• NY Times, Friday, December 23, 2005 12:47 PM

The platinum industry is targeting engaged couples with a new marketing strategy based on research that showed the romantic concept of choosing a soul mate has changed. The new effort carries the tagline "Your Love Has Just Gone Platinum" and seeks to convince the soon-to-be-wed that platinum is more desirable than diamonds, the traditional form of wedding jewelry. The campaign is being spearheaded by Platinum Guild International, the U. S. marketing arm of the platinum industry following focus group research in suburban New Jersey, San Francisco, and Chicago. "What we found is that today's engaged-age couple really has a very practical and realistic attitude toward marriage and love," said Michelle Peranteau, marketing manager for Platinum Guild International. "Surprisingly, what was absent was a romantic notion of love." So the group invented a slogan that it felt described how young adults see marriage: as an upgrade to their current relationship. "The biggest revelation we found was that people generally lived together before marriage, so the decision to get engaged is made long before the proposal is actually made," Ms. Peranteau said. "It's really about why they decided to take their relationship to the next level."

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