07Case study / Fashion
La Mer
A cross-channel brand experience that lifted La Mer’s sales at Nordstrom in Southern California by 50% and loyalty by 20%.
Overview
One brand, told the same way at the counter and online: La Mer’s sales up 50%, and brand loyalty up 20%, at Nordstrom in Southern California.
As a full-time brand image consultant for La Mer, I was embedded in Nordstrom’s Southern California stores. My role helped align La Mer’s luxury positioning across channels: from the in-store consultation to Nordstrom’s online presence.
The work combined on-site team training, online brand representation, and customer advocacy. This project is under NDA.
My Role
I was the strategic liaison between La Mer’s global brand and Nordstrom’s hybrid retail experience:
- Team trainingStore teams trained on La Mer’s product line, ingredient science, and storytelling, in person and remotely.
- Two channels, one brandVisual and narrative consistency across Nordstrom’s online listings and in-store merchandising.
- Experience designProduct education and the customer experience, at the counter and online.
- Digital presenceBetter product discoverability and brand presence on Nordstrom’s digital platform.
Design Thinking in Brand Experience
This wasn’t a digital product role, but design thinking guided my approach:
- 01
Empathize
Shadowed customer interactions, online and in person, to understand behaviors and barriers.
- 02
Define
Found the inconsistencies in brand messaging, and the training gaps among sales associates.
- 03
Ideate
Strategies for presenting content online, and for storytelling in store.
- 04
Prototype
New product demo language, a customer journey flow, and online content enhancements.
- 05
Test
Measured by sales lift, loyalty indicators, and feedback from staff and customers.
One story, everywhere
From the product demo at the counter to the listing online, La Mer’s voice and visuals had to carry seamlessly from Nordstrom’s stores to its site.
Impact
Aligning the brand across channels paid off in numbers:
- +50%
- La Mer product sales at participating Nordstrom locations
- Participating Nordstrom locations, Southern California
- +20%
- Brand loyalty scores
- Participating Nordstrom locations, Southern California
The two metrics I tracked, before and after:
Sales average
Before13%After20%
Brand loyalty
Before53%After64%
Training in person and remotely built the staff’s confidence in product knowledge and brand storytelling, and the brand’s voice and visual integrity carried seamlessly between Nordstrom’s stores and its site.
Learnings
- 01
Training is experience design. What an associate says at the counter is part of the brand.
- 02
One story, everywhere. Cohesive brand education and a premium customer experience drove the loyalty lift.
- 03
Measure what you change. Sales lift, loyalty indicators, and feedback from staff and customers showed what the program did.
Conclusion
By aligning La Mer’s high-touch brand experience across Nordstrom’s online and in-store environments, this project showed how strategic training, consistent storytelling, and design-led thinking can lift luxury retail. Better sales, deeper loyalty, and stronger staff engagement: the value of customer-centric brand management that bridges the physical and the digital.