Merle Norman Website Redesign
Overview Merle Norman, a trusted cosmetics brand with over 85 years of empowering female franchise owners, needed a website that matched their rich legacy while appealing to a new generation of franchisees and customers. Their old, outdated site lacked usability, making it difficult for visitors to navigate and for the company to update content. Our team was tasked with delivering a complete overhaul, providing both an aesthetic and functional makeover.
Discovery & Strategy Merle Norman sought to modernize their online presence, particularly to attract more potential franchisees and lay the groundwork for future e-commerce integration. We began by collaborating with their website team to identify key features and brainstorm ways to enhance the franchise recruitment section. After conducting a competitive audit and in-depth research, we gathered insights on how similar businesses were positioning themselves and identified opportunities for Merle Norman to stand out.
UX Strategy To improve usability, we redefined the site architecture, focusing on an intuitive user journey. Key areas for improvement included restructuring the franchise section and making product content easier to find. Wireframing laid the foundation for the design, ensuring content strategy was prioritized without distractions from design elements.
Build During the design phase, we gave Merle Norman’s branding a modern twist, refreshing their logo and incorporating a vibrant pink raspberry accent color to bring a new energy to the site. The site was built on a flexible .NET platform, ensuring scalability for future e-commerce capabilities. The custom CMS empowered the Merle Norman team to manage site content easily, from uploading new products and specials to sharing tutorials.
Test & Launch The site underwent extensive testing across browsers and devices to ensure a seamless experience. Once everything was optimized, we handled the launch process, ensuring the site was properly hosted, the domain was pointed correctly, and SEO best practices were applied.
Closing Thoughts By providing a complete redesign, including both a fresh user interface and a flexible CMS, we helped Merle Norman meet their goals of attracting more franchisees and creating a better experience for customers. The result is a website that reflects their brand’s legacy while offering the tools to grow into the future, making the web a more beautiful place, one website makeover at a time.