Interview: Q&A
How did you get to where you are today? Is this the job you always wanted?
I went to school for marketing and communications (advertising) at St. Louis University. During this time I worked as a marketing intern at Northwestern Mutual Insurance as well as an Account Services intern at an Ad Agency called Arnold Worldwide. I worked for a year out of college doing account management with a small company in Chicago. I joined Target 5 ½ years ago as a merchandising analyst, and networked with people on various marketing teams, which is how I learned about the opening on the team I am on now, Digital Vendor Marketing. I majored in marketing and new I wanted to do something related to marketing and advertising. Obviously I would love to continue to move up in Target, but I am in the field I wanted to be in at a company I love, so you could say this is the job I’ve wanted!
How do you feel your past education experiences help you in this field?
Through my internships and marketing classes I learned a lot about the field of marketing as a whole and skills needed. I also learned about the dynamics of a company and skills needed to be successful.
What are your job responsibilities?
I am a digital marketing planner, which means that I work with Target national brand vendors to understand their business and their needs and plan marketing campaigns for their brands on Target.com and within mobile channels. I come up with the campaign pricing and elements involved, then I put together a media plan (decide when and where ads will show up within our site) I specifically manage the Beauty category, so I work with all of Target’s beauty vendors to plan and execute their programs. I don’t actually work on the creative. Once I’ve gotten an idea of the vendor’s needs and put together their program, I hand off to another person on my team who puts together a creative brief and works with our creative agency to develop it.
What is a typical workday for you?
It really varies by time of year and what programs I have running, but a typical day or week is that I have vendor meetings to discuss upcoming programs (some we are just in the beginning stages discussing their products for the year and where it may make sense to do online marketing, others we have already planned a program and I am figuring out details of creative and specific elements). I usually also have meetings with buyers at Target and our Store marketing team to understand what’s going on in the category and where there is opportunity for vendor programs on Target.com. I probably average about 50% of my time in meetings and 50% in desk work (it varies by week and month as I said). Aside from meeting with partners to plan programs, I also meet with my internal team to discuss new products we can sell, process and team updates, etc.
What role does writing play in your job?
I communicate with all of my partners via email on a daily basis, so it’s important that I can be clear and concise when I’m writing informal communication. I also need to be able to tailor my message to my audience and understand the level of communication that different people need at different times. I also put together many powerpoints to present pitches to vendors or communicate information to my team. Although this is not typical writing, it still takes in elements of organizing thoughts and communicating effectively.
Any advice for someone interested in pursuing a career in marketing?
You will not get your dream job out of college. At Target I had to work hard in a job that I didn’t love as much to be able to move over to marketing and do a job that I like a lot more, so just be persistent and don’t get down on yourself if you don’t love every minute of what you do all the time. The hard work will pay off. Also, marketing is also not as glamorous as you see on TV, but it’s still fun and really interesting. Finally I would say get as much experience as you can through internships and projects because there are a lot of people that want to get into marketing so you want to make yourself stand out. Also, read up on what’s going on in the marketing world – check out sites like AdAge.com and Internet Retailer Magazine. They will help you be able to speak to what you like and don’t like about campaigns and marketing ideas. I still have to keep up on all of these to make sure I’m constantly updated and my ideas are relevant in the ever-changing world of marketing!
I went to school for marketing and communications (advertising) at St. Louis University. During this time I worked as a marketing intern at Northwestern Mutual Insurance as well as an Account Services intern at an Ad Agency called Arnold Worldwide. I worked for a year out of college doing account management with a small company in Chicago. I joined Target 5 ½ years ago as a merchandising analyst, and networked with people on various marketing teams, which is how I learned about the opening on the team I am on now, Digital Vendor Marketing. I majored in marketing and new I wanted to do something related to marketing and advertising. Obviously I would love to continue to move up in Target, but I am in the field I wanted to be in at a company I love, so you could say this is the job I’ve wanted!
How do you feel your past education experiences help you in this field?
Through my internships and marketing classes I learned a lot about the field of marketing as a whole and skills needed. I also learned about the dynamics of a company and skills needed to be successful.
What are your job responsibilities?
I am a digital marketing planner, which means that I work with Target national brand vendors to understand their business and their needs and plan marketing campaigns for their brands on Target.com and within mobile channels. I come up with the campaign pricing and elements involved, then I put together a media plan (decide when and where ads will show up within our site) I specifically manage the Beauty category, so I work with all of Target’s beauty vendors to plan and execute their programs. I don’t actually work on the creative. Once I’ve gotten an idea of the vendor’s needs and put together their program, I hand off to another person on my team who puts together a creative brief and works with our creative agency to develop it.
What is a typical workday for you?
It really varies by time of year and what programs I have running, but a typical day or week is that I have vendor meetings to discuss upcoming programs (some we are just in the beginning stages discussing their products for the year and where it may make sense to do online marketing, others we have already planned a program and I am figuring out details of creative and specific elements). I usually also have meetings with buyers at Target and our Store marketing team to understand what’s going on in the category and where there is opportunity for vendor programs on Target.com. I probably average about 50% of my time in meetings and 50% in desk work (it varies by week and month as I said). Aside from meeting with partners to plan programs, I also meet with my internal team to discuss new products we can sell, process and team updates, etc.
What role does writing play in your job?
I communicate with all of my partners via email on a daily basis, so it’s important that I can be clear and concise when I’m writing informal communication. I also need to be able to tailor my message to my audience and understand the level of communication that different people need at different times. I also put together many powerpoints to present pitches to vendors or communicate information to my team. Although this is not typical writing, it still takes in elements of organizing thoughts and communicating effectively.
Any advice for someone interested in pursuing a career in marketing?
You will not get your dream job out of college. At Target I had to work hard in a job that I didn’t love as much to be able to move over to marketing and do a job that I like a lot more, so just be persistent and don’t get down on yourself if you don’t love every minute of what you do all the time. The hard work will pay off. Also, marketing is also not as glamorous as you see on TV, but it’s still fun and really interesting. Finally I would say get as much experience as you can through internships and projects because there are a lot of people that want to get into marketing so you want to make yourself stand out. Also, read up on what’s going on in the marketing world – check out sites like AdAge.com and Internet Retailer Magazine. They will help you be able to speak to what you like and don’t like about campaigns and marketing ideas. I still have to keep up on all of these to make sure I’m constantly updated and my ideas are relevant in the ever-changing world of marketing!