Hightower leverages life of obscure artist to deliver message for women

From left: Sally Fernandez, an Otto Group client, and Laurel Corriveau of The Otto Group at Hightower Advisors.

A client event features the life and art of Suzie Zuzek, the woman who designed the fabrics used in Lilly Pulitzer's clothing line.

There might not be a direct line connecting artist Suzie Zuzek with the financial services industry, but traversing the indirect path and Zuzek’s story has proved to be a rewarding adventure and client prospecting experience.

The first such experience took place May 19 in Sarasota, Florida, where registered investment advisers affiliated with Hightower brought together a group of 75 women for a day-long educational and networking event centered around the obscure artist’s life and work.

“That experience we provided them was one that was so unique and had not been delivered in this manner before,” said Laurel Corriveau, chief experience officer at Hightower partner firm The Otto Group.

To understand how this evolved into a marketing experience at Hightower, it helps to understand Zuzek’s story.

Zuzek was an artist and textile designer whose work from the 1960s through the mid-1980s was mostly seen in Lilly Pulitzer brand clothing for women. Between 1962 and 1985, while working at Key West Hand Print Fabrics in Key West, Florida, Zuzek designed more than 1,500 fabrics that were used in Lilly Pulitzer garments.

Zuzek, who died in 2011 at age 91, has been gaining celebrity status since 2007, when a patent attorney from St. Louis in search of Lilly Pulitzer prints to reupholster a chair inadvertently found the artist and helped bring her story to light.

That story, which has evolved into a book, “Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Artist Behind an Iconic American Fashion Brand” by Susan Brown and Caroline Reynolds Milbank (Rizzoli Electa, March 2020), and an exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, is the foundation for Hightower’s inspirational client experience.

The Hightower event, called Designing Your Legacy, focused on Zuzek’s art and her experience working anonymously behind a famous brand. Becky Smith, the patent attorney who uncovered Zuzek’s role in designing the fabrics Pulitzer used, gave a presentation at the event.

But Corriveau said the agenda incorporated in the various discussion groups contrasts and compares Zuzek’s situation with the challenges and opportunities facing working women today.

“We talked about the present-day lessons to be learned from Suzie’s experiences,” Corriveau said. “For example, how should Suzie have negotiated her deal, and where do the lines of friendship and business end?”

The event also incorporates the experiences of Lilly Pulitzer, the entrepreneur, fashion designer and socialite behind the clothing brand, who died in 2013 at 81.

“We considered how could the two women together have been more powerful in creating this brand.” Corriveau said.

The event was attended by eight RIAs and their guests, which included clients, prospects and centers of influence.

“The participants were appreciative of the opportunity and the story, and how it is different today from the 1960s,” Corriveau said.

In terms of return on investment from a marketing perspective, Corriveau noted that the second Designing Your Legacy event is already scheduled for Oct. 20 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

“We talked a lot about how a woman can take control of her finances, and how we would do things differently today,” she said. “We also talked about how to teach your daughters to value themselves.”

If you have a unique marketing strategy you think would be of interest to InvestmentNews readers, contact Jeff Benjamin.