Nordstrom Rewards Program Rebrand

My Role: Creative Director and Lead Designer

The Challenge: Nordstrom's business leaders saw an opportunity to gain market share by increasing the membership of its loyalty program in response to the success of competing programs like Starbucks and Alaska Air. At the time the program was sponsored by The Nordstrom Bank which had its own branding, a unique website, and benefits that skewed heavily to its top-tier designer customers. I partnered with stakeholders to define the strategy and worked with divisional creative to mentor and align the implementation of new branded assets which included the design and integration of the loyalty website into nordstrom.com.

Goals:

• Make the program more approachable, sharable, and inclusive

• Incorporate the program into the Nordstrom brand

• Make customers feel special by clearly communicating benefits

• Create consistent visual assets that work across all media

Actions: I authored a rebrand deck in partnership with the agency Zeus Jones to serve as a guide for all disciplines to execute their work for a seamless customer experience across all channels. I developed the design system by partnering with divisional designers in the creation of key components. I negotiated unlimited usage of illustration art for 10 years. Working closely with the writer, we established a fashion lifestyle voice and applied it to various deliverables. We also simplified the program's definition by using the key phrase “shop, get rewarded, repeat.” By transitioning the name from Fashion Rewards to Nordstrom Rewards, we gave the program a more democratic and actionable appeal. Finally, I collaborated with UX to fully integrate the program’s site into nordstrom.com. 

The Outcome: During the 2 years that I managed the program, membership increased by 5% to 4.5 million. The library of brand assets with guidelines created brand consistency for a seamless customer experience. This made it easy to adapt the program for expansion into the Canadian market. Organic impressions on social channels also increased featuring the new Nordstrom note and related shopping hauls.