016. Three Lessons from the World's Most Iconic Jewelry Brand

Lifestyle

Oct 10

A masterclass in branding from the most iconic jewelry company: Tiffany & Co.

In today's episode, we're exploring the fascinating world of one of the most successful brands of all time. You'll discover three valuable business lessons that have allowed Tiffany to stand the test of time that you can apply to your own company. From crafting impactful brand stories to upholding standards, explore the history of Holly Golightly and Breakfast at Tiffany's while you dream of the perfect engagement ring.

In today's episode, we cover the following:

Birdie and Bogey (0:36)

Prevalence of counterfeit items with Tiffany & Co. (11:24)

Brand magic from Business of Fashion (12:20)

Tiffany in Beverly Hills (16:17)

Lesson #1: Brand standards (22:15)

Lesson #2: Storytelling (25:12)

Lesson #3: Cultural relevance (33:03)

The About Love campaign with Beyoncé and Jay-Z (38:30)

Hot Stock Tip of the Week: The Elsa Peretti Bone Cuff (41:53)

Transcript

Amber F. (00:05)
Hello, Rich Girls. Welcome back to The Old Money Podcast. It is me, your humble host, Amber Frankhuizen. I'm so happy you're here today. This is really one for the jewelry lovers, for the entrepreneurs, for the people who care about style, history, business. I have something so amazing to share with you, something recently that I just learned about the most iconic jewelry brand in the entire world. And how you can apply what they've done for their business to yours. I'm excited to get into it, but before we do, let's talk about this week's a birdie and bogey. So fun fact about me, I'm totally superstitious and a little woo woo. And I'm sure it comes from my family history. My mom was born in El Salvador and her grandmother was a bit of a healer, medicine woman type of a thing. So I grew up with a lot of conversations in our house about about good luck and bad luck or rituals or different things that we would do to improve health or vitality, things like that. One of the things for certain that I know is that it's super bad luck to have peacock feathers in your house.

Amber F. (01:14)
And I used to love peacock feathers, but my mom always told me that they were super bad to have in your house because it would bring evil to your home. And so growing up with things like that, I was deathly and still am deadly afraid of breaking mirrors or walking under ladders. I had a moment when I was a very small kid about stepping on cracks because you know what they say about breaking your mother's back. And as I've got older, obviously I've grown out of a lot of that stuff. But when it's ingrained in you from when you're so young, I do have to say that it does creep up in different ways. However, I do feel now that it does play into my advantage in making sense of things. And that's a big part of what spirituality is, is finding meaning in what feels meaningless. So whether it's playing with oracle cards for like a message or a direction for the day or ritualizing, whether it's breath work or oils, tinctures, sprays, whatever it might be, for me, ritual has been a huge thing to feel grounded. And I was just perusing TikTok last night, and I saw the most amazing thing that I had not thought about in so long.

Amber F. (02:22)
And it's actually, I think it's rooted in Mexican mysticism, and it's an egg cleanse ritual. Now, what is an egg cleanse ritual? Basically, it means that you're cleaning yourself and your energy to protect yourself from any bad vibes, any evil eye, anything negative that's been put on you, anything that somebody's wishing ill on you for. And this egg cleanse can help you clean the energy off of your body. Now, it also has just happened to be mercury and retrograde. And it just also happens to be that I've been in a bit of a contract dispute, which I'm working so hard to resolve. And I cannot tell you as a business owner. The things that I do as a leader in this company, sure, I do the projections and the finance and the accounting with the help of my tax attorney or tax accountant and all those types of things. But what my job really is, is to protect the team, protect the business, and make sure that everything's running smoothly. And it's always these things out of left field that you can never predict that eat up the most of your time and your energy.

Amber F. (03:25)
And this particular situation that I've been dealing with, which I cannot share details about, I'll just let you know I've been losing sleep over it, among other things or other reasons why I haven't been sleeping. But I've been losing sleep. I've been so stressed. I've absolutely cried about it many times. It's been really miserable and it's uncomfortable for me to be in a state of conflict. I'm just trying to get to a resolution. And of course, that resolution was spinning, spinning, spinning into the toilet all during Mercury and Retrograde. And then the day that it was over, we made progress. Hallelujah. And then this morning, because I hadn't heard any updates on the progress since we made the progress, I was like, I really want to cleanse my vibe and really start this weekend fresh. It's Saturday morning right now. And I'm like, I'm going to do this egg cleanse. So what you do is you take this egg and you wash it first because egg is going to be gnarly and bacteria-ridden. So wash the egg. Make sure you use soap like Adrienne Maloof with her chicken on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. And you take this egg and you hold it in the palms of your hand, close your eyes, say your prayer for your intention and for protection.

Amber F. (04:29)
And you need to, while you're praying, meditating, whatever, envision yourself in this big shield of protection and cleansing and sending out love and light to everybody that's out there, whether or not they've got the evil eye on you or have bad feelings or bad vibes or whatever. And then you take this egg and you rub it all over your body. You rub it everywhere. You rub it all over your chest, your arms, your legs, the bottom of your feet, the back of your legs, your ass, whatever it might be. I don't know why I felt this, but I felt called to really move it around my shoulders. Everything on my back, of my shoulders, my back of my head, I really felt like that's where I needed the cleansing. After you do this, you crack the egg into a glass of water and then you leave it alone. Don't look at it, you leave it alone for 10 minutes. When you come back to it, you're supposed to look at the egg through the glass, not down onto the top of the glass that is casting the evil right back onto you. You've got to look at it through the glass, through the protection of the glass to protect yourself from this negative juju.

Amber F. (05:30)
And you can look up online what the different results of the egg cleanse would be. And typically what it is, is you're looking at the yoke and then what is happening with the white and if the white is surrounding the yoke. And if there are these spikes of the white that go up in the water. And I had one big spike. One big spike. And I was looking at it. I'm like, Oh, my gosh, it's so interesting. There's one big spike that was away from the yoke, away from the protection of the egg white on the yoke. And I'm acknowledging it, looking at it, sending it love and light. And you inspect it, and you can do the little tarot card reading of your egg yogurt or whatever it might be. And then you pour salt on it, and then you flush it down the toilet and rinse it away from your home and your life, letting it go. That's cleansing yourself of the evil eye. Then on top of that, you're supposed to either throw the dish, the glass away that you put your egg yoke in because it's got the bad juju in it, or you can clean it with like Florida water, which is this like cleansing water that's out in the moon or whatever.

Amber F. (06:33)
And when I tell you not 20 minutes after I did this egg cleansing recipe that I got an email from the person that I've been in this conflict with, moving the process forward and agreeing to the terms. I shit you not. That shit worked so fast. It was a very nice email, which is a big change from the very stressful and very aggressive emails that I've been getting over the past many weeks. I was shocked. So right now, if I sound a little bubbly or a little effervescent, it's because I feel that magic works and I'm really feeling booed by this whole experience. So take it for what you will. Go to the biggest research pool on the Internet, TikTok, and go see what you can find about the egg cleanse. If you try it, if you do it, let me know how it goes for you. I'm big about the evil eye. I'm looking at one right now in my office. I have one on my Instagram profile that comes from my mom of protecting our energy. And that's the thing. We have to protect our own energy. What other people do is their own business.

Amber F. (07:31)
But the more I protect my bubble of peace or my love bubble, as Theresa would say, the happier I am. Right now I'm feeling pretty fucking good. So onto the bogey. Here's the bogey. And listen, we're just doing all these conversations about capsules. The wardrobes and dressing really classically. And I am in a bogey because I am stuck. I have to go to a themed event tonight, and I have nothing to wear. It's a award ceremony for the building industry in San Diego. It's an amazing organization I've been a part of for many years, the BIA. And it's where a lot of the home builders and service providers get together. It's like prom for adults. And I've been going to these award ceremonies since I was a kid. My mom sold new homes her whole career. And in Northern California, we would go to the Mames. They still have the Mames. Those are like the California bigger ones. I think it's just a different association. Anyway, I'd be my mom's date to The Mames, and she'd go and sweep all of the awards for top salesperson of the year every year. I'm so proud of her.

Amber F. (08:29)
She has so many of the awards. And we're going tonight to support one of our clients whose marketing that we've done for a new home community here in San Diego. So it'll be fun to see everybody dressed up and have in good spirits. Like I said, it's prom people get sloshed and it can be a scene. But the theme is tropical, tropical nights. And your girl does not have anything tropical nights. I have stripes, I have solids, I have whites, I have blacks. And they sent out a style guide. And the way that one of the pieces on the style guide was a Tommy Bahama shirt that said, Margaritaville, it's five o'clock somewhere. So they're encouraging everybody to wear bright, floral prints and tropical, like Hawaii type of stuff. I have nothing to wear. So if I'm in all these pictures and you see them on LinkedIn later and I look totally out of place, just know that I felt really out of place. But hopefully our clients do really well tonight. I'm excited to be there with the team and celebrate with the industry. So I just have to figure out what I'm going to wear in the next couple of minutes.

Amber F. (09:31)
But anyway, speaking of going to award shows and things of what to wear, I have an amazing content recommendation for you. And it's tying into what I'm talking about today. I want to tell you about this amazing documentary that I watched. It's on Amazon Prime, and it's called Crazy About Tiffany's. And it is a glimpse at the most iconic luxury jeweler in the world, Tiffany and company. I'm not really a big documentary, a girly. I'm just going to be honest. You know me, I'm going to watch Bravo if there's something that I need to catch up on. But this was such a well-done documentary because it perfectly infused popular culture with the history of the brand. And I was literally taking notes because as they're going through the background of this amazing brand from its origins to its different designers to the things that they've done differently to stand out in the market, I was thinking, Oh, my gosh, these are things that I need to make sure that I infuse in my business. These are the pillars of my business, and I have to share them with you. So my history with Tiffany is probably one that you share if you're about my age, if you're a millennial and you grew up in the early 2000s when everybody was rocking the Tiffany charm bracelet, the link bracelet with a little tag on it that can get engraved.

Amber F. (10:49)
My mother gave me one when I was in high school. I still have it to this day. I'm sure you probably have one, too. And Tiffany was one of the more approachable and accessible designer brands of the early 2000s. Now, in the suburbs where I live, there's a Tiffany just down the road at the Roseville Galleries. But back in that day, if you wanted a piece, you needed to drive into the city, into San Francisco and go to Union Square and pick up your piece at Tiffany there. And that was a very special experience. Now, here's the thing about having a podcast. When you want to tell the truth about something, sometimes it might be at the expense of somebody else's experience. And so this is really tricky for me to say. So I'm going to try to navigate this as best as possible. But one time I also dated a boy whose father would travel to Asia for work all of the time. And it was often when that father came back, he would bring gifts for his wife and for his sons to give to their girlfriends. And as we know about counterfeits, if we listen to the Berkyn episode, we're still not sure.

Amber F. (11:50)
16-year-old Amber is not sure. Thirty-six-year-old Amber is not sure if those pieces were legit, but we're just going to say that they are. And that's my truth. And I don't know how to go from there. Anyway, moving on to college age, I was also gifted one of my most favorite pieces, an Elsa Peretti, Tiffany-ring. It was like the O-ring. I was obsessed with it. It was my staple. I wore it every day. I lost it. I have no idea where it went. I lost it maybe like 10 years after I got it. And that was a very sad day. However, in more recent times, Tiffany and I have had a weird relationship. Their brand overall value to me has really decreased in the market because of what I've mentioned, this surveillance of counterfeit items. It's so easy to get a replica Tiffany, and it's also a bit passive. And I mean that in the way that the commercially available items, the charm bracelets, the necklaces, things like that. They're just more available and therefore less special. It's the economics of fashion, right? Supply and demand. And recently, Tiffany has been undergoing a metamorphosis. And I also think that just generally speaking, their brand magic is low.

Amber F. (13:01)
And brand magic is a new metric that was recently introduced by The Business of Fashion, which is an incredible publication that focuses just on obviously the business of fashion. And this brand magic metric, which was just introduced is a study of how brands are really being received by the public. Because in the past we haven't really had a good way to consolidate all of the feedback from the public market about how they really feel about brands. It was always driven by publications, by AnnaWinTour, et cetera. And so this brand magic metric actually uses AI to scrape the Internet. I'm talking TikTok, Instagram, et cetera. And it measures how the brand presents itself and how people see themselves in relation to that brand, i. E, does the brand message that Prada puts out, for example, match the brand presentation that a user or wearer of Prada wants to project? If you have alignment in those things, meaning that the brand is trying to put a message out there and then the consumer is like, Yes, I want to own and be a part of that message, you have high brand magic. And when you have a miss on that, you have low brand magic.

Amber F. (14:13)
So the number one brand on the brand magic scale, as it just came out, was MIU-MIU, which I think is really interesting because they have a very narrow focus and they have a very specific esthetic, if you will. And so that attracts a very specific buyer. So they have a lot of alignment there between the brand's message and the consumer's perception of themselves when wearing the brand. Now, recently, Tiffany was just purchased by LVMH. We've talked about that in the Berkin episode as well. They were purchased in I think late 2020 or early 2021 by LVMH for $16 billion. And LVMH since then has what I feel like they've done is like throwing spaghetti at the wall in trying to get consumers to connect with this brand. And I feel like it's been falling flat. First was the campaign with Jay Z and Beyonce, which felt very much to me like they showed up for a fashion shoot and then we never really saw the connection again. Granted, they have been sitting front row at all the LVMH shows recently. So I think they're in the good graces of leadership there. But then they have...

Amber F. (15:15)
Beyonce and Jay Z standing in front of a Basquiat painting as if I'm supposed to equate this type of art with these type of musicians with the luxury of the diamonds. It didn't make sense to me. And then we had the Tiffany special release of the Air Force 1s, which the amount of fakes that I've been seeing on the Internet, even Jack Taylor from Vanderpump Rules was flexing. I'm using quotes, you can't see me. Flexing his new dunks or maybe they're Air Force ones. I might be wrong, I'm sorry. Anyway, the Nike collab, and they were so clearly fakes. The Tiffany signature on the tongue of the shoe was completely off center. None of the colors were right. It was a total disaster. And it feels to me like they're trying a lot of things versus leaning into their history, which if you know anything about the Little Blue Box, it's been everywhere in popular culture. And that's what this documentary did such a good job highlighting was the history. From Bride Wars to Breakfast at Tiffany to Friends to all of these cultural references establishing why Tiffany is the leader in diamonds. They're the leader in jewelry.

Amber F. (16:19)
That's what I really love about this brand. So as I said recently, they're forward facing. For me, I have very low brand magic with them. But I did also have an incredible experience at Tiffany and Beverly Hills last December. We were visiting our friends, Jamie and Peter, and having a tourist day on rodeo Drive, and we pop into Tiffany. And no sooner than we walk in, then we're greeted by the most amazing staff on the first level there. They have one of those mirror-to-mirro photo booths. You know the ones I'm talking about where the Cardashians used to always have them for all of their parties, and they filter you to death. So of course, I'm right in there with Justin taking so many pictures in the photo booth, and they're so cute. And they have this beautiful, fresh, floral arrangement behind it. And it was to celebrate an event that they were having that night. So it was just lucky timing on our part that that event was going to happen. So all throughout the entire store, they had these insane, huge bouquets that were just so colorful, so stunning, like every color of the rainbow, but in a classy way, you know what I mean?

Amber F. (17:19)
And so we're upstairs and Jamie was trying on some rings and I turn around and no sooner than I know what's going on, I'm slipping Tiffany engagement rings onto my finger at the tune of a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of diamonds. And I had never seen a Tiffany engagement ring up close and they were so generous. I'm like, we're not in the market for this right now, but thank you so much. Letting me see everything, pulling stuff from the back, trying on all these rings. And we were working with the most incredible people. I mean, just the level of service that you get in a store like this, beyond. And then we're connecting with the sales associate. He's so kind and he invites Justin and I to go upstairs to view the private room where they were showing all of these heritage diamonds for the event that was later that night. And when I tell you I was looking at Aquamarines the size of my fist. These amazing yellow canary diamonds all sat in these insane pieces of jewelry. There was also like a bartender. They were trying to give us hot chocolate. They were trying to give us Macaroons.

Amber F. (18:18)
It was incredible. And it was for nothing. And it was making a great brand impression on us. And it's that hand-to-hand combat that makes the difference for me in a brand. And now again, I'm totally jazzed on Tiffany. So despite what they're trying to do with their marketing, my personal brand connection to Tiffany was completely restored by that one interaction and then furthered by this documentary. So anyway, let me get into the documentary. I want to tell you the three business lessons that I learned that I think would be great for your business as well, obviously, if you're an entrepreneur. So let's get into it. First and foremost, the whole story of Tiffany is just steeped in legend and lore, right? So it takes you through the very early beginnings of there was this horrible snowstorm in the 1800s, 1900s. And Mr. Tiffany saw in the news that a thousand people had died and the snowdrifts were climbing up the buildings of New York. But regardless of that, on a day after the snowstorm, this historic snowstorm where a thousand people had died, Mr. Tiffany and all of his team marched through the snow to go open their store on whatever street that is in New York.

Amber F. (19:29)
I don't even know. And they were all there and they only had one customer that day. And the one customer bought nothing more than silver polish because he was obsessed with Tiffany. And it's the story that they're trying to use to set the stage of how serious Tiffany is both Mr. Tiffany and the brand itself, about setting these standards of excellence no matter what. And so as the documentary opens, right away I'm hooked because there's this violinist that's standing outside of the Tiffany store that they're filming. And he's playing this amazing rendition like Bridgerton style of a Launa Del Rey song. And then it cuts to interviews with Fran Leibovitz and Rachel Zow and Boslerman, who is the director of The Great Gatsby, which I didn't know this, but all of the pieces in Great Gatsby were made by Tiffany. And then, of course, like I said, they're showing clips from Breakfast at Tiffany and Bride Wars. And they're just setting the stage for this to be a culturally relevant, iconic brand. And it's so cute. So Jennifer Tilly is in one of the opening scenes, and she's wearing this huge brooch, which not my taste, but go off, Jennifer Tilly.

Amber F. (20:31)
And speaking of, can we just talk about how everything comes back to Bravo? I think this should be the new title of this podcast, Everything comes back to Bravo. Because Jennifer Tilly is recently in the zeitgeist because she's really good friends with Sutton from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. And she was just on Jeff Lewis-Live. And you guys, she's fucking hilarious. But she says, Oh, my God, my jewelry bill was so high. I told my manager, Get me a movie. Any movie I'll do it. The worst movie out there. I just have to pay my jewelry bill because I'm so addicted to Tiffany. And they do such a good job of setting the stage of really all these people fan girl over the brand and using it, going to the Oscars and showing Jessica Bale wearing all of these different pieces. And it's really interesting because they talk about where the iconic Tiffany Blue comes from. And it was actually inspired by this actress or, I don't know, princess or whatever, somebody named Eugenie, I think, who back in the 1800s was wearing this beautiful robinze blue peacock-blue color as her signature color in all of her portraits.

Amber F. (21:34)
And she was really the leader of the trends in the days. People thought she was the most beautiful and she was the trendsetter, like the Marie Antoinette. She did all the things first. Marie Antoinettes at maybe not setting standards during the French Revolution when her people literally couldn't even afford to eat bread, but it's neither here nor there. My point is that she was the one setting the trend. And then Mr. Tiffany saw that trend and was like, I'm going to adopt that color and make it our brand color. And they talk all about the color trademark and doing that with Pantone and how it really is the Tiffany Blue color. It's trade secret how the color is mixed. And it's so interesting to me because as a brander, this is my number one piece of advice, the first takeaway from this. Do not deviate from your standards. Period. End of story. But also don't put it on everything. Don't put your color or your mark on absolutely everything. I mean, you don't see Tiffany Blue on every engagement ring that they make, right? That's on the boxes, on the bags. It's an accent, but it's so recognizable and there has been no deviation from it.

Amber F. (22:39)
Obviously, they've changed the brand logo type and fonts and accents over the years, but that color has remained the same, and it's one of the reasons why this brand is so iconic. It would be like Nike reinventing the swoosh, like we don't need to do that. And I think these brands that have such a distinctive color really do have a place in the zeitgeist, which is so important. And it also again, it's one of these heuristic shortcuts. So this is what I talk about when we're building brands. What are the heuristics that we're putting forth when presenting something new to somebody that's going to make them jump to the conclusion that we want them to jump to? That's what branding is. It's controlling the conclusions that we want people to jump to about our companies. And so with Tiffany, this is obviously something so ingrained in us from all of culture that this blue box is meaningful, and we've been able to retell that story over and over and over again. So the holding of the standards is the most important thing, I believe. And the second thing about that, too, is that there was an interview with the CEO of Tiffany on, call it Johnny Carson, I could be wrong about that.

Amber F. (23:46)
He was being interviewed about his hours during the holidays, and they put this ad out in The New York Times that said, The holidays are approaching, we're closed on Sundays, and we get busy in the afternoons, so we recommend shopping early to avoid the crowds and get the gift of your dreams. And this was a very provocative ad back in the day. I think it still is now because again, as we've talked about the boundaries issue, it can be really uncomfortable to set boundaries. And a lot of the times coming from a lack mentality, we're like, Oh, my gosh, I want to be available. I want to be open whenever I can be, because what if somebody walks by to buy a seven million necklace? And that's exactly what Johnny Carson asked. He said, You have a $7 million necklace for sale. If somebody wanted to buy it on Sunday, would you open the store for them? And he said steadfastly, No, we're closed on Sunday. And it's a standard that they upheld in their business. And it's the type of standard that really sets you apart as a business owner and a leader. When you can have strength in your convictions and speak to them and uphold them in integrity, it really does a lot for your brand value.

Amber F. (24:51)
So I know it's the same thing as Chick-fil-A, and they have questionable politics at best, but I think it's a really interesting point about the number one lesson that I think Tiffany can teach us is do not deviate from your standards no matter what. It's great for brand integrity and it's great for brand story. Which takes me to my next piece, which is the story. Now, as a brand strategist, stories are all I talk about. I tell stories about everything. I'm telling you stories about rubbing a fucking egg all over my body this morning. The stories are purposeful because with a story, we can connect with a brand. Now, I'm working on a brand story right now for a real estate developer about how to connect their project with the community, with people at large. And what I've always said in storytelling is that when I make a story, it needs to be as simple but as compelling as possible, because me as the brand strategist at the top of this story pyramid, it's like the game of telephone, right? I have a story, a message, a thing that I want people to grab onto, and I'm going to have to tell it to my investors.

Amber F. (26:00)
I'm going to have to tell it to my salespeople, then the salespeople are going to have to tell it to the buyers. The buyers are then going to need to be able to repeat that story to their friends at the first dinner party they throw in their house. The house, the home, the apartment that they bought with a story attached to it. And that story has to represent something about them as a person. It has to represent that they made the right purchase decision, that there's something interesting about what they did. It needs to affirm their ego. So, for example, when selling a home in Rancho, Santa Fe, for example, there was this home that I worked on so many years ago that we got into the studs and then rebuilt. And one of the stories was about the materials that we used. Oh, this is all reclaimed material from other homes in Rancho, Santa Fe. Oh, also the architect was this person and that person, and also the way that the home was designed was for this particular thing. And so you give people all of these Nuggets when you're touring them or selling them or sharing a brand story with them.

Amber F. (26:57)
They might not remember all of the Nuggets, but what you're hoping for is they put one of those Nuggets in their pocket or they show interest in one of those Nuggets so that you can bring that back out again to really affirm their identity and their story and their purchase so they feel good about buying. So, for example, with that home in Ranches in Fay, it's like, Wow, all of this wood was reclaimed and reused for this home. Not only is it really amazing that we were able to do that from a craftsman perspective, but it's ecologically so impactful to not waste materials. And that was something that that person took on with them to share that was really, really important to them. It furthered their identity of being a eco-conscious individual. And my clue to that was that they were driving an electric vehicle back in 2014. So that's the stuff that I leaned on when I was selling the home and it works. So it's the stories that we tell. And some of the stories that Tiffany has told over time are not so in your face. The stories that Tiffany tells are things like the fact that they make the Vince Lombardi trophy for the Super Bowl winner or the Major League Baseball pendant trophy or the trophy for the US Open?

Amber F. (28:09)
Or did you know that the N-Y that they use on the Yankees for baseball, the Yankees logo, that was actually designed by somebody at Tiffany. The story of the Tiffany Blue that I told you, the story of the Snowstorm, the story of the Johnny Carson interview, all of these stories add up to be what we understand the brand to be. And one of the hot takes from a critic in this documentary was this poem that Tiffany used to use, which said something along the lines in their advertisement like, This year, somebody will graduate from college. Someone will get married. Somebody will bring a baby home from the hospital. All of the reasons, that's why you have Tiffany's. And that's just so pedestrian. It's giving dads and grads in June how every campaign is like dads and grads because we don't care enough about graduates or fathers to make them their own holidays so we can bind them into one. Huge pet peeve of mine. Anyway, the thing was that this poem, this vehicle was really unsuccessful because it had no story. It was more like commodity. It's like when your car runs out of gas, you go to the gas station.

Amber F. (29:11)
When you have no bread, you go to the grocery store. Somebody's graduating, you go to Tiffany. It's really lacking story and heart versus the story that was told by somebody in the program who had a memory of seeing an article or an advertisement in the paper for a ring that was $176,000. And to him that was an inconceivable amount of money. And so he wrote as I don't know, a six or eight year old, a letter to Tiffany and said, Hello, I saw your article for the $176,000 ring, and I'd like to get it for my mom for Mother's Day. My allowance is currently 50 cents a week. Is there a deal that we could work out? And somebody from the brand wrote him back an actual letter and said, Thank you so much for your letter. Unfortunately, at the rate of your allowance, it'll take you 300 and something weeks to pay off... 300 and something thousand weeks to pay off the cost of that ring. However, we can make a deal with you. And for the cost of one week's allowance, we'd like to offer you this pair of gold earrings for your mom.

Amber F. (30:11)
And they sent him a free pair of gold earrings. And I ask you, what ways, what stories can you tell about your business? Or rather, what stories are other people telling about your business? How are you surprising and delighting people in your business in a way that is going to be storyworthy? Something that they would share with a colleague or a friend or somebody at a dinner party? These are the opportunities that we're looking for. And I think they have to be really authentic, because when you try so hard to make a moment, it really does fall flat like that. If it's a graduation, go to Tiffany moment. So I'm always looking for opportunities to surprise and delight my clients as a part of our standard operating procedures. I write thank you cards once a week to a random people who have helped me. I have it on my calendar as a task that I write a thank you card, a handwritten one or flowers. Whenever somebody refers something to us, I already have a poem ready to go. I have a referral thank you card and flower arrangement ready to go because that's a part of what we do.

Amber F. (31:17)
Or, for example, when we just finished up a brand for a huge real estate developer, I'm so proud that we get to work with and we're starting another project with them soon. I'm just beyond elated about it. But we finished up a branding project with them, and the team that we worked with was a large development team. This is like branding by committee. And there were probably, I don't know, 10 or 12 people at any given time involved in this project on the development side. And after we got the brand done, we went back to our brand guide where we had defined the five senses of the brand. And this is more of like a streetwear, cool, millennial brand. I would say, millennial Gen Z in Long Beach. And you know Long Beach, it's a little bit more like Gritty and their street art and energy. And so in defining the five senses of the brand, I sent them the custom scent from LayLabo. It wasn't custom, it was Sontol 33, but that was the scent I recommend they sent the place with. We sent them local coffee beans. I got them hand-engraved bottle openers that were made of metal with the brand mark in them.

Amber F. (32:19)
We created a playlist for the property that really vibed with the energy that we were trying to put out. And I really encouraged them to have that as their running playlist in their lobby, in their sales center because it's going to connect with the end consumer. So pulling the story together and sending them this package, which is unexpected, I budget for that when we're developing our brands with our clients so that we can go the extra mile and really make a wow statement with them and earn more business with this company. So again, lesson number two is all about stories and legends and giving people Nuggets that they can repeat to share your brand for you because that's the best marketing you can do is when other people are talking about your brand. That, I'm obsessed. The third thing that I learned from this documentary, which we all knew, but I think Tiffany has done it so well over time, and it is the lesson that if you are not culturally relevant, you're dead in the water. Cultural relevance is key for brand longevity. And for Tiffany, what that means is that they've made jewelry for literally every first lady in the presidential history.

Amber F. (33:29)
Since was a thing, including Gabe Lincoln's girly. And I'm pretty sure she wore it to the Fourscore and Seven Years ago thing. So that's pretty culturally relevant. And then you have Jackie Onassas, you have Michelle Obama, you have obviously Jay Z and Beyonce. There's nobody that's more culturally relevant than Beyonce. And I get it, having her as an ambassador makes sense. It just connects only one way for me. It feels advantageous for Tiffany to partner with Beyonce and Jay Z, and it doesn't necessarily feel authentic on the way back from Jay Z and Beyonce to Tiffany. I see what they're trying to do there and connect the urbanism with the brand. They've done some interesting marketing campaigns recently, such as This is Not Your Mother's Tiffany, which is a trope that we've seen in marketing many, many times before. This is not your grandfather's agency. This is not your mother's Tiffany. And really featuring some of these Elsa Peretti pieces. But Elsa Peretti has been around since the Halston days in the 70s, and her pieces are iconic. And most of our mothers, if they collected Tiffany, probably had an Elsa Peretti piece, so it actually is our mother's Tiffany.

Amber F. (34:36)
Anyway, my point is that the cultural relevancy of your brand is everything of the sort. And Tiffany has done a great way of ingratiating itself in pop culture through all of these references and because they have this established brand. But I think the reason that it's important to always be on the pulse of cultural relevancy is because people's attention spans wane very quickly, and it's always onto the next thing. And you've got to pivot and you've got to move. And what I've been seeing in a lot of small businesses or even big businesses these days is a resistance to evolve, a resistance to change, and a resistance to adapt. And I think that's no better illustrated than this return to office disposal of remote work after COVID. And I see both sides of it. That's why I like a podcast. We can explore the nuance of both sides. I get it. As a business owner, you want to make sure that your team is productive, collaborative, et cetera. There's a lot to be gained by cultural engagement and also learnings. And if you don't have great independent contributors, you should probably be together. But there are ways to work around it.

Amber F. (35:43)
And I'm seeing this now with marketing agencies that I'm competing against that have been doing branding for 30 years, and their brands still look like they looked in the late 1990s. And that's not what consumers want anymore. But it's these legacy brands, these old relationships that have kept them in business with these big clients because they're the known. They're known commodities, and we know what we're going to get out of them. But it's challenging to be the new guy on the block and push for something that feels more culturally relevant or feels more connected to the consumer. And quite frankly, that's what our agency does really well. Sorry, this hasn't meant to be a commercial for AF marketing, but it's just relevant for where I am right now. I think the thing is that figuring out a way to connect with your audience where they're at is is so important. And if you're marketing your business on social media, ask yourself, Why are people going on social media? They're looking to be entertained. They're looking to be inspired. Sometimes they're looking up specific educational pieces. But what I see business is doing wrong on social media is that they're treating their social media pages like a commercial.

Amber F. (36:49)
If I'm turning on the television, I don't want to pay attention to the commercials. I want to pay attention to the entertainment, right? So if every post, every story that you put up is you pushing a service, pushing a product, pushing why you're the best, telling us about your company in a way that's encouraging me to buy, I'm going to mute you out. I'm going to become billboard-blind to you. It's the same thing like we used to have all of these display ads or these banner ads all over the Internet or the billboards you see driving down the freeway. We put our blinders on and we block them out because we literally do not have enough bandwidth to pay attention to it unless it's relevant to us, unless it's entertaining, educational or inspiring. And so the brands that I see doing the best on social media these days are the ones that are meeting their customers where they're at. And for us, we have a couple of social media clients whose brand ethos is humor. And because of that, we do really, really well for them. So when we can infuse humor or use memes in popular culture that relate back to their industry, we crush every time.

Amber F. (37:51)
Those are always our best performing pieces of content because they're usually done quickly when something happens. Like when we see Kyle and Timothy Chalamet, that's a meme. When we have The Barbie movie, that's a culturally relevant moment. All of the things that are happening around us, you have to be aware to what the culture is doing, what the culture is saying, what the culture cares about. Now, through presidents, through Bride Wars, through Breakfast at Tiffany's, the iconic Truman Capote book, Tiffany's has managed to stay relevant throughout, and I think they were losing their way for a while, which is why LVMH saw an opportunity there to bring them back into the public forum. And their partnership with Beyonce and Jay Z was executed in 2021, and the campaign was called About Love. And Beyonce became, in this campaign, the fourth person to wear this legendary, 128.54 carat yellow diamond stone. And this is the original stone that Mr. Tiffany got from quarry in South Africa. They talk about this in the documentary, and they talk about how Audrey Hepburn was one of the two people to wear it at the time. This particular stone was purchased in 1878 for $18,000, and its estimated worth today is 30 million.

Amber F. (39:07)
It was cut from a 287 carat rough stone. And like I said, it was found in South Africa. So of course, Beyonce and Jay Z can't do anything without facing some criticism. So unfortunately, there was some controversy around this because although Tiffany has what they call zero tolerance policy towards conflict diamonds, and they source their own diamonds only from known sources countries that are participants in the Kimberly process, some people would argue or have argued rather in the media and press that it's not technically conflict free. I'm not here to argue that either way. I have no idea. I haven't done the research. But what I have done the research on is that Beyonce and Tiffany designed number one, a capsule collection for the Renaissance World Tour where 100% of the profits from the collection will benefit the About Love Scholarship, which was launched in 2021 by Tiffany in partnership with Beyonce for their Bay Good and Sean Carter Foundation. And it awards scholarship funding to five historically black colleges and universities. And that's what I'm talking about, about cultural relevancy. It's like, especially when we're talking about diamonds and wearing 100 carats of diamonds and the ridiculousness of it all.

Amber F. (40:15)
I think that Beyonce and Jay Z have done a really good job in their partnership to ground this back down to Earth. And in this capsule collection they did for the Renaissance World Tour, they're doing those return to Tiffany tag, like charm necklaces like the one my mom bought me, but they're making them special to the Renaissance tour. So I think that's a really sweet idea. But overall, I think again, LVMH, they really are on the pulse of what is happening in everyday culture, the relevancy and matching. Again, what does your consumer care about? Who are they looking to? And what are we getting excited about? Now, we're definitely not excited about the knockoff Air Force 1s on Jack Taylor's Instagram story, but I think that continuing to stay relevant is what matters in maintaining that history over time. Because as good as breakfast at Tiffany's was when it came out, I mean, Truman Capote, that was my favorite book, my favorite movie. I'm so emotionally attached to it. So Tiffany will always have a very special place in my heart. But as I shared with you earlier, until we went into Tiffany in LA.

Amber F. (41:16)
And had that in-person tangible brand experience that brought me back around again, it's a brand's responsibility to ensure that they're on the pulse of the consumer. And that's what it means to be culturally relevant. Again, the three lessons that I learned that I'm applying to my business are number one, hold your standards, do not deviate no matter what. Number two, story is everything. Legend and lore and repeatable stories are what will get your brand to grow. Number three, cultural relevance is key or else you are dead. Now, I mentioned this already, but my stock tip of the week is something that I, again, am coveting after having not paid attention to it for so long. And that's the problem with watching a documentary like this, is it makes me want all of the things. And this Elsa Peretti, this famous cuff. And Elsa Peretti is one of their most iconic designers, but it's the bone cuff and it comes in silver. And it is the most chic thing. It's got this beautiful organic shape with these beautiful lips on it. It looks incredible with long sleeves, short sleeves. I was such a cuff girly back in the day.

Amber F. (42:25)
I just have been wearing more dainty jewelry recently. But in Sterling Silver, this amazing asymmetrical cuff, I'll put it on social media so you can covet it along with me. It is $1500. So in the grand scheme of things, like not the worst. And it also comes in like a black acrylic. It also comes in gold. Maybe the gold is what I'm coveting. Let's see what this price is. Oh, just kidding, it's $23,000. Anyway, we'll go back for that Sterling Silver one. I think it's absolutely stunning. I love the motif. I think it's a really iconic piece. Again, it's been around since the '70s, so it's not going out of style anytime soon. It's on my Covet list, so maybe it'll be on yours and then I can borrow it. We can talk. Anyway, love you guys so much. Check out the documentary. Let me know what you think. Again, it's on Amazon Prime. I think it's also on Apple. So looking forward to hearing your thoughts. And I will talk to you all on the next episode. Bye. Feeling rich? I hope so. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Old Money.

Amber F. (43:25)
If you have questions you want answered, email me at oldmoneypodcast@gmail. Com or hit us up on social. We are at Old Money Podcast and I am at your service. If this episode spoke to you, inspired you, helped you, if you took a single note, it would mean the world to me. If you could please just take a minute to write and review the podcast. And if you're not doing so already, subscribe. And if you have friends who like getting rich, please share this episode with them, even if it's just on your Instagram story. And I'd love you more than Jeff Bezos loves Amazon Prime. Thank you so much, and I will talk to you on the next episode. Remember, I'm not your lawyer, I'm not your tax professional, and I'm not your financial advisor. The content presented in this podcast is intended to entertain, educate, inspire, and support listeners and their personal and professional development and does not constitute business, financial, or legal advice. In addition to that, this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services.

Resources

Watch the documentary Crazy About Tiffany's

Covet/ shop the Elsa Peretti Bone Cuff

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The content presented in this podcast is intended to entertain, educate, inspire and support listeners in their personal and professional development and does not constitute business, financial, or legal advice. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services for which individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services related to the episode.

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