or fill or vermeil), but they weren’t being upfront about it. It made it harder to compete in the Etsy marketplace.

Have a look at this listing:

The title calls it 14 karat gold, but that price? That is suspicious. A necklace like this made from actual solid 14 karat gold, in smaller sizes could easily start at $300 depending on factors like size, thickness, length of chain and more.

Farther down in the listing you finally find this, more detailed list of what the necklaces are made of:

There is no shame or reason to hide the fact that you work in gold fill, or gold vermeil, or gold plate. Those are all valid materials to make your jewelry from. But you shouldn’t hide that information from consumers.

Your customers should understand, to the best of their and your ability, exactly what they are buying.

This message needs emphasizing over and over, and here’s why:

Some customers have metal allergies and need to know if the metal is 14 karat gold through and through, or if it is a layer of 14 K over a base metal.

Customers need to understand that there are price differences between gold fill and solid 18 karat gold.

Customers need to understand that plated jewelry needs different care over time than solid and karat gold jewelry.

It feels like this should go without saying, but please don’t lie to your customers.

Think of it this way — let’s say you sell something that is plated, but your customer isn’t fully informed about gold-plated jewelry. The plating wears off, and suddenly your customer “develops an allergy to gold”. This is the kind of misinformation that perpetuates ignorance, and it really isn’t the customer’s fault.

And the price differences? Selling gold-fill or gold plate as “solid gold” jewelry sets up consumers to think of gold jewelry as less expensive than it really is. This hurts the industry as a whole and your fellow independent designers in particular.

Again, there is no shame in making and selling gold-fill jewelry, just as there is no shame in making and selling silver jewelry or gold or bronze or copper or platinum, but it is on all of us to be truthful in our marketing.

End rant.

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​Parts of this newsletter originally appeared as a thread on Twitter and a blog post here.