Can you tell us a bit about your role and what it entails?
Being Press & Marketing Manager at Beauty Bazaar is a broad role. Some of my day-to-day tasks include planning store events, looking after our 13K regional Instagram account, communicating our store activities with local press and much more! The fun part of taking on this role for one of the smaller sites is that you get to be super hands on.
Please tell us about your career, from where you started to where you are today?
I started out at 16 working in various high street shops in Manchester around my A Levels. This is where I fell in love with retail and quickly withdrew my Environmental Science degree uni applications in favour for Fashion Marketing, which I went on to study at the London College of Fashion. After three years of juggling shopfloor roles alongside my studies, I was ready to start my marketing career and joined a PR agency where I looked after clients including Cadbury’s, Magnet Kitchens and more. This led into me taking a Marketing Manager role for a northern restaurant chain, which was a great opportunity, but I found myself missing my fashion/ retail roots in this position. When I saw a job opportunity at Harvey Nichols Manchester for a Business Development Officer, I took a chance on taking on something a little different to PR and marketing in return for working for such an iconic retailer. After 14 months at the Manchester store as a maternity cover, I’ve recently transferred across to Beauty Bazaar as Press & Marketing Manager. I feel super lucky that it’s worked out so that I’ve been able to stay within HN whilst getting back to my passion for marketing.
Can you tell us about any upcoming projects?
Our main focus for Beauty Bazaar is getting back to basics when it comes to marketing, as the position hadn’t been filled for a while before I joined. We’re working on getting our events calendar filled again, strengthening our social media presence, and simply looking at the store overall with fresh eyes to see what we can do elevate the customer experience.
What’s your favourite part about working at HN?
When I joined the company, what struck me the most is the length of service of so many of the team members. It says a lot that the company has such good retention and I’d have to say that my favourite part has been working alongside and learning from these people!
What are you most proud of workwise?
When I made the move over to Beauty Bazaar, we were just a few short weeks out from Eurovision being hosted in Liverpool – the biggest activation of the year for the store. This meant I didn’t have much time to plan and execute a full week of store activities, something which I’d typically like to be doing well in advance! As a team, we were able to throw a fantastic celebration and I’m really proud of being able to achieve that.
What motivates and inspires you?
Having a job role where no two days are the same. It’s really uplifting to feel like you’re always having to tackle fun new projects and you get a great sense of pride when you pull something off that you haven’t done before.
Describe your perfect day?
A hot beach, a cold drink and good food – simple!