Almuni Diary - Retail Marketing
Elizabeth Mondell, MBA '04
Marketing Specialist
Talbots,
Boston, MA
8:30 am
I arrive at my office. I have already had my coffee on the commute in, so I get right to work, checking my emails and voicemails. I have a few calls from stores with questions about the collateral programs they are scheduled to roll out this week. I will return these later.
9:00 am
Together with my director, I attend a conference call with our Advertising and Media agency. Representatives from the account, print media, and broadcast media divisions of the Agency are on the call. They walk us through each of the jobs they are currently working on for us. The biggest piece we have to discuss is the newspaper media buy for a store-based promotion that was given the green light yesterday. Media orders will have to be in by the end of day and creative materials will be due to the publications by Thursday. We also discuss the schedule for the concepting, execution and placement of our national magazine print ads for next spring. We are under a tighter schedule than normal, and need to look closely at where we can save time.
10:30 am
I head up to the catalog showrooms for the "pickup" of merchandise for our spring television ads. This is the point at which the merchants and visual show us the outfits they have selected for the upcoming TV campaign. These outfits are not only supposed to represent the key trends for spring, but should be in keeping with the brand image we are trying to convey in the ads. For each spring month there are roughly four outfits, and we are shown each on a fit model. I am there to help insure that the outfits are in keeping the creative concept for the TV spot. I must also make certain that each of the other representatives in attendance (from our internal Art, Copy, Merchandising, and Traffic departments, as well as representatives from the Agency) have all the information they need for the TV shoot that will take place in a few weeks. Everyone reacts very positively to the merchandise shown, and agree that this will make for a more exciting campaign, both on television and in our magazine ads.
11:30 am
In the middle of the pickup, our VP gets a call with a decision from our CEP regarding newspaper media for the promotion. Since it is my responsibility to communicate this to our creative teams so that the ads can be created and versions may be sized to send to each individual publication, I leave the pickup as soon as I can.
11:45 am
I am on the phone to the Agency confirming the size of the placements and instructing them to reserve space. A media authorization is faxed to my attention, and as soon as I sign and return the authorization, insertion orders are sent to each of the publications to confirm the space.
12:00 pm
I communicate to our traffic department the confirmed size of the ads. Final files will need to be sent tonight to the agency so that the publications will receive them in time. Unfortunately, since it is lunch time, no one is around to begin working on the ads.
12:30 pm
To kill some time, I pickup one of my other projects to work on for a little bit. Finance has supplied me with units per transaction (UPT) and dollars per transaction (DPT) data going back five years. I have been using this as part of a dashboard I am creating to analyze the effectiveness of our promotions. The data will tell us how the particular offer incentivized customers to purchase. We also use other data, including sales performance among comp stores as an indicator of how the promotion performed.
1:00 pm
Still no one is back from lunch, so I rush to the cafeteria to get a sandwich. Most days are spent eating at my desk, since this is usually a good time to catch up while everyone else is out.
2:00 pm
I get a progress report from our traffic manager. The newspaper ads for our promotion are being made into mechanical files, which is how we send them to the publications. With that under control, I begin working on a strategy for a smaller project we will begin working on the following week. An important part of my job is supplying the agency and our internal creative teams with direction for each project. I must insure not only that the programs reinforce the positive attributes of our brand, but also that each project in some way contributes to driving sales and enriching the customer experience.
3:30 pm
I see the first round of mechanicals for the ad. It is part of my job to proof these for copy correctness and to make sure that each piece appears as it has been approved by our VP. Thankfully, there are no changes that need to be made this time. The materials are released to the publications.
4:00 pm
I get around to returning my voicemails from the morning. Both stores have questions about when they will be receiving their window and table signs for the next round of collateral marketing. These signs generally rotate on a monthly basis and are intended to draw customers in to purchase, to highlight key trends among the items for sale and draw attention to important price points. It is my job to insure that these programs are completed from creative concepting through to store distribution. Communicating directly with the field is helpful, because stores are able to provide important insight into how the consumer is reacting to our programs.
5:40 pm
I shut down my computer and head home.
