A Day In The Life Sample
By Ryan Davis
Marketing Victoria's Secret
Working for the world-famous lingerie retailer wasn't on the radar screen when this MBA was attending Indiana's Kelley School
I am the brand marketing manager at Victoria's Secret (LTD) in Columbus, Ohio. Coming to work for the world's most well-known lingerie retailer was the furthest thing from my mind when I left my consulting career with Accenture (ACN) to attend the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. However, after nearly two years at Victoria's Secret, I cannot imagine a better position coming out of business school. And let's be honest, working in an office filled with pictures of supermodels definitely has its benefits.
I was immediately interested in the opportunity to work at Victoria's Secret because it was a newly created position that would focus on marketing across all selling channels of the business—retail stores, catalog, and VictoriasSecret.com (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/25/06, "Luring Luxury Brands to the Web"). My job is to develop the cross-channel marketing strategy and execute that strategy to ensure a flawless customer experience no matter how our customers shop at Victoria's Secret. With these multiple platforms, I get to concentrate on our entire customer base—from the 20-year-old college student who adores our PINK line, to the 30-year-old mom who buys VS clothes online, to the empty nester who seeks Victoria's Secret to complement her young and sophisticated personality.
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| Ryan Davis
Brand Marketing Manager
Victoria's Secret
Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, 2005 |
My initial misconception about my position was that I didn't think coordinating a marketing strategy for the three channels (Web, catalog, and retail stores) would be so complex. Unfortunately, the business models, risks, lead times, etc., are different enough that it creates an amazing amount of coordination and alignment. This is one of the key efforts that I work on every day—coordinating across multiple channels. I quickly discovered that a marketing strategy that works well on the Web may not be worth the investment at a retail store. And then, of course, there's the concept of time. The production of our catalogs takes a tremendous amount of lead time vs. the time it takes to develop and send a marketing e-mail to our customers.
Here is an example of a typical work day:
7:45 a.m.—Grab a glass of orange juice and a Power Bar for the relaxing reverse commute from downtown Columbus to the Victoria's Secret offices on the far north side of Columbus.
8:15 a.m.—Check on the prior day's sales while answering any urgent e-mails and voicemail.
8:30 a.m.—Found an hour on my boss's calendar (VP of marketing) to discuss the immediate efforts for the upcoming holiday season. We also figure out how to make spring bigger than last year, and review the high-level marketing strategy for fall 2007.
9:15 a.m.—Stop by the desk of the marketing analytics experts who can quickly pull sales results for the recent bra launch. These numbers will be handy for the PowerPoint presentation I'm working on for the senior marketing executives...
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