Great points.
Yeah, I will be surprised if they get the patent. Meanwhile, they can pretend they have something special, and some lawyer will take fees to chase after an unlikely patent. Mgt can pretend they are doing something that they believe will help create value for shareholders. (Though I doubt any investors will actually believe that nonsense.)
Great point about "patent-pending" being a marketing tool. Maybe that is their thought. But personally, I do NOT think that would make any difference to most consumers. Do you think or see that it actually does have an impact on consumers of fine jewelry ? If so, is that mainly limited to D jewelry, where consumers know the jewel is "real" and fine, and the differentiation comes from the settings ? And anyway, nobody is going to buy C&CM mainly because of some patent-pending designs of the settings, they are going to buy IF they believe that the C&CM jewel is THE BEST FINE jewel (or at least an equivalent top position along with D, but not below D)......they are NOT buying patented design jewelRY if they don't believe the jewel is a "real" thing and a BEST thing.
The designs are nice. But not something special enough to discourage consumers from buying other jewelry designs from other retailers.
I do appreciate the general attempt to go after a higher end more fine jewel type of market. But I doubt this is an effective way to get that market. IMO, cracking that market will require that C&CM first be in the mainstream fine jewelry retailers (B&M and online), regardless of whether millennials are the bulk of consumers or not. And suzanne repeatedly saying that millennials use mobile and online methods to shop, isn't going to change the fact that even millennials will want to see our jewel on the fine jewelry retailers websites (and in their stores), and will not be convinced by seeing it on C&C's own little website and on marketplaces fulfilled by C&C, but almost nowhere else. Stop wasting money, and put all the resources behind making Helzberg successful, and spreading that to other large B&M/online fine jewelry retailers. Of course, most of the C&C staff would have to go, and keep only those necessary to run a wholesale jewel supplier. And we need a sales person who can actually SELL the fine jewelry retailers on carrying C&CM jewelry. And shrink HQ.