The Glossy 50 honors the year’s biggest changemakers across fashion and beauty. More from the series →
The Accelerators: These drivers of a growth-fueling change made a big impact in-house.
Neiman Marcus, like many brands and retailers, doubled down on its luxury pedigree this year. It refocused its marketing and merchandising efforts on its most successful brands, and now, just 2% of its customers drive around 40% of its sales volume.
Lana Todorovich, the company’s president and chief merchandising officer, has led the retailer’s strategy to partner with high-end brands on unique campaigns. They’ve included teaming with Christian Louboutin on a swimming pool-inspired installation at the Dallas store, hosting a straight-from-the-Paris-runway viewing of Akris’s 100th anniversary collection at Neiman Marcus’s Chicago location and wrapping the Atlanta store in Burberry’s TB monogram logo.
“We’ve all seen headlines about the retail trials and tribulations,” Todorovich said. “And, yes, customers are more demanding and rejecting old ways of engagement. So we fundamentally needed to evolve and change how we engage with the customers. Transactional retail is difficult. Innovative, experiential, exciting retail is vibrant.”
Todorovich said her focuses for Neiman Marcus this year included introducing “retailtainment,” or combining elements of shopping with those high-profile, experiential activations. In the last year, Neiman Marcus has orchestrated more 35 of these activations, with brands like Prada, Balmain, Brunello Cucinelli and Versace.
Todorovich also helped revive the Neiman Marcus Awards, which returned this year after a seven-year pause. The first ceremony honored Brunello Cucinelli with the Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion award, while also giving awards to Jonathan Anderson of Loewe and Amina Muaddi. Throughout the years, receiving the award has helped fashion luminaries like Christian Dior jumpstart their careers. Todorovich hopes that the new iteration of the awards can have the same impact by recognizing legends in the field and boosting the profiles and pedigrees of newer designers.
“Next year, I want to continue to innovate and transform the way we engage with customers and bring more experiences to life,” Todorovich said. “We have some exciting activations lined up, [which will be held] both across the country and on our digital channels.”
Click here to see all 2023 Glossy 50 honorees.
