(case study) · Brooke Roberts

The Story Is the Product

How Melanie Bender builds LORE, and where I would take it next.

A pale pink bathtub full of bubbles against mint green tiles, with a glass jar and ashtray on the edge
A dusty pink envelope with a sheer flap, marked A Love Letter to May in script
Girls in white dresses lying and reading in tall grass
I

The visionary behind the brand

From ledger to lore.

Bender built brands to a number before Rhode. At Rhode she saw another way, and carried it into LORE.

my readStory first. The numbers follow.

“I had done brands before that were very P&L driven… [Hailey] was entirely brand driven.”

Melanie Bender, interview

Why identity matters beyond how it looks.

At LORE, the story is the reason behind every choice.

Bender describes LORE as “selling an invisible product through largely visual mediums.” A scent can’t be shown, so the story has to do the showing, and it guides what LORE makes and how it sells it.

  1. The price is part of the story.

    Bender says her beliefs guide the product, the packaging and the price. If luxury is a feeling and not a status, the price shouldn’t be what keeps people out. So a full bottle is $88, with a $24 discovery set and a $28 travel spray to try a world first. That is how a belief becomes a number.

  2. Every belief predicts a decision.

    Bender builds LORE on four core beliefs, and three are easy to trace to a decision. Believing luxury is emotion is why LORE’s Lil softie film opens on a lazy morning and shows the bottle last, and why its scent Sublimity began as a mood board about growing up in Hawaii. Believing we’re all invisibly connected is why seeding, sending product to creators and the people who influence them, is LORE’s biggest budget line and largest team. Believing reality is not fixed is why each scent gets its own world, not one house style. A belief you can use to predict the next move is a strategy, not just a slogan.

  3. It stays alive by evolving.

    A story that stops steering decisions goes quiet. LORE keeps launching new scents, each with its own world, from the Americana of Somewhere but Nowhere to the sleepy comfort of Lil softie, all made from the same beliefs.

my readA brand story only wins when every choice follows from it, and it stays alive by evolving.

“…capturing imagery as a statement of emotion. Without seeing, without even knowing, it happens in a breath.”

LORE’s 2025 campaign

Here is that in practice: two films from two brands that build everything around a story. LORE builds from a feeling, and Jacquemus builds from a memory.

LORELil softie launch film

Brand building. Bender’s belief that luxury is emotion decides what the film shows first. It spends nearly all its time on a lazy morning and shows the bottle only at the end.

Story building. It tells the story by staying in one pale blue room: a sock, a sleeping face, a remote lost in the cushions. There is no plot or voiceover, so the viewer supplies the feeling, and the scent becomes the memory of it.

World creating. Lil softie gets its own set, color and mood, like every LORE scent. The world is a cozy morning with small, soft rules, and that repeatable recipe lets LORE keep building new worlds that still feel like LORE.

JacquemusLe Valérie campaign

Brand building. The bag is named for his late mother, Valérie, so the launch is a tribute before it is a product. The story is the founder’s own memory, and it shaped the design too: the bag carries leather tomato and fruit charms from the farm life he grew up around.

Story building. The film is seen the way a child sees a parent: a woman in butter yellow shuffling bags, groceries and a garment cover down a Paris hallway. It is one small, clumsy, ordinary moment, and the bag is just along for the day.

World creating. It belongs to the Provence-rooted world Jacquemus builds from his own memories, with a new chapter each season. Because the world is his own life, no one else can copy it.

my readLORE builds a world from a feeling and Jacquemus from a memory. In both, the story decides what gets shown, which is why each one feels like itself.

II

The opportunity

Give a world an author.

LORE’s five worlds are written by LORE. What none has yet is an outside author whose own work is already a world. My idea: bring in a filmmaker.

SublimityHawaii
Somewhere but nowhereAmericana
Lovely and a little twistedVersailles, through the looking glass
DisfrutaA night out
Lil softieA cozy morning

Why a filmmaker

Fragrance is invisible. A film is a world you can step into.

What to look for

Someone whose films stay inside a feeling, and who has made a fragrance film before.

Why it fits

LORE believes luxury is emotion and that we’re all invisibly connected. The right filmmaker already films exactly that.

considered

Wes Anderson

He has made a fragrance film, too.

passed

Too tidy for LORE.

His worlds are symmetrical. LORE is tactile and a little twisted.

III

My recommendation

LORE × Sofia Coppola

Late Checkout

A limited LORE world about the hour you are not ready to end.

your photo · a slept-in morning

Reservation confirmed.

Late Checkout

LORE × Sofia Coppola · a speculative campaign

stay a little longer.

scroll to check in

stay a little longer.

The rarest luxury is more time. Late Checkout is the hour after the party, made into a place.

your photo · the bottle, surrounded by its notes

a new LORE eau de parfum · 50 mL · $88

stay a little longer.

Lace curtains, a warm bed and a long goodbye. Soft, a little sharp, never quite over.

topgreen leaf, white peach, juniper
heartpowdery iris, violet, faded paper
basecedar, clean musk, sugared cherry
a twista struck match, still warm

Coppola writes the founding letter and directs the film.

The mood

Faded, overexposed, a little blurred. A memory of a summer.

a slept-in bed
a room she’s made hers
do not disturb
a quiet hotel room
closed
a motel pool at dusk
waiting for the elevator
shoes left behind

Reference photography, shown for mood only. No image here is mine.

Four phases, twelve weeks

Build interest, launch, host the event, keep it going.

Weeks 1–3

Reservation

Build curiosity.

WhatCreators get a sealed reservation card with a room number and a date. Teasers show only hotel details: a hallway, a door, a key turning. No product.

WhyWith no product in sight, people ask what it is, and creators pass the story on.

MeasureCards posted unprompted, and sign-ups to hear about the launch.

Weeks 4–5

The stay

Get people talking before launch.

WhatA one-night screening in one city, set in a vintage pink motel. Guests check in, wander the lobby, watch the film and leave with an overnight bag that includes the scent.

WhyThe scent is in the air all night, so guests smell it inside the story. The carpet, booth and curtain wall are made to be photographed, so the night reaches people who weren’t there.

MeasurePosts per guest, and launch sign-ups that follow.

Week 6 · launch

Opening night

Turn curiosity into sales.

WhatCoppola’s short film and her founding letter go public on LORE’s channels, and the fragrance goes on sale.

WhyIt’s a premiere, not an ad. The teasers and the night’s photos have built the curiosity, and the film gives everyone the feeling.

MeasureFilm completion, and sales in launch week.

Weeks 7–12

Late checkout

Bring buyers back.

WhatCustomers and guests share “my late checkout,” the hour they weren’t ready to end. LORE teases its next world.

WhyThe idea becomes something people do, and the teaser carries them into the next LORE world.

MeasureRepeat purchases, and posts tagged late checkout.

The Stay

A one-night screening, built like a vintage pink motel.

Guests don’t watch a film about a hotel. They check in, wander the lobby and stay the night, with the scent in the air the whole time.

the motel
room 14
vacancy
01 · Arrive

The pink carpet

Before they go in, guests walk a pink carpet down a vintage motel hallway and have their photo taken. The night starts as a photograph before it starts as a film.

the pink carpet
02 · Check in

The front desk

A concierge greets each guest and checks them in, then hands over a vintage motel key with their name and seat number on it. The key is their ticket and their souvenir.

the concierge
the key
03 · Wander

The lobby

Photo boothsVintage booths for strips of the night.
The curtain wallGuests ring the bell, and a hand reaches through the velvet with a drink on a silver platter.
Coat checkWhere guests collect their movie snacks, popcorn and candy.
photo booths
the curtain wall
the lobby
04 · Watch

The screening

Guests find their seat by the number on their key. Coppola’s short film plays, then her pick.

the screen
your seat
the house
05 · Leave

The overnight bag

Guests leave with an overnight bag of goodies, the scent among them, so the night goes home with them.

the overnight bag
one last look

Reference photography, shown for mood only. No image here is mine.

Why it works

It works because every choice follows the story.

The same beliefs

LORE believes luxury is emotion and that we are all invisibly connected. In my read, Coppola’s films run on those same two ideas: a feeling that is hard to say out loud, shared between people. So this isn’t borrowed fame. It is LORE’s own worldview, given an author.

A place, not a pitch

Fragrance is invisible, so the campaign gives people somewhere to stand. One hotel hour turns a list of notes into a memory they can place. That is the gap between knowing a scent and wanting to go back to it.

The right audience

Anyone who wants a fragrance with a story. That includes film-literate fans who already love Coppola’s world, fragrance lovers, and anyone after affordable luxury with a point of view. The $24 discovery set keeps the scent within reach, and what guests post from The Stay brings everyone else in.

Reach beyond beauty

An artist-led launch gives film, fashion and culture editors a reason to cover LORE that isn’t a product drop. The audience grows past fragrance shoppers, and LORE doesn’t change who it is to get there.

The risk

A famous director could outshine the brand. The answer is that LORE sets the world and Coppola writes inside it.

The bottom line

Story decides each choice here, from the film to the price to the next world. That is why it feels like LORE and not an ad, and why it can keep evolving.

How I would know: launch sign-ups, posts per guest, film completion, launch sales, repeat purchase. Targets would come from LORE’s own baselines.

thank you for staying.

I studied how a founder builds a brand through story, found an opportunity in it, and imagined how it could come to life.

Say hi to Brooke
Sources