Dragon stone, watermelon tourmaline, bloodstone, moonstone, purple obsidian.
I remember picking up a piece of candlestick quartz once and blurting out, “It’s not like a blood diamond, is it?”
That’s not a very articulate question in such a context, unfortunately, and in my opinion, effective client/customer communication is pivotal to the discussion of gemstones.
Gemstone sellers, I hope you’ll sit down comfortably with your beverage of choice so we can talk gemstone marketing.
If you read last week’s blog about why I won’t write green marketing for bamboo textiles, you’re probably expecting this post to say that I won’t write green copy for gemstone sellers. Well, marketing gemstones is one of my very favorite challenges. It encompasses almost every angle of the genres I work with—energy healing/holistic health, spirituality, sustainability, and social/fair trade issues. Crystals and gemstones hold a unique and often conflicting place in conversations of economics, consumerism, alternative health, the environment, and problems of violence and/or oppression.
To some extent you could say that I apply the same policy in terms of not writing greenwashed copy—but bamboo and gemstones aren’t really greenwashed in the same way.
Bamboo fabric is greenwashed by focusing on the advantages of growing bamboo while ignoring the problems of production that turn it into textiles.
Gemstones, however, aren’t really marketed as “eco-friendly” at all because it’s pretty hard to make a case for eco-friendly mining. Some people argue that it’s best to support local gemstone miners instead of buying imported stones from the African, Asian, and South American Continents—and, notably, the Middle East–and that’s an absolutely valid argument in terms of considerations of regulations—both environmental and social. But it doesn’t quite cover the sustainability questions or mean that the process is “green”—but perhaps nobody said it did.
When gemstones are greenwashed, it’s usually through subtler channels—and probably very often unintentional. (This conversation might change somewhat when it comes to lab-grown crystals and gemstones.) They’re promoted as enhancers of our spiritual connections and our connection to Earth, as discussed in a New Yorker profile, “What’s Behind the Crystal Healing Phenomenon?” They are often discussed in terms of energetic healing properties, chakra balancing, and intention setting.
It’s easy to simply be enchanted by them and forget to ask the difficult questions. For some of us, crystals and gemstones are almost a sort of spell that we fall under, and I say this, not as someone on a witch hunt wanting to make consumers feel guilty about adorning themselves or their altars with gemstones, but as a former retail salesperson, researcher, and now copy & content writer motivated by ecological, spiritual, and holistic health questions and considerations.
Crystal healing is expanding in mainstream culture and consumer demand for gemstones is high. Retailers naturally try to step up and meet the demand, offering their shimmering enticements with high price tags and a sales pitch that developed out of the culture promoting them—that is, from the notion that they can potentially offer transformation in our lives, inside and out.
Crystal therapy may, through disputed ways, help people through addictions or depression, act as an amplifier of spiritual practice, assist in focusing intentions or energy, or simply provide decorative quality and interest.
But, what happens when we allow ourselves to consider that we might be buying into the very problems that we’re trying to escape through this interest, i.e, detriment to the environment, perpetuation of poverty and unfair working conditions, funding wars and violence—that’s gemstone consumerism at its worst. Not surprisingly, not everyone is equally enchanted. At some point some of us start asking questions. There are plenty of skeptics asserting that crystals and gemstones act only as placebos and “retail therapy” and pointing out the ethical difficulties of child labor and conflict minerals. But is the solution to throw out the gemstones, and maybe along with them the benefits of meditation and other personal development practices—only to reach for maybe alcohol and/or drugs again?
There are other ways to keep the imaginative, creative, often spiritual appeal of gemstones while also remaining in our socially and environmentally conscious mindsets.
Gemstones already mined can be repurposed a number of ways—I think there are untapped markets for this. Spiritual bookstores could adapt their used book models to gemstones. Vintage and retro markets are also well-established. Jewelers are increasingly using repurposed materials to create new designs. Any of those are genuine “eco-friendly” non-greenwashed marketing advantages.
Careful communication between retailers and wholesalers is crucial. Sometimes, certification of provenance is available with some degree of assurance about working and environmental conditions, but very often it isn’t. Then, the challenge for retailers becomes communication with customers about why they choose not to obtain certain stones. Some customers may go elsewhere, but many will appreciate being informed and ask for alternatives to what they originally had in mind.
It’s my belief that informing consumers about all of these components 1) establishes & fosters customer trust, 2) prevents buyer’s remorse (and thus returns), 3) increases the likelihood of buying again.
That’s how I buy my stones 🙂 And those are my starting points for writing gemstone-related content & copy.