Tiffany and Co

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Author: Victoria Holloway

Tiffany and Co. is one of those stores that everyone knows about, and is famous all over the world even in areas where there aren't outlets.  As America's most high-end jewelry store, Tiffany and Co. provides people with the highest quality jewelry and the satisfaction of knowing they got something from the best store available. 

Indeed, much of what Tiffany and Co. sells is in fact Tiffany and Co. and not so much the actual product.  Name recognition is the name of the game in the jewelry business, at least in the high-end jewelry business, and the price tags on items reflect who made them far more than what they are made of.

As an American male of enough years to have a very basic and preliminary understanding of women, I have come to learn one definite fact.  American women love Tiffany and Co.  I don't care who the girl is, where she is from, or what kinds of tastes she has, just the sight of a Tiffany and Co. box is enough to make her heart go pitter patter.  Even if your girlfriend isn't what you'd call 'high maintenainance', giving her a gift from Tiffany and Co. is a sign that you're willing to 'provide' and put some effort into the relationship, which is a sign women can't help but enjoy, assuming they are likewise interested in you of course.  It's evolution, and they can't help it any more than we men can help staring at their breasts; or at least wanting to. 

So I like to think of Tiffany and Co. as a sort of big gun reserve to be used when I really want to get that message across to a woman.  Their little blue boxes may as well be shaped like cupids arrows.  Either that, or dollar signs, I'm not sure which.  You can't really get anything from Tiffany and Co. without taking out some loans and signing away your soul, but heck, I'm a sucker when I'm in love.  Even some basic simple silver items run two or three times more than their retail value in any other local jewelry store, but they have that priceless insignia, and come in that mesmerizing blue box.

Tiffany and Co. was made famous by that classic Hollywood 1961 production, Breakfast at Tiffany's with Audrey Hepburn playing the role of a young woman somewhat obsessed with Tiffany and Co.  Of course, the movie isn't really about her love of Tiffany's, but does provide further proof for my theory that American women love Tiffany and Co.  

I've only seen a Tiffany and Co. storefront twice; once at the Bellagio in Vegas and once in South Coast Plaza in south Los Angeles.  Both looked less like storefronts and more like museums, full of jewelry which sparkled under the art-house lighting.  Nothing had a price tag, which was probably for the best, since I heard one of the saleswomen talking to a couple about a broach, and when I heard the price I almost passed out.  It took a second to register that the number uttered was the price of the broach and not the gross national product of a small European country.

Granted, Tiffany and Co. makes some very nice things.  Their pieces are among some of the finest of their kind in the world, but that doesn't mean that they're ridiculously overpriced.  Part of this is due to the state of the diamond market as a whole; DeBeers has managed to place a stranglehold on the world diamond market and has managed to have sweeping impacts on how people buy, sell, and think about diamonds.  For example, in western societies 100 years ago it was customary for a man to give a woman an engagement ring when they got engaged, but the ring could be a setting for any precious or semi precious stone, like rubies, sapphires, or emeralds.  When DeBeers came along with their "A Diamond is Forever" campaign they managed to convince everyone that he didn't really love her unless he was able to spend huge amounts of his salary on a little shiny rock.  Tiffany and Co. manages to extrapolate this even further and therefore they sell many, many little shiny rocks. 

Tiffany and Co. doesn't only manage to sell lots of nice things like shiny little rocks, they also manage to do a great job of selling their brand name.  The marketing of a brand isn't only limited to sneakers and cars, it applies as much, if not more, to high-end businesses.  For example, if you were to buy a necklace made up of shiny things from Target and wear it to a black tie affair, there's a good chance you'd eventually be asked where the necklace came from.  If you replied, "Why, it's from Tiffany and Co.," people would likely oooh and ahhh at your refinement and style.  If you told them the truth and said it was Target, the very same necklace definitely wouldn't get the same sort of attention.  It's not the necklace's fault one way or the other; it's all about the brand.