CHALLENGE

For over 30 years, the retail and development company Caruso has pioneered the premium shopping experience in Southern California. But with ambitious plans to double in size over five years and an increasingly competitive market with the opening of new lifestyle centers from Westfield and Taubman, the company needed to reimagine its marketing organization. The question was how to evolve to stand apart from competition without increasing budget or headcount.

SOLUTION

Create a shared services organization dedicated to standardizing best practices, building brand architecture and expanding digital marketing.

To revitalize brand awareness, the company embarked on a top-to-bottom visual and messaging transformation repositioning the corporate brand and its collection of six retail centers. Detail was applied to everything from property events and activations to consumer acquisition to thought leadership.

A strategic pivot from traditional advertising to digital and social media unlocked opportunity to reach the right audience and deliver stronger content highlighting noteworthy tenants such as Tory Burch, Barneys New York, and Ladurée as well as property events. Prioritizing data and analytics improved marketing performance with a focus on optimization. The shared services team also concentrated efforts to redesign websites, expand the company loyalty program, introduce enhanced CRM technology, and improve PR exposure. 

IMPACT

The revitalized marketing organization yielded greater efficiency and expanded reach while reducing operating budget by more than 20% and decreasing headcount. 

Since 2015, membership in Caruso’s loyalty program has doubled each year. Its database acquisition is projected to grow 30% year-over-year for each retail property, and the social media footprint is expected to continue growing between 15% and 20% year-over-year. In addition, the company has seen a marked improvement in editorial coverage with recent features  in The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times, among other outlets.