Step 1 – call your jewelry materials by their name

A while ago, I was paging through the jewelry that was served to me by a Pinterest ad. I liked the jewelry, and also noticed that this company* had a nice post about environmentalism and sustainability.

They also took a strong stance against gold plating, for the reason that gold plating tends to be pretty environmentally unfriendly (plating uses either sulfite or cyanide in the process and the gold itself gets worn away and therefore wasted). I was impressed that they had taken the time to address why they were selling only solid gold jewelry, and thought that it helped to create trust in their products.

So you can imagine my confusion and my disappointment that this same company described their silver jewelry as having a “rhodium finish”

sigh That’s plating.

Step 2 – be informed about your materials

They had clearly done their homework on the gold plating part, so why didn’t they go the extra mile to not rhodium plate their silver? Or why make any sweeping declarations about how bad plating is at all if they were going to use it anyway? Or why didn’t they know that rhodium finish is still plating?

If they weren’t going to follow their own statement of values, why make the statement at all?

To me, the term “rhodium finish” sounds like it is trying to avoid highlighting that a piece is plated. As you might have guessed, I am very much not a fan of deceptive language in marketing.

Step 3 – think like your consumers

Consumers don’t have the same background and education that we do, so using misleading terms, or even just wishy-washy terms to describe and disclose an important aspect of a piece of jewelry can look like a lie, even if it is a partial truth. 

And consumers deserve the truth about what they are buying.

Now I’m going to take this one step farther – I don’t love rhodium plating at all. But I especially don’t like it when a consumer doesn’t know what it is, or know that it’s been done to their jewelry. It prevents them from being able to best take care of their jewelry over time.

Silver tarnishes and that’s just a fact. It gets a patina, it wears with you. Rhodium can rub off, or even flake or chip off and then the whole thing needs to be stripped of the remaining rhodium and completely replated. If a consumer wants the rhodium plating, then they should also understand what upkeep might be involved.

Step 4 – consumers have rights to know what is in their jewelry (i.e. nickel)

A consumer should know this before buying so that they understand what is involved in upkeep on a piece of jewelry. Knowing how to best care for a jewelry investment helps your customers long-term.

OK I’ll take this two steps farther – in order to rhodium plate silver, you usually need an underlayer or else rhodium sinks into the silver. 

Unless stated otherwise, that underlayer is likely to be nickel, and that is the metal most likely to cause an allergic reaction. So when the rhodium wears away, consumers get exposed to nickel in the process. 

Since this company hadn’t fully disclosed that they really meant that the jewelry was plated, there was no corresponding disclosure about whether or not the pieces were nickel-free. And now you can see why it’s problematic to not disclose the details about the process used to make your jewelry.

Put yourself into your customer’s place – how would you feel if you spent $900 on a piece of jewelry only to find out that the finish was going to wear away or that you’d have to spend a certain amount of money on the upkeep and replating. 

A big part of the reason why I advocate for full disclosure about your sourcing, your materials and more is that it helps the whole industry when all of use are using the same or similar language so that consumers can feel secure and have trust in what they buy.

All of this means using your words and your actions to build trust with your audience and with your consumers.

*Remaining nameless for the time being since I have not yet reached out to them to ask for a correction.

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