Case Study
Hekman Miller – Bringing a legacy furniture brand’s craftsmanship story into modern retail
Defined a premium, scalable brand voice for a heritage furniture manufacturer entering modern online retail. Built a cohesive messaging system spanning brand narrative, voice guidance, and channel-ready product copy.
Results
Established a unified brand voice used across retail channels to reinforce premium positioning and consistency.
Overview
Partnered with Hekman Miller to translate its heritage craftsmanship into a scalable brand narrative for modern retail. Developed messaging pillars, voice guidance, and aligned product listings to ensure consistent premium positioning across platforms, including Perigold.
The Challenge
As Hekman expanded across retail channels, product listings lacked a unified narrative. Messaging varied by SKU and platform, making it difficult to communicate craftsmanship, materials, and heritage in a consistent, premium way.
The objective was to define a clear voice and messaging system that could scale across listings while remaining compliant with channel constraints.
Discovery and strategy
I worked directly with stakeholders (including an in-house furniture designer) to understand craftsmanship standards, material quality cues, heritage positioning, and how to express tradition without sounding dated. From that input, I built a messaging system that stayed consistent from the brand level down to the SKU level.
Strategy
Worked directly with brand stakeholders—including the in-house furniture designer—to define what differentiates Hekman at a product and brand level: craftsmanship standards, materials, construction, and heritage positioning.
From this discovery, built a scalable messaging framework:
- Defined messaging pillars rooted in craftsmanship, materials, and timeless design
- Established proof-led language to support premium positioning.
- Created voice and tone guidance to ensure consistency across SKUs
- Applied the system to PDP titles, bullets, and descriptions across retail channels
This created alignment from brand narrative down to SKU-level copy.
My Role
- Led brand discovery and stakeholder interviews to capture craftsmanship and heritage positioning
- Developed channel-ready brand statement and core messaging pillars
- Created voice and tone guidance (use/avoid language, vocabulary, tone rules)
- Applied messaging framework across product listings while maintaining channel compliance
- Standardized feature prioritization and proof-led storytelling across online channels
Results
- Established a cohesive brand narrative used on select retail channels.
- Improved brand consistency across listings by standardizing tone and feature prioritization.
- Strengthened premium cues in PDP content through proof-led craftsmanship language.