There Are No Coincidences

“A certain man once lost a diamond cuff-link in the wide blue sea, and twenty years later, on the exact day, a Friday apparently, he was eating a large fish - but there was no diamond inside. That’s what I like about coincidence.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark 

With the Super Bowl set to kick off, and Tiffany plumping a crazy amount of money for a glitzy ad/PR campaign, word leached out that CEO Frederic Cumenal had "resigned".  Word from Tiffany's HQ was that the timing of a resignation announcement was what Ned Flanders of Simpson's fame would say "put the wink in coinkydink" -

Shamelessly borrowed from the world-wide infoweb

Resignations accompanied with succession plans (albeit temporary ones) and press releases issued on a Sunday hours before major PR events don't just happen.  It is safe to say that this announcement was most likely intended for this week, but somehow the news started to leak. 

Now, let's go back to what should be the main points - Tiffany is not doing well.  I honestly have no idea how well, or how poorly their new watch collection is doing.  I don't tend to dip my toes in the jewelry business too often, but having passed by Tiffany's stores in the various cities I visit, I can agree that the luster is not what it once was.  Whether this is the fault of the most recent CEO or not is something that I am in no way informed enough to discuss.

I will also say that in my opinion, the Tiffany watches are ridiculously over-priced.  There, I've said it.  But again, Tiffany has been trying to play through some particularly bad hands of cards.  The litigation with that tiny Swiss private label company, SWATCH, certainly hurt them.  And just what Tiffany is supposed to represent now I don't really know.  Partnering with Lady Gaga is, I fear, a bit of a mad-dash down the rabbit hole fueled by Millenniallitis.  Per the Urban Dictionary and your pal Henki -

millennialitis

The belief of sales, marketing, and advertising professionals that the Millennial demographic represents a completely unique group of consumers and as such, entirely new approaches must be adopted. Even if the product you are trying to sell is intended for a completely different demographic, such as Depends Adult diapers.

I tried to explain to the Creative Director that the hipster didn't represent our customer demographic, but she's got a bad case of millennialitis.

by Henkitime January 16, 2017

The thing is, Tiffany has the potential to lead the discussion as to what the consumer should want, rather than the other way around.  There is a very good reason why we don't remember Audrey Hepburn in:

Breakfast at Zales