Dr's founders and couples are relatively low-key, and it is difficult to find interviews or photos of the two in the public media today, but in the early years, in order to build the DR sign, they led by example, often interacting and showing affection on Weibo. Tony's marriage proposal to Wendy was also placed on the big screen in New York's Times Square, and the love between the two and the DR brand achieved deep binding.
Text | Financial Gossip Female Special Author: Yue Yue
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Can love be measured in money?
Love may be priceless at first, but ever since De Beers said the phrase "a diamond is eternal, a diamond is eternal", love is locked with a diamond ring, and the diamond ring is valuable and not cheap.
For this question, Zhang Guotao and Lu Yiwen, a post-85 couple from Henan, gave a standard answer - "DR diamond ring = only true love".
▲ Zhang Guotao proposed to Lu Yiwen; Image source: @Tony Zhang Guotao
1.
/ Henan couple with a net worth of 42 billion /
On March 24, the Hurun Research Institute released the "2022 Hurun Global Self-Made U40 Rich List", which lists the world's self-made billionaires under the age of 40 (including 40 years old), including 25 entrepreneurs from China.
There are many familiar faces, such as Zhang Yiming of ByteDance, Su Hua and Cheng Yixiao of Kuaishou, Wang Ning of Bubble Mart, etc.; but there are also some new faces, such as Zhang Guotao and Lu Yiwen.
In fact, just to say his two names, it is estimated that there are not many people who know, and their company "Dia", at first glance, there is no impression, but if you change the foreign language - "DR", everyone will understand, yes, it is the jewelry brand DR that has been crazy marketing in recent years.
According to the data, Zhang Guotao was born in 1985 and Lu Yiwen was born in 1987, and the two are EMBA master of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business and EMBA master of China Europe International Business School.
▲Image source: Sina Finance
Husband and wife have strong financial resources, don't look at the first time on the list, it directly surpassed a number of Internet bigwigs and consumption bigwigs, with a net worth of 42 billion yuan jumped to the second place, DR's ability to absorb gold can be seen.
According to media reports, Zhang Guotao started a business in Shenzhen in the early years, and partnered with friends to establish Shenzhen Insite Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd., engaged in management consulting and marketing planning, and the registered capital of the enterprise was only 30,000 yuan.
Only a year later, the friend transferred the equity to Zhang Guotao's current wife, Lu Yiwen, and the husband and wife held a total of 98.225% of the shares, becoming the actual controller of the company.
Shenzhen Luohu is a famous "jewelry distribution center", may be affected by the environment, and later they began to do jewelry and diamond-related business, the company name has also been changed to "Dai Rui Jewelry", "Dia shares".
Dr's founders and couples are relatively low-key, and it is difficult to find interviews or photos of the two in the public media today, but in the early years, in order to build the DR sign, they led by example, often interacting and showing affection on Weibo.
Of course, nothing more impressive than Tony's marriage proposal to Wendy.
On May 20, 2015, Zhang Guotao proposed to Lu Yiwen with a DR diamond ring in Greece, and at the same time, Tony's marriage proposal to Wendy was also placed on the big screen of New York's Times Square, and the love between the two and the DR brand achieved deep binding.
With crazy marketing, DR has grown rapidly in recent years, and on July 9, 2021, THE PARENT COMPANY OF DR Diamond Ring, Dia Co., Ltd., publicly submitted an IPO prospectus to be listed on the ChiNext board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
On December 15 of the same year, Dia shares were officially listed on the ChiNext board, and the stock price rose by 41.18% on the first day, with a total market value of 66 billion yuan, and with the listing, the net worth of the husband and wife is naturally rising.
2.
/ Tell a good story to make money /
After reviewing the love and entrepreneurial stories of Zhang Guotao and Lu Yiwen, you may wish to see how they have become a dark horse in jewelry brands in just a dozen years.
As we all know, diamonds are not valuable. It wasn't until the 1950s, when the overseas diamond giant De Beers said the greatest advertising slogan of the 20th century, "A diamond lasts forever", that diamonds were locked in love, becoming a woman's love dream and a man's wallet nightmare.
The success of diamonds is closely related to advertising and marketing, and Zhang Guotao and Lu Yiwen are also well aware of this, so on the basis of binding love, they further tell a new story of "men can only customize one piece in their lives".
▲Image source: DR official website
Tasting this new story, the subtext seems to be saying: buying a diamond ring can prove love, but buying a DR diamond ring can prove that it is the only true love.
Good fellow, where can there be girls who can stand it? After decades of brainwashing marketing on "diamond ring = love", Zhang Guotao and Lu Yiwen successfully brought the marketing story of DR diamond ring to a new height, that is, "DR diamond ring = only true love".
In order to give consumers the impression of "DR diamond ring = only true love", DR diamond ring also sets a series of complex purchase steps to strengthen this point.
The first is the need for "men with ID cards to customize", and then there is a "true love verification query system" followed.
Then there is the need for both buyers to sign a "True Love Agreement", promising that "DR exclusive true love gifts can only be given to one person in a lifetime", and then generate "a true love code exclusive to two people".
Immediately after the DR store assists in a marriage proposal ceremony, the sense of ceremony is directly full, so that the consumer in love has a sense of (wrong) that it is already the other party's "only true love".
Of course, DR Diamond Ring also understands the potential of celebrities to carry goods, and promotes "true love stars", such as Wu Jing Xie Nan, diving queen Wu Minxia and his wife, "Asian trapeze" Su Bingtian and his wife.
▲Image source: screenshot of the official website
There is also internet celebrity marketing on Douyin, earthy video marketing... This set of overwhelming marketing combination punches, how many diet men and women who are overwhelmed by love can still maintain their sanity?
So the DR diamond ring is completely on fire, and some data show that the network popularity of Dia shares is far beyond other jewelry brands in the same industry, and it can even be said that these brands do not add up to the heat of Dia shares.
▲Image source: 21st Century Business Herald
But crazy output marketing, the corresponding marketing costs are certainly indispensable.
After the submission of the prospectus in 2021, the operation of DR Diamond Ring was made public, and the two indicators of publicity and promotion expense ratio and sales expense ratio exceeded the industry average.
In the three years of 2018, 2019 and 2020, the annual sales expenses of DR accounted for 33.32%, 40.51% and 29.58% of the total revenue, respectively, and at least about 30%.
60% of the funds raised by the listing will also be invested in the channel network construction project, which shows that it is ready to go all the way to the black on the road of marketing.
Of course, light assets and heavy marketing do make DR's ability to absorb money better, with a gross profit margin of nearly 70%, much higher than the average of 40% in the same industry.
3.
/ DR Diamond Ring, Marketing Rollover? /
The success of the DR diamond ring comes from the marketing talent of Zhang Guotao and Lu Yiwen, but it is also the marriage proposal diamond ring that is so successful that other jewelry has little presence in the operation of Dia shares.
But the most proud marketing also almost overturned, last year, the internal entertainment had such a magical collapse incident.
First of all, some netizens broke the news that several male artists had found the purchase records of dr diamond rings, and as soon as the news came out, they followed other fans to smell the wind and move, and they checked whether their brothers had secretly proposed marriage in the "true love verification query system" of DR diamond rings.
The funny thing is that in accordance with DR's consistent marketing style, many netizens even feel that this is the soft breadth of DR diamond rings. Marketing has done too much, and it seems that true or false is not important.
Although there was a rumor-busting explanation and the fans' self-disclosure confessions at that time, a more important problem soon appeared, that is, if what the fans said was true, then wouldn't it be possible to buy a DR diamond ring by simply reporting an ID number.
Say good "men can only customize one piece in their lifetime with id card"? As a result, as soon as there was an accident, it was pulled out without face recognition or ID card photo verification.
According to the financial network, identity information can be publicly queried without the consent and authorization of the right holder, which may involve infringement due to failure to fulfill personal information protection obligations.
As for consumers buying products in the name of others, DR companies do not have direct legal responsibility, but the lack of strict audit standards may damage the brand image.
The incident intensified, and dr directly turned off the "True Love Verification Query System"... At that time, the saying was "temporarily closed and tentatively scheduled for three days", but until now Xiaobian has not found it on the official website and mini program, and the flagship store customer service has also said that it has not been restored.
From this point of view, the magical collapse incident at the end of last year basically announced the failure of the marketing gimmick of "only sending one person in a lifetime".
But marketing may almost overturn, Zhang Guotao, Lu Yiwen and his wife have been shaping the "DR diamond ring = only true love" Yu Wei is still there, and the operation of Dia shares is still very prosperous.
Xiaobian went over the latest 2021 annual performance report of Dia Shares, with a year-on-year increase of 87.57% in revenue and a year-on-year increase of 135.78% in total profit.
In the two months of January and February 2022, Dia shares achieved operating income of about 796 million yuan, an increase of about 32% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of about 229 million yuan, an increase of about 38% year-on-year.
Sure enough, what is more absurd than love is the people who are caught in love.
After all, as long as they pay for it, dr diamond rings will always be popular, and the profitable business of diamonds will never be outdated.
Resources:
"30,000 to make hundreds of millions, relying on storytelling to leverage 66 billion market value!" Behind the romance is false marketing? Haixi Business;
"Once in a Lifetime, One Couple? DR Diamond Ring: 70% Gross Profit, 100% Deceptive..., Coldplay Labs;
"Can the boyfriend who doesn't dare to send a DR diamond ring still want it", Vista looks at the world;