In Episode #24 of the Joy Joya Jewelry Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Kat McCoy, the founder of Best Kept, which is a Brooklyn-based concierge service that makes it easy for anyone to buy jewelry as a gift.

Kat curates jewelry pieces based on a customized analysis of individual tastes, personality, and lifestyle. For each client, she makes 3-5 bespoke recommendations to choose from and purchase. I wanted to speak to Kat because I thought it would be interesting to gain the perspective of someone who serves as an intermediary between the customer and the jewelry designers. I figured Kat would know best about the gaps that exist in jewelry marketing, especially when it comes to how designers communicate value to customers, and I was right.

In this episode, we discuss topics like:

• How Kat chooses designers for her database and how she goes about making recommendations to her customers.
• What she perceives as the gap between how a brand portrays itself and what a customer wants.
• How she believes jewelry brands can better communicate their unique value proposition and vision.
• What she thinks most overwhelms customers, and why they need assistance in choosing jewelry.
• What all customers want from the jewelry-buying experience.

Below are some highlights from the interview with their corresponding time stamps, so you can skip to the relevant position in the interview if you’re interested in hearing more about any specific topic:

3:28: A Common Struggle for Customers

“I think one of the sort of fundamental challenges that a lot of my clients face is trying to understand why one piece will be so much more expensive than another piece and understanding what really constitutes good value.”

6:16: What Kat Looks for in Jewelry

“I’m style agnostic because I want to be able to source something bold and chunky and over the top just as easily as I can find something really delicate and understated. I’m always looking for a diverse set of styles that I can kind of pull from, and I’d say probably the two primary things that I look at when first assessing a partner is price point and just overall craftsmanship.”

8:18: What Appeals to Customers

“I’ve found that customers first and foremost like to see part of themselves reflected back at them in the marketing and the sales process just in general. For the longest time I think fine jewelry marketing was aspirational to the point of being exclusive and almost editorial. At least with my customers, they like to see something and think, ‘That could be me at brunch on a Saturday in that necklace’ or ‘I could see myself in those studs at work.’ Particularly for my male clients they want to look at something and think, ‘Wow that looks like her.’ We’re moving away from the very kind of editorialized images and into more of a lifestyle portrayal.”

11:13: What Intimidates Customers about Jewelry

“For many people, it’s overwhelming and not very fun. Oftentimes if you go into a store it can feel like there’s limited product selection. It can be a little bit intimidating depending upon how the salespeople are trained, and then if you’re looking online, you’re confronted with tens of thousands of options.”

To learn more about Kat and her service Best Kept, visit her website.