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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Square_Dealings who wrote (75025)	8/15/2001 7:58:51 AM
From: lorne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116759

World Gold Council Ducks Its Responsibility To UK Consumers While Spending US$55 Million On Re-Branding Gold 15 August 2001 It was a hot day today - not that usual in a British summer - but it was not the weather but the press release about gold demand from the World Gold Council that made the blood boil. As a taster to the actual announcement some PR person consulting to that august body had appended the following note. "High street gold jewellery sales in the UK soared 9% during the second quarter of this year. The buoyant mainstream market in the UK of 9 carat gold articles increased by a staggering 15% over the same period last year and helped to propel total UK gold demand for the second quarter to 16.1 tonnes, a new record for the second quarter of any year." Accepting that PR persons are unable to write anything without littering it with superfluous adjectives, this note reveals in all its glory the fact that the World Gold Council simply does not have the guts to bite on the bullet of 9 carat gold. Talk to any individual there and they will agree that it is simply an alloy and should not qualify as gold . But as to standing up to UK jewellery retailers and pointing out that consumers should get real value for money when buying gold articles, No Sirree!!!!! At a time when the World Gold Council is spending US$55 million of gold producers' money on its marketing, advertising and PR initiative to create a "new look and voice" to gold and "to reawaken emotional connections", this adds insult to injury. Maybe Ms Haruko Fukuda, its chief executive should come along to the 2nd Minesite Mining Forum and listen to Greg Barns, the boss of the Australian Gold Council - strictly no relation - say how he intends to market Australian gold on a minimalist budget. When Barns took on his job eighteen months ago he was struck by the way the Australian pearling industry, which was made up of a number of companies big and small, got together to form the South Seas pearling consortium in order to market their product. Seven years later Barns reckons that it is one of the slickest marketing organisations you can find and the proof is in the sales graph. Traditionally , gold producers have made no effort to market gold, preferring to leave it to the World Gold Council. Barns is determined to brand Australian gold as just that. Australian gold produced by Australians from Australian mines. And he has already in talks with the Jewellery Association of Australia as to how retail outlets could get a better understanding of the quality of gold and why people should buy. No doubt he is explaining to them the way in which gold jewellery is bought in the Far East. The article is weighed in front of the customer who can then easily calculate the underlying gold value with reference to the purity. 24 carat gold sells at the world gold price, but 18 carat at only 75 per cent of it. It is up to the customer then to decide if he or she is getting value in terms of the design work and a deal is then agreed. On the same basis 9 carat gold is only worth 37.5 per cent and would not be acceptable in Hong Kong, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur. Bully for Barns and shame on the World Gold Council. UK gold consumers may not be the biggest consumers of gold in the world, but they are not getting a fair deal. And all the re-branding exercises in the world will not disguise that fact. minesite.com