The Lilian Raji Agency | Dossier

Strategic M arketing & Public Relations for the Luxury Lifestyle

WWW.LILIANRAJI.COM (646) 789 4427 info@lmrpr.com

Luxury is in the midst of revolution.

We at The Lilian Raji Agency are quite inspired by what is occurring on the world stage. Opportunity is ripe for authentic prestige brands – those of quality, refinement, innovation and legacy – to emerge triumphantly after an era run amok with excess and vulgarity. The journey for luxury to reclaim its luster has begun.

We are here to help you navigate the course.

Vive la révolution! volution!

Table of Content

Manifesto Who We Are What We Do Experience Contact

M anifesto In these troubled times, many experts will herald the death of luxury. If you are a true luxury purveyor, you will not flinch.

You will do what true luxury purveyors have done for hundreds of years in up, and down, cycles: execute the fundamentals as inspired and defined by your customers‘ needs and desires, consistently and extraordinarily well. Men and women who achieve the best will always seek the best of everything. That is why luxury has brands that span centuries, while most other industries don't.

Milton Pedraza Luxury Institute

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e once hailed the vast amount of wealth the US has seen over the past few years and the countless opportunities luxury brands had to fill their coffers. Times have changed, and the US is facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We've been asked our thoughts on this crisis and how luxury companies can survive. Our counsel has not changed build relationships with your customers.

The challenges premium brands are currently facing were created by the very opportunities that originally fueled their growth. From the influx of overnight millionaires with demands for more, luxury companies increased their production and created brand extensions to meet every scale of luxury buyer – whether the $200 handbag luxury customers or customers defining luxury as a $75,000 wristwatch. The gilded age is over, and new values created by hard learned economic lessons are now redefining what motivates a person to buy luxury.

This coming era produces a challenge for prestige goods companies previously captivated by the demand for more.

Projections based on earlier sales are now unrealistic and portfolios are beleaguered by brand extensions that no longer move as quickly as before.

We believe prestige companies can weather the times if they embrace strategies to solidify relationships with existing customers while educating prospective customers on the history, authenticity, quality and value of a premium purchase. The tide will change, and purse strings will loosen once more. Yet only the companies who remained relevant to their customers’ emotional needs now will remain strong.

We are here to help those companies who wish to persevere in this time of uncertainty.

Lilian M Raji Founder & President The Lilian Raji Agency

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ho We Are

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e at The Lilian Raji Agency pride ourselves on an obsessive attention to ROI while initiating creative, innovative and cost effective strategies to persuade prospective customers to give your company due diligence.

Choosing The Lilian Raji Agency is a smart business decision that aligns your objectives with an agency fastidious about delivering results.

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learly the marketing challenge today isn’ isn’t just finding an agency that can effectively communicate the value of a premium purchase, but also finding an agency that can unapologetically deliver a measurable return on investment.

With our understanding of luxury purchase motivators, we develop strategies to ensure customers ask for you by name. We remain current on spending habits of luxury consumers by communicating regularly with our friends in luxury sales and our “brain trust” of high net worth individuals who willingly share insight into what they and their friends are buying and why.

We’re obsessively compulsive about delivering a return on investment – so much so that you’ll hear from us regularly.

You’ll receive frequent updates on what we’re doing and suggestions on how to best maximize our services. We come to you with ideas, treating your business as if it were our own.

Because we are a boutique agency, we won’t break your budget. Our Atlanta base allows for minimal overhead while our relationships and monthly travel to New York City assures the same advantages of a Manhattan address at a fraction of the cost.

There are six of us. While your communication will almost exclusively be with the agency founder, Lilian Raji, rest assured there’s a team working behind the scenes to ensure your satisfaction is earned.

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ho We Are

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he Lilian Raji Agency was inspired by firsthand witness of the emotions accompanying luxury goods purchases ~ make no mistake about it – the pursuit of luxury is a passionate endeavor. The founder’s experience as a sales associate of Tourneau Watches Inc offered tremendous insight into the impetus behind spending tens of thousands of dollars on an instrument whose primary purpose is to tell time.

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e extend to you strategic counsel, marketing and public relations services based on personal experiences selling premium goods to your customers.

Premium goods companies know the luxury buyer isn’t like everyone else – but it goes a little deeper than this. During her time at Tourneau, Lilian observed how a person religious about cutting coupons before grocery shopping transforms into another persona in the presence of prestige items, especially when the history surrounding the product was compellingly told. After a sale, customers would return with their friends just to have Lilian tell their friends the legacy behind the watch.

Lilian saw the impact of well written articles in delivering passionate customers through the door, and how casually name dropping an influential figure who happened to own a similar watch helped customers feel good about buying. What often closed a sale, however, was giving the customer an opportunity to experience ownership – whether through invitations to special events given by the watch company or by gentle suggestions to preen and pose with the watch before a mirror.

Ultimately, regular application of these insights helped make Lilian one of the leading and youngest sales associate at Tourneau.

In creating The Lilian Raji Agency, Lilian recognized the contribution of each scenario in persuading customers to buy. The services offered by The Lilian Raji Agency are based on this fundamental understanding that emotions – whether created through a compelling story, a personal experience, or validation of one’s decisions reflected by a similar decision from a highly respected leader – are the secret to selling premium goods.

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ho We Are

innovative We hired Lilian Raji when one aspect of our sponsorship of UNICEF’s Designs of Hope was falling short of projection – our raffle ticket sales. With only six weeks before deadline, Lilian executed an aggressive, strategic marketing plan that catapulted raffle ticket sales from just under $1,000 to over $12,000. Her creativity and innate understanding of marketing challenges helped us succeed in an area we’re we had almost given up hope.

Autumn Murray InterContinental Hotels Group Senior Community Affairs Director

quality I met Lilian Raji at a conference where she was being honored as International Emerging Leader of the Year, and subsequently hired her to manage media relations and launch for our new store opening in Atlanta. From beginning to end, Lilian and her team ensured everything was done correctly – from coming in under budget for the launch coordination, to ensuring premium media presence, to voluntarily preparing an ROI statement that validated our decision to hire her company.

Trenesa Danuser VP of Global Communications and Strategic Alliances The Estee Lauder Companies, Origins and Ojon

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ho We Are

service I have known Lilian for over three years now. She is a very effective, creative and high integrity PR professional. She has a unique combination of contemporary and proven traditional techniques for getting it done for her clients. Through Lilian's company, my venture was able achieve results beyond what I expected in a very short time.

Steve Aninye, President Ascend Systems

cost We came to The Lilian Raji Agency with a limited budget and a young brand that needed to be introduced to the American market. Lilian treated us like a global brand with a much larger budget, and delivered results as such without exceeding our financial plan.

Franck Albert Brafine VP of Operations, North America Philippe Tournaire

value The Lilian Raji Agency coordinated our most highly regarded customer appreciation party, while spending the least amount possible to ensure satisfaction all around.

Our vendor relationships were strengthened by Lilian bringing in editors and reporters that not only interviewed us, but also interviewed our vendors to discuss their newest watches.

Our customer relationships were strengthened by the gift bags Lilian’s team put together, valued at over $500 and filled with products from Hermes, Belisimi, Maurice Lacroix, Breitling, Tag Heuer and other companies, all secured at no cost to us. We were very impressed with Lilian’s work and highly recommend her services.

Ken Grazi, Partner KENJO – the Store to Watch

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ho We Are

W Lilian is one of the most passionate and dynamic professionals I’ve ever worked with.

Her dedication and level of service to her clients is truly amazing and is well matched by her intelligence and warmth. While her skills, experience and knowledge of the luxury market got us working together initially, her personality, enthusiasm and problem solving abilities will keep us collaborating for many years to come.

Cindy Wood Brand Stylist

hat We Do

The pursuit of luxury. . .

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e begin every new client partnership with a Passion Point Management Audit, an in depth study of your company’s founding vision.

Your Passion Point Management Audit encompasses a strategic session with the most informed members of your team. Depending on your needs, the session can be a succinct overview of your established goals, current positioning and determination of next steps, or it can be a comprehensive analysis of your company fundamentals, competitive landscape, industry influencers, customer profile and other foundation elements.

The finished product of this Audit becomes your Passion Point Management Agenda, a tactical plan of how we will help you: Forge meaningful connections with luxury buyers by creating customized, personal experiences Be more innovative and relevant to their desires Compete more strategically against the multitudes of other companies going after the their wallet Your PPMA include a combination of public relations services (marketing communications, traditional and social media relations, experiential event design and delivery, and opinion leader outreach) and possible recommendations for strategic partnerships. It also includes a list of deliverables and specific metrics in which we will measure ROI throughout our relationship.

is a passionate endeavor

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hat We Do

marketing communications We craft your story, or “Passion Proposition”, through insight gained by your Passion Point Management Audit. Your Passion Proposition becomes the story we tell to engage the interest of both media and your target customers.

Every point of contact with your company reiterates this story.

We help you ensure consistency as we review your existing materials and develop your press kits and supporting materials. Our capabilities include:

Award Entries Backgrounders Biographies Brochures B Rolls By lined Articles Corporate Profiles Fact Sheets Feature Stories Message Points

Newsletters Op ed Pieces PSAs Press Releases Press Kits Presentations Speeches Trade Show Support VNRs Website Design

experience

Website design for Eros World Tapas Bar

Eros World Tapas Bar had a vision to create a restaurant for lovers of culinary variety, infused with a Bacchanalian atmosphere where guests could surrender their cares to great food, music and great company. We helped translate this vision into the Eros website, working with rich earth tones, sensual music and a regularly updated photo album of restaurant guests. We then integrated this message into their press materials, ultimately securing live television coverage on Fox 5’s Good Day Atlanta, CBS’s Better Mornings, NBC’s Atlanta & Company as well as articles in Atlanta’s most read magazines and newspapers.

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hat We Do

traditional and social media relations As we’re developing your Passion Proposition, we are also researching journalists who would be most receptive to your message. We’re creating your own personal database of journalists and bloggers in A, B, and C categories, defined by the their reach or website hits, past coverage of your industry, and opportunity to make them an ally. Your A listers will be the ones we share your achievements with regularly and can count on to give you coverage when you need it most.

Our relationships extend from Architectural Digest to Women's Wear Daily, and we continue adding more in between by scheduling monthly meetings with editors at top publications. We travel to New York City regularly to meet with these editors and personally introduce them to your latest products and services.

experience We believe in building relationships long before they're needed so that when you have a story to tell, they will give you an audience to hear it. This philosophy helped us considerably in planning a media lunch for the cosmetic company Origins new store opening in Atlanta.

Our relationships helped convince several top Atlanta reporters and journalists, including a producer for NBC affiliate WXIA, to travel 20+ miles to attend the store launch, and helped secure editorial placements in several of Atlanta’s most circulated publications, including Jezebel Magazine, Points North Magazine, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

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hat We Do

experiential events From new product launches and in store promotions to anniversary events and publicity stunts, we design events that create a positive, memorable experience for your customers.

We do as much, or as little as you need from designing and managing the event from top to bottom, to working with your team in coordinating the guest list, managing RSVPs, putting together extraordinary gift bags and securing a media partner to add an extra dose of prestige to the event.

experience For New York based luxury watch store Kenjo, we produced a spectacular holiday party to rejuvenate their customers' love of the store. We secured Robb Report as our media partner, brought in watch aficionado Alex Kanakaris to tape live from the party for his new online program dedicated exclusively to Swiss watches, and sent guests home with gift bags filled with Hermes scarves, Belisi ties, Wolf watch rotators, Maurice Lacroix pens, Breitling jackets, and several other valuable gifts, all secured by us at no additional cost to Kenjo.

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hat We Do

influencer outreach We offer two types of Influencer Outreach services. The first focuses on opinion leaders within your industry. These are the people who are often quoted in media, and have a loyal following of people who trust their advice. We make contact with these opinion leaders on your behalf, and encourage them to discover more about your company.

The second is based on establishing relationships with celebrities.

While it is true that there are those not easily influenced by celebrity endorsements, in some cases, (such as the perfect relationship between Nicole Kidman and Chanel, who saw a 16% increase in sales during Ms. Kidman’s tenure as the face of No. 5), celebrity presence can add influence. We will help you determine if celebrity endorsement would be useful to you, and if so, which celebrity best embodies your Passion Proposition.

Through our Hollywood relationships, we will work with you in crafting an ideal partnership.

experience Struggling start up Bakana Brazilian Jewelry & Accessories quickly needed recognition for their jewelry collection. We tapped our relationship with the wardrobe stylist at Desperate Housewives, and Terry Hatcher's character soon wore a Bakana necklace during the show, bringing Bakana Jewelry more orders than they could possibly imagine.

Further, enchanted by the Latin American company, Eva Longoria requested special pieces for herself and friends, giving Bakana additional A list endorsement.

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hat We Do

strategic partnerships In evaluating strategic partnerships, we take your Passion Proposition and look for other non competing companies who have your same values. We then bring you together. Sometimes, the relationship is for a one time project, and sometimes it’s for the long haul. We’ll help you determine what works best for you. Some ideas include

Co branding Opportunities Marketing Alliances and Partnerships Joint Loyalty Programs Entertainment Marketing Sponsorship Procurement

The old adage “two heads work better than one” is very valuable wisdom. Let’s find you your second head.

experience Ascend Systems Inc created a device to help monitor and track Alzheimer and Dementia patients in the event of wandering.

Realizing the device offered many potential brand extensions, Ascend Systems came to us to recommend other market opportunities for the device within the luxury market. Our team helped them identify and meet with potential strategic partnerships for brand extensions in areas including leather goods and watch manufacturing.

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E xperience I’ve worked with Lilian on several projects and her company has proven to be both highly creative and very professional. Her team goes the extra mile to ensure the clients’ needs are met and are never satisfied until they can show clients a ROI equal to three times their retainer.

Lilian is truly a relationship specialist, openly sharing her contacts to help others advance their own needs. She is a generous and dedicated business leader for whom I have the greatest respect.

Jennifer Peterson, Marketing Director Galaxy Bright

beauty The Estee Lauder Companies for Origins Proctor & Gamble for Olay*

fashion & accessories Ascend Systems Bakana Brazilian Jewelry, Purses & Accessories Mark Edge Jewelry IMPnow.com

hospitality Eros World Tapas Bar InterContinental Hotels Group Fishmonger Restaurant Milan Restaurant The Palm Restaurant* Raffles International Hotels & Resorts* Raffles L’Ermitage Beverly Hills* RafflesAmrita Day Spa* Teela Taqueria

luxury products Aquanautic Bellissimo Fine Jewelry Clerc Concordia Jewels Didier Peiro Dubey & Schaldenbrand French Trade Commission – Jewelry Division KENJO – The Store to Watch Lotus MJYX Mathon Paris Philippe Tournaire PK Time Group Solomon Brothers Fine Jewelers S.T. Dupont Volna

Portfolio

*services performed on behalf of another agency

luxury services Intelligent Homes & Buildings Jani Caroli Meilin Ehlke Munson International RMR Real Estate Marketing Results The Ultimate Life TV Wes Moss

nonprofit American Cancer Society American Heart Association Captain Planet Foundation Emory Ataxia Center at Emory University School of Medicine The Goethe Institute Hope worldwide Georgia Italian Trade Commission National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Southern Center for International Studies

Portfolio

Raffles International Hotels & Resorts introduced their first North American Raffles spa concept, RafflesAmrita, in their ultra luxury Raffles L’Ermitage Beverly Hills. They wanted the launch to be BIG, and their PR Team turned to us for results.

We immediately got on the phones with our contacts at top luxury magazines, scheduling desk side appointments with editors to personally introduce them to RafflesAmrita. W Magazine took the introductions a step further, giving L’Ermitage a coveted feature on the highly anticipated Annual Spa Review; and SpaFinder Magazine chose L’Ermitage for a feature story. We negotiated an ultra exclusive spot on Live with Regis and Kelly, where 6.7 million viewers learned first hand why the L’Ermitage was the choice destination for luxury spa services in Beverly Hills. And the pièce de résistance?

We opened communication lines between L’Ermitage and the Style Network to shoot regular programs at the hotel. All of this coverage kept the Spa booked for months.

Case One

Solomon Brothers Fine Jewelry asked us to create a fabulous in store promotions. The problem? A $300 budget, reserved solely for invitations. A successful event requires at least food, alcohol, and a photographer. With no budget for any of this, the event still took in over $90,000. Here’s how we did it: We convinced Pernod Ricard to be the wine sponsor for this “Wine & Diamonds Affair”; we tapped our relationship with president of Glorious Events Catering to be our food sponsor; photography was taken care of by our magazine sponsor, Travel Girl; and we secured donations of $400 handbags from accessories companies Bakana, Curlie Girl, Neym NY, and Yen Linh Creations, given to all purchases over $5,000.

Just to make it interesting, we brought in exclusive collections from celebrity jewelers Scott Kay, Damiani, Daniel K, Martin Flyer, Christopher Designs and Chad Allison Couture. The event was a smashing success.

Case Two

Case Three

Contact WWW.LILIANRAJI.COM (646) 789 4427

LILIAN M RAJI PRESIDENT (646) 789 4427 x701 LILIAN@LMRPR.COM