As the high price of gold ripples through holiday jewelry sales, there is still some glitter to be mined in segmenting jewelry keywords, descriptions and ad copy.

First, the bad news: Precious metals prices on world markets started jumping in August, when an ounce of gold went from $680 to almost $850. Gold currently hovers around $800 an ounce. Although the precious metals stock tickers rise and fall in daily dances, the daily market swings don’t affect current jewelry inventory at the wholesale or retail store levels.

But that $200-per-ounce jump from just one quarter ago has increased price tags on the heavy gold chains and necklaces that are perennial gift list favorites this time of year, pricing some golden gifts out of Santa’s Stockings. Existing inventories of reliable wedding jewelry have been re-priced also, putting the squeeze on brides, grooms and wedding planners who are not likely to show up on “Bridezillas” or other unreality TV shows featuring multimillion dollar wedding bashes.

PEOPLE STILL BUY THE BLING

Higher priced gold has crossed some gold jewelry off holiday shopping lists, confirmed by a quick survey of major jewelry retailers and wholesalers from Manhattan’s Diamond District to Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. The good news is that some shoppers don’t care; others know gold prices may go even higher tomorrow, based on oil price and inflation jitters. Some jewelry shoppers refuse precious metals substitutes, even without knowing that replacement platinum ran up about the same $200 increase as gold since mid-August 2007.

Then, there’s the All That Glitters motive, which for some customers means it has got to be gold.

TARGETING AND SEGMENTING THE GOLD MARKET

KEYWORDS: luxury jewelry, luxury gold jewelry.
Targets of luxury goods — however marketers have defined the demographics of well-to-do, wealthy, carriage trade, upper crust or Top One-Half of One Percent Bracket — don’t stop buying gold jewelry at $800 per ounce. Status quo ante.

KEYWORDS: affordable wedding bands, wedding jewelry discounts, budget bands of gold.
Future brides and grooms do not cross gold off their shopping lists, but they do work on budget. Wedding band shoppers are doing more comparison shopping this season: buying smaller rings, searching on and offline for deals and even resorting to Big Box department stores and retailers who can shave prices with bulk, national purchasing power.

KEYWORDS: gold jewelry under $PRICE.
Smaller jewelry retailers are feeling the pinch from $800 per ounce gold, as shoppers in the middle range ($500 to $1,000) simply cross it off their lists after budgeting higher priced gasoline, heating oil and food costs. Some jewelry retailers encounter an impassable $1,000 ceiling among gold hunters who will buy in the $500 to $600 range. Jewelry marketers who still have inventory from pre-surge August price jumps might move it off the shelves at good margins by focusing on price in paid-ad and SEO listed titles.

KEYWORDS: Valentine gold jewelry, gold for Mother’s Day.
High water marks for jewelry sales tend toward the next holidays, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. While some customers are waiting out the price surge in gold, no one can predict if it will stabilize at the current $800 per ounce, much less drop back to the $650 range, due to global jitters over oil prices which started the price run. Priming the marketing pump in advance of the next jewelry-buying holidays — Buy now while gold is still $000 — might be a good strategy by reason of timing, seasonality and cutting through end-of-year holiday clutter.