ColumnistsAug 02, 2022
Why Passing on Lab-Grown Diamonds Might Be a Risky BetColumnistsAug 16, 2022
The PR Adviser: Describe Your Customer
Columnist Lilian Raji continues her tour of the customer journey by asking, who is your customer? And, what do they like?
Lilian Raji is a strategic communications and PR adviser who helps companies understand their marketing problems, then designs and executes strategies to solve them.
Hello again, my beloved readers! We’re continuing today with lessons I learned from the Glossy Future of Fashion and Luxury conference in June. More specifically, what conference speaker Neda Whitney, senior vice president and head of marketing for Christie’s America, told me.
Two columns ago, I bombarded you with questions that challenged you to not give me the same old, same old. Some of you responded by demanding to know what you ever did to me to cause you such brain pain.
Brain pain is good! It means your synapses are getting stronger as your mind begins to investigate a new way of thinking. And that’s where the magic happens, baby! Creativity and inspiration are the brainchildren of Herculean-strength synapses.
We addressed one of those tough questions in the last column. If you still can’t answer why customers buy from you, revisit it or call me!
Today, we tackle your ideal customer. In the golden steps of the customer journey, we call these bricks “developing the customer persona.”
When I posed this question to you, I asked you to describe them. Who are they? What are they like?
When I go through this exercise with clients, we usually come up with more than one persona because your customers are not all the same. Their common trait, however, is that they enjoy spending their money with you.
Neda Whitney from Christie’s got my synapses running laps when she told me she’s given up on traditional means for developing customer personas.
“Oh, my dear Lilian,” she said in my imagined re-enactment of our conversation. “It’s no longer just about sitting with your team, brainstorming how Jack and Jill and Jordan find your brand. No, no, no sweetheart. Social media has made understanding your customers so much easier!”
And then she jumped on her Pegasus unicorn with a rainbow horn and flew away, leaving me with the powerful insight I share with you today.
Pick your poison. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Pinterest. TikTok. Twitter. SnapChat. YouTube.
Spend enough time on any of these channels, and you’ll discover your customers are happily telling you who they are, what they like, who they follow, and what they did last summer.
My customer persona exercise used to begin with brainstorming before going to social media to identify customers with specific traits, then tracking their behavior.
Now, thanks to Neda’s genius, we’re starting on the platforms and working backward.
Let’s fire up your CRM, or customer relationship management, system!
If you just asked, “what’s a CRM?” please pardon the wave of expletives I unleashed.
Let’s take a side journey into the sexy scene of CRMs and why you need one.
A warning—what I’m about to describe sounds like stalking. And it kind of is; kinda creepy, kinda intrusive, but 100 percent guaranteed to be appreciated by your customers, as long as they don’t know how you appear to read their minds.
Related stories will be right here …
Two columns ago, I bombarded you with questions that challenged you to not give me the same old, same old. Some of you responded by demanding to know what you ever did to me to cause you such brain pain.
Brain pain is good! It means your synapses are getting stronger as your mind begins to investigate a new way of thinking. And that’s where the magic happens, baby! Creativity and inspiration are the brainchildren of Herculean-strength synapses.
We addressed one of those tough questions in the last column. If you still can’t answer why customers buy from you, revisit it or call me!
Today, we tackle your ideal customer. In the golden steps of the customer journey, we call these bricks “developing the customer persona.”
When I posed this question to you, I asked you to describe them. Who are they? What are they like?
When I go through this exercise with clients, we usually come up with more than one persona because your customers are not all the same. Their common trait, however, is that they enjoy spending their money with you.
Neda Whitney from Christie’s got my synapses running laps when she told me she’s given up on traditional means for developing customer personas.
“Oh, my dear Lilian,” she said in my imagined re-enactment of our conversation. “It’s no longer just about sitting with your team, brainstorming how Jack and Jill and Jordan find your brand. No, no, no sweetheart. Social media has made understanding your customers so much easier!”
And then she jumped on her Pegasus unicorn with a rainbow horn and flew away, leaving me with the powerful insight I share with you today.
Pick your poison. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Pinterest. TikTok. Twitter. SnapChat. YouTube.
Spend enough time on any of these channels, and you’ll discover your customers are happily telling you who they are, what they like, who they follow, and what they did last summer.
My customer persona exercise used to begin with brainstorming before going to social media to identify customers with specific traits, then tracking their behavior.
Now, thanks to Neda’s genius, we’re starting on the platforms and working backward.
Let’s fire up your CRM, or customer relationship management, system!
If you just asked, “what’s a CRM?” please pardon the wave of expletives I unleashed.
Let’s take a side journey into the sexy scene of CRMs and why you need one.
A warning—what I’m about to describe sounds like stalking. And it kind of is; kinda creepy, kinda intrusive, but 100 percent guaranteed to be appreciated by your customers, as long as they don’t know how you appear to read their minds.
A strong CRM will shelter your customers’ intimate secrets, including everything they’ve purchased from you, when they last purchased, and how much they spent, and that’s just the basics.
If you’re fully maximizing your strong, sexy CRM, you will also know their birthday, anniversary, and other important dates in their life, allowing you to conveniently show up at the right moments to say, “Hey you, you’ve got an important event coming up. What are you going to wear?”
But wait, there’s more!
With the right CRM integration, you will also know where on your website your customer has spent the most time, how often they come back and admire that one piece that really should be theirs, and if they’ve ever been tempted to put that piece in the shopping cart but then changed their minds.
What can you do with this information? A helluva lot! But I’m getting ahead of myself. We’ll return to this in a future column.
Facebook has a nifty tool called Audience Insights that will tell you immediately who your customers are on both a demographic and psychographic level. Demographics gives you facts like age, gender, education, etc. Psychographics tell you hobbies and interests.
Demographics will let you know if someone can afford to be your customer; psychographics will show you how to seduce them into becoming your customer.
The pursuit of luxury is a passionate endeavor. I’ll never stop saying this. In fact, I demand my family put it on my tombstone when the time comes.
As with all passion, seduction is the key to getting customers to buy from you. Knowing what they like and how they like to spend their time brings you one step closer into luring them into your, ahem, CRM.
With Audience Insights, you can upload email addresses of your customers from your CRM, and Facebook will give you their core demographics based on its ability to match the email addresses with existing Facebook and Instagram users.
All of this becomes anonymized in the process, so don’t worry about exposing your customers’ personal information. If you’re without a CRM (shame!), you can also do the same using your existing Facebook and Instagram followers.
To get to the truly juicy stuff, the information you need to determine how you’re going to get your customers’ temperature rising, you’ll want to look at the Page Likes feature, which give you psychographics. This bit of info serves as the ingredients to make that special love potion guaranteed to get your customers throwing their credit cards at you.
Editors' Picks
Sponsored by
And here is where I leave you until next month. I know, we’re just getting to the good stuff. But if I give it to you all now, how will I keep you coming back for more?
If you can’t wait, hop on over to my calendar and schedule a complimentary one-on-one with me. Otherwise, see you next month!
On another note, I’m now back on Instagram after a long hiatus!
I’m looking for brands to profile on my page since I didn’t make it to Vegas this year. If you’re interested, follow and DM me on Instagram, @lilianraji, and we can go from there. This is entirely complimentary because, as you know, I love to help!
More on Columnists
The Latest
Events & AwardsOct 30, 2026
Illuminating Carved Paraiba Pendant, Suite of Moonstones Wow at Spectrum AwardsSpectrum’s “Best of Show” honors went to a 101-carat Paraiba carved to look like Medusa that has a magnet-activated LED light.
TrendsOct 30, 2026
Edina Kiss’ Pendants Say ‘Eye’m Watching You’Our Halloween Pieces of the Week are four “Eye” pendants, each set with colorful gemstones.
MajorsOct 30, 2026
The RealReal Hires Former eBay Exec as New Chief Merchandising OfficerAlexis Hoopes expanded eBay’s “Authenticity Guarantee” program during her tenure.
Brought to you by
A Diamond Is Forever Launches 2026 Holiday Campaign Championing Natural DiamondsA Diamond Is Forever's holiday campaign reimagines natural diamond icons for a new generation celebrating individuality.
WatchesOct 29, 2026
Bucherer Opens Rolex Boutique in Washington StateThe Rolex-owned retailer’s new 4,700-square-foot store’s façade honors the Pacific Northwest’s evergreen forests.
Weekly QuizOct 29, 2026
This Week’s QuizTest your jewelry news knowledge by answering these questions.
TrendsOct 29, 2026
Amanda's Style File: All Treats, No Tricks Get into the Halloween spirit with this roundup of 13 spooky jewels.
MajorsOct 29, 2026
Gesswein Hires Longtime Bench Jeweler, Educator Ann CahoonCahoon was appointed strategic account and educational program manager at Gesswein, which recently joined Continental Buying Group.
Brought to you by
Open an Account, Get $50 Off Your First Order. No Code Needed.Built on Relationships. Refined by Craft.
MajorsOct 29, 2026
Amanda Seyfried Stars In Tiffany & Co.’s Holiday CampaignTiffany & Co.’s latest ambassador makes her debut in its “Love Is a Gift” holiday campaign.
EditorsOct 28, 2026
These Wicked Jewels Will Cast a Spell on YouFor her annual Halloween story, Senior Editor Lenore Fedow highlights bewitching jewels fit for a witch that go from day to unholy night.
CrimeOct 28, 2026
Man In Florida Who Swallowed Tiffany & Co. Earrings ConvictedJaythan Gilder was found guilty of robbery and grand theft after stealing and then ingesting nearly $800,000 worth of Tiffany & Co. jewelry.
SurveysOct 28, 2026
Consumer Confidence Up in October as Gas Prices EaseConsumer confidence remains on the long-term downward trend that’s persisted over the past few years, said a Conference Board economist.
MajorsOct 28, 2026
Stuller’s Holiday Campaign Lets the ‘Magic of the Moment’ ShineThe holiday campaign includes key jewelry trends, a curated holiday gift guide, and resources to help jewelers prepare for holiday shoppers.
SourcingOct 27, 2026
De Beers Celebrates the Holidays With New ‘Desert Diamonds’ CampaignThe “Icons” holiday campaign spotlights four classic diamond jewelry styles reimagined in “Desert Diamond” tones.
IndependentsOct 27, 2026
Solomon Brothers Acquires Mervis Diamond ImportersSolomon Brothers, which has three stores in the Metro Atlanta area, said it may continue to acquire other independent jewelers.
IndependentsOct 27, 2026
Gabriel & Co. Supports Charity Partner DKMS With Gala, New JewelsThe fine jewelry brand raised $2.3 million at its annual gala that supports the nonprofit’s fight against blood cancer and blood disorders.
Events & AwardsOct 27, 2026
JFC Announces 2027 ‘Facets’ HonoreesThe annual fundraising event is slated for June 6, 2027, at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas.
CollectionsOct 26, 2026
Bliss Lau’s ‘Vantage’ Point Is the Hawaiian HorizonIn her “Vantage” collection, Lau explores heritage, identity, and inner strength through designs featuring blue-green Guatemalan jade.
MajorsOct 26, 2026
Tiffany & Co. Takes Consumers Behind the ScenesThe jeweler gave the public backstage tours of its flagship store and its design and innovation workshop as part of LVMH’s open house.
Events & AwardsOct 26, 2026
Support JFC’s ‘Monster Mash Challenge,’ If You DareVote for which jewelry professional should dress up as a monster to support Jewelers for Children’s annual Halloween fundraiser.
MajorsOct 23, 2026
PGI USA Set to Close at Year’s EndThe closure is part of a global restructuring that also includes PGI winding down its operations in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong.
SourcingOct 23, 2026
Rachel Chalchinsky’s ‘Survivor Tribute’ RingThe ring, our Piece of the Week, was designed by eight-year breast cancer survivor Rachel Chalchinsky of Color Source Gems.
TechnologyOct 23, 2026
JA Unveils New Website, LogoThe website offers enhanced member benefit access, industry directories, educational resources, a job board, and access to the MJSA Journal.
FinancialsOct 23, 2026
Kering’s Jewelry Sales Up Double Digits in Q3Boucheron and Pomellato had a strong third quarter, with Kering looking at jewelry as an increasingly important part of its portfolio.
CrimeOct 22, 2026
Jeweler Shot and Killed in His Suburban Cincinnati Store Tara Sinchuri was the owner of Everest Jewels in Fairfield, Ohio, and a father of three. He was found dead in his store on Tuesday.
MajorsOct 22, 2026
Neiman Marcus Has Gifts for the Jewelry Lover Who Has EverythingBespoke experiences from Buccellati and Verdura are on the retailer’s 2026 “Fantasy Gifts” list.
Events & AwardsOct 22, 2026
JIS Fall 2026 Reports Record-Breaking Attendance The number of participants at the fall show was up 12 percent.
